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.S. economy or national security.
Obama also appears to have reengaged in efforts to seek a peaceful solution to the Iranian nuclear issue.
Gen. Dempsey’s Arrival
So, that’s the backdrop for Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey’s talks in Israel with his counterpart, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, and other senior officials, beginning Thursday evening.
Given the preparatory work and Haaretz’s report that Israeli intelligence agrees that Iran has yet to decide about building a nuclear bomb, Israel may not challenge Dempsey’s expected efforts to tamp down tensions.
The Haaretz article states: “The intelligence assessment Israeli officials will present later this week to Dempsey indicates that Iran has not yet decided whether to make a nuclear bomb. The Israeli view is that while Iran continues to improve its nuclear capabilities, it has not yet decided whether to translate these capabilities into a nuclear weapon – or, more specifically, a nuclear warhead mounted atop a missile. Nor is it clear when Iran might make such a decision.”
But Dempsey’s visit bears close watching to see if the alteration in Israeli rhetoric is durable and reflected on the ground. In the past, Israel’s Likud leaders have played hardball with American leaders, often by enlisting the help of their influential allies in the United States. If “regime change” remains the real priority, then Israeli leaders won’t be likely to warm to the idea of negotiating over Iran’s nuclear program.
Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, a publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in inner-city Washington. He served a total of 30 years as an Army infantry/intelligence officer and CIA analyst, and is a co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. His Web site is www.raymondmcgovern.com.Internet service providers that slow down games or other applications in violation of a CRTC policy may face a third-party audit or even a public hearing, the telecommunications regulator says.
In addition, a summary of complaints about internet service providers slowing down online games or other applications will be published online four times a year, the CRTC says.
The guidelines announced Thursday for resolving complaints about ISPs slowing down certain kinds of internet traffic — a practice known as internet throttling — come after a series of complaints in the past year from online gamers about Rogers slowing down World of Warcraft and possibly other games. Rogers says it has resolved the problem with World of Warcraft. It has been ordered to file a plan to the CRTC by Sept. 27 for fixing problems that may affect other games and applications.
The commission also published a document Thursday explaining what ISPs are allowed to do or not allowed to do to manage their internet traffic and how consumers can make a complaint.
The new guidelines say once a complaint has been filed:
The CRTC will forward consumer complaints to the ISP concerned.
If the ISP fails to comply with CRTC rules, the CRTC may take further action such as discussing the complaint with the ISP, requesting an on-site inspection or third-party audit or holding a public hearing.
If the CRTC rules that the ISP is not complying with the rules, it will publish the company's name and the nature of the complaint.
Four times a year, the CRTC will publish a summary of the number and types of complaints it has received, including the number that have been resolved and the number that are still under investigation.
The guidelines specify the amount of time given for each step.
Gamers unimpressed
Internet traffic management Internet traffic management refers to techniques used by network managers to slow down some types of traffic in favour of others. In particular, some internet service providers say they slow down applications that use large amounts of bandwidth, but don’t dramatically affect the user’s ability to use the application when they are slowed down, such as peer-to-peer file sharing. They say that allows them to guarantee higher speeds and better quality of service for time-sensitive applications such as video streaming that don’t work properly when they are slowed down. However, problems can arise if the technology used to distinguish different types of applications mistakenly classifies time-sensitive traffic as peer-to-peer.
The new rules don't satisfy Jason Koblovsky, who co-founded a group representing gamers and has made a number of complaints to the CRTC about apparent internet throttling of online games by Rogers.
Koblovsky, speaking on behalf of the Canadian Gamers Organization, criticized the fact that the CRTC is relying on consumer complaints to monitor whether ISPs are complying with its rules on internet traffic management.
"We find this policy update to be more of an insult to consumers.… This is not acceptable by any means," he said in a statement. "The CRTC has the responsibility to follow through, monitor and enforce its policies."
Koblovsky told CBC News in an email that he would like to see the CRTC audit ISPs regularly and impose fines for non-compliance.
Under a 2009 CRTC policy, ISPs are allowed to use technology to slow down certain types of internet traffic and prioritize others in order to ensure that time-sensitive applications such as voice calling and video streaming function properly.
However, the rules say:Photo
A charged and tingly curiosity preceded the guitarist Marc Ribot’s opening set at the Village Vanguard on Tuesday night. The room was packed tight, and the air thick with anticipation: this would be Mr. Ribot’s first engagement as a leader at the Vanguard, which is still a coveted milestone for almost any jazz musician. And his trio, with the bassist Henry Grimes and the drummer Chad Taylor, suggested both a convulsive departure from the club’s center-lane programming and the reverent ennobling of a chapter in its history.
So would the set be an incursion? A manifesto? A séance?
Mostly it was a rough astonishment, restless and altogether riveting. Mr. Ribot and his partners played forcefully but with lurking sensitivity, and an almost scary commitment to cohesion. It was the kind of flag-raising first set that makes you wonder what’s in store as the week rolls on. (Wednesday’s first set was broadcast live on WBGO-FM (88.3), and archived at npr.org.)
Mr. Ribot, 58, is famously a musician of chameleonic skill, equally at ease with the dusky Americana of a T Bone Burnett production as he is with the scrabbling provocations of John Zorn. He evidently approached this engagement with mystified gratitude — “I always figured that I was a jazz musician in the same sense that Cindy Sherman was a fashion model,” he said in an interview published in this week’s Village Voice — but that doesn’t lessen his appreciation of the setting or its legacy.
More to the point, Mr. Ribot has devoted a lot of artistic capital to the veneration of Albert Ayler, a saxophonist of searing ardor who helped carry out the free-jazz insurgency of the 1960s, notably on the Vanguard stage. More than a decade ago Mr. Ribot featured Ayler’s music on his solo-guitar album “Saints” (Atlantic); in 2005 he released “Spiritual Unity” (Pi), an Ayler repertory album by his band of the same name.
Photo
Mr. Ribot’s current trio, which formed the rhythm section in Spiritual Unity, has a direct link to its muse in Mr. Grimes, who played on the landmark album “Albert Ayler in Greenwich Village” (Impulse!), recorded at the Vanguard and released in 1967. This isn’t an idle detail, or at least it wasn’t on Tuesday night.
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The set opened with “Holy Holy Holy,” an Ayler theme that Mr. Ribot recorded on “Saints,” and it wasn’t long before the trio reached a boil. Mr. Grimes, with his tonal evasions and nubby attack, helped prevent any kind of stasis, as did Mr. Taylor, who brought grace and even lyricism to his alert percussive stir.On top of their feature blog post on recent improvements to SL, on which I also blogged, the Lab has also issued a Tools and Technology update with data on the initial deployment of the CDN.
Entitled CDN Unleashed, the post specifically examines the percentage of simulator servers experiencing high load conditions (and therefore potentially a drop in performance) on the (presumably) BlueSteel RC both before and after deployment of the CDN service to that channel – and the difference even caught the Lab off-guard.
While a drop in load had been expected prior to the deployment, no-one at the Lab had apparently expected it to be so dramatic that it almost vanishes. Such were the figures that, as the blog post notes, at first those looking at them thought there was something wrong, spending two days investigating and checking and trying to figure out where the error in data came from – only it wasn’t an error; the loads really have been dramatically reduced.
Elsewhere, the blog post notes:
Second Life was originally designed for nearly all data and Viewer interactions to go through the Simulator server. That is, the Viewer would talk almost exclusively to the specific server hosting the region the Resident was in. This architecture had the advantage of giving a single point of control for any session. It also had the disadvantage of making it difficult to address region resource problems or otherwise scale out busy areas.
Over the years we’ve implemented techniques to get around these problems, but one pain point proved difficult to fix: asset delivery, specifically textures and meshes. Recently we implemented the ability to move texture and mesh traffic off the simulator server onto a Content Delivery Network (CDN), dramatically improving download times for Residents while significantly reducing the load on busy servers.
Download times for textures and meshes have been reduced by more than 50% on average, but outside of North America those the improvements are even more dramatic.
Quite how dramatic for those outside North America isn’t clear, quite possibly because the Lab is still gathering data and monitoring things. However, the post does go on to note that in combination with the HTTP pipelining updates now available in the current release viewer (version 3.7.19.295700 at the time of writing), the CDN deployment is leading to as much as an 80% reduction in download times for mesh and texture data. Hence why the Lab is keen to see TPVs adopt the HTTP code as soon as their release cycles permit, so that their users can enjoy the additional boost providing the code on top of enjoying the benefits offered by the CDN.
Again, at the time of writing, the following TPVs already have the HTTP pipelining code updates:
Alchemy version 3.7.19.34077 Beta
Black Dragon version 2.4.0.4
Cool VL version v1.26.12.21 and v1.26.8.79 (legacy version)
As per the Performance, Performance, Performance blog post, the Lab want to hear back from users on the improvements. Comments can be left on the Performance Improvements forum thread, where Ebbe and Oz has been responding to questions and misconceptions, and Whirly Fizzle has been providing valuable additional information.
AdvertisementsFormer Hewlett Packard CEO and 2016 presidential hopeful Carly Fiorina is reportedly eyeing up a new political run – this time to replace Reince Priebus as chair of the Republican National Committee – although some fear her refusal to back Donald Trump may hurt her chances.
Fiorina, who was largely seen as an unlikely candidate for the GOP nomination when she announced her candidacy last year, surprised many commentators with a strong run.
In particular, a moment at the September debate in California, in which Fiorina implored President Obama and Hillary Clinton to watch leaked videos that described controversial practices at Planned Parenthood, resonated with Republican voters and saw her briefly surge near the top of the pack in some polls. Her numbers later fizzled and she dropped out after a disappointing showing in the New Hampshire primary in February.
Fiorina has been spending the time since then campaigning for Republican House and Senate candidates, and has not endorsed Trump.
A number of outlets, including Time and Politico, reported Tuesday that the Fiorina is mulling a bid to replace Priebus after the November election – and is reaching out to state party chairs offering to help “in any way” as a way of laying the groundwork for a run.
Time reported that domain names CarlyForChair.com and CarlyForRNC.com were bought up at the same time in July.
Priebus has not yet announced if he will seek another term as party chair.
Should Trump win the White House in November, he would have considerable say over who becomes chair, and so would be unlikely to recommend Fiorina. But should Hillary Clinton win the White House, her chances look much stronger.
While Fiorina has never held elected public office, she does have some experience in party leadership. After her unsuccessful 2010 California Senate bid, she served as vice-chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee and later the chair of the American Conservative Union Foundation. Her background in management and technology industries could also help her clinch the role.
Some Fiorina supporters say it would be the right move for her, and for the party.
“She has proven herself to be an outstanding, eloquent spokeswoman for conservative principles and the Republican Party, as someone who had been on the front line implementing those principles in the real world and in the private sector,” Keith Appell, former senior adviser to the “CARLY for America” Super PAC, told FoxNews.com.
“One of the things she did well as a candidate was getting a lot of people to nod their heads and say ‘yes’ when she explained the practical applications of conservative policies and principles. That’s something the party has needed,” Appell said.
However, some believe her refusal to back Donald Trump could be fatal, even if the billionaire loses. Fiorina briefly became Ted Cruz’s running mate before he dropped out, and said of Trump in March: “he does not represent me, he does not represent our party.”
Former Iowa Republican Party chair Craig Robinson told FoxNews.com that while Fiorina is a good candidate for the job, her apparent gamble that Trump will lose shows she is not a team player.
“Where I have questions is on the timing of all this. It seems she is plotting her next personal step at a time when Republicans at large should be doing what they can to help their nominee win the White House,” Robinson, who also runs The Iowa Republican blog, said. “She’s out there running for RNC chair instead of helping the team elect Donald Trump president.”
Robinson said that although “I can’t think of anyone who does a better job of communicating the message against Hillary Clinton,” he said that putting herself above the party may cost her the job.
“I think she really misplayed this. I think she’s going to turn off certain elements within the RNC committee that she’s going to need for support,” he said. “They want to win and they’re supporting Donald Trump. If she’s not doing that I don’t see how these individuals say she’s right to lead the party.”
Fox News' David Lee Miller contributed to this report.Our next interview in the series devoted to modern game engines. This time we’re talking to Jeff Jones from ClickTeam about their platform Clickteam Fusion 2.5. Maybe this could be your next game creation platform. Check out more about Fusion in this exclusive interview.
Introduction
Clickteam started in about 1993 and we released our first product “Klik & Play” in 1994. Klik & Play was distributed worldwide by Maxis and Europress.
In about 2000 we started marketing and distributing the products ourselves. Our flagship product Clickteam Fusion 2.5 is the great grandson of Klik & Play.
Well honestly we where one of the very first “Game Creation IDE”. Our founders actually go back to the 1980’s on the Amiga with game creation tools. So we have always been in the business of making tools for others to make games. Our company is based in France and in the USA but our programmers are spread out all over the world.
Clickteam Fusion 2.5
Our flagship product is called Clickteam Fusion 2.5 Its an all visual creation studio for creating any type of 2D game or application. Easy enough for a non-programmer to get into but powerful enough for you to create the game or app you want to create.
Our biggest features is the amazing speed that you can create something. There is nothing faster for getting your idea up and rolling. Ya, its going to take you some time to polish it off and finish it off but your going to see something very very quickly.
Then add to the top of this the ability to produce – Windows, Android, iOS, Flash, and HTML5 using the same source that’s pretty incredible. We have some more formats in the works so 2016 will be pretty exciting.
Games
By far Five Nights at Freddy’s is the biggest title created with our tools.
I would invite the readers to take a look at the games listed on indiegamecreator to see a pretty good listing of bigger games created with the tools.
General market penetration – sadly not very high. We get over looked but when you look at the games created you can make some very high level games with Clickteam Fusion 2.5
One area we are really seeing some gains is in education. Again this is another area Clickteam pioneered starting back in 2001. Now we are used in 100’s of schools and by 1000’s of students to learn game creation. Now we see other companies jumping into the education field but I know back in 2001 it was a ghost town for game creation in the schools and universities.
Partners
We are pure indie game creation! We do have some game designers from the big AAA publishers who use our tools for game prototyping but the vast majority of our users are indies or very small studios. That being said have starting doing some work with Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo and other large video game production houses.
2d or 3d
At the base of our product we are a 2D video game creation tool – Any type of 2D game or application you can think of – Our tool can make. Then you can export out that game to Windows, Android, iOS, Flash or HTML5. Now that being said – our tool is very open ended we have an SDK and people can build their own extension objects to the tools. Some of these extension objects are moving into the 3D realm. So I think later in 2016 you will see some Clickteam powered 3D games.
Developers’s needs
Good question – What do game developers want! I think they want an easy to use, stable and fast development platform. I think they want to concentrate on game play and game mechanics and not struggle with coding. Our whole IDE is based on getting the game done and not writing code but since our software is extendable via the SDK there is some limited coding you can do.
Community
Clickteam itself is pretty small – 10 people or so. We also hire contractors to work on a per project basis. Yes we organize events! We have a user conference in the summer and I think our first one was held about 2002 or so. We also sponsor some Game Jams or support other game jams.
Perspectives
We are working on the next version of Fusion and its a complete re-do of the software. I think people will be pretty darn excited to see where its going. The base usage will be same but when your done with your project it will give you access to the raw code so if you need to do something it will be easy for the developer.
Jeff Jones, ClickTeam
INTERESTING LINKSPAWTUCKET, RI–A first date that "actually seemed to be going pretty well" came to a screeching halt Saturday, when area resident Kyle Richman stepped into Melinda Tulle's Christ-packed apartment.
"Immediately upon walking into the living room, I spotted that framed Last Supper hanging above the couch," said Richman, 32, speaking from the safety of his own non-Jesus-themed apartment. "It took me about half a second to realize that it just wasn't going to happen for the two of us."
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Richman expressed regret that the evening turned sour, but also relief that he "found out when [he] did."
"It was only our first date, but I'd been thinking I might have actually found someone nice for a change," Richman said. "But when I saw all those Jesus eyes staring down at me, I realized I'd made a mistake–a big mistake."
Among the other Christian decorative items Richman encountered were rosary beads, a St. Peter statuette, several glass angels arranged on an end table, and a gruesomely detailed Christ-on-the-crucifix painting casually placed above the television.
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Excusing himself to the bathroom to collect his thoughts, Richman found a Virgin Mary night light and a heavily highlighted book titled Living Your Faith.
"The book sealed it," Richman said. "She wasn't just a Christian; she was one who actually 'lived her faith.' There was no way to make it work between us."
Just minutes prior, an excited Richman had been driving Tulle home as the two energetically discussed music.
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"All of Melinda's favorite bands were ones I'd never even heard of–Footprints, Garden's Edge, Everybodyduck, Concrete Jesus–so I figured they must be some of those alternative bands I don't know anything about," Richman said. "When she asked me if I wanted to stop up to her apartment and borrow some CDs, I said sure. I was like, wow, this date must be going even better than I thought if she's asking me up to her place."
Even after seeing the Jesus-laden apartment, Richman said he still clung to the faint hope that the religious items belonged to a roommate. Tulle confirmed, however, that the Jesus stuff did belong to her and was not there for any kitsch value.
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"My faith is very important to me," Tulle told Richman. "It makes me feel at home to know the Lord's presence is near. Please, sit down. I'll get you something to drink."
Said Richman: "I honestly never saw it coming. I mean, she was wearing a cross around her neck, but I figured it didn't mean much. Lots of Christians wear those, not just Christian Christians."
The pair met on Mar. 12 when Tulle came into the Eastgate Mall B. Dalton where Richman works to buy a book for her niece. The purchase led to a brief conversation between Richman and Tulle about their own favorite childhood books, and he asked her out to dinner.
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Richman reported that the date began well. He and Tulle enjoyed dinner at a local Italian restaurant, enthusiastically discussing their shared love of dogs, camping, and The Wizard Of Oz, and then stopped by a nearby ice-cream shop for sundaes.
"It was going great: She was laughing at all my jokes and said I had 'wonderfully deep' eyes," Richman said. "At one point, I suggested that we go to a dance bar, but she said she didn't really like dancing. Now I see it's probably not so much that she doesn't like dancing but is against dancing. And when she said most movies and TV shows are awful these days, she didn't mean lame or dumb, but sinful."
The evening ended approximately 10 minutes after Richman entered the apartment, when Tulle mentioned she was going to church the following morning.
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"Before she could get a chance to invite me, I said I thought I left my car door unlocked and got the hell out of there," Richman said. "The worst part is, I can't even just avoid her because I have all these CDs I have to return. Christ."UPDATE: The Queensland Health Minister has released a statement regarding this issue. The full text can be found here.
UPDATE: News Editor Rick Morton just spoke to Festival Executive Director Bill Hauritz about the decision to bring Meryl Dorey into speak.
Q: Does the Festival feel it appropriate to give a platform to a woman who has been officially discredited as any type of vaccination expert?
Bill: Look, I’m not going to get into that. There are a lot of discredited artists and talkers and singers and songwriters at the Festival and we’re about giving a voice to a diverse range … something like 400 artists there.
Q: But surely if a singer/songwriter is discredited, that doesn’t pose a public health risk does it?
Bill: Who says it is dangerous? There are a lot of people out there who believe this whole vaccination thing is not an open and shut case. Is anybody willing to say that all vaccinations are 100% safe?
Q: I don’t think even doctors say that, Bill. Is Meryl billed as an expert for her talk?
Bill: I suppose she would regard herself as an expert, yes. Look, when this issue hit the floor yesterday I typed into Google ‘doctors against vaccinations’ and there are page and pages and pages of results of information. I wonder about the tactics of the science lobby.
Q: Why do you call it a lobby? That seems fairly indicative of your personal views don’t you think?
Bill: I didn’t mean to call it a lobby. I just get wary when people are trying to sell stuff on the Internet.
Q: I don’t think scientists necessarily want to sell anything?
Bill: Look, it doesn’t make a difference. We’ve already entered into contracts with Meryl Dorey and we cannot break those contracts now. We’re 10 days away from opening the gates to the festival. The damage is already done.Image copyright Facebook Image caption The couple see Jesus in the far left of their sonogram
A US couple says they can see Jesus Christ watching over their child in a pregnancy ultrasound.
The Pennsylvania pair said a man dressed in a robe with a crown of thorns is looking at their baby from the far left of the image.
"When they gave it to us, um, to me it's Jesus," mother Alicia Zeek told a local news station.
She said the ultrasound gave them comfort after complications with two other pregnancies.
The couple's previous son and daughter were both born with birth defects.
Their first daughter has pre-axial polydactyly - she had two thumbs on one hand - and their second child was born with a cleft palate, they told Fox 43.
Zachary Smith, the father, says that although the family is not particularly religious, they saw the image as a sign from above.
"The angel or God or Jesus, however you want to propose it, I look at it as my blessing," Mr Smith said.
"When I seen it, it almost brought tears to my eyes. I was speechless, I just couldn't believe it."
Baby Briella was born on Wednesday. Mother and daughter are healthy and doing well.
More on pregnancy
Pregnancy 'changes a woman's brain'
Women 'confused over pregnancy diet'The National Aeronautics and Space Administration accepts applications for the position of Astronaut Candidate on an as needed basis.
International Space Station Program Description The ISS is the largest international scientific and technological endeavor ever undertaken. The ISS is a permanent laboratory in a realm where gravity, temperature, and pressure can be manipulated for a variety of scientific and engineering pursuits that are impossible in ground-based laboratories. The ISS is a test bed for the technologies for the future as we learn more about living and working in space. Aboard the international laboratory, crews conduct medical research in space; develop new materials and processes to benefit industries on Earth; and accelerate breakthroughs in technology and engineering that will have immediate, practical applications for life on Earth. The ISS is 356 feet across and 290 feet long, and weighs approximately 940,000 pounds. Six people can live on the ISS. The ISS is forging and maintaining new partnerships with the other space faring nations of the world; and satisfying humanity’s need to explore. Astronaut Responsibilities Astronauts are involved in all aspects of assembly and on-orbit operations of the ISS This includes extravehicular activities (EVA), robotics operations using the remote manipulator system, experiment operations, and onboard maintenance tasks. Astronauts are required to have a detailed knowledge of the ISS systems, as well as detailed knowledge of the operational characteristics, mission requirements and objectives, and supporting systems and equipment for each experiment on their assigned missions. Basic Qualification Requirements Applicants must meet the following minimum requirements before submitting an application.
Astronaut Candidate (Non-Piloting background) Bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution in engineering, biological science, physical science, computer science or mathematics. Degree must be followed by at least 3 years of related, progressively responsible, professional experience or at least 1,000 pilot-in-command time in jet aircraft. An advanced degree is desirable and may be substituted for experience as follows: master’s degree = 1 year of experience, doctoral degree = 3 years of experience. Teaching experience, including experience at the K - 12 levels, is considered to be qualifying experience for the Astronaut Candidate position; provided degree is in a Science, Engineering, or Mathematics field. Ability to pass the NASA long-duration Astronaut physical, which includes the following specific requirements:
Distant and near visual acuity must be correctable to 20/20, each eye. The use of glasses is acceptable.
The refractive surgical procedures of the eye, PRK and LASIK, are allowed. Note that such surgeries are permitted, but not required for potential applicants.
Since all crewmembers will be expected to fly aboard a specific spacecraft vehicle and perform Extravehicular Activities (space walks), applicants must meet the anthropometric requirements for both the specific vehicle and the extravehicular activity mobility unit (space suit). Applicants brought in for an interview will be evaluated to ensure they meet the anthropometric requirements. Notes on Academic Requirements
Applicants for the Astronaut Candidate Program must meet the basic education requirements for NASA engineering and scientific positions - specifically: successful completion of standard professional curriculum in an accredited college or university leading to at least a bachelor's degree with major study in an appropriate field of engineering, biological science, physical science, or mathematics. The following degree fields, while related to engineering and the sciences, are not considered qualifying:
*- Degrees in Technology (Engineering Technology, Aviation Technology, Medical Technology, etc.)
*- Degrees in Psychology (except for Clinical Psychology, Physiological Psychology, or Experimental Psychology which are qualifying).
*- Degrees in Nursing.
*- Degrees in Exercise Physiology or similar fields
*- Degrees in Social Sciences (Geography, Anthropology, Archaeology, etc.).
*- Degrees in Aviation, Aviation Management, or similar fields. Citizenship Requirements Applicants for the Astronaut Candidate Program must be citizens of the United States. Applicants with valid U.S. dual-citizenship are also eligible. Application Procedures
Civilian
Applications can only be submitted through the Office of Personnel Management’s USAJOBS site www.usajobs.gov
Applications can only be submitted through the Office of Personnel Management’s USAJOBS site www.usajobs.gov Active Duty Military
Active duty military personnel must submit applications through the Office of Personnel Management’s USAJOBS Web site http://www.usajobs.gov and to their respective military service. Contact your military service for additional application procedures. Selection Following the preliminary screening of applications, additional information may be requested from some applicants, and individuals listed in the application as supervisors and references may be contacted. Applicants who are being considered as finalists for an interview may be required to obtain an Astronaut physical.
A week-long process of personal interviews, medical screening, and orientation will be required for both civilian and military applicants under final consideration. Once final selections have been made, all applicants will be notified of the outcome of the process. Complete background investigations will be performed on those selected. General Program Requirements Selected applicants will be designated Astronaut Candidates and will be assigned to the Astronaut Office at the Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas. The astronaut candidates will undergo a training and evaluation period lasting approximately 2 years, during which time they will participate in the basic Astronaut Candidate training program, which is designated to develop the knowledge and skills required for formal mission training upon selection for a flight. Astronaut Candidates (with jet piloting backgrounds) will maintain proficiency in NASA aircraft during their candidate period. As part of the Astronaut Candidate training program, Astronaut Candidates are required to complete military water survival before beginning their flying syllabus, and become SCUBA qualified to prepare them for the EVA training. Consequently, all Astronaut Candidates will be required to pass a swimming test. Applicants should be aware that selection as an Astronaut Candidate does not ensure selection as an astronaut. Final selection as an astronaut will depend upon satisfactory completion of the training and evaluation period. Graduation from the Astronaut Candidate Program will require successful completion of the following: International Space Station systems training, Extravehicular Activity skills training, Robotics skills training, Russian language training, and aircraft flight readiness training. Civilian candidates who successfully complete the training and evaluation and are selected as astronauts will become permanent Federal employees. Civilian candidates who are not selected as astronauts may be placed in other positions within NASA, depending upon Agency requirements and labor constraints at that time. Successful military candidates will be detailed to NASA for a specified tour of duty. NASA has an affirmative action program goal of having qualified minorities and women among those selected as Astronaut Candidates. Therefore, qualified minorities and women are encouraged to apply. Pay and Benefits
Civilian
Salaries for civilian Astronaut Candidates are based on the Federal Government’s General Schedule pay scales for grades GS-11 through GS-14, and are set in accordance with each individual’s academic achievements and experience.
Salaries for civilian Astronaut Candidates are based on the Federal Government’s General Schedule pay scales for grades GS-11 through GS-14, and are set in accordance with each individual’s academic achievements and experience. Military
Selected military personnel will be detailed to the Johnson Space Center but will remain in an active duty status for pay, benefits, leave, and other similar military matters.WASHINGTON — The Air Force hopes to release a final request for proposals for JSTARS replacement aircraft by the end of the year, but that is becoming increasingly unlikely as the service weighs whether to move forward with changes to its contract strategy that could push fielding further into the future, the service's top civilian said.
The service is currently deliberating whether it will rewrite its industry solicitation to include fixed-price language required by lawmakers in this year's defense policy bill, which passed both chambers in a veto-proof majority. A provision was included in the bill that would allow the defense secretary to waive that requirement in the interests of national security, and the service is seriously considering that option, Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James told Defense News in an exclusive interview.
After the National Defense Authorization Act conference report was unveiled last week, James directed service acquisition executive Darlene Costello to reevaluate the contract and offer advice about whether a fixed-price contract was feasible and in the service's best interest. The service had initially intended to follow a "hybrid approach" for the engineering, manufacturing and development phase of the program, which would make most of the contract firm-fixed-price but keep some riskier elements under a cost-plus structure.
"There is also a waiver authority in that language, and so we are also in discussions with OSD about the possibilities there. So there is no final decisions on the way ahead yet," James said on Dec. 8. "We hope to get it out by the end of the year, [but] there's no guarantee."
The Air Force intends to purchase 17 aircraft to replace its current Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System fleet, and an EMD contract is expected to be awarded in fiscal year 2018. Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Northrop Grumman all plan to submit proposals.
Although industry had expected a final RFP in September, the service decided to release another draft while it worked with the House and Senate armed service committees' staff, hoping to persuade lawmakers to eliminate the fixed-price requirement that had been included in the Senate committee's version of the bill. During the Air Force Association conference that month, service acquisition officials warned that mandating a firm, fixed-price contract would cause a chain reaction of schedule delays. A three- to six-month delay on issuing the RFP could bump initial operational capability by about a year, Costello said then.The first 16-bit videogame system hit American shores 25 years ago this Friday. Although not the most successful machine in its day, the TurboGrafx-16 pushed gaming technology forward, with the first CD-ROM attachment for a gaming console. For those who were sick of Nintendo but didn’t like the pandering edge of the Sega Genesis, the TurboGrafx-16 was a welcome alternative. Unlike the Genesis, whose stab at attitude felt like a kid throwing a tantrum, the TG-16 seemed genuinely transgressive to the middle schoolers of 1990, with the satanic imagery of Devil’s Crush and horror movie gore of Splatterhouse unlike anything on the NES or Genesis. And the CD-ROM only solidified the TG-16’s rep as the most “grown-up” gaming option at the outset of the 16-bit era, opening up new vistas for animation, full-motion video and soundtracks unrestrained by computer chips. Although the TurboGrafx-16 was massively popular in its native Japan, where it was known as the PC Engine, most of those games never made it to America due third parties not wanting to upset their relationships with Nintendo. Still, enough great games made it across the ocean, and here are the sixteen best.
16. Bloody Wolf
This side-scrolling run’n’gun arcade hit was the TurboGrafx’s answer to Ikari Warriors or Contra, with your bandanna-sporting army man stalking his way through a war zone and blasting away enemies in multiple directions. That was a vital role to play in any console’s catalogue in the late 80s. The TurboGrafx version was actually better than the arcade original, with larger levels and a more fleshed-out story.
15. R-Type
R-Type was one of those games that eventually existed on almost every system ever created. Another top-notch shooter for a system just absolutely lousy with them, R-Type was as addictive as it was difficult.
14. Time Cruise
The TurboGrafx-16 was home to some of the best video pinball games ever made. Time Cruisewasn’t as well-known as the peerless Crush series, but its novel spin on pinball convention is worth seeking out. Time Cruise is less of a pinball table than a series of conjoined single-screen tables with a common aesthetic. Like the original Zelda game your ball can travel to new screens in all four directions, each with its own pair of flippers at the bottom. Bonus levels are complex balancing puzzles that resemble Marble Madness more than pinball. It’s a pleasantly rambling (but no less stressful) take on classic pinball.
13. Cadash
Taito’s sword-and-sandals arcade hit eventually landed on the Genesis, but the TurboGrafx-16 version was first and best. It mixed hack’n’slash platformer action with light RPG elements, like class skills, magic and character stats, resulting in a challenging game fit for anybody who wished Dungeons & Dragons rip-offs required quick reflexes. With the TurboGrafx’s advanced tech it |
You
Meet Smashing Book 6 — our brand new book focused on real challenges and real front-end solutions in the real world: from design systems and accessible single-page apps to CSS Custom Properties, CSS Grid, Service Workers, performance, AR/VR and responsive art direction. With Marcy Sutton, Yoav Weiss, Lyza D. Gardner, Laura Elizabeth and many others. Table of Contents →
Feet. Jaipur
catching up!
Diwali lights
Aishwarya Rai in the making
Golden Temple before Sunrise
A Dreamer Among the Humblest
10 Interesting Places to Visit Before You Die
Smiling.Pali
A glance inside, a glimpse outside
Dark eyes. Pushkar
Prayer at the Temple
Taj Mahal, the other side. Agra
Steam Loco
Sweeping. Varanasi
India. A table
Colorful Masks
Bananiers en paix
back to India
Silent Prayer / Amritsar, India
Little Red Riding Hood
Golden Slumbers
india - gujarat
colors-of-india
sri meenakshi sundareswara temple
Holi in red
India style
buddha from bodhgaya
colors-of-india
India
India Wedding
Tata Ace - The True India Truck!
Indian Beauty
l’homme de mehrangarh
Beauty of India
Damsel at Pushkar
India- Faces
Mosque (Agra India)
Mosque
Lal baba
Colors
Indian WeddingIn keeping with class balancing, we have decided to review certain primary combat mechanics in WAKFU. And as per usual, that means a lot of changes. AP and MP removal, collisions, healing… In this devblog, we're going to explain the ins and outs of this global redesign, which required great force of will. But wait! What force of will are we talking about?
What's Going On With AP and MP Removal?
First of all, Hypermovement, Hyperaction, removal percentages, and resistance to AP and MP loss are all disappearing. Actually, all these characteristics are being merged into a single one: Force of Will (provisional name). Force of Will quite simply allows you to increase your chances of removing AP or MP from your target, and in return, to reduce the risk of you losing any.
This is the new AP or MP removal formula:
Value to be removed = (removal value) * 0.5 * (Force of Will factor)
Force of Will factor = 1 + (caster's Force of Will / 100) - (target's Force of Will / 100)
The Force of Will factor can be between 0 and 2
If this value to be removed is not a round number (e.g. 2.34 AP to be removed), the following rule is applied:
34% chance of removing 3 AP
66% chance of removing 2 AP
Once the AP have been lost, the target gains Force of Will relative to the AP lost.
Per AP actually lost = 10 Force of Will gained
The amount of Force of Will gained is lost at the end of the target's turn
This means that when the caster's and the target's Force of Will is equal, the caster will remove 50% of the removal value. Having 100 additional Force of Will will ensure the caster a complete removal. Having 100 less Force of Will will result in no removal.
It should be noted that bosses will now have their own mechanic: every 15 removals suffered, the boss will become immune to removals for 1 turn. So, you'll need to make sure you're properly organized to weaken the boss at the right time!
What Possibilities Does the New System Unlock?
This new system of AP and MP removal has been designed in such a way as to be applied throughout the game. Overall, removals will have a greater impact while being clearer: now there's only a single characteristic that influences them, namely Force of Will. Consequently, many strategic combat elements will need to change.
In both PVP and PVM, the system will be more reliable and will allow for real micro-decisions with a greater impact in combat. Since the target's Force of Will increases after each removal, it is more difficult to remove both AP and MP from the target during the same turn. Moreover, the target will have greater Force of Will during their next game turn, so more powerful removals.
All this has allowed us to bring about another major change: collisions.
New Collisions
Each collision now makes the target(s) lose 1 AP! Therefore, if target A is pushed back against target B, the latter will also lose 1 AP. This effect occurs after any collision, regardless of how many cells are traveled.
Collisions are caused by pushback effects. However, other forms of "slide" movement (e.g. attraction, moving closer to or further away from the target) never cause a collision.
In this context, all (or nearly all) in-game pushback spells gain the possibility of removing 1 AP. Fear not, Masqueraider friends: There have been several adjustments made to the class so that its members won't be left at a disadvantage in their Air-style gameplay. For example, their collision spells won't remove AP from their double, and vice versa.
Low-Level Healing
This is a change we had wanted to make for a long time. While reviewing the game's basics in Incarnam and Astrub, we realized that low-level healing spells were very weak, and the number of health points regenerated was too low relative to players' maximum health points, especially when taking damage inflicted by monsters into account.
Since the values were far too low for healing class beginners, we have multiplied their healing basis by four: the difference will barely be noticeable at high levels, but a new player will heal themself up to four times as quickly!
That should be enough to make anyone want to (re)discover the game as a healer!
Moreover, we've standardized how sidekick healing is handled. Their spells will have the same healing value as a normal class, but their abilities will provide an additional bonus of 30% to heals performed, so that they remain competitive.
Minor Adjustments to the Classes
In conclusion, alongside all these changes, certain adjustments have been made to all the classes. You'll find more details in the changelog.
All these global modifications will allow the class balancing process to continue. Not everything's quite perfect just for the moment, but we have been able to make a certain number of improvements. Class balancing is our underlying theme, and we'll be coming back to it in the future.Texas school district sign: Armed faculty'may use whatever force necessary' to protect students
@BearingArmsCom: "BACK TO SCHOOL: Gun Zone Signs in Texas That Will Actually Reach Criminals" @BearingArmsCom: "BACK TO SCHOOL: Gun Zone Signs in Texas That Will Actually Reach Criminals" Photo: Courtesy/Twitter Photo: Courtesy/Twitter Image 1 of / 53 Caption Close Texas school district sign: Armed faculty'may use whatever force necessary' to protect students 1 / 53 Back to Gallery
On the back to school shopping list for teachers and faculty in a school district 30 miles east of Amarillo is a concealed handgun license.
A new sign at the two campuses in Claude, a rural town with a population 1,200, call attention to the fact that some of the school district's staff is “armed and may use whatever force necessary” to protect its students, according to media reports.
MyHighPlains.com reported Sunday the school district allowed its employees to start carrying in November 2015 after more than a year of creating a plan to implement campus carry. Now, almost a year later, signs have gone up at the district’s elementary and junior/senior high school.
The district has 68 employees, 40 of which are teachers, according to its site. It is unclear how many employees at the district carry a weapon daily. The district, according to its website, had 354 students enrolled last year at its two schools— an elementary campus and a junior/senior high school.
BACK TO SCHOOL: Gun Zone Signs in Texas That Will Actually Reach Criminals https://t.co/z0kmwgWKkb #2A #campuscarry pic.twitter.com/L4eMQe76zd — Bearing Arms (@BearingArmsCom) August 4, 2016
RELATED: Campus carry coming to Texas universities: Here's what you need to know
Students still need to be protected despite the absence of a traditional city police department, Superintendent Jeff Byrd told News Channel 10, adding the sign is not meant to be threatening but proactive.
“If there were a perpetrator that entered our building we would be able to hold off the building until the professionals got here,” he said.
RELATED: Paxton calls UT profs' campus carry lawsuit 'frivolous'
Byrd also said he feels anyone working member of the school district would give their life to save a child.
“Our job is to make sure the kids are safe, that they are comfortable and secure,” he told the news station.
In addition to having a concealed handgun license, employees who carry will have to shoot monthly in training, Byrd told MyHighPlains.com.
RELATED: Confusion clouds hearing on UT profs' campus carry lawsuit
“We have to shoot so many rounds a month, so there is training involved monthly and annually we go to a two to three-day thorough training where we are working on different scenarios,” he said.
kbradshaw@express-news.net
Twitter: @kbrad5Every aspect of our lives is touched and shaped by science — a systematic study of the surrounding world. From solving difficult global challenges like growing health issues and extreme weather events to simplifying our everyday life, science is the basis for the prosperity of mankind
Funding is the core mechanism behind this complex system, providing the resources to create new knowledge and nurture discovery. Today, hyper-competition, lack of transparency, and little empirical research into current practices have created a funding system that is arguably not making the best use of scarce resources nor generating best scientific outputs. The question is how can we change it.
Compete or die
In the past 30 years, we have seen a shift in public funding from recurrent financing of research institutions to project-based competitive funding in many countries. The increasing need to obtain external funding is forcing researchers into an environment that is characterised by scarcity, intense competition, and continuous evaluation.
“I would like to see future scientists taken off this treadmill so they could be scientists, not fund raisers.” — Michael Glazer, University of Oxford
Competitive funding is aimed to draw out the highest quality ideas, increase collaboration, and internationalisation, but combined with tight budgets and growing demand it also introduces a set of ambivalent consequences. The amount of grant applications is going up in almost every country and field, placing funding entities under pressure to manage increasing workloads. As the total volume of funding available is stagnating or even decreasing, the success rates are dropping globally. Frustrated by the low success rates, researchers are losing trust in the efficiency and fairness of the evaluation procedure.
“What a strange business this is: We stay in school forever. We have to battle the system with only a one in eight or one in ten chance of getting funded. We give up making a living until our forties. And we do it because we want to help the world. What kind of crazy person would go for that?” — Nancy Andrews, Duke University School of Medicine
Meanwhile, nobody knows if this competitive model is actually serving its goal — selecting the most promising research. Very few practices in grant review are themselves evidence-based. Questions like the optimal proposal structure, how best to judge ideas, and whether reviewers should be blinded have not been studied experimentally.
Inevitable transition
The assessment procedure is usually conducted behind closed doors and rationale for funding decisions is not shared with the applicants and wider community. The exact selection method varies among funders, but for project-based funding it frequently includes some form of peer-review.
Peer-review has long been the champion of decision making in research. It stands for fairness and objectivity — several experts critically evaluating the quality, novelty, validity, and potential impact of research presented as grant applications or publications for journals. Although peer-review has served a central role in research assessment, there is increasing critique on the traditional model. From low reliability and inefficiency to preference of “safe” research, science community is raising questions about the suitability of current peer-review process to the 21st century.
One of the major challenges arises from the lack of transparency in the decision process. In most cases reviews from experts are not shared with the author or other scientists, leaving no opportunity for independent examination of the reviews or reviewer, meaning that the objectivity and scientific accuracy of the evaluations cannot be assessed. In a highly competitive environment, this opacity could lead to a funding system driven by bias and hidden motives.
As described by David Horrobin, although the review process for publications as well as funding proposals is similar, the consequences of distortions in reviewing the latter are far more dramatic. Even a mediocre article can hope to be published in some journal after a series of failed submissions, but there might be only a few realistic sources for funding a unique project. And since the reviewer network is often overlapping in narrow topics, failure to pass peer-review could mean that the project will never be funded.
Research into your own practices
Funders, who are genuinely interested in improving the scientific enterprise through their financing activities are under pressure to provide solutions for the increasing critique. Testing and implementing new ideas is widely welcomed, but are we basing these changes on scientific evidence and hard facts?
One of the (rare) studies into peer-review in funding process concluded that although grant giving relies heavily on peer-review the evidence of impact of these procedures is scarce and experimental studies to measure the effects of peer-review on the importance, relevance, usefulness, soundness of methods and ethics, completeness, and accuracy of funded research are urgently needed.
“We’re extremely critical towards our researchers. Every statement needs to be substantiated with references, but we don’t do that ourselves.” — Stan Gielen, President of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research
For example, Jeremy Wyatt from University of Southampton in the UK was looking for literature for randomized trials of grant peer review in medical research and he didn’t find a single one. In scientific publishing he found 22 such trials for journal peer review. He argues that journal editors started questioning the current review process already 15 years ago, but funding agencies still haven’t caught up.
We have seen a shower of more and less radical alternatives to current peer-review based model, from double-blind reviews to lottery and basic scientist income, but how do we know if and how these models work when we haven’t committed to empirical evaluation of the funding process.
“It is time to turn the scientific method on ourselves.” — Pierre Azulay, MIT Sloan School of Management
As Pierre Azulay very well articulates: “ In our attempts to reform the institutions of science, we should adhere to the same empirical standards that we insist on when evaluating research results. We already know how: by subjecting proposed reforms to a prospective, randomized controlled experiment.”
In a meeting this July, more than 60 representatives of funding agencies reached a conclusion that research into their own practices and sharing experiences between funders is crucial to reduce application pressure and improve the quality of reviews.
Building the solutions together
As it is always most difficult to change yourself, sometimes a push from outside of the research industry is necessary. Coming from a background of open and efficient collaboration in design, service and web development, we at Guaana believe that transparency is key to an effective funding system and it relieves many of the issues discussed today. But we also believe that:
We don’t have the remedy for all problems in funding (yet); New models should be implemented on a small-scale and tested in controlled experiments; Best solutions can only emerge from collaboration amongst funders, researchers, and other stakeholders.
Call for Funders
Any new systems have to demonstrate that they out-perform and reduce the biases of existing models as much as possible, but in research funding it is often difficult to measure. That is why we’re calling all forward-looking funders to compare different approaches and collectively develop alternative models based on evidence these studies present.
Learn more @ www.guaana.com/open-battle
Open Battle of research funding models is an exploration, where we examine side by side two different funding models under the same call. The aim here is not to declare which model is the best, but to:
Test new and existing solutions in parallel in a controlled environment; Based on evidence collected, collaboratively analyze and develop alternative models; Make as much comparative data available as possible to enable everyone from data scientists to funding agencies use it for their own creative or administrative purposes.
Is there a better way to fund science? How do we know what works? Is transparency more effective? Can funding decisions be an open collective effort? Does an open environment create spillover of knowledge?
We are looking for answers and invite all funders to join the quest. Let’s work together to build the best research funding model!A global #RageForAleppo Demonstration was held in more than 30 cities all over the word, during the past days, some Muslim counties had their demonstrations held on Friday after the Friday prayer, the Arabic Hashtag was ا #اغضب_لحلب while the English translation of the same Hashtag is #RageForAleppo
The demonstrators condemned the Russian and Assad Forces attacks on Aleppo as well as the siege on the city which is being controlled by Iranian IRGC and Iraqi militias as well as Hezbollah and other forces.
below are some of the pictures.
Global day of Rage for Aleppo
Global event link (October 1st)
https://www.facebook.com/events/512889452247582/
United States
Washington DC (October 1st 12:00 – 2:00)
https://www.facebook.com/events/1697366170584442/
Chicago (October 1st 1:00 – 3:00)
https://www.facebook.com/events/656037637888643/
NYC (October 1st 1:00 – 4:00)
https://www.facebook.com/events/1113821058666225/
Minneapolis, Minnesota (September 27th 5:00 – 6:00)
https://www.facebook.com/events/1014208972011213/
Hammond, Indiana (September 28st 5:00 – 6:00)
https://www.facebook.com/events/866746636795509/
Boston (October 1st 3:00 – 5:00)
https://www.facebook.com/events/176185122823681/
Canada
Montreal; (September 30th 5:30 – 6:30)
https://www.facebook.com/events/192127324543614/
Toronto (October 1st 1:00 – 3:00)
https://www.facebook.com/events/587645824755347/
Europe
UK
London (October 1st 12:30 – 5:00)
https://www.facebook.com/events/299989537049884/
Manchester (October 1st 12:00 – 2:00)
https://www.facebook.com/events/1739631039632122/
Essex (University) (September 28th 1:00 – 2:00)
https://www.facebook.com/events/591018274414850/
Irland
Dublin (October 1st 2:00 – 4:00)
https://www.facebook.com/IrishSyriaSolidarityMovement/
Spotted this only yesterday in town, Protest today 2pm at the spire at civilian deaths in Aleppo. pic.twitter.com/5JXWRskvY9 — Patrick Costello (@Costellop) October 1, 2016
Germany
Aachen (October 1st @ 3:00)
Berlin (October 1st 4:00 – 8:00)
Córdoba se Jornada Mundial de Furia por Alepo.#RageForAleppo
Alto al Bombardeo a Alepo! Fuera los rusos y los yanquis de Siria! pic.twitter.com/qjZS46lXHz — Liliana Olivero (@LilianaOlivero) October 1, 2016
Stuttgart (October 1st 5:00 – 7:00)
Frankfurt (October 15th 3:00 – 6:30)
https://www.facebook.com/actions4syria/photos/a.431856903536834.101710.419739538081904/1139551186100732/?type=3&theater
Berlin (October 1st 4:00 – 8:00)
https://www.facebook.com/events/1253099874740084/
Italy
Milan (October 1st 5:00 – 7:00)
https://www.facebook.com/events/1678395059146192/
Netherland
Amsterdam (October 1st 3:30 – 6:00)
https://www.facebook.com/events/257410877987606/
The Hague (September 30th 1:00 – 3:00)
https://www.facebook.com/events/607591732735412/
Solidarity with Aleppo from the Hague, Netherlands! pic.twitter.com/ZUlIIPGisZ — al-Hamra (@_alhamra) October 1, 2016
Today at the Russian Embassy in the Hague, we joined @amnesty and the Syrian Committee to #RageForAleppo pic.twitter.com/bEMIxHnQp4 — PAXforpeace (@PAXforpeace) September 30, 2016
Spain
Barcelona (October 1st 7:00 – 9:00)
https://www.facebook.com/events/1102202083190621/permalink/1102202099857286/
Madrid (October 1st 12:00 – 2:00)
https://www.facebook.com/events/535193900022425/
Madrid, también frente a la embajada de Rusia. Basta de masacres. Paren el genocidio. #HolocaustAleppo pic.twitter.com/FguO4vFXFL — Rodrigo Rolando (@RodrigoJRolando) October 1, 2016
Sweden
Stockholm (September 29th 5:00 – 6:00)
https://www.facebook.com/events/160805397703824/
Turkey (October 1st @2)
Istanbul
https://www.facebook.com/events/1965057547054251/
protest in Sudan in solidarity with Aleppo #RageForAleppo pic.twitter.com/HJHiBEORrt — Leila Al-Shami (@LeilaShami) October 1, 2016
Tunis
Tunis (September 29th @ 7:30)
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10154427297763213&set=a.59488878212.68532.799688212&type=3&theater
Argentina
Buenos Aires (October 1st 3:00 – 5:00)
https://www.facebook.com/events/1116107041812781/
https://www.facebook.com/events/307141036319126/
Australia
Canberra (October 7th 12:00 – 2:00)
https://www.facebook.com/events/1778715165749407/
BloodStrike (ongoing)
https://www.facebook.com/Blood.Strkie/
Twitter Storm (September 29th @ 10 PM – 1 AM in UTC+03)
https://www.facebook.com/events/1129530297126471/
Join our campaign on Thursday 4 #Aleppo
29 September 2016
10 PM Damascus time
9 PM Paris time
#حلب
#HolocaustAleppo pic.twitter.com/UImwy0zXS2 — Iran Arab Spring (@IranArabSpring) September 26, 2016In Cars, Local News, Malaysian Makes, Proton, Spyshots, Suzuki / By Hafriz Shah / 1 April 2016 9:56 am / 43 comments
UPDATE: This was an April Fool’s 2016 post.
Now this will get quite a lot of us excited. We have photos of what appears to be a Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza wearing a Proton badge. Is the local carmaker planning to rebadge the new B-segment SUV for the local market? Remember the date, boys and girls – you heard it here first!
The pictures – supplied by regular contributor Theophilus Chin, so no doubting their authenticity, then – show two near-standard Brezzas. Only things of note are the Proton badges up front, and the Malaysian road tax stickers on them.
We are only publishing low-res photos for now, to respect the internal source’s request to stay anonymous. Having seen the full high resolution images, we can report that the road tax stickers are indeed current (valid until April 1, 2017), adding more credibility to this scoop.
So, what do you think of this Proton compact crossover, guys? Let us know in the comments section below.
GALLERY: Maruti Suzuki Vitara BrezzaWhat I want to do is make a smart contract which has a variable that can accrue value. I'd like to have it start off as 0, and then increment it, while periodically checking to verify that my calls to increase the value have in fact been working.
Here's my very simple smart contract to achieve that:
pragma solidity ^0.4.13; // This contract demonstrates a simple non-constant (transactional) function you can call from geth. // increment() takes no parameters and merely increments the "iteration" value. contract Incrementer { uint iteration; function Incrementer() { iteration = 0; } function increment(uint count) { iteration += count; } function getIteration() constant returns (uint) { return iteration; } }
However, it must be broken, or perhaps I'm not calling it in the right way, as you can see by my console output:
The execution environment I'm using is truffle.
The commands to compile were:
truffle compile --all truffle migrate --reset
Then I fire up to truffle console to interact with it, after having started testrpc in another window.
The exact commands I've been using it call it have been:
Incrementer.deployed() Incrementer.deployed().then(function(instance) { meta = instance; return meta.getIteration.call(); })
and alternatively:
Incrementer.deployed().then(function(instance) { meta = instance; return meta.increment.call(1); })
How can I get the value of iteration() to increase by calling increment(), and then outputting the result with getIteration()?
EDIT:There was a battle of the sexes outside Old City Hall yesterday, in the miserable freezing slush. Women held up signs and chanted “We believe survivors,” while a handful of men mocked them and sniped: “We believe the truth.”
A shirtless protester is detained by police after an Ontario judge found former radio host Jian Ghomeshi not guilty on four sexual assault charges and one count of choking. ( MARK BLINCH / REUTERS )
Inside the courtroom, the other battle — the personal one — ended badly for everyone. Disgraced CBC host Jian Ghomeshi is not guilty, but does anyone believe he’s not a creep? The three female complainants had their integrity and self-confidence badly wounded, if not destroyed. Complainant No. 2, actress Lucy DeCoutere, smiled bravely before the clutch of cameras and microphones that trailed her out of the courthouse and down the street, but she toldChatelaine she felt 100 per cent shamed and “totally cracked in half.” Does anyone think she was not assaulted?
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So here we are, in the slush, wondering why anyone bothered at all and whether, as a society, we really think sexual assault is a problem that requires addressing. Or not. “It’s the same bulls--- we were talking about in 1982,” said Anna Willats, a professor with George Brown College’s assaulted women and children counsellor/advocacy program, who was protesting outside with some of her students. “Nobody can be a perfect witness.” True, these three women were far from perfect. They forgot, didn’t mention to police or willfully omitted those emails, kisses, hand jobs, letters and sexy photographs they’d given Ghomeshi later. They changed small details — it was a slap, then a choke; yes, he slammed my head against the window, no it was just resting there. But watching up close, how many of us didn’t wonder about the frailty of our own memories and the tricks we use to hide our shame even from ourselves? We all felt the piercing glare of Ghomeshi’s defence lawyer, Marie Henein, and we watched him sit behind that table, silently.
Why did he not have to answer even some softball questions, like what made him think they’d consented to being punched or strangled? (I’d like him to answer the more hardball: “Why did you store all those emails for a dozen years from random women you’d dated briefly?”) Ghomeshi might have been on trial, but it sure seemed like those three women were being tried.
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DeCoutere also said in that interview that, “after I testified, I felt like I had to go up to every person in the world and apologize for ruining the case.” She shouldn’t feel that way. She and her two fellow complainants brought us all into the courtroom to witness, up close, the terrifying process of a sex assault court case, one painful tweet at a time. Most of us now see what rape crisis centre workers have been saying for years: Cross-examination, particularly in these cases, often causes more damage to victims than the actual assault. There are some 460,000 sexual assaults in Canada every year, according to our provincial government’s It’s Never Okay plan, and only 7 per cent are reported to police. Now we understand — in part, at least — why. Of those 460,000 sexual assaults, 0.3 per cent lead to convictions. Few victims are perfect enough for this system. The first complainant told Chatelaine journalist Sarah Boesveld she wishes she’d been better prepared for the entire process. She’s launched a website, www.comingforward.ca, to help inform other victims about what they’re in for. If she could do it again, she’d consult a lawyer before proceeding to the police station. She wished she’d understood “my memory, above all, would be on trial.” The Ontario government is launching a pilot project this spring to do just this — offering victims of sexual assault up to four hours of legal advice before they go to trial. There’s one approach — we could all be taught to become perfect victims, with our scattered memories arranged in an inscrutable row, and our shame pinned openly to our chests. Another approach came to me, watching the chanting protesters and grumbling anti-protesters battle for noise in the miserable slush before Old City Hall: If we know sexual assault victims are almost never perfect enough for the exacting nature of “beyond a reasonable doubt” when there is no evidence besides their memory, then maybe what needs revamping is the system, not us. “If any public service entity had a failure rate of 99.7 per cent, all the architects would be gone and it would be redesigned from the ground up,” said David Butt, a criminal lawyer who has represented hundreds of sexual assault victims (mostly in defending against the release of their therapeutic records, before the case goes to trial) over the past 17 years. Butt suggests offering victims alternative forms of justice rather than the “one size fits all” criminal charge of sexual assault, which carries a heavy penalty, so justly requires a heavy burden of proof. In a civil case, for instance, the accused would not face a criminal record, let alone time in jail, but would be required to testify and the presiding judge’s measuring stick would be a “balance of probabilities.” It’s a proposal that certainly warrants investigation. I was glad for the battle outside the courthouse yesterday, so we weren’t just left with the all-round defeat from inside the courtroom. For all of our sakes, I hope it continues to rage. Catherine Porter’s column usually appears on Friday. She can be reached at cporter@thestar.caToday, some hardcore presidential historians are remembering Theodore Roosevelt who was born on this day, October 27, in 1858.
But the first President Roosevelt was far more than a politician and the 26th chief executive of the United States; He was an author, naturalist, soldier, explorer and an historian.
(Images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
He was also a boxer, sort of.
Known for his high energy, electric persona, wide range of interests and knowledge areas and alpha male swagger, the Commander n' Chief was mildly obsessed with boxing, weekly inviting sparring partners to go a few rounds with 'The Trust Buster.' And while the distinguished leader wasn't a professional fighter, Teddy Roosevelt was certainly no tomato can. Also dubbed 'Lion,' this head of state could actually fight.
Regarded by many historians as one of the five top U.S. presidents ever, Roosevelt learned to box while studying at Harvard and was runner-up in a college boxing tournament. A light heavyweight in the ring, the soon-to-be presidential pugilist would go on to graduate from the Ivy League institution with an A.B. magna cum laude in 1880.
Roosevelt, who sometimes sparred with pros, was a good friend of ex-heavyweight champion John L. Sullivan, and insisted boxing/sparring was a "condensed way" to get exercise, and continued to practice the manly craft years after graduation.
Sworn in as president in 1901 at the tender age of 42, Roosevelt often 'threw down' with young military aides, probably getting the better of his inexperienced foes.
This ritual, a practice he employed as Commissioner of the New York City Police Department and governor of the same state, would continue in The White House for another seven years until the president finally met his match in 1908.The DUP has declined to rule out funding legacy inquests, which have become an increasingly controversial part of the legacy process.
The inquests are examining Troubles deaths at the hands of the state, such as killings by the Army or RUC.
Supporters of the inquests say they must be held under Article Two of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects the right to life.
Northern Ireland’s Lord Chief Justice, Sir Declan Morgan, has said failure to hold the inquests would thwart the rule of law.
But there are mounting unionist fears that the inquests will be used to legitimise IRA terror and put police and soldiers on trial.
It was when files were forwarded to the Attorney General John Larkin on the shooting of an IRA killer Joe McCann, whose relatives wanted an inquest, that he forwarded it to prosecutors.
They charged two soldiers in their 60s with murder. An inquest into another shot IRA terrorist, Pearse Jordan, led to two retired RUC men being reported to prosecutors.
Relatives of IRA terrorists shot dead at Loughgall by the SAS in 1987 as they attacked a police station have begun a judicial review bid over the delay in their inquest.
The News Letter asked the DUP if it was willing to drop its opposition to funding for legacy inquests or if it was considering such a concession in talks with Sinn Fein.
The answer from a party spokesman declined to rule out inquest funding: “There has been an unfair and disproportionate focus on the actions of the state despite the fact that 90% of deaths during the troubles were caused by the criminal acts of terrorists.
This is unacceptable and our approach is to ensure a fairer and more equitable way of dealing with historic cases.
“The DUP does not support a piecemeal approach, but we want to see a comprehensive way of dealing with the past.
This must include the Historical Investigations Unit which is the central element of all the proposals around dealing with the past.”
Morning View: DUP must not agree to Sinn Fein’s key demand – legacy inquests
Trevor Ringland: Is there any will to put ex terrorists in the dock as well as soldiers?SHARE
US prosecutors say a businessman laundered up to $100 million for Colombian drug trafficking groups by financing Venezuelan companies in desperate need of dollars, in another illustration of how criminal opportunists profit from the socialist country’s strict currency control system.
In early April, US authorities arrested Martin Lustgarten Acherman — who has dual Venezuelan and Austrian citizenship — in South Florida for allegedly using bank accounts in the United States and elsewhere to launder as much as $100 million in drug proceeds.
During a detention hearing (pdf) in April, prosecutor Joseph Palazzo said Acherman “takes advantage of a unique situation in Venezuela” by providing US dollars to foreign currency starved Venezuelans. According to the indictment (pdf) against him, Acherman obtained dirty dollars from illegal sources and then sold them to legitimate companies in Venezuela at a higher exchange rate on the black market.
According to prosecutors, Acherman used his purchase order finance company, which provides capital loans to companies involved in international trade, to conceal the origins of the drug money. Based on wiretaps and other evidence collected by US authorities, Acherman’s finance business was in fact a shell company used to launder between $40 million and $100 million on behalf of unspecified drug cartels and “revolutionary paramilitary organizations” in Colombia.
SEE ALSO: Coverage of Money Laundering
According to the indictment, Acherman laundered drug trafficking proceeds through bank accounts in Florida from 2008 until March 2009. Following the seizure of these accounts, Acherman allegedly opened accounts in Hong Kong and Singapore, disguising the drug money he received by claiming it was compensation for the loans he had made through his purchase order financing company.
InSight Crime Analysis
If Acherman is found guilty, his case will be the latest example of how criminals and corrupt officials have manipulated and exploited Venezuela’s strict currency controls to make huge profits.
In 2003, then-Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez fixed the country’s official exchange rate at 1.6 Bolivars per US dollar in a measure designed to prevent capital flight. The controls have remained in place ever since, although more recently, the government has imposed a triple tiered exchange rate, with preferential rates of 6.3 and 12 to the dollar for essentials and priority goods and a market based rate for other transactions that currently stands at 199 to the dollar. However, runaway inflation means even these adjustments fall short of the reality, and the black market rate is estimated to have plunged to over 420 to the dollar in recent months.
The artificially fixed exchange rate has created not only a black market currency exchange, but also a wealth of opportunities for illicit profits, |
Wyoming, as part of a freshman-level course requirement. They were among those who "heckled both cast members and the characters they were portraying for their body types and sexual orientations." The theater department released a report on the performance and said audience members were "taking pictures of cast members while making fun of them, talking on their cell phones, hollering at the females in the cast and talking to other audience members during the acts."
"I am the only gay person on the cast," junior theater major Garrison Gibbons said. "I played a gay character in the show, and to be ridiculed like that was something that really made me realize that some people at Ole Miss and in Mississippi still can't accept me for who I am."
Ledbetter called the actions "borderline hate speech," although I am not sure why he qualified it with "borderline." After an athletic department official arrived, an attempt was made to apologize:
"The football players were asked by the athletics department to apologize to the cast," Ole Miss Theatre Department Chair Rene Pulliam said. "However, I'm not sure the players truly understood what they were apologizing for." The football players' apology, which was given by one undisclosed football player on behalf of the entire group, caused two cast members to cry.
This morning, the school's football coach Hugh Freeze, tweeted: "We certainly do not condone any actions that offend or hurt people in any way. We are working with all departments involved to find the facts."
The incident has also been referred to the university's Bias Incident Response Team, the Winter Institute of Racial Reconciliation and the LGBTQ Chancellor Advisory Committee, USA TODAY reports. Once all the facts are in, Freeze needs to act and suspend any player who took part in this incident. This shows we still have a long way to go.
I'll leave the final word to Ledbetter, the director:There probably aren’t many independent bookstore owners who have graduated from Harvard Business School.
Kathryn Grantham is one of them.
Having moved from Cambridge, Mass., to San Francisco a year ago, Grantham is the city’s newest bookseller, the owner of a shop that just opened in the Outer Sunset.
“The reception has been overwhelming,” Grantham said. “San Francisco’s a book town, but I didn’t realize just how full the area is of readers and creative people.”
Located at 4033 Judah St., just a few blocks from Ocean Beach, Grantham’s shop, Black Bird Bookstore, is the only bookstore in the neighborhood, a welcome addition to a sleepy, unassuming part of town. It’s in a narrow 900-square-foot space that had been occupied by Small Talkers, a preschool, and its aesthetic is minimalist and tasteful.
And its business model represents a break from the past.
Unlike many stores that are lined floor to ceiling with thousands of books, Black Bird Bookstore has only roughly 250 books for sale. Grantham says she expects the stock to rise to 1,000 titles.
“It’s a curated bookstore,” she said. “It’s a different experience and always will be. But everybody finds something.”
In the age of Amazon, Grantham noted, many readers now go online to buy specific titles.
“The model of 50,000 titles is just not current,” she said. It’s a belief that was reinforced by her time at Harvard Business School, which she attended after running a Manhattan feminist bookstore, Bluestockings, for five years. She founded the shop in 1999, and it’s now a social justice, activist bookstore.
“I have no idea why I was admitted,” she said about Harvard, laughing. “I was running a radical feminist bookstore. But I actually loved it. It was a terrific experience.”
A 41-year-old native of New Orleans who moved to New York after college, Grantham says she has kept track of the book industry for the past two decades.
“I believe people come to bookstores in search of ideas and recommendations,” she said. “If you mapped where people gravitate to most in a bookstore, it is the ‘staff picks’ section. We are turning that section into a whole store.”
And so Black Bird will sell only books that are recommended by Grantham and her staff of six employees. All the books are displayed with their covers facing out, accompanied by handwritten notes from the staff.
Grantham also plans to update sections on a regular basis, making them topical. “For instance,” she said, “right now we have a section on climate change and the environment.”
Another section is titled “Our country, our culture.” Curating such a section, she said, “gives me the opportunity to pull together and highlight some of the terrific, diverse voices that are being published today, and hopefully help us all have a deeper understanding of who we are as a people.
“Books bridge gaps in our own experience,” she added. “Perhaps I am also hoping to find the answer to the question of how we got here in this Trump era.”
Before moving to San Francisco, Grantham regularly visited the Bay Area to spend time with three younger siblings who live here. She and her husband, Oliver, an investor in forestry and an avid surfer, are building a house on a property they bought in the Sunset three years ago, initially drawn to the nearby surfing.
The couple have three sons, ages 6, 4 and 1. Grantham says theirs is one of the many young families in the neighborhood. She’s passionate enough about children’s literature that half of her store’s books will be for younger readers. She even had a tree house built, including a small oak tree for children to climb. And the shop will host a children’s story time every Saturday at 9 a.m.
How did Grantham conceive of the store’s name? She wanted a local reference. While she was pondering possible names, she said, “those big black birds kept flying into my view. It also has nice alliteration.”
As familiar as Grantham is with San Francisco, it’s in opening a bookstore, she said, that “you certainly feel like you’re really sinking your roots into the community. Which is why I love bookstores.”
More information: www.blackbirdbooksf.com
John McMurtrie is The San Francisco Chronicle’s books editor. Email: jmcmurtrie@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @McMurtrieSFThe co-founder and former president of Gigabit Squared is ending his involvement in the operations of the Cincinnati, Ohio company amid questions over unpaid bills and a lost contract with the city of Seattle.
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In an email he wrote:
I am no longer with GB2. I am resigning over strategic differences and am pursing other projects. You can reach out to Matt Weiland for comment. Their intent is to pay. Other than that I cannot comment.
Gigabit Squared, a Cincinnati, Ohio company that was formed in 2011 to deliver better broadband to U.S. cities, has found itself imploding in the last few weeks with the apparent loss of a contract with the city of Seattle and organizations in Chicago proceeding to wire the city without Gigabit Squared’s involvement. Meanwhile Gigabit University, an organization associated with Gigabit Squared’s ambitious $200 million broadband deployment effort, is distancing itself from the beleaguered business. It feels like watching an implosion.
Last Friday, Geekwire reported that the city of Seattle was owed $52,250 by Gigabit Squared for work that the city had performed digging up the streets to ready the area for superfast broadband. Those bills were unpaid, and the city was in effect sending Gigabit Squared to collections. On Tuesday, current Mayor Ed Murray confirmed that the deal had fallen through to a reporter for the Puget Sound Business Journal:
… the city’s deal with the company may have been doomed before Murray was even elected. “We understand the Gigabit problems had developed before the election,” Murray told PSBJ reporter Marc Stiles in an interview last week. Murray confirmed that the deal with Gigabit Squared had fallen through.
With Seattle in doubt, it’s an open question as to how the Gigabit Squared contract in Chicago is faring. Ansboury declined to comment, and I’ve not heard back from Gigabit Squared’s spokesman. The local Chicago community is not optimistic, but it’s also making plans to take up where Gigabit Squared has fallen down.
Gigabit Squared, which was founded in 2011 to help bring gigabit broadband to communities, built its name via a relationship with the Gigabit University program that was formed in 2012 to bring gigabit broadband to university towns. When the Chicago news was announced we wrote the following:
Gigabit Squared has set aside $5 million for the Chicago project as part of its Gigabit Neighborhood Gateway Program in collaboration with partner Gig.U. The State of Illinois is kicking in $2 million, while the University of Chicago is committing $1 million now and plans to raise another $1 million in the surrounding communities.
The Seattle and the Chicago contracts were part of a tie with Gig.U, which seems to be distancing itself from the Gigabit Squared implosion. Blair Levin, the executive director of Gig. U told me that Gigabit Squared has no formal ties with Gig. U. It was one of many companies that responded to a request for information issued by Gig. U on how to expand superfast broadband in the U.S. The organization provided the following statement:
“Gig.U is a group of communities and universities collaborating to accelerate next generation network deployments. It is not a party to any transactions related to such deployments and therefore, we do not have knowledge of the day-to-day developments related to any of the deployments. We do know enough, however, to have great respect for the leadership and dedication shown by the University of Chicago and the University of Washington and their government and community partners in driving next generation network deployments to serve economic and educational development and we have confidence that over time, their communities will greatly benefit from their efforts.”
When the Gigabit Neighborhood Gateway Program with Gig.U launched, Ansboury said that Gigabit Squared planned to spend up to $200 million building out the networks in the six communities. He said the money came from a combination of vendor financing provided by companies such as Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Corning and others who are working with Gigabit Squared as well as Chicago investment bank Stern Brothers. Communities that apply were expected to contribute too, but instead of cash they would have to make commitments that will lower the cost and headache of deployment.
It’s unclear how things have unraveled, but even when the plan was announced we were wondering if the model it planned to implement — of open fiber-to-the-premise networks was sustainable. However, to not even make it past the construction phase means that either financing didn’t come through as anticipated (or came with unforeseen strong attached), parters balked or municipal roadblocks arose that stymied the deals.
We’ll have to hope the truth comes out, because otherwise we could see a retrenchment by local governments when it comes to a willingness to invest in public-private partnerships for gigabit networks. And that would be a problem indeed for getting better broadband to the rest of the country. Gigabit Squared’s failure doesn’t mean all municipal or public-private broadband efforts will fail, but it will provide ammunition for naysayers.CHICAGO (STMW) - An angry Cook County judge berated a Chicago Police officer who was in court Tuesday after being charged with firing five shots at an off-duty suburban cop who tried to pull him over for driving drunk.
Judge Adam Bourgeois Jr. told cop John J. Gorman’s attorney: “The problem I have with this is that we have a climate in this city where citizens are shooting at each other. We have to expect and demand more from those who wear a badge.”
The off-duty cop wasn’t hit, and Gorman, 53, was charged with aggravated discharge of a firearm, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting. He could face up to 15 years in prison if convicted.
When Gorman’s attorney, Michael Clancy, argued for the officer to be released without having to post bond, the judge said that the bullets could have hit a 9-year-old. Last week, 9-year-old Tyshawn Lee was lured to an alley and shot and killed in a gang dispute. His funeral was Tuesday.
If police officers are misbehaving, “how can we expect citizens to obey the law?” the judge asked. He set bail at $50,000.
Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said: “Activity which violates the law or undermines the integrity of the hardest working men and women of the CPD simply will not be tolerated.”
The police department broke with tradition Tuesday when it released Gorman’s mug shot, something Guglielmi said they will do whenever an officer is arrested.
Gorman, who served in the military and has two teenage children, has been on desk duty since the 2014 incident, which was first reported by the Chicago Sun-Times.
It started at 4:39 p.m. on Nov. 23, 2014, when an off-duty Merrionette Park police officer was a passenger in a pickup truck and saw a car driving erratically, almost hitting a flower vendor standing in the street near 111th and Pulaski, according to court records.
At 111th and Spaulding, the pickup pulled next to the Buick that Gorman was driving. They were stopped at a red light.
The Merrionette Park officer showed his badge and noticed that Gorman was holding an open beer, but when the light turned green, Gorman drove off, prosecutors say.
The Merrionette Park cop called 911 and followed Gorman to Prospect and Pryor avenues on the Southwest Side of Chicago, about two blocks from the Morgan Park police station.
Gorman allegedly walked to the back of his Buick and aimed his gun at the pickup truck.
The driver of the pickup drove away as Gorman fired five shots, prosecutors say.
One of the bullets left a hole in the rear bumper of the pickup, but the Merrionette Park officer and the driver were not shot.
The Merrionette Park officer reported the shooting to officers at the Morgan Park station. Chicago Police officers ran the license plate of the Buick and realized it was registered to Gorman, who they arranged to meet.
Gorman allegedly told the Chicago Police officers that he fired the shots and he turned over his handgun. On the street, officers found five bullet casings that matched Gorman’s.380-caliber Ruger.
Gorman initially refused to take a Breathalyzer test, but more than five hours later Internal Affairs investigators required him to submit to the test for administrative purposes. His blood-alcohol content was.07, just under the legal limit for driving, and he was charged with a misdemeanor for driving under the influence.
At least 22 misconduct complaints have been filed against Gorman since 2001, according to a database made public Tuesday by the University of Chicago Law School and independent journalist Jamie Kalven.
Gorman, an officer since 2001, was not disciplined for any of those complaints, including the alleged 2014 shooting incident, the database shows. The Independent Police Review Authority, though, typically waits until prosecutors have finished their work on a case before completing its investigation and recommendation for discipline.
Many of the complaints alleged he was involved in illegal arrests.
In 2006, he and two other officers were defendants in a lawsuit alleging they used excessive force during an arrest. The city settled the case for $24,000 in federal court, but said the defendants denied any wrongdoing.I've put everything back into proper chronological order, and have begun adding images and video for documentary purposes.
The First Noted Venting Hole (TNVH).
I am looking for video of this event. Most people started taping after the actual start.
The entire range of field erupted at once. Everything. Everywhere, and then the pipe went GUSH!
Update:
What the First Noted Venting Hole (TNVH) turned into 18 hours later.
Same pair of broken pipes, Riser end is in same position, except everything has settled down a few feet, and the hole is bigger. that's an ejection rim. Those two broken pipes are more exposed.
A lot of earth got moved down and away all at once.
UPDATE:
UPDATE 1:20pm CDT:
Grabs:
UPDATE 5:45pm CDT:
UPDATE 6:03pm CDT:
UPDATE 6:45pm CDT:
UPDATE 7:35pmCDT:
UPDATE 8:15pm CDT:
UPDATE 11:51pmCDT:
I've been watching the live Spillcam, and discussing it with folks, here all day long. About 5pm last night, we all started taking note of gas bubbling out of the seabed floor. It started earlier than that, actually-- see pic a few posts down. About 1am this morning, the eruptions began to increase in spew volume.At about 8am, CDT, as I watched, things started changing rapidly. Where the water around the two major gush points used to be very clear, it is now super turbid, and detritus is flying everywhere in a chaotic manner. seabed venting is obvious to see when ROV cameras pan around.Yet-to-be-confirmed rumors are that the casing wall has finally worn through, about 300 feet below seabed, at an annulus (coupling), and the gas and oil are now finding a new way out to the seabed.Not good news, as it will make the Top-Kill/Junk Shot nearly ineffectual... At the least, it means that more pressure and mud/cement is going to be required.We'll see.See for yourself, here: via BP Live Spillcam Screengrab of the early Morning Chaos Event. Everthing went up all at once. ROV was perfectly stationary. EVERYTHING went "BOOM" and black:Here's a screen grab showing the new hole in the seabed. That's not the riser end from a new angle. This was grabbed while the ROV on the riser end was panning around. The BOP is over 600 feet away, so it is not that, either.The riser pipe used to be pretty clean all along it's top. Now, it is piled over with sediment.Something had happened to the dispersant mechanism, too. Pipes and connectors got knocked loose, green liquid (antifreeze?) was pouring out of the machine, and we watched the ROV repair the leak.Seabed seems to have sunk rapidly (perhaps scoured away rapidly?). Riser end is now in a big crater. Side pipes more exposed-- different angle?While watching, ANOTHER major "explosion" occurred. ROV Cam now covered in Oil. It was pushed around by the force of expulsion, or moved back a few feet by controllers. Our Favorite Disaster Bot is taking a beating. Gush seems to have at least doubled in size and volume.Provided by BSC:Photo series equating 12:23 minutes from "WTF?" to BOOOM! No need for ROV "reading" lectures, The pipe end billowed out, and then everywhere around billowed up, and then SPLAT!:Corroborating grabs in order... BOOM! Splat... WTF???:A brand new MAJOR eruption is happening. tune into the SpillCam at BP.com. It's black, all you can see is a cable. It started with yet another GUSH plume/tornado.Oh, dear-- now, we can see that that is a LOT of oil-- and a BLIZZARD of Hydrates..The current eruption is way, way worse than the several that occured earlier. I think this might be a "Main Event" situation.An hour after the start of this most recent eruption, and it is still just a wall of oil, methane crystals, and gack.Our Favorite Disaster Bot is damaged, and needs an oil change and the windshield cleaned. Up it goes.Oh, fuck... look at all the giant plumes in the water column... wow!:Cut to black.Live feed of recent blowout froze-up, requiring a reload of page. All of a sudden-- no more black chaos-- just the current clear-water gusher view. I suspect loop tape, but I have the screen grabs from the entire day, below.If there is another delay in the "Top-Kill/Junk Shot," you'll know why.Grab of the last moment as OFDB left site, below. You can dimly make out the lights of the lighting rig, lower center of pic image-- That is the signature of a major event... not some bot churn. Those lights should be illuminating more than a foot radius. (click for BIG): Top-Kill Delayed. Imagine my surprise.Another major eruption. These are not coming from the riser. They are coming in to view from elsewhere, even in the long, high-view shots. Sometimes from behind the ROV. Twenty-four hours of near non-stop SpillCam viewing, and not one look at the BOP.Grab of the latest (11:51pm) eruption-- that is the Floodlighting Rig... Occluded:I am sorry. This is not simple Bot Fan churn. This one came out of the riser end, along with an all-around Ker-BOOM action. Everything went up. One noticed the pipe-end exploding, but then there was gack flying everywhere, all around, too. Impact-directional-- not" going with the flow."More as I can provide.I think this stands on its own. I am sure there is more out there to post, and I'll do my best to get it here. A series of bad things happened on Sunday, May 23, 2010 at the Deepwater Horizon disaster site.If this is becoming sort of routine to clear the RITT (Sippy Straw), then I wonder why the hell they are continuing with something that isn't working? Send something better down every damned day, until you get the fucker stopped and filtered. Get your Company Einsteins working. New fix and tweak and peak every day... not every other fucking week, BP. Your faulty machinery is showing signs of compromise. Do more, faster.Today 25MAY2010:Thank you to the LATOC Forum.
Labels: BP, Gulf Coast, Oil DisasterWhere the rich live with the rich, and the poor live with the poor.
This is the first post in a five-part series examining economic segregation in U.S. metros. Debates in the U.S. over income inequality have taken center stage in recent years, but its existence in our cities is of long standing. Major metro areas have been magnets for both the rich and the poor since ancient times; in fact they owe a great deal of their dynamism to their economic and social diversity. But growing economic segregation—the increasing tendency of affluent people to live in neighborhoods where almost everyone else is affluent, and poor people to live in neighborhoods where almost everyone else is poor—may be a more insidious problem. The emergence of a new urban geography of concentrated wealth and advantage juxtaposed to endemic poverty and concentrated disadvantage poses troubling implications for the economic mobility of people and the economic health of cities. Just as lower-skill, higher-pay manufacturing jobs have dropped out of the labor market, and work in America has bifurcated into high-skill, high-paying professional and knowledge occupations and much lower-paying, low-skill service jobs in fields like food service and retail trade, America’s once middle-class neighborhoods have also begun to disappear. In 1970, two-thirds of Americans lived in middle-income neighborhoods. In 1970, roughly two-thirds (65 percent) of Americans lived in neighborhoods that could be described as middle income; today that number is just slightly more than four in ten (42 percent), according to a study by Cornell University’s Kendra Bischoff and Sean Reardon of Stanford University. Over the same time span, the proportion of families living in affluent neighborhoods rose from 7 to 15 percent, and the share living in poor neighborhoods increased from 8 to 18 percent. The share of Americans living at both extremes grew from 15 percent in 1970 to 33 percent in 2009. Income segregation grew in nearly nine in ten of all U.S. metros with populations over 500,000 people, according to the study. A 2012 report by the Pew Research Center found economic segregation of upper- and lower-income households to have risen in in 27 of America’s 30 largest metros. Working closely with Charlotta Mellander and my Martin Prosperity Institute team, I have charted the level and extent of segregation by income, of the rich and the poor, of the highly educated, and by socioeconomic class across tracts in all of America’s more than 350 metros (To track income segregation, I will today use data modeled after the Pew Research Center’s methodology. Future posts will use a method based on the landmark work of Douglas Massey and Nancy Denton.) I will be sharing additional findings over the next several weeks.
We measured income segregation by calculating the share of low-income households that are located in neighborhoods with a majority of low-income households in comparison to the share of upper-income families who live in neighborhoods with a majority of upper-income households, following the methodology used by the Pew Research Center to calculate their Residential Income Segregation Index (here, neighborhood is defined as a Census tract). We defined upper income households as those with annual incomes of $100,000 or more and lower-income households as those with annual incomes of $34,000 or less. The analysis covers all 70,000-plus Census tracts in the U.S. and matches them to more than 350 metros. My MPI colleague Zara Matheson mapped the results. • • • • • The map below shows how U.S. metros stack up on income segregation. Dark blue reflects high levels of income segregation; light blue significant levels; green moderate levels, and yellow low levels. As the map clearly shows, there are high levels of income segregation in metros along the Boston-New York Corridor, in Greater Miami, in Northern and Southern California, across the Sunbelt to Texas, and in the major Midwestern cities. America's Most and Least Segregated Large Metros The tables below show the ten large metros (those with one million or more people) that rank highest and lowest in terms of income segregation. America's Most Income-Segregated Large Metros Rank Metro Index Rank of All Metros 1 San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX 0.700 7 2 Memphis, TN-MS-AR 0.695 8 3 New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA 0.653 12 4 Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX 0.647 13 5 Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV 0.624 18 6 San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA 0.619 20 7 Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD 0.599 23 8 Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX 0.595 28 9 Denver-Aurora-Broomfield, CO 0.583 29 10 Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX 0.576 32
San Antonio has the highest level of income segregation, followed by Memphis, New York, Houston, Washington, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Dallas, Denver, and Austin. (There is substantial overlap with the findings of the Pew Report, even though their list is limited to just 30 metros. Five metros — Houston, Dallas, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. — appear on both lists.
The most highly segregated metros are actually smaller and medium sized, many of them in Texas. El Paso tops this list, followed by second and third-ranked Laredo and McAllen. College Station comes in sixth place. San Antonio, which is first out of large metros, is eighth overall, and Brownsville is ninth. Outside of Texas, Bridgeport, Connecticut is fourth; Trenton, New Jersey fifth; Memphis eighth; and Jackson, Tennessee tenth. America's Least Income-Segregated Large Metros Rank Metro Index Rank of All Metros 51 Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL 0.247 283 50 Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA 0.264 270 49 Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC 0.283 256 48 Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA 0.315 228 47 Jacksonville, FL 0.321 224 46 Las Vegas-Paradise, NV 0.323 221 45 Sacramento--Arden-Arcade--Roseville, CA 0.360 187 44 Salt Lake City, UT 0.366 182 43 Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI 0.373 173 42 Rochester, NY 0.376 169
On the flip side of the equation, Orlando has the lowest level of income segregation of large metros. Portland, Virginia Beach, Seattle, Jacksonville, Las Vegas, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, Minneapolis, and Rochester make up the ten least segregated large metros. Cities are changing fast. Keep up with the CityLab Daily newsletter. The best way to follow issues you care about. Subscribe Loading... The least segregated metros in the country are also smaller metros. In fact, there are about 80 small- and medium-sized metros that have lower levels of income segregation than the least segregated large metro, Orlando, Florida. Holland-Grand Haven, Michigan has the lowest level of income segregation in the nation. St. George, Utah; Palm Coast, Florida; Glen Falls, New York; Sheboygan, Wisconsin; and Harrisonburg, Virginia round out the five least segregated metros in America. • • • • • We know which metros have the greatest and least levels of income segregation. But what do they have in common? What are the underlying factors associated with higher or lower levels of income segregation? To get at this, Mellander ran a basic correlation analysis between income segregation and a number of key economic, social and demographic characteristics of metros. As usual, I note that correlation does not equal causation and points only to associations between variables. First off, income segregation is higher in larger metros (with a correlation of. 36). It is positively, but more modestly related to density (.27). This is not surprising, as large metros have more households and a greater range of incomes and types of housing; there is more gentrification and “superstar” neighborhoods in such places, which price out less affluent people, enabling the better off to ensconce themselves in exclusive enclaves. Race is significantly related to income segregation. America has long been divided and segregated along racial lines. And race is significantly related to income segregation, according to Mellander’s analysis. Income segregation is higher in metros where Blacks and Latino make up greater shares of the population (with positive correlations of.33 and.25 respectively); and it is lower in metros with a greater share of the population is White (-.27). There is no statistical association, however, between income segregation and the share of the population that is Asian. You would think that income segregation would be higher in more affluent metros. But income segregation is only weakly associated with average wages (.14) and not significantly related to either per capita income or economic output per person. This result is curious and a bit counterintuitive. In part, this could be because average wages and income say little about the distribution of money across a region’s residents.
It is therefore important to note that income segregation is much more closely associated with income inequality as measured by the Gini coefficient (with a correlation of.54). Income inequality explains roughly 28 percent of the variation in income segregation, according to the simple regression analysis Mellander conducted. In other words, income segregation is more closely related to the gap between the rich and the poor (captured by income inequality) than the overall level of development or affluence (measured by income, wages or economic output per capita). One might also suspect that income segregation would be greater in metros that have more advanced high-tech, knowledge-based economies. Income segregation is only modestly associated with the concentration of high tech industry (.26) and also with the share of creative class workers (.27); and, it is not statistically associated at all with the share of adults that are college grads, a common measure of human capital. Again, this may be an artifact of our measure, which identifies income segregation overall, but not the isolation of the rich or poor individually. Income segregation is closely related to the gap between the rich and the poor. While income inequality and residential segregation do go together to a degree, it is important to remember that they are not the same thing. A city or metro might be quite unequal but not particularly segregated if lower and upper income groups are distributed evenly across neighborhoods. Likewise, a city or metro could be highly segregated but relatively equal, if its income groups reside in different neighborhoods across the same metro area. Though the geographic segregation of income is not a direct consequence of income inequality, there are several ways that it compounds these economic disadvantages. Schools, parks, policing and all manner of other public services, goods and amenities are more abundant and better-quality in higher income neighborhoods. This improves the life chances and opportunities for children born into those communities while limiting the mobility of children born into lower income communities, who are more dependent upon public services and investments to compensate for limited family resources. Numerous studies (including several I have discussed here on this site) document the lower levels of socioeconomic mobility and lasting neighborhood effects that go along with concentrated disadvantage. As middle class neighborhoods have declined, America’s economic landscape is increasingly polarized. My next two posts examine the growing segregation of the poor and the increased isolation of the affluent across the United States. Top Image: The Queensbridge Houses, the largest public housing development in America (left), and an affluent street in Manhattan's Upper East Side (right) (Wikimedia Commons users Wikiwiki718 and Gryffindor).Stephen Hawking has delivered a speech addressing the seriousness of obesity in an ad campaign to promote the work of Swedish non-profit company GEN-PEP, Adweek first reported.
The most powerful part of the speech (which you can watch in full below) is perhaps when Hawking says: "For what it’s worth, how being sedentary has been a major health problem is beyond my understanding."
The professor relates his work as a cosmologist, in which he sees the world "as a whole", to what he describes as "the most serious public health problems of the 21st century".
"Today too many people die from complications related to overweight and obesity. We eat too much and move too little," Hawking says in the video ad.
When talking of the solution, he says: "It’s not rocket science," and recommends simply that people eat less and take up more physical activity.
After playing the video of Hawking delivering his speech, the low-budget ad ends with three written statements:
"Physical inactivity is now the world’s fourth leading cause of death."
"Required physical activity per day: Adults 30 minutes."
and "Required physical activity per day: Children 60 minutes."
Youtube/GEN-PEP
Watch the ad in full here:
This article was originally published by Business Insider.
More from Business Insider:MIAMI - The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that exploded into a fiery ball just after landing at sea off California on Sunday had descended with pinpoint accuracy onto an ocean barge before a landing leg buckled, causing the booster to tip over, a landing video showed.
Flames from the engines of the Falcon 9 are visible as NASA's Jason-3 satellite blasts off through the thick fog aboard a SpaceX rocket at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California January 17, 2016. REUTERS/Gene Blevins
Heavy fog at the rocket’s launch site in California may have caused condensation to collect in the latching mechanism and then ice it over, said technology entrepreneur Elon Musk, owner and chief executive of Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX.
SpaceX is seeking to develop a cheap, reusable rocket and a successful ocean landing would have marked a second milestone for the company, a month after it nailed a spaceflight first with a successful ground landing in Florida.
Musk posted the landing video on Instagram late on Sunday. The Falcon 9 blasted off earlier in the day from Vandenberg Air Force Base to put the U.S- and European-owned Jason 3 climate-monitoring satellite into orbit.
The feat of having made the landing on the tiny platform won accolades from fellow tech entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, the Amazon.com Inc chief executive whose Blue Origin space company is pursuing similar technology.
“SpaceX will soon make Falcon 9 landings routine,” Bezos posted on Twitter. “Kudos SpaceX!”
Blue Origin landed a suborbital rocket during a November 2015 test flight.
SpaceX’s landing attempt on Sunday was the third time the privately owned firm had tried to recover a rocket on an ocean platform.
“At least the pieces were bigger this time,” Musk said on Twitter. “Am optimistic about upcoming ship landing.”
Last month, a Falcon 9 booster touched down on a landing pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida after dispatching 11 small communications satellites into orbit.
SpaceX wants to be able to land rockets on ocean platforms as well as on the ground to accommodate a wide variety of space missions. It has more than 60 launches on its schedule, worth more than $8 billion.Paul DelVecchio’s résumé doesn’t scream “Master of the Universe,” at least not at first glance. The Rhode Island native never attended college, instead taking a job at a car dealership after high school. For much of the last decade, he spent the bulk of his nights and weekends DJing small clubs in Providence for a few hundred dollars a pop.
But something changed in 2009, when he was selected to be a part of MTV’s Jersey Shore. Three years later he’s got a slew of eponymous products, his own television show and a DJ career that earns him an average of $40,000 per show from club gigs, private parties and a stint opening for Britney Spears on her Femme Fatale tour. Over the past year, Pauly D pulled in $11 million, enough to earn him the No. 7 spot on FORBES’ first-ever top-earning DJs list.
“Everybody was skeptical at first, because how everybody heard about me is probably from Jersey Shore,” he says. “But now I’m six seasons deep in the show and I’ve been touring all over the country, touring with major pop acts and stuff like that. That legitimizes everything, and they’re starting to say, ‘This kid isn’t just a reality star, he’s an actual DJ.’”
In addition to being an actual DJ--one who’s played 132 gigs over the past year--Pauly D has figured out how to extend his brand better than any of his fellow Electronic Cash Kings, and perhaps better than many Hip-Hop Cash Kings. After Jersey Shore’s first season, he and a friend launched a |
Dennys, 1982: Toronto); Ian Angus, “The Toronto Anti-Fascist Strike, 1933,” The Socialist History Project (Originally published in Labor Challenge, July 14, 1975); Lita-Rose Betcherman, The Swastika and the Maple Leaf: Fascist Movements in Canada in the Thirties (Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 1975: Toronto); Morris Biderman, A Life on the Jewish Left: An Immigrant’s Experience (Onward, 2000: Toronto); Ruth A. Frager, Sweatshop Strife: Class, Ethnicity, and Gender in the Jewish Labour Movement of Toronto 1900–1939 (University of Toronto Press, 1992); The Globe (April 3, June 2, June 22, July 7, July 8, July 12, July 13, 1933); Cyril H. Levitt and William Shaffir, The Riot at Christie Pits (Lester & Orpen Dennys, 1987: Toronto); Jack Lipinsky, Imposing Their Will: An Organizational History of Jewish Toronto, 1933–1948 (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2011: Montreal & Kingston); The Daily Mail and Empire (July 11, July 12, 1933); The Militant (July, 1933); October Youth (April, June/July, August/September, October/November, 1933); Shmuel Mayer Shapiro, The Rise of the Toronto Jewish Community (Now & Then, 2010: Toronto); Spartacist (February, 1988); Stephen A. Speisman, The Jews of Toronto: A History to 1937 (McClelland and Stewart, 1979: Toronto); The Toronto Star (March 24, March 31, April 1, April 3, July 12, 1933); The Evening Telegram (March 11, April 3, July 12, July 13, July 14, 1933); John Herd Thompson with Allen Seager, Canada 1922–1939: Decades of Discord (McClelland and Stewart, 1985: Toronto); “The Trotskyist Movement in Canada, 1929–1939,” The Socialist History Project (Originally an undergraduate history essay written at the University of Toronto; author unknown); The Vanguard (July, 1933); The Worker (July 15, 1933); Young Militant (December, 1933); Young Spartacus (January, 1933); Young Worker (March 25, May 13, July 19, August 21, 1933).
Every Saturday, Historicist looks back at the events, places, and characters that have shaped Toronto into the city we know today.
Did you like this article? Do you love Torontoist? Support articles like this by becoming one of the first Torontoist subscribers. Get great perks and fund local journalism that makes a difference—join Raccoon Nation now.Sami-themed coffee shop celebrates an arctic culture
Lavvu Coffee House MPR Photo/Nikki Tundel
Plenty of cafes can serve up a decent latte. But only the Lavvu Coffee House in Minneapolis lets customers sip espresso around a fire inside a traditional reindeer herder's tent.
The fire is actually electric. And, the tent is technically a lavvu, explains shop owner Chris Pesklo.
"It looks very similar to a teepee," Pesklo said. "But it's structurally different. Its angles are less extreme so it's more stable in high winds. This thing is what dominates the whole coffee shop."
For centuries, lavvus were the standard dwellings of the Sami, the indigenous people of the far northern regions of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. Pesklo comes from a family of Norwegian Sami and he has designed his whole shop around the culture of his ancestors. The counters display historical facts about the little-documented nomads. The baristas are trained in Sami-style brew.
"First it has to boil ferociously," Pesklo said. "Let it cool down. Then you raise it to a boil again and you mix it with spices such as nutmeg, but also adding salt. A lot of Sami put melted cheese into it. The cheese gets swirled around. That's very much a part of the Sami tradition."
Lavvu Coffee House MPR Photo/Nikki Tundel
Cheese may not be everyone's favorite coffee flavoring, Pesklo admits. Lavvu also sells cappuccinos, mochas and cake-flavored lattes. But no matter what customers drink, Pesklo said he hopes they leave Lavvu with a greater understanding of his reindeer-herding relatives.
"This map represents nine of the Sami languages," Pesklo said pointing to the wall. "What they don't show here are that three of the languages are now extinct."
Minnesota is home to more Scandinavian descendants than any other state. But the way Pesklo sees it, too few know the tumultuous history of the Scandinavian Sami.
"Sami are the people who were more derogatorily known as Laplanders. They were greatly oppressed," Pesklo said. "In Norway they had a program called 'Norwegianization.' The Sami often had to change their last names from Sami names into more Norwegian names if they wanted to own land."
Like many American Indians, Sami children were sent to boarding schools where their native languages were forbidden. Forced assimilation continued up until the1980s, when the first legal protections for the Sami were put in place.
"There has been a whole cultural renaissance amongst the Sami that has ricocheted over here into North America. This coffee shop is actually a reflection of that, too," Pesklo said.
It'd be hard to imagine a better Sami ambassador than Pesklo. His license plates read "lavvu" and he has turned his home garage into a factory for the traditional Sami tents. Pesklo is American-born, but he is Sami by blood. One of his grandmothers was the last of his relatives to immigrate from Norway.
Surrounded by wooden tent poles and rolls of fabric, Pesklo, a former social studies teacher, takes two 20-foot-long strips of thick cotton and begins sewing them together.
"Now this machine here is called a feed-off-the-arm chain stitch machine," Pesklo says with pride. "You can sew sails for the U.S.S. Constitution on this machine. It's about 50 years old. It's really heavy-duty and I love it."
Chris Pesklo MPR Photo/Nikki Tundel
Pesklo is the only lavvu maker in North America. His creations are used by Sami elders as well as Midwestern camping enthusiasts.
"My lavvus are now everywhere on every continent except Antarctica, which is probably still yet to happen."
Seated in the corner of his week-old cafe, Pesklo takes a sip of his favorite coffee drink, a sugar-free, decaf latte with whole milk and a twist of cinnamon, and then surveys the Sami-themed shop.
"Culture is highly personal," he said. "It gives you a feeling of belonging to a greater whole. Whether African American, Hmong, Norwegian, what have you. They're all very passionate about their culture in one way or another. The Sami are no exception."
The Twin Cities boasts Scandinavian gathering spots like the American Swedish Institute and Sons of Norway. But, Pesklo said, a once-oppressed group like the Sami, with an estimated worldwide population of just 80,000, has never been in a position to fund a formal cultural center.
"I'm hoping this coffee shop may be the first of other Sami cultural centers that the Sami can gather around to celebrate their culture, to promote their own ideals," he said.
Including a long-held heritage of hospitality.
"No Sami in his right mind would not have a pot of coffee ready to be served anywhere," Pesklo said.April 7, 2010 12:00 AM |
['@ Play' is a monthly column by John Harris which discusses the history, present and future of the Roguelike dungeon exploring genre. This time - an interview with Rodain Joubert about the buzzed about Desktop Dungeons.]
Desktop Dungeons is a quick-play freeware PC dungeon exploration game that has been enjoying tremendous popularity over the last few months. Each game involves a single screen of a dungeon, and is typically less than thirty minutes to complete. Yet it provides an abundance of races and classes to play as, and special dungeon types to explore, that endlessly remix its small number of basic elements into completely new challenges each time.
As comments in blog posts about it tend to point out, Desktop Dungeons is not technically a roguelike game. It doesn't have tactical combat, has no identification features, and it's simulation of time is fairly simplistic. And yet, it has some fairly strong ties to roguelikes that definitely brings it into the purview of a roguelike column.
It is a game, ultimately, about gaining levels and making good use of limited resources, it's quite difficult and yet also has a strong sense of balance, where a decision made half the game ago can suddenly be what pushes you over the edge at the end. Also, live or die, each game is usually less than thirty minutes, so bad decisions don't drag you down. If it turns out you can't win, you just retire and try again. Really good players can tackle one of the challenge dungeons, or even participate in ranked games the scores of which get uploaded to an online scoreboard.
The game seems to be pretty popular on the gaming blogs right now. In this interview with South African creator Rodain Joubert, alias "Nandrew," we discuss the game's creation, its great, sudden popularity, its inspiration in Dungeon Crawl, and a little bit about goats and orcs.
[Note: I forgot I had Derek Yu's custom tileset for the game installed when I took a couple of the screenshots. I'm leaving them in, however, because his set is great. Not that the originals are a slouch mind you....]
JH: First off, if you'd like to introduce yourself to our readers?
RJ: I'm Rodain "Nandrew" Joubert, a South African freelance journalist and indie game developer. I'm also a fedora wearer and proud of it.
JH: How long have you been developing games?
RJ: I've been developing games for at least ten years. Though a great chunk of that period would better be labelled as "screwing around and making stuff move on a screen." My game development career started gathering more steam when I joined up with South Africa's Game.Dev community and started enjoying the support and camaraderie of a local community :) I've been with that group for about four years now. They're awesome and stuff.
JH: Ah! A local community can help provide a lot of support, technically, morally, and with resources. Which, like, sounds like the most obvious thing in the world when I say it.
RJ: Definitely! I write frequent articles aimed at game development newbies, and one of the points I advocate is getting involved with a good community. (JH's note: Links at the end of the interview.)
Dungeon Crawl and Desktop Dungeons
JH: Let's talk a bit about Desktop Dungeons, then. How did you come up with the idea for the game?
RJ: In a sentence, I'd describe the idea as stemming from my love of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup married with an inability to commit myself to long sessions of roguelike gaming. I'm a big fan of the idea that you can get a lot of gaming value out of much shorter sessions and "casual" experiences.
JH: It is true that most of the major roguelikes tend to be fairly long games.
RJ: I was also suitably inspired by Edmund McMillen's article on game development do's and don'ts at the time, and decided that I'd really just create the sort of game I'd love to play, using a lot of the lessons outlined in the DCSS philosophy.
Of course, it turned out to be barely anything like the game I claim inspiration from, but I reckon it's the thought that counts. :P
JH: The philosophy, correct me if I'm wrong as this is just an educated guess, would be to reduce or eliminate unnecessary variables, keep things as simple as possible without reducing complexity, and to eliminate grinding behavior?
It's both not like Crawl (in that it's not even a roguelike technically) and it is like Crawl (in that there are tradeoffs to a lot of player decisions). And Crawl is just generally inspiring too, its elements come together very well.
RJ: Yep. DCSS took EVERYTHING and made it a meaningful decision, and I wanted that to carry through to Desktop Dungeons. I ended up taking that idea to the extent that the very act of dungeon exploration became its own resource, and every monster encounter, movement, spell cast and item pickup could tip the balance subtly, yet significantly. All of the game's elements did their best to interact with one another in as many ways as possible.
I reckon it's far from perfect in this sense, but I like to think that I gave it a jolly good shot. Crawl is astounding, not least because it wasn't afraid to knock convention. I mean, it takes real guts to develop a game to rival a dinosaur like Nethack while explicitly disagreeing with parts of its design
JH: I think you did an excellent job at that.
Probably Desktop Dungeons does it a little better, in fact, than Crawl, because it's a lot more, um, "elemental" is the word I think I'll use. Because there are fewer variables and it's a "simpler" game, the parts that are there take on greater import.
RJ: Elemental is a cool word. :P I was also inspired by researching and writing about game design minimalism, and the idea of distilling a genre as great and expansive as a Roguelike to its core -- and almost puzzle-like -- elements, was simultaneously daunting and... well, juicy!
JH: There are a few other games that Desktop Dungeons reminds me of, that take those limited elements and give them profound, and sometimes unexpected, uses. MULE is like that, and Rampart, and, not coincidentally, Rogue. It seems to have worked out very well, although I have to admit being a little intrigued with the idea of where you could go with it from here.
RJ: The original rogue probably did it best in a lot of ways. It didn't need any fluff to justify its own existence.
Platforms and Implementation
RJ: With regards to where it goes from here:
I'm currently working for a South African indie studio, QCF Design, and the crew there have some pretty big plans lined up for a good and proper version of Desktop Dungeons with a nicer name, nicer graphics and more polished design in general. You know, the sort of stuff that people may actually be willing to pay for. We haven't decided on a final platform just yet, though we have some ideas. At the same time, I'll be looking to improve the freeware version that's currently being developed in Game Maker.
JH: I think if you took the game just as it is and put it on the iPhone you might find yourself with a hit. And it seems to me like the game is really made for the iPhone interface.
RJ: iPhone is one possibility! We're already keen to see how 100 Rogues does on release.
JH: (Nice plug for 100 Rogues. I'm sure Keith Burgun won't mind at all, heh.)
JH: Ah! I spot a segue opportunity! (ahem)
Would you like to tell us about how Desktop Dungeons is implemented? The language you use to develop? Or whatever the heck Game Maker is? Did you find it to be limiting?
RJ: Ahhh. well, a lot of people will probably know about Game Maker already. It's quite popular nowadays, and is the driving force behind some really great contemporary indie projects including Derek Yu's Spelunky (which, lo and behold, is also a tribute to roguelikes!). Basically, it's a rapid game creation framework which utilises a drag-n-drop system backed up by code scripting and the like. It's actually remarkably flexible for an "easy game creation" tool, especially since it follows good programming practice at its heart.
JH: It does seem to be used for more and more things lately.
RJ: It's an object-oriented, event-driven environment that anybody experienced with code should be able to recognize.
RJ: I've been using Game Maker almost exclusively for several years now: it allows me to focus on the design of a game instead of its technical implementation, which is a bit of a godsend after hacking through years of Pascal, Java and C++. In my opinion, a lot of developers focus on art and programming without recognizing good design as a skill of its own.
Design Process, Commercial Viability and Promotion
JH: Here's some more questions for you: How did you design it? All at once, or did it sort of accrue like a snowball over time? And do you have a final goal in sight, or at least in mind?
RJ: I have a personal rule that I like to follow, and encourage everybody I know to follow: if you sit down with a game design and fail to make something fun, engaging and relatively "complete" within a week, it's not an idea worth pursuing.
My original version of Desktop Dungeons was made in about six days, and it was a far cry from what it is even now (still at a tentative version 0.051), but it was something that could stand up on its own legs and provide people with some fun. I didn't have any plans beyond, say, another version or two before I moved on to another project, but people kinda got excited about it rather quickly. So I guess I just shrugged my shoulders and kept going :P
JH: So you have a pretty good idea where to go from here?
RJ: Definitely. I want to do more work on the freeware to incorporate all of the exciting ideas that began forming after the game started garnering some popularity. It sort of doubles as further service to the people who are enjoying it right now, and an excellent testing ground for concepts that could make its commercially worthy successor. As of the beginning of April, we'll also be starting work full-time on the main DD project.
JH: Although for various reasons I like open source and freeware games (after all, most roguelikes fall into that category), I think there is an opportunity to make a go of this one commercially. Good luck with it!
RJ: Thanks a bunch! I hope that people continue to enjoy the game. :)
JH: When you say "full time," then, you're still working on the freeware version "part time" so to speak, right?
RJ: Yeah, actually, when I mention "full time" on DD, I mean that we'll not be bogged down with the mobile advergame projects that QCF has been adopting to build up capital with. They're not the most inspiring jobs, but they put food on the proverbial table and allow us to start self-funding projects like DD for reasonable durations
JH: It sounds like a good strategy for getting it off the ground.
RJ: It's solid, but we're still kinda poor in the bigger scheme of things :P Such is the lot of an indie, I'd reckon.
JH: Hey, the indie field is home to, by far, the most interesting game development AND game projects right now. Of course I may be a little biased, as most roguelikes would be considered to be "indie" by some measure.
RJ: Definitely interesting. But when I mention "poor", I'm talking about it in a very literal, financial sense. ;) QCF Design are small fish, even in the indie pond.
JH: If you have a company name, then you're already at least half up the ladder. Many indie developers are just one or two people. 2D Boy is two guys. Well, such is my opinion, heh.
RJ: A fair point. And that's not to say that QCF won't do its gosh-darn best and whatnot! I just think it's important to keep things in perspective.
JH: Let's talk for a moment about the fan community around the game, and the word-of-mouth publicity. When did Desktop Dungeons get it's big "break" publicity-wise? Was it a mention on a specific blog? Or did it just sort of grow, spreading from person to person. I was a little surprised when two completely unrelated people mentioned the game to me within a couple of days of each other!
RJ: For quite a few of my recent projects (and other projects found within the Game.Dev community), I'd have to give credit to the IndieGames blog for that initial kick of popularity. That site is run by a pretty swell crew, and I tip my hat to those folks. Too many people treat gaming journalists with a certain degree of derision while forgetting just how important a role they play in the industry. It's what helps silly little people like me get their games out to a broader populace. It's what allows cool stuff like interviews to take place.
I can also give credit to some indie community folks I know, and in particular the tireless efforts of one DukeOFPrunes. He knows who he is, and he totally kicks ass. DukeOFPrunes is one of the Game.Dev community members. He's an all-round cool guy :P
JH: (The Management appreciates the compliment, regarding "cool stuff")
RJ: Funnily, though, I think that I was the weakest link in my own marketing chain. The word-of-mouth on this game really took a life of its own, and despite the fact that I've written about game marketing myself from time to time, I absolutely failed to take any action of my own on this thing. The fact that I've enjoyed this much attention is nothing short of amazing. I think it's the sort of story that would make the folks at Wolfire slap me.
JH: It is gratifying to see. A lot of indie developers sort of languish in obscurity, but every so often one goes nova.
RJ: But yeah, I really don't deserve this much attention for the game. I've broken every rule in the marketing book :P
Difficulty And Humor
JH: That's most of the general things. Would you like to take a few minutes now to discuss some elements of the design? Or would you consider that as being something of a spoiler?
RJ: There was a matter about the difficulty. (JH's note: The original question was an aside halfway back in the interview and was edited out.)
JH: Ah, by all means go ahead.
RJ: The game is hard by necessity, yes, though I feel the difficulty helps make the experience more REWARDING rather than less challenging.
It boils down to the matter of meaningful decisions. One way of making a decision meaningful is to attach permanence, as most roguelikes would do. You make a choice, and you can't undo it, so make it a wise one.
JH: Right. This is related to permadeath.
RJ: However, a decision's impact is also affected by the impact of its consequences, and in a difficult game this can mean the difference between a narrow escape and said horrible perma-death. If roguelikes (and by loose extension, DD) were any easier, this impact would be lost, because there would be comparatively little consequence for your decisions. An easy game slaps you on the wrist and gives you a gold medal instead of a platinum one, so to speak. Not really something that can scare, motivate or involve a player. When there's more at stake, it's more emotionally engaging
JH: It does seem that there are a lot of games out there that nearly fall over themselves to tell the player what a great job he's doing.
RJ: I doubt that anybody really likes steamrolling a game. Oh ho no. they like to win by that proverbial "one click"...
JH: A button marked "Win the game."
RJ:...and in the long term, that builds up a false sense of achievement.
It's great once in a while, and I have no problem with playing easy games. But I also know how satisfying overcoming a genuine challenge can be. In DD, the difference between a new player and a veteran becomes obvious. Although there's a reasonable element of luck involved, some parts of the game are highly deterministic and the average win rate of a vet is significantly higher than that of a beginner. It's all about the advanced tricks and tactics that emerge from creative application of the rules.
I'd like to stress that there's nothing wrong with easy games. They're pretty fun too. It's just that there's a time and a place for those, and not every game has to roll over and let you scratch its belly
JH: One such trick is how, when you gain a level, your health and magic get refilled. That makes monsters themselves into a resource.
RJ: Exactly, it's a sneaky tactic whose value isn't immediately understood, but becomes an indispensable part of play once figured out.
JH: Everything in Desktop Dungeons is a resource in *some* way. Even, for one of the classes, those bloodstains left on the ground. I was rather surprised to see that.
RJ: Yep, that's DD's interpretation of Dungeon Crawl's idea that an enemy's dead body can be put to good use! There's actually a few nods to DCSS in DD which a savvy player may just pick up. Heck, I wanna find a way to throw Sigmund into the mix at some point. Sigmund would totally rock.
JH: Sigmund would be awesome. For the uninitiated, Sigmund is a deadly early unique opponent in Dungeon Crawl. He's sort of the game's mascot.
RJ: I also make a few cheeky indie references here and there related to other games.
JH: Some (boring) players may disagree with me, but I think joke monsters are generally awesome. I still get a kick out of Desktop Dungeons' Goo Balls. It had me looking around for a cameo by the Sign Painter.
RJ: The goo balls and the meat men are, in some ways, some of my favourite monsters, simply due to their presence being completely tongue-in-cheek. Funnily enough, a lot of people lose the goo reference. Because while the description suggests World of Goo, it's actually drawn like the Gish tarball. Dunno why I did that.
JH: The name of the Goo Ball boss makes the connection obvious though, as does the boss intro message. One of my favorite things about roguelikes (and Desktop Dungeons too, which I'm including here as a kind of honorary roguelike) is how they don't take themselves too seriously.
RJ: I truly appreciate that sentiment. :P Desktop Dungeons started out not taking itself seriously, and I want it to stay that way even if it starts making money and all that other boring stuff. Heck, our mascot is a damn goat! Goats are the antithesis of serious business.
JH: Goats are awesome. Goats are beyond awesome.
RJ: They also make for great fan art.
JH: Goat Bosses, however, are serious business. Ouch.
RJ: Very nasty for warriors to run into.
JH: Roguelike games could stand to have more goats in them.
RJ: If I recall correctly, actually, the goat was loosely inspired by Crawl's presence of those Yaks of bloody doom and death. Half of my characters wound up getting killed by yaks. It was rather embarrassing.
JH: The descriptions of yaks in that game are great. "The common dungeon yak."
RJ: Like that time my character starved to death while levitating over some food.
JH: The next adventure finds a skeleton floating in the air, upside down, its bony arm outstretched towards a food ration on the ground.
RJ: Those descriptions are great, but nothing beats the messages from your personal Orc army when worshipping Beogh.
JH: Never gonna give you up! Never gonna let you down!
RJ: That was the best part!
JH: It's like shepherding a horde of preschoolers through the dungeon!
RJ: Especially since some of them take the time to smile and wave at you when you're fighting off legions of monsters. Kinda like, "Hey! Hi! How goes it, buddy? :D"
JH: Eventually one of them graduates to First Grade and gains the ability to summon demons.
RJ: You know, that was the great thing about the orc army. You'd form attachments. Especially if you've carried one guy all the way from lowly orc to Warlord. Epic stuff.
JH: Yeah, it is a little saddening when one of your named guys kicks the bucket. Especially if it's a warlord. Then it's doubly sad.
Links Relating To The Developer
RJ: Oh, by the way, you wanted some links? I've got a small army of 'em.
JH: Was just about to ask about those.
RJ:
http://www.devmag.org.za/: Dev.Mag, one of the places I write for.
http://www.devmag.org.za/articles/249-MINIMISED-GAME-DESIGN-FOR-INDIES/: The article I wrote on minimalist design, referenced earlier.
http://www.devmag.org.za/articles/78-ZERO-BUDGET-INDIE-MARKETING-GUIDE/: Another one on marketing which I totally didn't end up using.
http://www.indiegames.com/blog/2009/12/opinion_indie_game_design_dos.html : Edmund McMillen's catalysing piece about indie do's and don'ts, a great, inspiring read.
http://nag.tidemedia.co.za/category/game-dev/: The lightweight beginner's articles that I write for NAG online. Not exactly heavy literature, but it's far more approachable for newbies
http://www.qcfdesign.com/: The QCF Design website.
JH: Hearing about all this writing makes me feel like a slacker.
RJ: I'm reluctant to give the Game.Dev and forum thread links, because the hard links for those will prolly break soon.
JH: Changing servers I hope, and not going under?
RJ: Yeah, changing domain name and everything, in fact. The links will break permanently.
JH: Ah! Let us know when it's all moved over then.
RJ: I encourage people to be linked here for the main "game info hub": http://www.qcfdesign.com/?cat=20 We'll keep this page updated with the forum thread location, and the wiki location.
(JH's note: Yes, Desktop Dungeons has a wiki already. It's filled with lots of spoilers so read with caution.)
Roguelike news:
Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup has updated to version 0.6! This invalidates some of the things I said in the Crawlapalooza series of articles, but no matter. It's a new version!
Dwarf Fortress, while its main game mode isn't technically a roguelike, kind of gets thrown in with them, and a new version has just been released (on April 1st, amusingly!) Go check it out...Time is running out to avoid a strike at 14 ports from Boston to Houston that could choke off half of the ocean containers carrying goods to and from American shores.
Businesses that depend on the flow of goods are warning of billions of dollars in economic damage if the 14,500 members of the International Longshoremen Association (ILA) go on strike at 12:01 a.m. Sunday as threatened. But despite federally mediated talks taking place this week, efforts to reach an 11th-hour deal -- or at least a contract extension to keep workers on the job -- appear to be a long shot, as the union continues to balk at a key negotiating demand of management.
If a strike does start, tens of thousands of other workers at railroads, trucking companies and warehouses handling freight that moves through the ports could find themselves out of work. And shipping costs will rise on a wide variety of consumer goods. The ports also accept many items crucial to keeping U.S. factories running, such as auto parts and heavy machinery.
Related: Behind the strikes at Wal-Mart, McDonald's and the ports
The U.S. Maritime Alliance, known as USMX, representing management at the shipping lines, terminals and ports along the East and Gulf Coasts, says it can no longer afford the per-container payments, known as royalties, that go to the unionized workers. It says those payments average $15,500 a year per worker, which takes the total cost of wages and benefits to an average of $124,138 per worker.
The union, which has not gone on strike since 1977, says the wage and benefit estimates being given by USMX are inflated. It vows it won't consider any changes in the royalties, and will only grant the extension being requested by USMX and the federal mediator if the issue of royalties is taken off the table.
"USMX seems intent on gutting a provision of our master contract that ILA members fought and sacrificed for years to achieve," said ILA President Harold J. Daggett.
Businesses that ship goods through the ports are banding together to ask the Obama administration to take legal action under the Taft-Hartley Act to order the union to stay on the job. The business alliance includes umbrella groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufacturers, as well as trade groups representing retailers, automakers and makers of a wide range of products including chemicals, toys, food and clothing.
"Just the threat of a shutdown impacting the East Coast and Gulf Coast ports creates a level of uncertainty in a fragile economic climate which has forced many businesses to once again enact contingency plans that come at a significant cost to jobs and our economic competitiveness," said a letter the business group sent to the White House on Dec. 18.
But the unions are typically opposed to being ordered back to work. President George W. Bush went to court to order port workers back on the job during a 2002 West Coast strike. But the Obama administration declined to use those powers earlier this year to end an 8-day strike at the nation's busiest container ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach. Those two ports between them handle more than a third of the nation's container traffic. So it appears pre-emptive action by the president is unlikely.As the border region has exploded into a war zone, a grenade was thrown at a local border television station, part of the Gulf Cartel’s continued efforts to silence the Mexican media from reporting on the escalating violence.
The grenade was thrown at Friday night at the Televisa building in Matamoros, according to a Tamaulipas law enforcement official who spoke with Breitbart Texas. Televisa is a local TV station that is part of a larger network, and has been reporting on the cartel violence.
The official told Breitbart Texas that so far there have been two people injured at the scene, in addition to the property damage, but no additional information is available yet. Just 20 minutes after the grenade exploded, the Mexican military clashed with a blockade set up by gunmen on the outskirts of Matamoros.
The grenade marks is the second attempt this week by the dangerous criminal organization to intimidate the media from reporting on their activities. As Breitbart Texas reported earlier this week, a group of gunmen stormed the Matamoros office of El Mañana, kidnapping and beating its news director, Enrique Juarez. They released Juarez after warning him to stop writing about violent activity in the region.
Televisa Matamoros had suffered a similar attack in August 2010 when a group of Zetas threw two grenades at the building.
Follow Ildefonso Ortiz on Twitter and on Facebook.Photo
“Not if you were the last man on earth!” Plenty of guys have heard that line at some point in their lives, but it’s unlikely that Will Smith is one. His irresistible charm has been proved, above all, by his ability to attract audiences to bad movies like “Hitch” and “Wild Wild West,” as well as to better ones like “Ali” and “The Pursuit of Happyness.” In spite of its third-act collapse into obviousness and sentimentality, “I Am Legend” — in which Mr. Smith plays somebody with every reason to believe that he really is the last man on earth — is among the better ones.
And this star, whose amiability makes him easy to underestimate as an actor, deserves his share of the credit. There are not many performers who can make themselves interesting in isolation, without human supporting players. Tom Hanks did it in “Cast Away,” with only a volleyball as his buddy, foil and straight man. Mr. Smith has a few more companions, including an expressive German shepherd, some department store mannequins and a high-powered rifle. (There are also some flesh-eating, virus-crazed zombies, about which more in a moment.) But it is the charismatic force of his personality that makes his character’s radical solitude scary and fascinating, as well as strangely appealing.
In this Mr. Smith is helped, and to some degree upstaged, by the island of Manhattan, which the movie’s director, Francis Lawrence, has turned into a post-apocalyptic wilderness. Three years after an epidemic has caused the evacuation and quarantine of New York City, Robert Neville (Mr. Smith) is its sole diurnal human resident, and he spends his days roaming its desolate neighborhoods, at once wary and carefree. The streetscapes he wanders through will be familiar to any visitor or resident, but the way Mr. Lawrence and his team of digital-effects artists have distressed and depopulated New York is downright uncanny. Weeds poke up through the streets, which are piled with abandoned cars, and a slow, visible process of decay has set in.
A nightmare, of course, but not without its enchantments. In some ways Neville, dwelling in a highly developed urban space that is also a wilderness, experiences the best of both worlds. From his home base in the elegant Washington Square town house he was lucky enough to own (on a government employee’s salary) before the big die-off, he makes daylight forays that are like an adventure-tourist fantasy. He does a little deer hunting on Park Avenue and |
Sky Guys. "We are offering an international platform for filmmakers from around the world to showcase their work in front of industry professionals, the drone community and an extensive media network."
Submissions open August 1, 2017 and close September 15, 2017. The Grand Prize winner will be announced at Big Drone Show at the Toronto Drone Film Festival reception, September 27, 2017 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Toronto. A prize pool of over $5,000 CAD and DJI Phantom 4 is up for grabs.
To learn more about the Toronto Drone Film Festival and submission requirements, please visit http://bigdroneshow.com/tdff-submissions/Today Huffington Post UK reveals the findings of our 2016 Masculinity Audit – revealing how men and women respond differently to mental health problems and challenges in life.
The unequal impacts of mental health issues on men in the UK are revealed today in a landmark report into the causes of male suicide.
The research, carried out by the Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) and The Huffington Post UK, and released as part of the Building Modern Men campaign, highlights how men struggle differently to women in life and specifically to mental health problems.
CALM’s latest Masculinity Audit reveals that men are not only less likely than women to open up to friends about being depressed, they’re also more likely to exhibit risk-taking behaviour and feel more frustrated at life’s challenges, like losing a job.
Launched ahead of International Men’s Day, the audit details how barely half of men who admitted to feeling “very depressed” had told anyone about it, compared with 67% of women who did, bringing to light a parallel gender difference in how men and women respond to life’s low points.
The findings coincide with new UK-wide statistics, compiled by CALM and HuffPost UK, that reveal suicide remains the single biggest killer of British males under the age of 45.
The data shows that over 4,500 men kill themselves every year in Britain, with men three times more likely than women to take their own lives.
Experts believe the audit highlights how men lack the “language” to talk about their mental health, meaning doctors may be failing to spot key danger signs.
Findings: Four out of ten males feel they lack the qualities and abilities that partners look for in a man
61% of all respondents agree that men are stereotyped in the media
Four in ten male respondents strongly agreed that ‘women have unrealistic expectations of men’
Psychotherapist Damien Ridge, a professor of health studies at the University of Westminster, told HuffPost UK: “[Society] thinks men are doing pretty well ok compared to women. Actually, this shows that when men talk about depression on their own terms, quite a large proportion are not doing so well.”
The fact that a majority of gay men (61%) reported having felt very depressed is striking for Prof Ridge: “That’s most gay men. We don’t think of mental health that way. We think of mental health as being in a minority. What this is saying is, actually, most of us, from time to time, have mental health problems.”
Men and women talk about problems differently
The figures show half of all male respondents had felt very depressed, but among men aged 25 to 34, the figure rises to two thirds, with the main reasons listed as mental health, financial problems and relationship breakdowns.
And it finds that, while men were less likely to have been diagnosed with common mental health disorders than women, the gap was closer when they were asked whether they had felt “very depressed”.
Despite a GP being the person men were most likely to speak to, Prof Ridge added he feared professionals were unable “to pick up or spot the coded ways that men talk about their distress”.
“It’s well-known that men do things like self-medicate or become angry or become somebody else’s problem when they’re distressed,” he says. “Men let it build up then they lash out at themselves and other people. There’s even an idea that there’s ‘a male kind of depression’.”
The whole system is orientated towards treating women rather than men.”Prof Damien Ridge
Prof Ridge says the system was “not so good at picking up the issues that men experience”. “Women have a whole history of talking about stuff with their girlfriends, family and so on. They open up and talk. There’s a language to talk about their distress,” he adds. “Whereas men, [don’t] even have that language. They’ve got no training in doing that, who do they talk to? They have to develop a language. The whole system is orientated towards treating women rather than men.” Men feel more financial pressure The audit found men are more likely to feel pressure to be the main earner in families, with 31% of men surveyed saying this but only 19% of women feeling the same. A quarter of men said losing their job would make them feel less of a person while 17% of women said this would make them feel the same. “We’re supposed to have better gender equality [but] it’s still the case that financial issues and having a job are really important to men’s identity,” Prof Ridge says. “When these things go wrong, we know the financial problems and relationship break ups are behind many suicides… can really weigh heavily on men if they are not fulfilling the traditional masculine role.”
The findings resonate with CALM volunteer Matt Kynaston, who was diagnosed with depression in 2013 and later contemplated suicide. The 28-year-old told HuffPost UK: “One of the things that kept me in a job, which kept me miserable for a long time, was not even considering unemployment or taking time out, not seeing any value in that. “I was convinced, because I had a decent job and my Facebook status was always pretty good, I was surrounded by a lot people and getting paid pretty well, that I could just get through, get round it. It took me a long time to first acknowledge that I had a problem.” After his depression diagnosis, Kynaston quit his job to go travelling in Australia, thinking the change of scenery would be enough to make him feel better. As his mood worsened, his decision-making became more impulsive. He went to work on a fishing boat where the atmosphere was dominated by “toxic masculinity”. “People didn’t talk about their problems and if they did, it was weakness,” he says.
I don’t feel like I’ve got the financial strength to do the things which I might’ve done before. Matt Kynaston
He went to Melbourne with no money and began looking for potential ways to kill himself. “A bus drove past, that I was considering stepping out in front of, which had an advert for a suicide hotline,” Kynaston says. He rang the hotline and later checked in to a psychiatric ward and came back to Britain.
He now works for mental health charity Mind, volunteers with CALM and runs men’s groups for those struggling with their mental health.
But the feeling of earning less money than before still plays on Kynaston’s mind: “Despite the fact I’m trying to be part of the conversation that changes that perspective, I certainly still feel that now.
“Because my wage is only a certain amount and I don’t feel like I’ve got the financial strength to do the things which I might’ve done before, I feel under a lot of pressure.”
He adds some of the men in his group are unemployed and “find it really difficult to accept”.
Male perceptions of relationships are different to reality
The masculinity audit showed a gulf between the qualities men thought would be important to potential partners and what others actually deemed important.
A total of 81% of those looking for a male partner wanted him to be honest but just 62% of men assume prospective partners look for this.
Four in 10 men feel they lack the qualities partners look for. Of those, 26% feared they were not physically attractive enough, 26% felt they were not confident enough, 20% that they failed to provide financially dependability and 18% that they failed to provide stability. But confidence and physical attractiveness are all less important to those seeking male partners than men realise. Work ethic, intelligence and compassion are among the qualities men underestimate the importance of to their potential partners.
Qualities and abilities men feel they lack:
Qualities heterosexual women/gay/bisexual men look for vs those men think a partner looks for:
Men rated honesty the most important characteristic partners sought – but much less than those seeking male partners rated it
Male agreement that they lack some of the qualities a prospective partner looks for in man:
Who men and women would most likely speak about their mental health with:
Prof Ridge said men not speaking to other people, such as romantic partners, meant their beliefs about what constituted failure could go unchallenged.
“Men can have ideas about what they lack, why they’re a failure. And yet it may not fit with reality,” Prof Ridge said.
“Some men may [kill themselves] without having checked in with others about their problems, which may not be so big.”
In the year and a half since Kynaston began working towards mental health recovery, he said he had tried to prioritise being honest in relationships.
Before his Australia trip, when he was in London “being a bit of a player”, he found this difficult.
“I don’t think I’d fully grown up… I don’t know if I can blame patriarchy for that stunt in my personal development,” he added.
“Honesty is integral to a relationship. It’s one of the early lessons you learn growing up but somehow, somewhere along the way, it gets lost with the need to tick other boxes and the need to be successful.”
Men feel they get a rough ride in the media A total of 55% of men felt males were stereotyped negatively in the media. Men said they felt expected to be dependable and hardworking and 36% and 40% said they needed to be decisive and physically strong respectively – two qualities fewer women actually thought were important. Prof Ridge said the survey results here reflected the power gender stereotypes had, which were, he said, ingrained from an early age. He said: “It starts very early. As infants, we get differentiated – the toys we get and the way we’re dressed and the way we’re treated.
There’s a time when boys are allowed to cry and then suddenly they’re not allowed to cry any more. You’ve got to be a man. Prof Damien Ridge
“There’s a time when boys are allowed to cry and then suddenly they’re not allowed to cry any more. You’ve got to be a man. All these messages that boys get? You just don’t undo those easily.”
Kynaston said he previously “bought into” this masculine stereotype, going to the gym a lot, “eating way too much protein” and even applying for a sky diver’s licence in a bid to “out lad” other men.
“I certainly remember carrying that out around as part of my ego,” he said.
He blamed this pursuit of “being the manliest man I could be” for contributing to his mental health crisis. He said he had “lost sight of who I was and how I felt about it all”.
When asked if he feels like he is a “better man” now, Kynaston said: “Yeah, I do. I’ve got a lot of work to do. I still have some of the old baggage… I want to become more financially independent. I still have ambition. But I believe now I’m a better, kinder person.”
He added: “I can look back over the last couple of years and certainly prefer the person I see in the mirror now, than who I looked at before.”
Read the 2016 Masculinity Audit in full.
This feature originally appeared in Huffington Post UK as part of our month-long ‘Building Modern Men’ initiative, which aims to highlight the pressures men face around identity and to raise awareness of the epidemic of suicide.In late March, the Roberts Court will consider whether corporations are people under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and whether the First Amendment recognizes corporate religious rights.
In late March, the Roberts Court will consider whether corporations are people under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and whether the First Amendment recognizes corporate religious rights.
DerekTGreen/flickr
The Supreme Court has announced the date for oral arguments in the secular, for-profit corporate challenges to the birth control benefit in the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
On March 25 at 10:00 a.m., the Roberts Court will hear arguments in two cases, Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores and Conestoga Wood Specialties v. Sebelius. Both cases challenge the ACA’s requirement that certain employer-provided health-care plans offer contraceptive coverage at no additional costs to their employees.
While both cases challenge the contraceptive mandate, they raise slightly different issues. In Hobby Lobby, the Roberts Court will look at whether the Religious Freedom Restoration Act‘s provision that the government “shall not substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion” applies to secular, for-profit corporations. In Conestoga Wood, however, the Court will consider a much broader question of whether business owners have corporate First Amendment free exercise rights.
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The two cases have been consolidated, or combined, for argument. The Court has scheduled an hour for argument in both cases.February 28, 2011
You have old_passwords=1 in your my.cnf. I'm guessing this is because you used one of the my-small.cnf, my-large.cnf etc. templates provided with your MySQL distribution.
These files can easily win the "most outdated sample configuration file contest".
Usually it's no big deal: if some parameter isn't right, you just go and change it. Some variables, though, have a long-lasting effect, and are not easily reversed.
What's the deal with old_passwords?
No one should be using these anymore. This variable makes the password hashing algorithm compatible with that of MySQL 4.0. I'm pretty sure 4.0 was released 9 years ago. I don't know of anyone still using it (or 4.0 client libraries).
The deal is this: with old_passwords you get a 16 hexadecimal digits (64 bit) hashing of your passwords. With so called "new passwords" you get 40 hexadecimal digits (plus extra "*"). So this is about better encryption of your password. Read more on the manual.
How do I upgrade to new password format?
You can't just put a comment on the "old_passwords=1" entry in the configuration file. If you do so, the next client to connect will attempt to match a 41 characters hashed password to your existing 16 characters entry in the mysql.users table. So you need to make a simultaneous change: both remove the old_passwords entry and set a new password. You must know all accounts' passwords before you begin.
Interestingly, old_passwords is both a global and a session variable. To work out an example, let's assume the account 'webuser'@'localhost' enters with '123456'. Take a look at the following:
root@mysql-5.1.51> SET SESSION old_passwords=0; Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec) root@mysql-5.1.51> SELECT PASSWORD('123456'); +-------------------------------------------+ | PASSWORD('123456') | +-------------------------------------------+ | *6BB4837EB74329105EE4568DDA7DC67ED2CA2AD9 | +-------------------------------------------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec) root@mysql-5.1.51> SET SESSION old_passwords=1; Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec) root@mysql-5.1.51> SELECT PASSWORD('123456'); +--------------------+ | PASSWORD('123456') | +--------------------+ | 565491d704013245 | +--------------------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec
So, the PASSWORD() function consults the old_passwords session variable.
To upgrade 'webuser'@'localhost''s password we do:
root@mysql-5.1.51> SET SESSION old_passwords=0; Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec) root@mysql-5.1.51> SET PASSWORD FOR 'webuser'@'localhost' = PASSWORD('123456')
Go ahead and see the password entry on the mysql.users table.
What we've just done is to set a 41 characters password hash for that account. Now, the next time the client wishes to connect, it must know in advance it is to expect a new password, otherwise it will encode a 16 characters hash, and try to match it with our new 41 characters hash. It is now time to perform:
root@mysql-5.1.51> SET GLOBAL old_passwords=0; Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec
This will apply to all new connections made from that moment on (not affecting any existing connections). So, make sure you have updated passwords for all accounts.
To wrap it up, don't forget to set old_passwords=0 in the my.cnf file, or, better yet, completely remove the entry.Robo-signing is back.
California Attorney General Kamala Harris announced a lawsuit against JPMorgan on Thursday, alleging that the bank "engaged in fraudulent and unlawful debt-collection practices against tens of thousands of Californians."
Harris says that from January 2008 to April 2011, JPMorgan (JPM) filed more than 100,000 lawsuits against consumers in the state over uncollected credit-card debt, including 469 in a single day.
To keep up this pace, JPMorgan used a number of unlawful shortcuts, the lawsuit claims. Among those alleged tactics was robo-signing, in which bank employees produce sworn documents and other legal filings at a rapid pace without checking bank records and reviewing cases for accuracy.
Robo-signing was used on a massive scale during the foreclosure crisis, with banks scrambling to complete foreclosures around the country as the housing market went south. It was among the foreclosure-related abuses cited by regulators in a pair of multi-billion-dollar settlements reached with JPMorgan and other large mortgage servicers over the past year and a half.
Related: Jamie Dimon is under fire
Among other allegations, Harris's suit also claims that JPMorgan failed to notify Californians that they were being sued, as it was required to do.
The personal information of consumers allegedly went unredacted in court filings, exposing them to identity theft. The bank is also accused of certifying under penalty of perjury that consumers targeted with lawsuits were not on active military duty without actually checking, thereby depriving them of their rightful legal protections.
"At nearly every stage of the collection process, defendants cut corners in the name of speed, cost savings, and their own convenience, providing only the thinnest veneer of legitimacy to their lawsuits," the complaint says.
A JPMorgan spokesman declined to comment.
A person familiar with the matter said the bank stopped filing credit-card-related lawsuits in 2011. This decision, the person said, came following an internal review prompted by concerns raised by regulators over JPMorgan's handling of mortgage-related documents.
JPMorgan could end up on the hook for a significant sum should a judge find in California's favor. Each violation carries a maximum penalty of $2,500, and a spokesman for Harris said there were likely multiple violations per case on average among the more than 100,000 consumers JPMorgan targeted.
The spokesman said Harris's office is investigating the issue on an industry-wide basis, with suits against other banks possible.Following NBC News anchor Brian Williams’ revelation that he had lied about being on a helicopter that was shot down by RPG fire during the invasion of Iraq in 2003, his credibility as a journalist has been called into question, and there is now speculation regarding his reporting during Hurricane Katrina.
By Rachel Blevins @ Ben Swann
The New Orleans Advocate reported that once Williams admitted to lying about his Iraq story, there was an “online feeding frenzy,” which turned the focus to his coverage of Hurricane Katrina.
In 2006, during an interview with Michael Eisner, Williams discussed the time he spent on the ground, covering Hurricane Katrina. He claimed that he had watched a man “float by face down” from his hotel room window in the French Quarter:
“When you look out of your hotel window in the French Quarter and watch a man float by face down, when you see bodies that you last saw in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, and swore to yourself that you would never see in your country.”
However, the New Orleans Advocate noted that the French Quarter is the “original high ground of New Orleans,” and “was not impacted by the floodwaters that overwhelmed the vast majority of the city.”
During a 2014 interview with Tom Brokaw, Williams claimed that while he was covering Hurricane Katrina, he “accidentally ingested some of the floodwater” and “became very sick with dysentery.”
Dr. Brobson Lutz, a former city health director who was on the street manning an EMS trailer in the French Quarter, told the New Orleans Advocate that the area was “never wet” and that as for dysentery, he didn’t recall a “single, solitary case of gastroenteritis during Katrina or in the whole month afterward.”
While Williams has yet to comment on the accusations related to Hurricane Katrina, he did issue a public apology on Wednesday for claiming he was on a helicopter that was shot down by RPG fire during the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
In his apology, William claimed that while he wasn’t on the Chinook that was hit, he was on one of the helicopters in the same formation. However, crewmembers on board the helicopter that was grounded by RPG fire claim Williams arrived at the scene an hour after the helicopter made its emergency landing, and then left shortly after, according to a report from Stars and Stripes.
In his 2003 report of the incident, Williams said, “On the ground we learned the Chinook ahead of us was almost blown out of the sky” by a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG), which “punched cleanly through the skin of the ship,” but did not explode.
In 2008, Williams retold the story in a blog post, stating once again that the Chinook helicopter flying in front of his “took an RPG to the rear rotor, as all four of our low-flying Chinooks took fire.”
However, Williams’ story changed in 2013 when he gave an account of the incident on an episode of Late Night with David Letterman. “Two of our four helicopters were hit by ground fire, including the one I was in,” Williams said.
Although Williams’ 2013 version of the story was false, he did not correct it, and went on to repeat the same lie during a broadcast of NBC Nightly News on Friday, claiming that the helicopter he was flying in was “forced down after being hit by an RPG.”
On Saturday, Lance Reynolds, one of the soldiers on board the Chinook helicopter that was hit, addressed Williams in a Facebook comment, saying that while he didn’t remember Williams being on the helicopter, he did remember the NBC team leaving the scene and flying to Kuwait to report their “war story” for the Nightly News, all while the crew from the grounded flight was “stuck in Iraq trying to repair the aircraft.”
Williams replied to the comment, saying that Reynolds, along with several others who had called Williams out on the inaccurate report, were right, and that he “felt terrible about making this mistake.” Williams wrote that he “was in fact on the Chinook behind the bird that took the RPG in the tail housing just above the ramp.”
On Wednesday, Williams issued a public apology on the Nightly News, claiming that he had made a mistake.
“I made a mistake in recalling the events of 12 years ago and it did not take long to hear from some of the brave men and women in the air crew who were also in that desert,” said Williams. “I want to apologize, I said I wasn’t traveling in an aircraft that was hit by RPG fire. I was instead in the following aircraft. We all landed after the ground fire.”
While Williams claimed that he was riding in the helicopter “following” the Chinook that was hit by RPG fire, he made it sound as if his helicopter landed shortly after.
In contrast, those who were actually on board the 159th Aviation Regiment’s Chinook that was hit told Stars and Stripes that Williams was “nowhere near that aircraft or two other Chinooks flying in the formation that took fire.” Instead, the crewmembers claimed Williams “arrived in the area about an hour later on another helicopter after the other three had made an emergency landing.”
Stars and Stripes reported that Williams and his NBC news team only stayed on the scene for “about 10 minutes,” before they left “to see the Army armored units that had been guarding the nearby Forward Operating Base Rams.”
On Thursday, Ben Swann addressed the story on RT America’s newscast, and he pointed out that while the crew members’ stories have not been verified, if they do turn out to be true, it will mean that not only was Williams’ story untrue, “the 2003 story that aired on NBC News is untrue as well.”
Swann was joined by RT Producer Tyrel Ventura to discuss the potential impact of the crewmembers’ claims being true and NBC News providing a false report. Watch the full video below:
This article was originally posted at Ben Swann.Your house has just collapsed. People are screaming on the street. You cannot reach your brother who is in another part of town as all the phones are down. But you can still post things on Facebook and inform your friends in China or in New York about your whereabouts. This is Kathmandu since April 25, within hours of the worst earthquake to have hit the country in 80 years.
While the toll is rising every hour, already well over 2,000 victims, and people are trying to cope with regular strong aftershocks, trauma, anxiety about finding where are their relatives, rain and a government that is not prepared for such a disaster, social media have organized themselves in a couple of hours and provide vital information outside of the traditional phone or media networks.
In a typical example of technology leapfrogging, information sharing is happening due to the few people in Kathmandu mostly who still have access to the major global social networks such as Twitter, Facebook and the people outside of Nepal – Nepali overseas communities, experts in disaster responses and social media strategies, but also many Nepal global friends (former tourists, pilgrims) who are building data collection to provide key support to people back in Nepal and are calling for action.
Renown Nepali writer Prajwal Parajuly told Global Voices via Facebook message:
We felt the earthquake in Gangtok, Sikkim, for a long time. My mum commented on its not being as intense as the one in Sept 2011. We couldn't contact any of my mother's family in Kathmandu, so I went on Twitter to see what was happening. It was awful–the first pictures were harrowing.
On the ground reports from across Nepal can be viewed via another Nepali writer, Manjushree Thapa's Nepal Twitter list. Kashish Das Shrestha a developmental NGO advisor uploaded photos from the streets:
Historic #earthquake in #Nepal; much lost, many to mourn, as much to rebuild.Hopefully worst is over.Stay alert, safe pic.twitter.com/xLwn6JZ70a — Kashish Das Shrestha (@kashishds) April 25, 2015
Response from Chinese speaking communities
Nepal’s northern neighbor China is paying large attention to the disaster via its social media networks such as Weibo (a Chinese version of Twitter) and Weixin (Chinese equivalent of WhatsApp, also known in English as WeChat) for a variety of reasons.
China itself is prone to massive earthquakes – the recent 2008 earthquake cost the lives of nearly 90,000 people – and the one that just happened in Nepal caused life casualties across the border in China in Tibetan areas. People are sensitive to such news as they feel immediately concerned given the large concentrations of populations on China.
Second, Nepal has a visa upon arrival policy for Chinese tourists – one of the very few countries to do so – thus large numbers of mainland Chinese – over 100,000 per year since 2013 have been going to Nepal as tourists, climbers, Buddhist pilgrims in the past years and have established personal friendships with Nepali guides, drivers, hotel managers, shop owners, translators, monks, and thangka [traditional Buddhist painting on scrolls revered by most Buddhists in China and beyond] painters.
The sense of spiritual and romantic imagination of Nepal is crystallized in a Chinese popular movie, Up in the Wind 2013. But many of the historical and religious sites captured in the film are now destroyed.
Nepal is a major destination for people on Buddhist pilgrimages and a lot of Buddhist sites and Weixin accounts are posting updates and calling for prayers.
Many tourists are expressing their concern and solidarity on social media as well. Ruby, a Taiwanese living in Kathmandu, keeps updating the latest situation on Facebook and helps people to locate their family members and friends who are traveling in Nepal.
Recently, Kathmandu airport was across in the news in China as a Turkish airliner crashed at the single international airport and blocked the air traffic for about three days, leaving hundreds of Chinese and other tourists stranded.
Global social media response and practical tools
Information about the earthquake and its still on-going aftershocks is available here and reported via social media by residents of Kathmandu via their twitter accounts:
More importantly several groups have been established to use social media and crowd sourcing information to account for so far missing people. Google launched a Person Finder for people to file missing person reports. But many are using social media platforms as well, including this facebook page, where people from Nepal or foreigners who have friends, relatives currently in Nepal are posting information but also request to account for people they currently cannot reach:
For example, someone is enquiring here about a recently married couple.
And already difficult questions are being asked:BeAfraid - 29 May 2008 02:25 PM burt - 29 May 2008 01:31 PM BeAfraid - 29 May 2008 05:29 AM As a student of AI/AL, I am working towards creating Artificial Intelligence, which will by definition also be Artificial Life. There is still the question of what is required for any AI to be conscious. There are good reasons for thinking that at the very least a conscious AI could not be based on algorithmic computation. Are you saying that consciousness is not an emergent property of the brain?
Exactly. The view I have is that consciousness has to be taken as a priori in the same way that space and time are in physics. Self-consciousness is something else again, and is dependent on the brain.
BeAfraid - 29 May 2008 02:25 PM Have you by chance seen the Blue Brain Project? This is but one avenue to AI. But, it shows that all the brain does is run algorithms on a massively parallel substrate. Nothing more.
That, I think, is an over-statement given the current state of our knowledge. As far as algorithmic computation is concerned, I agree with Searle, you can’t get semantics from syntax.
BeAfraid - 29 May 2008 02:25 PM author=“BeAfraid” date=“1212064188”]
In the journey from here to there, most of the technologies used to create AI will also allow for the radical augmentation of the human mind through either Chemical, Biological or Electronic means. My own personal desire is to destroy our current conceptions of humanity - or more bluntly, to destroy humanity as we now know it. Zizek makes an excellent point when he talks about a chemical solution to human inadequacies. If by taking a pill (a metaphor for some chemical or genetic augmentation) you can raise your intelligence, or strengthen your skeleton, or musculature, then this necessarily shows that there was some form of inadequacy in those structures to begin with.
No, this is a false conclusion. If I can give a child a chemical that allows him to grow to a height of 8 feet this does not mean that normal human height is inadequate (except for the NBA). The normal human body is as it is because of its history of evolutionary compromise in the Terrestrial environment. This doesn’t mean that improvement isn’t desirable, only that normality is not inadequate, only… normal.
You are assuming that there is a need for an 8 foot tall person. would there be a need, then yes, our current physiology would be inadequate.
It is also an oversimplification of the argument. I suppose it was remiss to not point out that the inadequacies arise from needs present that have, perhaps, not been present before.
Our bodies are still a massively flawed design from an engineering perspective. Evolution, unfortunately, does not optimize in the same manner as an engineer. It only seeks to find a solution that is workable, not optimal.
Matthew
From an evolutionary point of view, there is no need for augmented humans. We are producing conditions under which, from our point of view, various improvements would be useful. (Personally, I’d like to add a few centuries to life span) What I was reacting to was the term “inadequate” which I think is a particularly poor choice of language. Going on from this, it probably isn’t a good idea to take an engineering perspective on the human body—there are too many factors, you can’t optimize on all of them so trade-offs have to be made (which evolution is quite good at), and there is always the law of unintended consequences to deal with.A controversial series of proposed tax reforms from the Trudeau government may have one less supporter if it goes to Parliament later this year.
Andy Filmore, MP for Halifax, told Global News that he is not able to support the federal government’s current plan to end what they say are “unfair tax advantages.”
“I think there are some modifications that are required in order to be supportable and in order to achieve the goals of what the proposal is,” Filmore said in an interview on Friday.
It’s a move that puts the Liberal backbencher at odds with his own party. Finance Minister Bill Morneau announced the proposed changes in July.
READ MORE: Survey says 65% of N.B. doctors would leave province if federal tax changes come into effect
Fillmore said that he’s spent the last five weeks attempting to convince Morneau and the rest of cabinet that the adjustments are needed so that Canadians will support the legislation.
“Any changes that happen have to be able to provide parity for those that are funding their own retirements with those Canadians that are lucky enough to have those things looked after for them,” he said.
Proposed changes
The changes would, according to Morneau, close loopholes in the federal tax system that disproportionately benefit wealthy Canadians.
The tax-dodging manoeuvres that Morneau said the changes would get rid of involve so-called “tax-sprinkling” or using a private corporation to spread income among family members to create tax savings, using private corporations as a substitute for a regular savings account or converting a private corporation’s regular income into capital gains, all of which can shelter money from higher tax rates.
But the proposed tax changes have been slammed by business owners across the country.
In the Maritimes, the loudest opposition has come from doctors and small business owners.
Small business owners say that the proposed tax changes will affect them, even though they’re not among the country’s wealthiest, while doctors in the region have said it’ll make it even harder to establish a practice.
Doctors in both New Brunswick and Nova Scotia say that they won’t be able to increase their fees, which are set by their respective provincial governments, leaving them with less money after taxes for things such as parental leave or paying off student loans.
WATCH: Federal tax changes could be ‘catastrophic’ for Nova Scotia doctors
Fillmore appeared hopeful that changes to the proposal are possible.
“The minister is listening, he was very clear to me and with the caucus that he is listening very closely to his caucus, his MPs as well as Canadians on what those changes need to be,” he said.
“I’m taking every advantage of that consultation opportunity to press upon him the importance of getting these changes right.”
The public has a chance to weigh in on the tax proposals until Oct. 2, as part of a 75-day public consultation process.
It’s expected the minister will introduce legislation addressing the tax changes next spring.
Darren Fisher, MP for Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, did not comment on whether he’d support the proposal. He said that he’s been meeting and talking with his constituents about the proposal.
“This is an open consultation and it’s very important that folks submit their concerns and suggestions to the Department of Finance’s consultation website at: http://www.fin.gc.ca/activty/consult/tppc-pfsp-eng.asp,” Fisher said in an emailed statement.
“I’m also encouraging all of my constituents to send me a copy of their submitted testimony so I can continue to advocate on their behalf to the Minister of Finance”
— With files from Monique ScottiThe Times Of India recently caught up with Jinder Mahal ahead of his match with Randy Orton at Money In The Bank. Below are some highlights from the interview:
Wanting to change the perception of fans about him:
"The viewers and the fans hesitate to see me as a main-event guy. That is a challenge, my biggest challenge. Right now, my goal is to change people's perception and make them believe that I belong here, and that I deserve to be the champion."
Enjoying the jibes:
"Definitely, as an Indian, I'm seen as an outsider, and definitely, the jeers come from that. But I enjoy it, I even encourage it. Whatever noise they make when I'm in the ring, it motivates me, drives me to do better. I enjoy those jibes so I'm not affected by that at all."
See Also Jinder Mahal Hopes For Dream Feud With The Rock; His Thoughts On Whether Undertaker Will Return
His goals:
"I've been champion for less than a month now. I want to remain champion for a long time and be remembered as one of the greatest WWE Champions of all time, definitely a future Hall of Famer. I want to be WWE Champion by the time WWE returns to India to do a live show, so that I can face and beat guys like Randy Orton, John Cena, or AJ Styles in front of the Indian fans."
Jinder also spoke about the abundance of talent in India, idolizing The Great Khali, not being involved in politics, and more. Read the interview in its entirety here.
Source: Times of IndiaSpeaking today at a conference in New Orleans, FAA Administrator Michael Huerta announced the agency is establishing abroad-based advisory committee that will provide advice on key unmanned aircraft integration issues. He also announced plans to make it |
“Not all of them obviously, but it only takes one person running with an ulterior motive to ensure the whole thing goes to shit.”
Screenshot A Facebook user named Oliver Mitov posted dubious news links about Hillary Clinton.
In San Diego, Mattes was intrigued by a Facebook user named “Oliver Mitov” whom he saw constantly posting anti-Clinton propaganda.
Mattes first noticed Mitov posting in his Facebook group in September. But when he searched the page’s archives, he found that Mitov had been in the group since late July. He soon realized there wasn’t just one Mitov but four. Three had Sanders as their profile picture. Two had the same single Facebook friend, while a third had no Facebook friends. The fourth appeared to be a middle-aged man with 19 Facebook friends, including that one friend the other Mitovs had in common.
All combined, the four Mitovs had joined more than two dozen pro-Sanders groups around the U.S., including Latinos for Bernie Sanders, Oregon for Bernie Sanders 2016 and Pennsylvania Progressives for Bernie Sanders. Together, those groups had hundreds of thousands of members.
The Mitov posts would have been explosive if they’d been true. In one Aug. 4 post to Mattes’ page, Mitov wrote, “This is a story you won’t see on Fox/CNN or the other Mainstream media!” He then linked to a post claiming falsely that Clinton had “made a small fortune by arming ISIS.” On Sept. 25, he posted on several pro-Sanders pages a link promising game-changing information: “NEW LEAK: Here is Who Ordered Hillary To Leave The 4 Men In Benghazi!” The link went to a fake news site called usapoliticsnow.com.
The aim of Mitov’s activity seemed pretty obvious to Mattes: to depress the number of Sanders supporters who voted for Clinton in November.
“He was a ringer,” Mattes said.
Mattes tried to friend the various Mitovs and message them. None of them responded, he said. Attempts by HuffPost to reach Mitov were similarly unsuccessful.
Screenshot Mitov's long list of pro-Sanders Facebook pages shows no other outside interests.
Keegan Goudiss, who ran digital advertising for Sanders’ presidential bid, had a different perspective on the trolling. He launched paid campaigns on social media and around the internet, so he was very familiar with the way that money can drive a meme.
Bots and trolls that spread fake news shouldn’t be ignored, he said, but “it’s like pissing in the ocean. There’s a lot of noise online.” One way to help your message cut through the noise is to spend money with Facebook, Google or an ad targeting platform that spreads links all over the internet, often at the bottom of stories. (Scroll down far enough on this page and you’ll probably see some of them.)
Goudiss recalled one telling example of how this worked: A Clinton ad appeared in the middle of a row of links, clearly paid for by a pro-Clinton group targeting potential donors and voters. To its left was a story making bogus claims about an illegitimate Clinton child. To its right was a piece on presidential mistresses. “There seems to have been a concerted effort to tarnish Hillary and people in her campaign’s reputation using paid placement,” he said.
Screenshot This screenshot captured by Keegan Goudiss during the campaign shows fake news to the left, Clinton fundraising in the middle and an anti-Clinton story to the right.
He can’t prove who was doing that, Goudiss said, but it’s probably worth trying to figure out.
“Was there a Russian entity supporting those websites that popped up?” he said. “That’s important and people deserve to know who influences our democracy.”
Some level of foreign participation in spreading disinformation about the left was comically apparent. The names of a few suspect Facebook groups reek of poor translation. One group with more than 80,000 members, claiming to be from Burlington, Vermont, is called “Bernie Sanders Lovers” ― the kind of name a non-English speaker might think makes sense, but that sounds wrong to native ears.
Screenshot
Throughout the campaign, the Bernie Sanders Lovers page saw heavy engagement, and nearly every article it shared was from Bients.com, the pieces posted there by one Maximilian Gottlieb. Gottlieb, in turn, pulled articles from other sources, some more and some less reliable.
On Oct. 29, for instance, he put up 11 articles. A few praised Trump or gave Trump’s advisers space to attack Clinton. Others attacked Clinton’s campaign directly: adviser Huma Abedin had ties to radical Islam (false), the DNC email leak was authentic (true), campaign manager Robby Mook had deleted his entire Twitter feed (false).
Since the election, the Bernie Sanders Lovers page has shifted to urging the senator to run for president again in 2020. It no longer shares Bients.com stories. Instead, they all come from ThePredicted.com. Both sites were registered by a person name Hysen Alimi in Albania. (Feel free to check out the sites yourself, but Chrome will warn you your connection is “not secure,” so don’t enter any information there.)
Screenshot A day of posts from Maximilian Gottlieb.
There had been rumblings that the Russians were specifically behind the DNC hack since last June. In early October, the U.S. intelligence community said it was “confident” that President Vladimir Putin’s government had both directed the hack and made sure the emails found their way to WikiLeaks. In January of this year, a more detailed intelligence report concluded that the Russian government had blended covert intelligence operations with overt efforts by, among others, “paid social media users or ‘trolls’” to try to influence the U.S. election.
A separate dossier on Russia’s role, assembled by former MI6 agent Christopher Steele and made public by BuzzFeed, claimed that the DNC leak had been an attempt to “swing supporters of Bernie Sanders away from Hillary Clinton and across to Trump.”
“These voters were perceived as activists and anti-status quo and anti-establishment and in that regard sharing many features with the Trump campaign, including a visceral dislike of Clinton,” Steele wrote.
The intelligence report also said that the DNC hackers seemed to have financial ties to the Internet Research Agency, a Saint Petersburg, Russia, company that has taken state-sponsored trolling to an industrial level. Its likely financier is “a close Putin ally with ties to Russian intelligence,” the report stated.
“Russia’s information war might be thought of as the biggest trolling operation in history,” wrote The New York Times in a 2015 profile of the firm, “and its target is nothing less than the utility of the Internet as a democratic space.”
The “Internet as a democratic space” is the very thing that allowed the energy of the Sanders campaign to snowball into a movement for change. It was also the thing that allowed Oliver Mitov and his ilk to thrive.
Could the fake news tsunami have swung the election? It’s impossible to say for sure, but a YouGov survey recently asked people who voted for Sanders in the primary how they thought other people they knew who backed Sanders ended up voting in the general election. Thirteen percent said all of those folks voted for Clinton, and 48 percent said most of them did. But 20 percent said only some, 9 percent said just a few and 4 percent said none voted for Clinton.
In the survey, only 7 percent said that most or all of the Bernie people they knew wound up helping raise money or otherwise volunteering for Clinton. Fifty-four percent said that applied to just a few or none of the Bernie people they knew. Sanders backers were by far the most energized element of the Democratic coalition during last year’s campaign. Clinton’s inability to motivate them more broadly to back her candidacy undoubtedly hurt.
Asked what they themselves did, 12 percent of those who voted for Sanders said they went on to volunteer or raise money for Clinton. Only 16 percent of those who voted for Clinton in the primary said they also volunteered for her.
Of course, the propaganda didn’t create the chasm dividing left-wing voters. The belief that the DNC favored Clinton was widely held. Fifty-eight percent of all the survey respondents agreed on that. Among Democrats, the number was 55 percent. In the Midwest, which essentially elected Trump president, 67 percent agreed. Even 62 percent of those who voted for Clinton in the primary said that the DNC favored her.
But the legitimate skepticism opened the door to believing the more demented propaganda. And the more the fake news was passed around, the harder the divisions became. Clinton backers would charge Sanders supporters with being obnoxious, sexist “Bernie bros.” Many of those bros may have been trolls, not real Sanders supporters. Tell that to a Clinton backer, however, and you can be accused of dismissing the hostility they faced.
Aidan King set up a popular Reddit page for Sanders beginning in 2013 and went to work for the campaign in January 2016 as Sigala’s deputy. He dealt directly with many of the Facebook groups. After the Democratic convention, he said he noticed a strong shift away from the party in the tone of many of those pages.
“I’ve gone back and forth on it,” King said. “I wouldn’t feel comfortable saying with any authority it’s a coordinated effort by trolls, but also wouldn’t feel confident saying it was exclusively pissed-off Bernie supporters.”
It might not actually matter if Vladimir Putin or a kid in Macedonia masterminded the flood of fake news. What matters is that it happened ― and it is still happening. People are deliberately seeding misinformation into the left-wing conversation. That’s a real fact. (Trying to measure the size and scope of the operation could make for a useful political science dissertation.)
For a wide swath of Sanders backers, the primary is still far too raw to even start to think about Russia. Mentioning foreign sabotage sounds like you’re throwing up a smokescreen to obscure the Democratic establishment’s own failure. But Mattes has tried to argue that two things can be true at once: Clinton was a terrible candidate and Russia intervened in the U.S. election.
“It’s wildly distressing that we were played,” Mattes said.
UPDATE: March 13 ― The Facebook page “Bernie Sanders Lovers” responded to this article on Sunday, saying: “We were never linked up with Russians and we will never be with them.”
“How come that we would write of Trump’s advantage and support him when we are democrats,” the page administrator wrote. “Even though we are democrats we do not support Hillary Clinton. We are not linked with the government to support someone that we do not like, to be encouraged to support someone, but we are those who desire and want progress.”
After reading this story, we’re curious what your view is on Russia’s role in the election. Take this brief survey, and we’ll post the results here on Sunday night.The Grafton Street area will have free WiFi services from next month - irrespective of how you're dressed.
The Grafton Street area will have free WiFi services from next month - irrespective of how you're dressed.
SHOPPERS ON SOME of Dublin’s busiest retail streets will be able to use free wireless internet services from next month.
Dublin City Council will launch its Dublin Free WiFi service this Thursday, with the first services available in the vicinity of the council’s offices at Wood Quay, and at Barnardos Square on Dame Street.
Busy spots including Henry Street and Grafton Street will see services introduced throughout February.
The service is being offered to the council for free by Spanish company Gowex, which specialises in the delivery of free municipal WiFi services.
It will be available free of charge to users 24 hours a day, with download speeds of 512kbps. Users who want faster connections will be able to purchase a higher speed of up to 6 Mbps.
Users will be able to identify spots in which free WiFi services are available by the presence of mosaic tiles which will be placed on certain buildings within the WiFi zones.
A full list of locations being serviced by the free WiFi services will be released when the service is formally launched on Thursday.American Airlines Refuses Rachel Barton Pine with del Gesu on Flight from Chicago to N.M.
Once again, the skies have proved not-so-friendly to those carrying musical instruments on airplanes.
On Wednesday violinist Rachel Barton Pine was denied boarding on her American Airlines evening flight from Chicago O’Hare International Airport to Albuquerque, N.M. because she was carrying her violin, the “ex-Bazzini ex-Soldat” 1742 Joseph Guarneri “del Gesu” violin, on lifetime loan to her from an anonymous patron.
Pine was the first passenger down the jet bridge. However, the captain (who would not give his name to Pine) refused to allow her to board the plane with the violin case because “its dimensions were not correct for a carry-on”. Pine flies over 100,000 miles a year with American Airlines and has flown the same plane configuration on numerous occasions, placing the violin case in the overhead compartment.
Pine shared with the captain the American Airlines policy stated on their website: "You can travel with small musical instruments as your carry-on item on a first come, first serve basis as long as it: Fits in the overhead bin; or fits under the seat in front of you."
According to Pine, the captain replied, “It is not going on because I say so.”
Pine is scheduled to perform the Beethoven Violin Concerto with the New Mexico Philharmonic, conducted by Fawzi Haimor on April 30. She was flying the evening of the 27th to attend events the next day with students in the New Mexico Philharmonic’s Young Musician Initiative program as part of her community outreach schedule.
According to Pine, agents at the American Airlines ticket counter wereapologetic about the crew’s behavior and worked closely with Pine to rebook her on a flight to Albuquerque that would allow her to honor her commitment to the young musicians. Rather than a direct flight arriving at 10:30 p.m. that evening, Pine took a 5 a.m. flight with a connection through Phoenix the next day.
This is not the first time Pine has had this kind of experience; last September her family was forced to spend the night at the Phoenix airport when USAirways refused to let her store the violin in an overhead compartment.
"The Department of Transportation and the airlines have established important policies to protect musical instruments," Pine said. "However, those policies are meaningless if they are not enforced or if the airline staff and crews are not properly educated and trained."
EDITOR'S NOTE:
According to the Chicago Tribune, American Airlines released a statement about this incident:
American Airlines said in a statement that the captain of the flight aboard a regional aircraft operated by Envoy Air "determined that Ms. Barton's instrument could not be safely secured in an overhead bin or under a seat." "Ms. Barton was offered the option of valet checking the item, but declined. She was subsequently rebooked for travel this morning on larger aircraft that were able to accommodate her instrument as a carry-on item," American Airlines spokeswoman Leslie Scott said in the statement."
Pine responded on Facebook:
The Captain did NOT 'determine' that my violin wouldn't fit - he wouldn't allow me to demonstrate and even said "it doesn't matter if it fits."
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This article has been archived and is no longer accepting comments.Originally Posted on Nov 25, 2015Are you curious to know about the people behind the beers you buy? Or perhaps you want to know what inspires brewers to brew and beer bloggers to blog? Our “Q&A” posts are a light hearted way of getting to know people working in, and connected to, the beer and alcohol industry.Today’s post features Woodforde’s.Woodforde’s has been brewing beer for over 30 years using only the finest Norfolk malting barley. It is one of a handful of brewers to have brewed two Champion Beers of Britain, including Wherry, its best-selling beer.The brewery, which is nestled in the heart of the Norfolk Broads in Woodbastwick, has an on-site Visitor Centre where visitors can take a tour of the brewery (on pre-arranged dates, bookable in advance). The brewery tap, The Fur and Feather Inn, is located next-door.Woodforde’s has been named Brewery of the Year 2015 by the Good Pub Guide.Belinda Jennings, Head Brewer at Woodforde’sI have always worked in liquids but started out testing milk! After just five weeks in post a job came up testing beer (a liquid I much prefer!) so I moved into beer and haven’t looked back! I’ve now been in the industry for over 18 years.Quite simply, balance! Balanced beers are exceptionally difficult to achieve which makes them so special. Extensive work behind the scenes to test and re-test to achieve great balance is what we strive for at Woodforde’s and is what our beers are renowned for.A hoppy IPA. I absolutely love the fruitiness and fullness of this style.I really admire Dark Star’s Revelation – great colour and very full flavoured. Beavertown Black Betty is fantastic as it completely subverts your expectations – it’s a dark beer but light and hoppy. Very clever! And of course, Woodforde’s Bure Gold is an outstanding beer – hoppy, light and very easy to drink.I love the science of beer so I enjoy devising recipes and securing fantastic raw materials to use in our brews!Woodforde’s was established in 1981 by Ray Ashworth and Dr David Crease, both enthusiastic members of the Norwich Homebrewers’ Society. The brewery was amongst the new wave of cask ale brewers which started up in the 1980’s and Woodforde’s quickly became a by-word for consistency and excellence. The passion and consistency remain today, with several of our dedicated brewery team having worked with us for over 25 years.The aim is to preserve the quality and flavour of our beers but to increase the range we offer and perhaps expand the brewing capacity to over 30,000 barrels.Greene King and Adnams are where I started my career so they initially influenced my approach to beer and brewing. That said, as a tasting consumer all breweries influence me to some degree – they constantly shape my thinking and inform my decisions in the ever-changing modern beer world we now live in.I learnt to brew at Greene King where I started out as a lab technician. I then moved to Adnams where I was the Quality Manager and Brewer. It was during this time I qualified as a Master Brewer. I now deliver seminars and tasting sessions about brewing, as well as run brewery tours at our brewery in Woodbastwick.It’s definitely understanding the science of brewing and how the raw materials work together to develop such an incredible range of flavours.Once a brewer always a brewer! Well, apart from my brief dalliance in the dairy sector!Thank you to Belinda and Woodforde’s for taking the time to take part.You can view and buy beers from Woodforde’s here.By Larry Altman
larry.altman@langnews.com @larryaltman on Twitter
Rescuers searched into the night Tuesday for a 25-year-old swimmer reported missing off the coast of Manhattan Beach, authorities said.
The unidentified man went missing about 4:45 p.m. near the 18th Street lifeguard tower, firefighters said. According to lifeguards, three swimmers were wading about 50 yards offshore. When they swam in, one did not return.
The two swimmers searched for their friend for 20 minutes, but could not locate him. They reported him missing to the nearest lifeguard and a search began at 5:15 p.m.
Eight scuba divers, 12 skin divers searched in the water while a U.S. Coast Guard MH-65 Dolphin helicopter assisted overhead. The Coast Guard as well as Redondo Beach Harbor Patrol deployed boats. Manhattan Beach police officers and firefighters assisted in the effort as well. However, the man was not found.
• Photos: L.A. County firefighters search water for a 25-year-old swimmer
The swimmer was described only as a black male wearing dark swimming shorts.
The search in the water was called off at nightfall, but Coast Guard officers aboard the cutter “Halibut” continued to patrol the ocean with the assistance of lifeguards. The search was set to resume Wednesday morning.
Anyone knowing the whereabouts of the swimmer was asked to call the Coast Guard command center in San Pedro at 310-521-3805.During his first week in office, Donald Trump, as we’re all aware, wasted no time in acting on several of the egregious promises he made during his presidential campaign. Among the executive orders he signed was one to build a 1,300-mile-long concrete wall — and as high as 55 feet — between the borders of the United States and Mexico.
There are many reasons why this wall is a terrible idea. As Care2 writer Cody Fenwick pointed out back in August of 2015, the wall is an insult to Mexico, an important trading partner with the US There is little evidence that a wall will actually prevent people from entering the United States. Furthermore, it would be very expensive to build – an estimated $40 billion, according to M.I.T. researchers.
Of course, back then Trump promised that Mexico would pay for the construction of this “great, great wall,” but we know now — and could have guessed then – there’s no way that’s going to happen.
Trump’s recent proposal of a 20-percent tariff on Mexican imports would raise the prices of everything from the food we eat to the cars we drive. The irony, as William Gale, co-director of the Tax Policy Center, told USA TODAY, is that “consumers will be paying for the wall, not Mexican producers.”
Now that this terrible idea could actually become a reality, scientists and conservationists have also voiced their concerns. In addition to allegedly blocking people from entering the US, a concrete wall along the border with Mexico would obstruct important wildlife migration routes for jaguars, ocelots, mountain lions, deer and other animals.
Of these animals, the wall would be the most harmful to highly endangered jaguars, according to the Center for Biological Diversity. If the small population remaining in northern Mexico becomes blocked off, the US population will never be reestablished.
“We already know that walls don’t stop people from crossing the border, but Trump’s plan would end any chance of recovery for endangered jaguars, ocelots, and wolves in the border region,” said Kierán Suckling, the Center’s executive director. The border region, Suckling explained, “is the only place in the world where jaguars and black bears live side by side. It’s this diversity that makes us strong — not some wasteful, immoral wall.”
“Disruptive, Artificial Boundary”
Jamie Rappoport Clark, president and CEO of Defenders of Wildlife, similarly called the wall “a disruptive, artificial boundary in the natural world” in a Jan. 25 statement.
Dan Millis, a program manager with the Sierra Club’s Borderlands project, also opposes the wall. “In terms of climate adaptation, building a border wall is an act of self-sabotage,” Millis told E&E News. “And the reason I say that is we’re already seeing wildlife migrations blocked with the current walls and fences that have already been built.”
Those 670 miles of fences and barriers along Mexico’s border with California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas were erected after the passage of the Secure Fence Act of 2006. In Texas, the wall blocks both people and animals from accessing the Rio Grande River, “an iconic and vital water source for communities and wildlife alike,” according to the Defenders of Wildlife.
“At the border wall, people have found large mammals confounded and not knowing what to do,” Jesse Lasky, an assistant professor of biology at Penn State University, told the Washington Post.
In addition to the possible extinction of some species, the production of cement used to build Trump’s wall would be a major source of greenhouse gas emissions.
Many of the existing walls were built “without dozens of environmental protections,” according to Millis. It’s highly unlikely that Trump’s wall will undergo any environmental review process. In a controversial 2008 announcement, the Department of Homeland Security said it would waive environmental reviews for the fences built along the border.
Protesting the Wall
In November 2016, leaders of the Tohono O’odham Nation, whose reservation sits on the US-Mexico border, said they would refuse to allow the wall to be built on their land, which is the size of Connecticut. Among their reasons was that the wall would be devastating for wildlife.As the comedian pauses for the laughter, we already know the punchline. These Double Game weeks seem to have more pratfalls than the single game weeks and even appear a bit more difficult than previous years. Coaches are apparently a bit more inclined toward rotation and resting key players (even goalkeepers and defenders), hoping to keep their team fresh through the summer and into the playoffs.
So, what is the solution, what does our crystal ball tell us? Really, there are no easy answers. The first double game week I went all in on Sporting Kansas City and sure enough as early as it was in the season, Coach Vermes rotated the key players. Two weeks ago, he even rotated the goalkeeper, Tim Melia, much to the chagrin of many fantasy managers.
The best formula seems to be to go with goalkeepers (I know what I just said), defenders and designated players. These remain the safest bets. Players who are returning from injury, have replaced an injured player and might be more fresh or sat out some games early, ala Jermaine Jones, also seem less subject to the rotation risk.
We have waited all season for this week, however, and 8 teams have two games. Unfortunately, there are no clear cut favorites among them for the two matches each play:
I also encourage you to especially consider those teams who have a double game week this week and a match in Game Week 13, where only 12 teams play. Those teams are Dallas, Portland, Sporting Kansas City, Houston and Philadelphia.
Let's take a look at this week's selections:
Goalkeepers
As long as you have one of the keepers with 2 matches, you should be relatively safe, however, the least safe is my own team's Tim Melia. If you have him, I would chance it, rather than burning a transfer.
David Ousted has climbed to the top of the goalkeeper points brigade with 56 points. He has gotten a lot of attention this week and actually is the leader among goalkeeper transfers in.
If an inexpensive keeper would help you, consider Zac McMath at 5.1, Matt Lampson at 4.7 (Chicago also has a double next week) Andre Blake at 4.9 or even Portland's Jake Gleeson at 4.5. Any of these guys will be fine, but unless you really need one or have had a white light experience for one, I encourage you to utilize your transfers elsewhere.
Defenders
Cheap defenders still seem to be the choice in these double game weeks and there is no shortage of available options. Jonathan Campbell of Chicago will only set you back 5.3 in salary and also enjoys an easier double next week.
Axel Sjoberg has recovered from a 3 game injury earlier and only costs 5.5. Pablo loves to rotate, but I would not be surprised to see him start both.
Most folks who did their homework early already have Tim Parker at 6.6, and many are adding his back four sidekick Jordan Harvey at 7.2.
Philadelphia has a great schedule approaching and it is worth considering Keegan Rosenberry at 5.6, Joshua Yaro at 6.1 or Fabinho at 6.6.
Many already have Nuno Coelho at 7.9. He has played every minute for Sporting KC and with Matt Besler leaving soon for the Copa he may be rested for a match, leaving the Portuguese defender a slightly risky option.
Midfielders
Jermaine Jones is perhaps the addition of the week at 8.2 and he is even worthy of captain consideration. He has delivered 35 points in his four matches and having sat out the first six weeks of the season might not appear to be a rotational risk.
I also like Diego Valeri for this reason, who recently sat out a match for a suspension. He has enjoyed two 13 point performances already this season.
Mauro Diaz of FC Dallas is rounding into form after recovering from an earlier injury. Dallas have two home matches, but it is always difficult to determine what Oscar might do.
Sacha Kljestan has delivered 34 points in his last three matches for the Red Bulls. If you don't add him this week, I strongly encourage you to have a plan to add his 11.6 salary next week.
In the cheaper midfielder category consider Chris Pontius at 7.2, Michael Azira of Colorado at 5.5, possibly Andrew Wenger at 7.2 or even Lamar Neagle at 7.7.
Forwards
Fanendo Adi is the popular choice to be added in this category given his form and Portland's two matches.
CJ Sapong of Philadelphia is off to a strong start and priced at only 8.2. Philly are coming off a bye and he should escape rotation.
I expect to stick with Maxi Urruti for FC Dallas another week or possibly through week 13 even.
Given the possibility of rotation, I encourage you to consider a defender or midfielder ahead of a third forward. However, David Villa has an attractive double next week and is in excellent form. I am going to keep him through at least next week and probably onward. He has a nice run of home games through GW 14.
Last week, I had planned upon dropping Fagundez (a good decision) and Piatti (apparently a poor one) to add Jones and Michael Bradley. Mysteriously, I never did it and was thrilled, of course, when Piatti delivered 17 points. Even so, my squad fell 7 spots down to 36 overall. Ordinarily, by this time in previous years, I am fighting to get into the top 1,000 having burned my wild card to do so.
My team from last week: Melia, Parker, Coelho, Ciman, Valeri, Fagundez, Piatti, Feilhaber, Villa, Urruti, Giovinco.
I will drop Fagundez this week for Jones, probably Piatti for Diaz and will either have to drop Ciman (I like Montreal's matchup vs Philadelphia at home) or Coelho (concerned about rotation) for a defender, leaning toward Sjoberg. It's nice to enjoy that third free transfer after my silver cloud lined foul up. And I am considering taking a -4 hit, which would allow me to do a switcheroo with a fourth defender.
I like Valeri and Jones as captain possibilities, although it is always great to have Giovinco. Peter Vermes has indicated concern over his Sporting Kansas City players and there is an extreme risk of rotation, particularly around Feilhaber, Zusi and perhaps even Dwyer.
Who do you like among the Double Game week options that I may have missed? What is your squad looking like?
Best wishes as always,
CharlesThis post has been updated
The FBI has opened an inquiry into the shootings of three young Muslims in Chapel Hill, N.C., a move that followed multiple calls this week for authorities to investigate the violence as a hate crime. And Palestinian officials are asking to join the investigation, saying that the victims were of Palestinian descent.
Police are investigating the shootings of three people — newlyweds Deah Barakat, 23, and Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, 21, and her sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19 — on Tuesday afternoon at a housing complex near the University of North Carolina.
On Friday, President Obama issued a statement on “the brutal and outrageous murders,” saying that the FBI would look to see if federal laws were broken during the shooting.
“No one in the United States of America should ever be targeted because of who they are, what they look like or how they worship,” Obama said.
Palestinian officials on Saturday branded Craig Hicks, the accused shooter, as “an American extremist and hateful racist,” according to Reuters.
“We consider it a serious indication of the growth of racism and religious extremism which is a direct threat to the lives of hundreds of thousands of American citizens who follow the Islamic faith,” the Palestinian foreign ministry said in a statement, which also called for “a serious investigation” and the involvement of Palestinian investigators.
The Embassy of Jordan in Washington said Friday that it also was “closely following the ongoing investigation” because the sisters killed in Chapel Hill also had Jordanian citizenship.
Alia Bouran, Jordan’s ambassador to the United States, went to North Carolina on Friday to meet with the families of the victims and expressed the sympathies of Jordanian King Abdullah II.
As the shooting attracted global attention, Obama was criticized for not speaking out about it sooner.
“If you stay silent when faced with an incident like this, and don’t make a statement, the world will stay silent towards you,” Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said during a visit to Mexico on Thursday, according to Reuters.
The FBI announced “a parallel preliminary inquiry” on Thursday, which stops short of being a full investigation, as had been reported in multiple media outlets since the probe was announced. Rather, it is a review that could ultimately become an investigation down the line, depending on what evidence is found, an FBI spokeswoman said on Thursday night. It was opened by the FBI, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle district of North Carolina.
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said in a statement Friday that this inquiry will figure out if “any federal laws, including hate crime laws, were violated” in the shooting.
Hicks, 46, has been arrested and charged with three counts of murder in the shootings. The FBI has been working with the Chapel Hill Police Department on the investigation, helping the department process evidence in the case.
Police have said that their initial investigation suggests that the shooting was motivated by a parking argument, something that has been echoed by Hicks’s wife. But this explanation has seemed unconvincing to people in Chapel Hill and beyond, who point to the religion of the three victims and to Hicks’s repeated social media postings criticizing organized religion.
Hicks called himself an atheist on his Facebook page, and his postings there frequently attacked religious groups and beliefs. Many observers have pointed to these posts and Hicks’s views in asking authorities to explore the possibility that religion played a role in the killings.
“We welcome the FBI’s increased involvement in this tragic case and hope the added resources and expertise the bureau has to offer will help see that justice is served,” Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council of American-Islamic Relations, said in a statement. “This case is quickly becoming a touchstone for the American Muslim community’s sense of security and inclusion.”
The police in Chapel Hill have said they understand concerns that the shooting might have been “hate-motivated” and have promised to investigate that possibility.
For Muslims in the Chapel Hill region, the shooting has stirred a deep sense of fear and vulnerability. As thousands gathered Thursday to mourn the victims, more and more people there were discussing whether bias played a role in the shootings and the larger issue of anti-Islamic sentiment. At the funeral services, the remembrances of the three lives lost were mixed in with this sentiment and calls for a broader investigation.
“This has hate crime written all over it,” Mohammad Abu-Salha, the father of the sisters who were killed, said during the funeral as he asked the FBI to investigate
RELATED: For Muslim Americans, shootings bring fear of discrimination into the open
[This post has been updated. First published: Friday at 11:09 a.m.]In one of the strongest bids yet for federal intervention into Puerto Rico’s fiscal woes, a member of Congress is calling for a control board to take over the island’s beleaguered government.
Representative Jeffrey D. Duncan, a South Carolina Republican, sent a letter to his fellow lawmakers on Friday, urging them for a solution to Puerto Rico’s financial problems that may result in “management changes” in the commonwealth.
Mr. Duncan said Congress had the authority to establish a control board in Puerto Rico, similar to the one it created in Washington, D.C., in the mid-1990s.
“I believe legislation to require the establishment of a financial control board, to enable the politically unpalatable changes necessary to put Puerto Rico back on the road to self-determination, may be needed,” wrote Mr. Duncan, who is chairman of the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.Conditional cooperation and emotional profiles
June 27, 2013 by Keven Poulin
I haven’t been delving into evolutionary game theory and agent-based modeling for very long, and yet I find that in that little time something quite eerie happens once I’m immersed in these models and simulations: I find myself oscillating between two diametrically opposed points of view. As I watch all of these little agents play their games using some all-too-simplistic strategy, I feel like a small God*. I watch cooperators cooperate, and defectors defect oblivious to what’s in their best interest at the moment. Of course, in the end, my heart goes out to the cooperators, who unfortunately can’t understand that they are being exploited by the defectors. That is what pushes me at the other end of the spectrum of omniscience, and with a nudge of empathy I find myself trying to be a simpleton agent in my over-simplified world.
In that state of mind, I begin to wonder what information exists in the environment, in particular information about the agents I am going to play against. I suppose I’m able to access it and use it to condition my move. Admittedly, that makes me a bit more complex than my original simpleton, and that complexity is likely to come at a cost, but I leave it to evolution to figure out whether the trade-off is worthwhile.
An early example of this kind of conditional strategy comes from the hypothesis that a trait could have evolved that allowed individuals to recognize their kin and thus those with whom cooperation is preferable. This idea dates all the way back to Hamilton (1964) but was popularized by Dawkins (1976) as the memorable “Green Beard Effect”. In the EGT literature this concept was captured by the introduction of tags: agents are given arbitrary tags that vary discretely (e.g. Jansen & van Baalen, 2006) or on a continuum (e.g. Riolo, Cohen & Axelrod, 2001). How to use this information is straight-forward: cooperate with agents of the same tag, and defect otherwise (although traitors could also be allowed). This mechanism assumes not only perception of other’s attributes but also knowledge of one’s own attribute. In real life, a tag could be anything from cell surface |
’s wife who had murdered the editor of a right-wing newspaper after he threatened to publish damaging material about her husband.
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Even in Vienna, the archduke’s own capital city, Franz Ferdinand’s death seemed to arouse little strong feeling from the public. As the Austrian government and military leadership hurried to obtain assurances of German support if the Austrian pressure on Serbia over the assassinations led to war with Serbia and its powerful ally, Russia, the reaction among the Austrian population was mild, almost indifferent. As historian Z.A.B. Zeman later wrote, “the event almost failed to make any impression whatsoever. On Sunday and Monday [June 28 and 29], the crowds in Vienna listened to music and drank wine?as if nothing had happened.”Democratic senators today pivoted from the economy to national security in push for climate change bill
America's thirst for oil is a gathering threat to its national security – and the risk will grow further as the world's population touches 7 billion, a military adviser to the Pentagon told the Senate today.
In a second day of debate on energy, Democratic senators today pivoted from the economy to national security to try to make the case for a climate change bill.
The threat to Americans' security ranged from the here and now – with troops in Afghanistan and Iraq tied down by their reliance on gas-guzzling equipment – to years into the future when extreme temperatures and rising sea levels could lead to a widespread social breakdown.
"We have never before on this planet had close to 7 billion people which we will have in 2011. We have never had the unprecedented level of per capita energy use multiplied by that 7 billion people," Dennis McGinn, a member of the Military Advisory Board, composed of senior retired admirals and generals, told the Senate. "We have a whole host of indicators, warnings and trends that tells us climate change is bad for national security."
He said the country would face risks on multiple fronts. "America's current energy posture constitutes a serious and urgent threat to national security – militarily, diplomatically and economically."
The Pentagon is already beginning to focus more acutely on the threat posed by climate change.
Military research labs are exploring new energy-saving devices, and other ways of conserving fuel in the battlefield. The conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq have made planners acutely conscious that fuel dependence is putting US forces at risk. The US marines corps recently ordered an energy audit of its operations in Afghanistan, in a bid to reduce enormous fuel costs.
"We are tied down by fuel. Fuel is a real day-today concern for our forces in the field who are tethered to that fossil fuel tail," said Kathleen Hicks, the deputy undersecretary of defence for strategy.
The US military is beginning to focus more intensely on the threat posed by climate change.
Hicks also told the Senate that global warming was emerging as a dangerous "accelerant" – fuelling conflicts and speeding the breakdown of fragile states.
It also created opportunities for extremist groups such as al-Qaida.
Progress on the climate change bill is seen as essential a to a successful outcome at the international meeting on carbon reduction in Copenhagen in December.
The White House has also stepped up its efforts to shepherd the bill through the Senate. This week's hearings, the formal start of the legislative process, were carefully coordinated with the White House.
Obama yesterday toured a solar facility in Florida and announced the award of some $3.5bn (£2.1bn) in grants to modernise America's electrical grid. Today, the White House sponsored a public forum on energy.
The White House and Democratic leaders are also trying to rally support around the climate change bill in the Senate – in part by bowing to Republican demands for a larger place for nuclear power.
Barbara Boxer, the co-author of the proposed legislation, said today she would press ahead to get her environment and public works committee for early approval of the draft – despite opposition from Republicans and even a powerful Democrat.
"I think there will be good news out of the committee this week, so stay tuned," she said.MILWAUKEE – The Cubs won’t walk onto U.S. Cellular Field on Monday night wearing black “Try Not To Cut” T-shirts with a scissors image replacing the manager’s iconic glasses. But Joe Maddon still couldn’t resist trolling the White Sox after Chris Sale’s temper tantrum.
With an AWOL pitcher, a manager on the hot seat and a front office under siege, the Cubs will see what they used to look like in a rivalry that sometimes brought out the worst in them.
This is Carlos Zambrano-level bizarre on the South Side, the White Sox suspending Sale for five days after their franchise player cut up 1976 throwback jerseys, creating a feeding frenzy in the middle of trade-deadline-rumor season. That speculation apparently bothered Sale, who got sent home before Saturday’s scheduled start against the Detroit Tigers, leaving the bullpen to cover for his unprofessionalism.
“It’s not easy,” Maddon said before Sunday’s 6-5 win over the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park. “Obviously, it’s only going to occur if your team’s struggling a bit.
“If you’re doing well, that doesn’t happen. So you have the struggle of the group, and then a really good player being mentioned as a trade piece. From the manager’s perspective, it’s not as difficult as the player himself – and then the inter-politics of the clubhouse. That’s where it becomes more difficult.
“You don’t even know what those conversations sound like and how that cuts at the fabric of what you’re attempting to do. No pun intended.”
Maddon’s presence as the team’s smirking ringmaster helps a rivalry that missed larger-than-life personalities like Lou Piniella and Ozzie Guillen. The Cubs won’t see Sale until Thursday night at Wrigley Field in this season’s fourth and final crosstown game between two franchises heading in opposite directions.
“I know it was entertaining from a distance,” Maddon said. “I’m sure being in the organization not so much. And I get that. I’ve never heard that one before.
“The dentist used to send us every six months things for a checkup. And I threw that away so my mom would not take me to the dentist. That’s the closest I could relate to what happened.”
[SHOP: Buy a "Try Not to Suck" shirt with proceeds benefiting Joe Maddon's Respect 90 Foundation & other Cubs Charities]
Maddon remembered the end of an era with the Tampa Bay Rays, when David Price got traded to the Detroit Tigers in a three-team deal at the 2014 deadline. Within the next three months, Rays executive Andrew Friedman jumped for a president’s job with the Los Angeles Dodgers, triggering an escape clause in Maddon’s contract and giving Cubs fans a new costume for that Halloween.
“It was hard for David,” Maddon said. “It really was difficult, especially if it’s your first organization. I think if you bounced (around) a little bit, it’s not so difficult. But if it’s your first time being included in trade conversations, it’s hard for the guy.
“Regardless of knowing that you could end up in a good spot, or you’re going to be wanted, (because) there’s really actually a lot of positives attached to it. It’s still the negative – you might really like where you’re at, it’s your first organization, you have a lot of friendships.
“Awkward. It’s an awkward feeling. You adjust. Everybody does. But there’s still all this unknown stuff that is unsettling.”
Like what the media circus and the fan atmospherics will be like during those first two games at U.S. Cellular Field. So much for the White Sox bonding after Adam LaRoche’s retirement in the middle of spring training and using that money to reinvest at the trade deadline. Or Sale smoothing everything over after torching executive vice president Kenny Williams for the way he handled Drake LaRoche’s clubhouse access.
“I’m sure it will be entertaining,” Maddon said. “The South Siders have a wonderful sense of humor that we can definitely all appreciate.”At least 10,000 healthcare providers are waiting with their arms crossed hoping to be employed soon. Of that 10,000 at least 7,000 of them are doctors according to the president of the Medical College of Honduras (CMH) Suyapa Figueroa.
“The government is preoccupied with hiring foreign doctors and healthcare providers despite the thousands of qualified Hondurans waiting for jobs.” Said Ms. Figueroa. The situation as it relates to auxiliary nurses is similar since at least 2,000 are waiting for the results of a content announced by health authorities.
“The main problem is that the jobs get covered sporadically which makes it so that the number of people who need to work to get the work done are not working.” Says the president of the national association of nurses and auxiliary nurses of Honduras, Josue Orellana. According to Figueroa and Orellana the solution is to invst more in Honduran professionals.
Delia Rivas, Honduras’s health minister announced in February that throughout the year there would be various contests to help unemployed qualified medical professionals and the first one happened in May and sought to provide 200 medical professionals with employment. El Heraldo reached out to the health minister for more information concerning the limbo health care providers find themselves in but didn’t get any comments back.
This was an El Heraldo article originally published in Spanish.* * *
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This time last week, I could've written what I knew about James Gallagher on a beer coaster.19 years old, from Ireland, fighting out of Straight Blast Gym, a big prospect at 145lbs, and making his Bellator debut in London. I watched his BAMMA fights, but by no means could I recite his life story.Last week, I had my first real interactions with the man nicknamed the "Strabanimal." Although I turned up at Bellator 158 expecting to be impressed by his performance, I didn't know I would leave London thinking he was something special for everything that I saw him do outside of it.It's Friday, at 11:30AM. The mood inside the Cafe De Paris nightclub in Leicester Square is as frenetic as the streets outside.It's the scene of the Bellator 158 weigh-ins. With just 30 minutes to go until the official readings are taken, a collection of nervous-looking men dressed in only their underpants are gathered around the scales to check their weights.One-by-one, these MMA veterans stand on the scales. Their eyes are bulging, and their skin is noticeably pale and dehydrated. As they fret over losing the last few pounds, I finally see James Gallagher, who is standing across the room from me.Gallagher's decked out in a baseball cap, but I can still clearly see his smile beaming as takes in the sight of the gathered media and his fellow Bellator stars.Cool, calm and collected, I'd never seen a fighter so happy to be weighing in before.Thirty minutes later, the chilled-out, starry-eyed Gallagher is no longer present as he takes the scale with the knowledge that his opponent missed weight by 2.3lbs.He weighs in at 144.7lbs, and proceeds to tell the weigh-in master of ceremonies that he '"was the professional in here and that his opponent was amateur."Then, he marches toward his opponent with a menacing look, and stares him in the eye before gently pushing him in the chest. His opponent reacts with rage, but Gallagher simply steps back and allows himself to be ushered away by the oncoming officials.As he's led away, he flashes that smile again at his opponent. Mission accomplished; Gallagher won this round of mind games. He got the reaction he wanted from his opponent.It's now 8PM on Saturday, and Gallagher is making the walk to the cage.His music is playing, but I can't tell you for the life of me what it is--it's drowned out by "Ole" chants in the O2 Arena in London as he makes his way down the ramp with his hands stretched out for the crowd.The smile from the day before is all over Gallagher's face. He wears a tri-color flag proudly, and acknowledges the pocket of his fans to one side of the cage carrying his banners.It's a great sight to see: a young man living his dream in front of your eyes.The Bellator show has wrapped, and as I make my way over from cageside, I see the Gallagher for the first time since his fight. Things hadn't gone to plan, but a win is a win despite having to endure 15 minutes of chasing his opponent around a cage.He's standing in front of me with one Bellator ring girl under each arm smiling, of course, and posing for a photo that would later surface on social media.He then makes his way to the back, and a Bellator official grabs him for me for a quick interview."It wasn't a great performance; not half of my ability," he said while smiling. "The guy just kept running away, and I should've shut him down and finished him. When I had him on the ground, I should've finished him, but hey--I'm 19, I'm young, and it happens. I'll go back to the gym, and come back better, stronger, and show my full ability."Halfway through his next answer, a jovial Matt Mitrione appears behind the camera, and Gallagher can't help himself. In the middle of our interview, Gallagher turns his attention to Mitrione flashing him a cheeky grin.This happened again when Michael Venom Page walked past just seconds later. While it's normally annoying for any interviewer to be interrupted, these interactions were more telling than any of the questions I'd asked the young Irishman.This was a man happy to be in the company he was, but at the same time, also in the total belief he belonged there.Half an hour later, I'm walking out of the front arena when Gallagher passes through with three young guys likely destined for one of the nearest bars or nightclubs.It's a reminder to myself that Gallagher's only 19. Watching him for the first time last week made me a believer. If he can maintain his love for the sport and remain humble about his ability, he's destined for great things.Top members of Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed’s administration have received tens of thousands in payments for unused sick, vacation and compensatory time, though the city code provides no clear authorization for the payouts.
Atlanta Police Chief George Turner, the city’s top earner with a $241,000 annual salary, was paid $79,000 last November for hundreds of hours in unused vacation time, according to an investigation by Channel 2 Action News.
Two deputies in Reed’s administration each received payments nearing $30,000 for unused sick, vacation and comp time. And at least three other employees were given advance pay — effectively a loan against future earnings — since 2012.
Reed spokeswoman Melissa Mullinax said the administration believes it has the authority to give employees who are experiencing a “hardship” cash for unused time. But city officials couldn’t point to a section of the code allowing such payments.
At least one Atlanta city councilmember says the practice violates city code and usurps the council’s authority, and is calling for an investigation.
For the complete story, visit MYAJC.com.In words prettier than most of us will ever write, late Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alex Tizon confesses to an atrocity uglier than most of us could ever fathom: His parents owned a slave — and when they died, he inherited her.
"My Family's Slave," Tizon's widely circulated and effusively praised cover story for the June issue of the Atlantic, purports to tell that slave's story. She was born Eudocia Tomas Pulido. Pulido's family, Tizon writes, was too poor to provide a decent life for her. He illustrates her family's squalor by conjuring dirt floors in her family's hut.
When Tizon's grandfather, the cigar-smoking family patriarch, tricks Pulido into trading her freedom for the food and shelter he could provide, they no longer call her Eudocia. Instead, they rename her Lola.
Lola is a name the story never quite contextualizes within Philippine culture and our emphasis on family. In Tagalog, the language of the Philippines, "lola" means “grandmother.” Lolas are the backbones of so many traditional Philippine households. It is a name that evokes immediate reverence. Lolas are our second moms. They work. They take care of us when we are sick, even when they are sick themselves. They cook for us — and every child knows their lola cooks better than anyone else does. They never seem to sleep. The name "Lola" likely traces its roots to "dolor," the Spanish word denoting pain — but Lola, a diminutive of Dolores, connotes the strength that suffering builds.
To call a slave “Lola” and to treat her not only as less than kin but less than human is a malicious perversion of everything that honorific stands for. It is all suffering, no strength. In Pulido's case, the name shackled her to the domestic duties of a grandmother within the traditional Philippine household, all while affording her none of the respect a grandmother would receive from a family that loved her.
In her 56 years as a slave to the Tizon family, Pulido did not escape the name "Lola." It is a final indignity from which no one— not even the writer, in all of his attempts at benevolence— spares her.
Her birth name, Eudocia Tomas Pulido, shows up only once in the story he writes, at the very beginning. Tizon's story will refer to her as Lola more than 100 times before it ends with Tizon delivering her ashes back to the family his grandfather stole her from.
She was born free and Pulido; she dies Lola, a slave.
Though Pulido may have outlived Tizon's parents, Tizon ensures she never outlives the name they gave her — a name she only had in proximity to the family that stole her, first from her home, then from her homeland, convincing her to follow them to America under the false pretense that they would pay her enough that she could remit U.S. dollars back home to her family. The name "Lola" was shackled inexorably to Pulido's bondage.
In Atlantic Editor Jeffrey Goldberg's accompanying note to "My Family's Slave," he recalls a recent conversation he had with Tizon’s widow, Melissa.
“[Tizon] was always impatient with small talk,” Goldberg recalls her telling him, “because he believed that all people had within them an epic story, and he wanted to hear those epic stories — and then help tell them to the world.”
It is a noble pursuit, for sure. It’s why we, as readers, seek out stories like "My Family's Slave." It’s why some of us, as writers, pursued careers in journalism in the first place: to find the marginalized and disempowered people of the world and help them tell their stories; to help them, in the hopes that their lives — and the lives of people like them — might be improved.
But what happens when the writer is complicit — directly complicit — in their marginalization, their disempowerment, and in this case, their enslavement?
Tizon's wife said his mission was to tell the epic stories inside of people. By the rubric Tizon set for himself, he has failed. This is not Pulido's story. It is the final link on the chain Tizon's family forged for her, a chain that Tizon sets out to break but then, discovering the potential for his own redemption (he notes that he paid her an allowance and gifted her a round-trip ticket to the Philippines), forgets to do so.
He could've called the authorities on his parents when he turned 23 and moved to Seattle. He could've helped Pulido learn to read, rather than watching from the sidelines, bemused at her ability to piece together the English language from word puzzles and television. When Pulido died in 2011 and Tizon, who had won his Pulitzer over 10 years prior for exposing the injustice of indigenous Americans, contacted the Seattle Times to write her obituary, he could've told them the truth. As a writer who'd won journalism's top prize, he had an ethical obligation to do so.
Instead, Tizon told the lie his family had been telling since they had moved to the U.S., giving the paper the whitewashed version of Lola's bondage. And it was this appalling untruth about her life — that she was a servant of the Tizon family who faithfully served them out of a sense of honor, love and obligation — that the paper then memorialized.
In the wake of the Atlantic story, the Seattle Times has amended its account of Pulido's life and death. On Wednesday, Susan Kelleher, who originally wrote Pulido's obituary in November 2011, published a response to Tizon's final work, saying that knowing the truth about Pulido's circumstances makes her sick.
It should. "My Family's Slave" is the story of a slave's captor arguing for his own humanity — all while denying someone hers.
The Tizons robbed her of her prospects. They stole a life. It’s a wrong the late Tizon likely attempted to rectify by setting out to write her story. But nothing can give Pulido the freedom that was taken from her because she believed in the benevolence of monsters.
Pulido is dead. Tizon is dead. There is nobody to hold accountable.
But there is his surviving family.
In his final act, the Tizons once again profit directly — and this time explicitly — from Pulido's pain and labor. He looks at the abject ugliness inflicted upon Pulido's life by his family and attempts to find poetry in it, to make her suffering rhyme. It shouldn't.
For his story, the Atlantic likely compensated Tizon a fee befitting a Pulitzer-winning writer. His widow has an obligation to remit a sizeable portion of the money her late husband made to Pulido's blood family — or barring that, a charity like Children International, which strives to end the cycle of poverty in the Philippines.
The Tizons benefitted enormously from the free labor they choked out of Pulido. Tizon may never have gotten the education he needed to win that Pulitzer were it not for the thankless, forced labor of Eudocia Tomas Pulido.
And under the rule of President Rodrigo Duterte, whose so-called war on drugs has resulted in the deaths of thousands, the Philippine poor need our help, now, more than ever.
No amount of money can rectify this atrocity. But that doesn't mean the surviving Tizon family doesn't have an obligation to try anyway.
At the end of his note, Goldberg imagines what the abolitionists who founded the magazine would think if they heard that "154 years after Abraham Lincoln issued the emancipation proclamation, humans would still be enslaving other humans."
Certainly we can do better things with our time than imagine what is obvious.Spread the love
Billboard ads will be posted in Washington D.C. this week seeking information about the unsolved murder of Democratic National Committee (DNC) staff member Seth Rich. The new advertisements will appear at city bus stops and at least one full-size billboard in the neighborhood where Rich was killed. The announcement was made Tuesday on what would have been Seth Rich’s 28th birthday.
Seth Rich, the 27-year-old DNC staff member was gunned down in the early morning hours of July 10 while walking home after drinking at a Washington, D.C. bar he frequently visited. The ShotSpotter sensor system used by D.C. Police detected the sound of gunshots at around 4:20 a.m. and patrol units found Seth Rich lying on the street with multiple bullet wounds to the head. Rich was still conscious but pronounced dead at a local hospital about an hour later. D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department has not named a suspect in the murder and has not indicated there is significant progress in the investigation.
The new ad campaign was organized by Republican lobbyist Jack Burkman out of concerns that Rich’s murder was not a failed robbery attempt, which D.C. Police claim is a possible explanation. Burkman’s concerns have echoed the thoughts of many who think Seth Rich’s murder may have been connected to his work and the DNC scandal involving over 25,000 leaked emails which proved internal corruption related to the Democratic party’s presidential nomination of Hillary Clinton. Burkman is the same lobbyist who also pledged more than $100,000 in reward money for information about the murder.
“There are too many dimensions to the tragedy and none seem to make any sense. I hope the $100,000 in additional money will finally get to the truth of what happened here and will either debunk the conspiracy theories or validate them,” Burkman said in the September statement at the time the reward was offered.
D.C. Police confirmed details which may indicate that the attack was not just a random robbery attempt. Seth Rich still had his wallet, cash and cell phone on him when police arrived. However, his watch band was damaged. Seth Rich’s mother told NBC Washington he had bruising from a struggle and it also appears he was attacked from behind.
“There had been a struggle. His hands were bruised, his knees are bruised, his face is bruised, and yet he had two shots to his back, and yet they never took anything,” she said. “They took his life for literally no reason. They didn’t finish robbing him, they just took his life,” Mary Rich continued.
The night of the murder, Seth Rich went drinking at Lou’s City Bar where he was known to be a regular. Rich usually sat in the same seat at the corner of the bar, usually showing up straight from the office in a shirt and tie. The Daily Mail reported that bar staff said Rich seemed upset, which was not typical of him, possibly over an argument with his girlfriend.
The Daily Mail’s report noted that Seth Rich normally had a high tolerance for alcohol but may have been unusually drunk by closing time, around 1:45 a.m. ‘It was rare for him to really show that he had been drinking,’ according to the manager on duty that night. ‘That was unusual for him. That was very, very unusual for him to do that.’
Staff at Lou’s City Bar say Rich declined to take the offer of a ride back home and instead opted to walk to a nearby bar called Wonderland to have a few more drinks. Wonderland closed at 2:30 a.m. that night. However, it is not confirmed that Rich actually made it to this bar.
The total period of time unaccounted for could be as high as 90 minutes from the 2:30 closing time of Wonderland until the 4 a.m. window when the murder may have begun. The Daily Mail’s report estimated it could have taken Rich about 30 minutes to reach home from the area of the two bars, possibly longer if the alcohol slowed him down. This could have left about one hour of time that cannot be verified, with the exception of the details of the phone call he made to his girlfriend. Police reported Seth Rich was still on the phone with his girlfriend at the time of the attack.
There are credible reports that the neighborhood was experiencing a trend in armed robberies. However, the same Daily Mail report notes the robberies abruptly stopped in the weeks following the murder. According to the D.C. Police, there were also two robberies in the area in the hour prior to Rich’s shooting.
While the events on the night of Seth Rich’s murder are not conclusive, the circumstances after Seth Rich’s murder are reasonably suspicious.
Some early reports first described Seth Rich as a low-level staff member, but as the case drew national attention, it was revealed that he was tasked with oversight of a national data program designed to increase voter turnout with the use of detailed maps to polling locations. The program used data collected from every voter precinct in the country. Some think this may have been a key factor in Seth Rich’s understanding of what was happening at the DNC, as reports emerged of vote-rigging fraud in the Democratic primaries in June.
On July 22, two weeks after the murder of Seth Rich, WikiLeaks published leaked emails from multiple senior members of the Democratic National Committee showing they made negative comments about the campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders while the competitive presidential primary race was still ongoing. The DNC was accused of showing favoritism for Hillary Clinton and sabotaging the campaign of Bernie Sanders because the emails showed collusion between party officials and various media organizations. The emails included comments from DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who was forced to resign days later and was immediately hired by the campaign of Hillary Clinton.
On July 25, the DNC issued a “deep and sincere apology to Senator Sanders, his supporters, and the entire Democratic Party for the inexcusable remarks made over email,” in a statement released on the opening day of the party’s convention in Philadelphia.
In August, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange announced a $20,000 reward for information about the murder. Assange then hinted that Seth Rich was the source who gave WikiLeaks the data, during an interview with Dutch TV’s Nieuwsurr.
Assange: Whistleblowers go to significant efforts to get us material and often significant risks. There was a 27-year old that works for the DNC who was shot in the back… murdered.. for unknown reasons as he was walking down the street in Washington. Host: That was just a robbery wasn’t it? Assange: No. There’s no finding. Host: What are you suggesting? Assange: I am suggesting that our sources take risks and they become concerned to see things occurring like that. Host: But was he one of your sources, then? Assange: We don’t comment on who our sources are. Host: But why make the suggestion? Assange: Because we have to understand how high the stakes are in the United States and that our sources face serious risks… that’s why they come to us so we can protect their anonymity. Host: But it’s quite something to suggest a murder… that’s basically what you’re doing.
American media has used the confusion to blame Russian President Vladimir Putin for giving the email data to WikiLeaks, causing Hillary Clinton to lose the election, even though no credible evidence has been given to support these conclusions. Although US President Barack Obama ordered an intelligence assessment to determine whether Russia did hack the email data, agencies including the FBI said they disagree with the C.I.A.’s conclusion that Russia was responsible, citing a lack of evidence.
In mid-December, the Daily Mail exclusively reported that WikiLeaks envoy Craig Murray, the former British ambassador to Uzbekistan, claimed he had personal knowledge that the source of the DNC emails was not Russia. Murray told the Daily Mail that he personally flew to Washington, D.C. for a secret meeting with one of the sources, who was a DNC insider.
‘The source had legal access to the information. The documents came from inside leaks, not hacks,’ said Murray.
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UPDATE:
On Friday, Burkman noted that he ‘finds credible’ and entirely new conspiracy theory — that Russian operatives had Rich killed after he uncovered information that Russia hacked the DNC. He based these claims based on two phone calls he received.
Hopefully, his money will “either debunk the conspiracy theories or validate them.”Hawaii health authorities have posted warnings of a sewage spill at a popular beach, the second time this week that a well-known stretch of Oahu's shoreline has been hit by a sewage spill.
About 1 million gallons of wastewater that ran through a treatment plant without being disinfected flowed into the ocean on Tuesday off Sandy Beach, a favorite spot for body surfers on the east end of the island, roughly 15 miles from Honolulu.
The discharge prompted the state Health Department to post advisories along more than a mile of coastline, including Sandy Beach, Allison Nunnally, an environmental health specialist for the agency, said on Thursday.
The beach itself remained opened, but the public was urged to stay out of the ocean while water samples collected in the area were analyzed to determine the level of risk, she said.
The discharge of less-than-fully treated sewage was caused by an electrical failure that cut off the flow of chlorine disinfectant into the wastewater before it gets pumped into the ocean, said Evan Jacobs, a spokesman for Hawaii American Water, which operates the treatment plant.
Wastewater discharged from the plant enters the Pacific about a quarter-mile offshore of Sandy Beach from an outfall pipe 40 feet deep, Nunnally said.
Sandy Beach, known by locals for its long shore break, made headlines last year after two Honolulu City Council members proposed renaming the spot for President Barack Obama, the first Hawaii-born U.S. president. But the resolution was withdrawn after the plan drew mixed reactions from the public.
On Monday about 400,000 gallons of wastewater tainted Waikiki and Ala Moana beaches after heavy rains associated with Tropical Storm Kilo inundated the system. Officials opened the waters Wednesday afternoon after testing showed the water was safe.
Even after authorities give beachgoers “the green light to return to the water after a sewage spill, all is not necessarily well,” local news station KITV4 reported in a web post on a study by Tao Yan, a professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. The study revealed that wastewater lasts “much longer in sand.”
Lori Kahikina, Honolulu's director of environmental services, said less sewage spilled than the half-million gallons the city initially reported.
She said Wednesday 129,000 gallons of wastewater flowed into the ocean. Another 264,000 spilled on land but never reached the ocean.
Recent heavy downpours have prompted Hawaii health authorities to issue a "brown-water" advisory for storm water runoff across the islands and warnings of several smaller wastewater spills on Oahu. A Category 1 hurricane, dubbed Ignacio, is expected to pass by Hawaii next week, local newspaper the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported.
Al Jazeera and wire servicesAfter holding a press conference yesterday to promote her “restraining order” campaign to stop the federal courts from ruling on marriage cases, Faith 2 Action’s Janet Porter took a few minutes to speak with far-right pastor Wiley Drake about the effort.
Porter told Drake that the things she predicted in her 2005 book “The Criminalization of Christianity: Read This Book Before It Becomes Illegal!” are coming true, and that if the Supreme Court rules in favor of marriage equality, Christians will have to choose between obeying the ruling and going to jail.
“I’m telling you that if the court dares to issue another Roe v. Wade, in this case the Roe v. Wade for marriage, we will not obey it,” she said. “We’ll go to jail if we have to go to jail, but we will not bow to this agenda and violate our beliefs in God.”
“It’s happening in the state of Idaho,” she claimed. “They’re going after pastors in Idaho right now and saying, ‘Unless you oversee, participate in a homosexual wedding, we’re going to put you in jail.’”
Porter was referring to a case in Couer D’Alene in which the owners of a for-profit wedding chapel filed a lawsuit claiming that they could face decades of jail time for refusing to perform same-sex marriages, which did not turn out to be at all true.
This isn’t the first time that Porter has warned that advances in LGBT equality will land Christians in jail. In 2009, Porter warned that an LGBT-inclusive hate crimes law would send “ pastors to prison for biblical positions and speech,” a prediction that nearly six years later has not come to pass.(CNN) For most of her life, the young woman born Kamiyah Mobley has lived under another name.
A neighbor in Walterboro, South Carolina, described her as a typical 18-year-old who resided with the woman she long believed to be her mother.
Mobley and the woman often got their nails done together, according to the neighbor, who asked not to be identified. The teenager graduated from high school and had a steady boyfriend.
But DNA tests this week revealed that Mobley was abducted from a Florida hospital in July 1998 by a woman posing as a nurse, Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams said Friday. Law enforcement has not released the name she has been living under.
She was found this week in South Carolina, where authorities arrested Gloria Williams, 51.
Williams was charged with kidnapping and interference with custody, authorities said. She allegedly used fraudulent documents to establish a new identity for Mobley.
Williams' neighbor described her as social worker who always provided for her daughter.
Williams is now facing extradition to Florida, where on a summer day nearly two decades ago she allegedly posed as a nurse and abducted an 8-pound baby girl wrapped in a pink and blue blanket.
Gloria Williams has been arrested in connection with the abduction.
Investigators are talking to Williams' extended family in hopes of learning more. It's unclear whether Williams has an attorney.
Mobley, meanwhile, attempts to deal with the new revelations of her life. Video showed her weeping and hugging Gloria Williams inside the Colleton County Detention Center in Walterboro.
The Jacksonville sheriff said the young woman "had an inclination beginning a couple of months ago" that she may have been abducted.
"She's taking it as well as you can imagine," he said. "She has a lot to process. She has a lot to think about."
Mobley was located after a series of tips late last year to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, according to the sheriff. The FBI assisted in the investigation.
"I don't know what she is going through, but I feel for her," the South Carolina neighbor said of Mobley.
In Jacksonville, about 175 miles south of where Mobley was found, her biological parents and grandmother were "extremely excited and overwhelmed with emotion" at the news, the sheriff said.
Mobley seems to be in good health, he said.
'Please bring my baby back'
On July 10, 1998 -- the day Mobley disappeared -- a kidnapper dressed as a nurse and, wearing a blue smock with flowers and surgical gloves, was captured in grainy surveillance video at the hospital.
Mobley's mother, Shanara, who was 16 at the time, told investigators that a woman dressed as a nurse entered her hospital room.
"The suspect remained in the room with the victim and continued helping her and talking with her," said the incident report filed with the sheriff's office.
The mother asked the woman to place her daughter in a baby carrier but she instead left the room with the child, according to the report.
Shanara Mobley believed the woman was a hospital employee, CNN affiliate WJXT-TV in Jacksonville reported. Hospital staff believed the woman was a relative of the Mobleys.
"Please bring my baby back," Shanara Mobley cried during an interview with WJXT at the time. "If you were faking a pregnancy or you just can't have no kids, how do you think I feel... That's my first child."
Sitting |
a council report read.
It said the council expected to collect about $40,000 in registration fees from regulated dog owners and spend about $27,500 implementing the inspection regime.
Registration fees for dangerous dogs will be $465 from October 1 while fees for menacing dogs will be $364.
The council will also decide on its environment and liveability policy at Thursday's meeting.
A 25-year plan for the region has been formulated after feedback was sought and received earlier this year.
Main points taken away from that feedback included the importance of retaining the distinct character of the Sunshine Coast as well as the distinct qualities of its "community of communities”.
"It (the plan) focuses on the natural environment and how it can be preserved and enhanced, as well as the liveability of the region,” a council report read.
Annual reports for the environment and transport levies as well as the first review of the 2017/2018 budget will also be discussed.
Members of the public will have to leave the meeting for confidential discussions on property acquisitions at Maroochy River, Maroochydore, Caloundra and Golden Beach.Team USA selected Scott Danberg of U.S. Paralympic Track and Field to hold the flag at the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Paralympic Games.
LONDON – Five-time U.S. Paralympian Scott Danberg was selected to lead the 227-member 2012 U.S. Paralympic Team into Wednesday’s (Aug. 29) Opening Ceremony as flag bearer, as announced today by the United States Olympic Committee. Danberg was chosen by a vote of fellow members of Team USA following the team’s “Welcome Ceremony” on Monday in the Paralympic Village.
“I am absolutely honored and pleased. This is my fifth Paralympic Games,” Danberg (Cooper City, Fla.) said. “For four Games, I have walked behind our nation’s flag proudly and now I am so honored to carry it into the stadium. I was so pleased to be nominated by the U.S. Paralympic Track and Field Team. They were so excited for me to be selected. The confidence my team captain had and his approach, they all really wanted me to be selected, and now to have that confidence shown to me by the whole U.S. team is amazing.”
Danberg will compete in the F40 men’s discus on Sept. 4. Currently ranked No. 7 in the world by the International Paralympic Committee, he won the bronze medal in the discus competition at the 2011 IPC Athletics World Championships. He also won the shot put silver at the 2006 IPC Athletics World Championships and won the shot put at the 2007 Parapan American Games.
“Congratulations to Scott Danberg on being named the United States flag bearer for the Opening Ceremony,” said USOC CEO Scott Blackmun. “The London 2012 Paralympic Games have special significance as the Paralympic Movement started here in 1948. As the Games return to its birth place, we celebrate the growth of the movement and the extraordinary Americans who represent our country in this event. It is a tremendous honor to have Scott lead Team USA into this celebration of humanity.”
Danberg made his Paralympic Games debut in powerlifting at the Barcelona 1992 Paralympic Games. In 1998, he won the silver medal in the javelin. He competed in the Athens 2004 Paralympic Games as well as the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games.
The 2012 Paralympic Games will take place in London, England, from Aug. 29-Sept. 9, featuring more than 4,000 athletes with a disability, from more than 160 countries. It is slated to be the largest Paralympic Games in history.
More than 500 hours of live streaming will be available through USParalympics.org. Beginning on Aug. 29 and continuing through the conclusion of the Games on Sept. 9, U.S. Paralympics will provide 10 daily video highlights packages via its U.S. Paralympics YouTube channel. The videos will chronicle the competition, athlete stories and will also include the Opening and Closing Ceremonies.
In addition to the online content, NBC Sports Network (NBCSN) will air one-hour highlight shows on Sept. 4, 5, 6 and 11 at 7 p.m. EDT. Following the Paralympic Games, NBC will broadcast a 90 minute special from 2-3:30 p.m. EDT on Sept. 16. All NBC and NBC Sports Network Paralympic highlight shows and specials will re-air on Universal Sports Network and UniversalSports.com.
For more information, please contact Jamie Blanchard, U.S. Paralympics, at jamie.blanchard@usoc.org. Media interested in receiving updates from the London 2012 Paralympic Games can sign up at http://ow.ly/dgUPc.Spread the love
April 8, 2014
A man with down syndrome was killed while in police custody, his death ruled a homicide, and no charges were brought against the officers involved.
The victim, Robert Saylor, was at a movie theater with a health aide in Frederick on the night of the incident. He had just watched Zero Dark Thirty and refused to leave the theater after the film ended.
Three off-duty deputies who were moonlighting as security at the theater were called to handle the situation. The situation turned violent and Saylor ended up face down on the ground.
The cause of death, according to the autopsy, was asphyxiation. The autopsy also said Saylor’s larynx had been damaged. A witness said an officer had put his knee on Saylor’s lower back while Saylor was on his stomach being handcuffed, according to The Associated Press.
An internal “investigation” cleared the three officers, Lt. Scott Jewell, Sgt. Rich Rochford and Deputy First Class James Harris, of any wrongdoing.
A petition calling on Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley to conduct an independent investigation into Saylor’s death had garnered more than 374,000 signatures as of April 8th, 2014.
As no charges were brought against the officers involved in this incident, the family has since filed suit against the Sheriff’s Department, citing “gross negligence.”
Robert Saylor’s death is tragic and highlights a serious lack of competence when it comes to police handling situations involving those with special needs.
Just last week we saw a horrifying beating of a special needs man by police that reinforces this level of incompetence. The fact is that police are severely lacking skills in dealing with special needs individuals.
In a two-part study, researchers looked at use of the crisis intervention team, or CIT, model, a 40-hour program to train police to respond to those with mental health issues. They interviewed 586 officers, 251 of whom had received CIT training, and reviewed more than 1,000 police encounters with individuals believed to have behavioral disorders.
Officers who participated in CIT training were more knowledgeable about mental health issues, treatments and de-escalation skills, according to findings published in the April issue of the journal Psychiatric Services.
What’s more, when looking at emergency responses, incidents involving officers with CIT training were more likely to result in transport to mental health services and less likely to culminate in arrest. Researchers found that officers who had participated in training were also much more likely to indicate that the highest level of force used in their emergency response was verbal engagement or negotiation.
With the increased prevalence in Autism and police aggression in general, something must be done before anymore innocent lives are taken.Ebay is going to make you return the item to get a refund, it's just their policy. They don't who is telling the truth so they just divide the responsibility. They have no proof that the seller did it.
I can't imagine why a seller would do such a thing but I would be tempted to contact the USPS and report it to them.
Maybe the police? I have no idea what someone would do in this instance.
You got the item for about $6. If it were me, I would not return it. Losing $6 would be worth it not to handle the thing anymore than I had to just to get it out of the house.
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Always take a banana to a party, bananas are good! - TenA temporary halt on withdrawals from the bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox on Friday and subsequent price decline have prompted trading platform SecondMarket to start a pilot program to buy and sell bitcoin, a move it says highlights the need for a major U.S.-based bitcoin exchange.
SecondMarket, which made its name as a platform that allowed investors to trade shares of Facebook Inc. before the company went public, has established itself in the bitcoin space through its open-ended bitcoin trust.
\”Given the MtGox issue, we decided to experiment with a two-way market,\” Chief Executive Barry Silbert said in an email Friday about the company\’s pilot program. \”There is a clear need for a U.S.-based, regulated, compliant and trustworthy bitcoin exchange. This could be the first step in that direction,\” he said.
There is no major bitcoin exchange based in the U.S., even as U.S. investors are pouring millions into domestic bitcoin start-ups and U.S. companies are beginning to adopt the virtual currency as payment.
Saumya Vaishampayan/MarketWatch Informal trading at the Bitcoin Center NYC
The lack of a major bitcoin exchange in the world\’s biggest economy has contributed to the volatility that has become a trademark of the virtual currency, Jeremy Allaire, chief executive of Circle Internet Financial, said in a January virtual-currency hearing held by the New York State Department of Financial Services. The total daily trading volume of bitcoin is similar to that of a small-cap stock on one exchange, he said.
That much was evident Friday in the wake of the Mt. Gox news, which sent prices lower across exchanges. \”The increase in the flow of withdrawal requests has hindered our efforts on a technical level. To understand the issue thoroughly, the system needs to be in a static state,\” the company said in a release Friday.
Mt. Gox, which is based in Japan, isn\’t even the largest bitcoin exchange. The largest by 30-day volume is Bitstamp, which based in Slovenia, according to data from bitcoincharts.com. The second-biggest is BTC-e, which appears to be based in Bulgaria. Mt. Gox is third.
\”The single most important thing that we can do…is get some serious exchanges established here in New York,\” Circle\’s Allaire said at the hearing. Circle is a company that aims to make bitcoin payments easier for merchants.
There are companies working on establishing bitcoin exchanges in New York, but witnesses at the hearing pointed to the regulatory uncertainty and reluctance from banks to work with bitcoin companies as major hurdles.
In recent trade, bitcoin traded at $741.30 on the bitcoin exchange Bitstamp and $763 on Mt. Gox. That\’s a decline from trading around $900 earlier this week on Mt. Gox and in the early $800s in the same period on BitStamp. Here\’s a two-month chart of prices on Bitstamp:
Bitcoincharts.com
–Saumya Vaishampayan
Follow Saumya @saumvaish
Read more on MarketWatch:
Ben Lawsky asks bitcoin investors for their two cents at virtual-currency hearing
8 industries profiting from this miserable winter
CHARTS: Ugly-looking jobs report is beautiful on the insideDemocrats for Nixon was a campaign to promote Democratic support for the then-incumbent Republican President Richard Nixon in the 1972 presidential election. The campaign was led by the former Democratic governor of Texas, John Connally.
Connally, who was serving as the United States Secretary of the Treasury, announced that he would be supporting Nixon for re-election and would spend his time until the elections working on behalf of the incumbent.[1]
A Democrat who had been Governor of Texas and United States Secretary of the Navy under John F. Kennedy, Connally formally announced the formation of the organization in August 1972. Polling cited by Connally indicated that as many as 20 million Democrats would cross over to vote for Nixon and invited "all those millions of Democrats who realize that in this Presidential election President Nixon is simply the better choice". Connally stated that he was troubled by Senator George McGovern's campaign and felt that the Democratic party "is becoming an ideological machine closed to millions who have been the party's most loyal and steadfast members" under McGovern's leadership. The committee included Mayor Beverly Briley of Nashville, Tennessee, former Governor of Florida Farris Bryant, Mayor of Boston John F. Collins, Mayor Thomas G. Dunn of Elizabeth, New Jersey, Teamsters president Frank Fitzsimmons, Governor of Virginia Mills E. Godwin, Jr., Mayor of Miami, Florida David T. Kennedy and Leonard Marks who had previously headed the United States Information Agency. A fundraising target of as much as $3 million was set for the organization. Connally also announced that Jeno Paulucci, a frozen food distributor who had been closely involved as a fundraiser for Hubert H. Humphrey in his presidential bids, would serve as head of a group encouraging independent voters to choose Nixon.[2]
In a September 1972 article in The New York Times, Connally was quoted as saying that increasing numbers of traditionally Democratic voters were leaving the fold because they "are afraid of George McGovern" because of his proposals for major cutbacks in defense spending and in the number of U.S. troops serving in Europe. Connally insisted that "it is in the best interests of this country that the president be re-elected this year".[3]
See also [ edit ]Marco Rubio and Scott Walker are both 40-something, fast-rising Republican stars who are building presidential campaigns on the notion that a fresh-faced candidate from humble beginnings is best equipped to defeat Hillary Clinton —and, before her, Jeb Bush.
So well positioned, in fact, that Walker floated the idea that they both might be on the GOP ticket as the presidential and vice presidential nominees come November 2016.
“I've actually had quite a few people — grassroots supporters, donors, and others — who have made that suggestion,” Walker told Bloomberg News on Thursday. “We'd just probably have to arm-wrestle over who would be at the top of the ticket.”
Surely, Walker is getting a bit ahead of himself here. There are still months -- and many, many competitors -- to go before the first caucus and primary. Walker isn’t even an official candidate yet, let alone the presumptive nominee. But the relationship between Wisconsin’s second-term governor and Florida’s junior senator bears watching over the next several months, as their common goals but nuanced paths could make them the Frenemies of 2016.
The two figure to become each other’s top rival, but for now, they have one shared obstacle in their path that they will be eyeing to overcome: former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
Bush sarcastically joked at a New Hampshire confab packed with likely Republican presidential candidates earlier this year that he — meaning his family name and the financial and political network that comes with it — was scaring off the competition. Bush’s self-deprecating quip is proving more apropos with each passing week. Ohio Gov. John Kasich acknowledged as much last week, saying he is considering a presidential bid because Bush hasn’t taken the oxygen out of the room, as had been anticipated.
After a six-month exploratory phase, Bush is set to formally launch his presidential bid in Miami on Monday amid stories about the weaknesses of his candidacy, a drop in poll numbers, and a shake-up of his staff. Meanwhile, Rubio and Walker are gaining attention and building momentum, unafraid to take swipes at Bush for his family fame or fortune as they go after Clinton.
Both are hoping to emerge as the candidate acceptable simultaneously to the moderate, establishment wing of the party and it’s more conservative Tea Party base.
Walker plays up his experience as a conservative governor who took on public employee unions in his blue state and won at the ballot box. He hopes his Midwestern appeal will pay off electorally but also politically, presenting himself as an unpretentious middle-class guy who shops at Kohl’s and rides Harley-Davidson motorcycles. Walker has taken more conservative stances while running for president, especially on immigration, gay marriage, and abortion – positions that could turn off more moderate Republicans and, potentially, cut into his electability argument.
“As Walker flexes his conservative muscle … he also risks being easily portrayed as 'out of touch' to the moderate voters needed to win next fall,” writes Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report.
Rubio’s sponsoring of a comprehensive immigration reform bill, which he later distanced himself from, could present some challenges among the conservative GOP base. Rubio has attempted to navigate the tricky waters of this issue by arguing for a border-security-first approach, while also talking about some kind of eventual path to citizenship for those in the country illegally. But Rubio has also turned some heads by agreeing to appear at the Family Leadership Summit in Iowa next month, which attracts the most conservative, evangelical-aligned activists in the state.
“The candidates, and the voters themselves, are still trying to figure out which one of them can beat Bush, and be an alternative to Bush,” says Jamie Burnett, a New Hampshire Republican consultant. “The question is, how [do] Rubio or Walker distinguish themselves from one another to take out Bush and win the nomination?”
While Walker and Rubio are making similar generational-contrast pitches, their backgrounds, current jobs, and paths forward are different, which will help determine which emerges as the more viable alternative — if at all.
For starters, their rivalry can be considered something of a proxy fight in the debate over which public office, governor or senator, is a more suitable a requisite for president, especially in an election cycle where both economic and foreign policy experience are of interest to the public.
Walker has played up his economic and executive experience and Rubio is positioning himself as the candidate best versed in foreign policy.
The Florida senator told the Des Moines Register in an April interview that governors “can certainly read about foreign policy, and take briefings and meet with experts, but there is no way they'll be ready on Day One to manage U.S. foreign policy."
Walker responded during a campaign stop in Iowa that same month by saying Rubio’s logic undermined the leadership abilities of Ronald Reagan, who served two terms as California governor before he became president, but never held office in Congress at all.
"I think governors innately have the ability to lead,” said Walker. “We are every day required to use our Cabinet to make decisions, not just give speeches, not to just travel to foreign places but to ultimately make decisions based on using top talent in our Cabinet and our management team.”
Beyond current positions, each is positioning himself in primary field differently. While Walker’s blue state credentials could make him acceptable to moderate Republicans, he is also tapping more into a conservative activist, and largely white, base that likes his Wisconsin record as a fighter.
Rubio, from the diverse and electorally rich Sunshine State, is appealing as a transformational candidate, one who advisers say has potential to reach beyond the GOP and appeal to independents and moderate-leaning Democrats. This week, for example, Rubio’s campaign sought to turn questions about his personal finances into a story line portraying him as an ordinary fellow with working-class values. And as a Cuban-American with a compelling biography, Rubio can wage a history-making campaign of his own to compete with Clinton’s.
Combined, their biographies make Walker and Rubio stronger together than individually, which is why they are often mentioned together when early-state voters run through their list of preferred candidates. “Walker's and Rubio’s strength lies, in large part, because they are each other's number two,” says one Iowa Republican operative. “More often than not, those two names are mentioned in tandem.”Described as the eighth wonder of the world by those who saw it, the Amber Room is certainly the most unique missing treasure in history.
It was an 11-foot-square hall consisting of large wall panels inlaid with several tons of superbly designed amber, large gold-leaf-edged mirrors, and four magnificent Florentine mosaics. Arranged in three tiers, the amber was inlaid with precious jewels, and glass display cases housed one of the most valuable collections of Prussian and Russian artwork ever assembled.
Created for Prussia's King Friedrich I and given to Russian czar Peter the Great in 1716, it was located at Catherine Palace, near St. Petersburg. Today, the Amber Room would be valued at more than $142 million.
When Adolf Hitler turned his Nazi war machine toward Russia, the keepers of the Amber Room got nervous. They tried to move it, but the amber began to crumble, so they tried to cover it with wallpaper. They were unsuccessful and when the Nazis stormed Leningrad (formerly called St. Petersburg) in October 1941, they claimed it and put it on display in Königsberg Castle during the remaining war years.
However, when Königsberg surrendered in April 1945, the fabled treasure was nowhere to be found. The Amber Room was never seen again. Did the Soviets unwittingly destroy their own treasure with bombs? Was it hidden in a now lost subterranean bunker outside the city? Or was it destroyed when Königsberg Castle burned shortly after the city surrendered?
We'll probably never know for sure. But fortunately for lovers of opulence, the Amber Room has been painstakingly recreated and is on display in Catherine Palace.Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – –
The leaked allegations supposedly from the CIA that Russian President Vladimir Putin “personally” directed how hacked emails from the Clinton campaign should be treated with a good deal of skepticism.
I have already said that the allegations of effective Russian interference in the US election do not make any sense to me. There is no point at which anything Russia is said to have done can be shown to have determined the election outcome.
The things that appear to have hurt Clinton late in the election were her “deplorables” comment about Trump supporters, and the Comey letter about the new emails the FBI had found on Anthony Weiner’s computer. Neither of these incidents had any Russian connection.
I don’t doubt that Russian intelligence was interested in sowing discord in the US around its election. I am saying that there is no evidence that it succeeded.
Moreover, John Podesta’s emails were not hacked. He fell for a phishing scheme in which he received a phony email asking for his login information, which he answered after a technical assistant incorrectly told him the email was legitimate (he meant to say illegitimate). The phishing scheme could easily have failed (never click on a link in your email and then enter sensitive information– open any login page you use manually so as to make sure you aren’t going to a spoofed address; and, first examine the address line from which the email originated; phonies can be easily spotted. People you deal with legitimately aren’t going to ask you for your login information–they already have that).
Then what?
A phishing scheme is more the speed of that fabled Nigerian prince-scammer than the president of the Russian Federation.
The perpetrators of the phishing scheme, moreover, were not Russian FSB intelligence. They were just a civilian gang that may or may not have been employed by the Russian government.
Given that no one can point to any specific incident or incidents in which the Podesta emails had a discernible effect on the election, there is little reason to blame the outcome of the election on Russia.
But the most recent psy-ops leaks, allegedly from the CIA, speak in loving detail of how Putin himself took control of the operation, as part of a longstanding vendetta against Sec. Clinton.
No new information is added by such an allegation of Putin’s personal involvement. If you said that the Russian government did it, you’d be saying Putin. The image being created, of Putin personally intervening in an American election, is intended to pull at heartstrings. It is propaganda via personalization and demonization.
Personalization and demonization are well-known Washington propaganda techniques.
At one point George W. Bush maintained that he had been right to overthrow Saddam Hussein of Iraq even though that country had not had any dangerous unconventional weapons. The reason? Saddam Hussein, he said, was “evil.”
The “evilness” of an opponent of US policy is metaphysical, and can be used to justify almost anything.
Back in 1953, Iran had a nationalist prime minister who wanted a fair share from BP of the money from sale of Iran’s own oil. His name, Mohammad Mosaddegh, showed his aristocratic lineage. The Eisenhower administration and the compliant Washington press corps waged a campaign of personal vilification against Mosaddegh, hinting around that he was a communist and a puppet of the Soviet Union. This was an aristocratic nationalist!
Demonizing Mosaddegh was a prelude to the CIA buying a crowd and overthrowing the elected prime minister of a major parliamentary country. It has never to this day recovered its democracy.
Hugo Chavez of Venezuela was also demonized.
So was Yasser Arafat. Salvador Allende of Chile.
Whenever the US intelligence agencies collaborate with mass media to throw up on the screen the face of a foreign leader, giving him devil’s horns and making his face red with the flames of hell, we have to take that depiction as a sign that they intend to do something to that country.
—–
Related video:
PBS NewsHour: “How Putin could have been involved in U.S. election disruption”Members of last year's Kansas football team that Charlie Weis called a "pile of crap" earlier this week could have taken offense at their former coach's assessment of them.
Instead, they wholeheartedly agreed.
Weis made the comments during Big 12 media day in Dallas this week, and defensive back Bradley McDougald and fullback Toben Opurum -- a captain on that Jayhawks team -- said Thursday they came up with the same evaluation of a team that finished 1-11 last year.
"I mean, that's what it was, truth be told," said Opurum, who along with McDougald is trying to make the Kansas City Chiefs as an undrafted free agent. "We didn't put out a good product on the field and he was just expressing how he feels about it.
"He may have been able to word it differently but that's the type of guy he is," Opurum added. "He's going to tell you straight forward. He's not going to beat around the bush."
There's no doubt about that.
Weis rarely spoke with a filter during his first season in Lawrence, offering brutally honest assessments of his struggling team on a weekly basis. If guys were blowing assignments, failing to hustle or even missing blocks, the longtime NFL assistant and former Notre Dame coach certainly wasn't going to hide his opinion of their performance.
So when he was asked in Dallas about how he's managed to recruit so well after beating only South Dakota State last season, Weis wasn't about to start varnishing his answers.
"Everyone wants to play. There's no one that wants to not play," Weis said, before recalling what he'd tell recruits. "I said, 'Have you looked at that pile of crap out there? Have you taken a look at that? So if you don't think you can play here, where do you think you can play?'
"It's a pretty simple approach," Weis said, "and that's not a sales pitch. That's practical. You've seen it, right? Unfortunately, so have I."
McDougald admitted that he was offended "to an extent," but said he didn't believe that Weis was disrespecting any of his players. The defensive back also pointed out that Kansas went 1-11 last season, "so it was a crap season."
"He's complimented me many times on my skill and me as a player," McDougald said, "so I can't really take too much offense to it because of what we produced last year."
Opurum brushed off the comments made by his former coach by saying that he's focused on his first NFL training camp, and making the transition from defensive end back to fullback.
"People have their opinions about that team. People have their opinions about him," Opurum said. "I'm up here with the Chiefs. I'm not with the KU football team anymore. If that's how he wants to speak about the team last year, that's perfectly fine."I’ll admit, I try a lot of shaving soaps and creams that a lot of people rave about, and a lot of the time I just don’t really see what they’re going on about. Once in a while, I do, and Penhaligon’s Blenheim Bouquet is one of those times.
It’s mainly a citrus scented soap, however after the first hit of the lemon and lime, it reveals a nice complex mix, tempered by lavender, and supported by pine, musk, and a bit of black pepper. I really really quite liked it.
The strength was great as well; not much fading, good strength throughout the shave.
The lather too was rather good. Relatively thirsty for a cream, once enough water was added it easily lathered up to a nice thick consistency with great glide. Rather voluminous as well. Nothing outstanding in the way of moisturization / skin care, bad or good. My only quibble would be that the stability could have been a bit better; it didn’t become unusable or anything, but the lather was visibly fading by the end of my shave.
10/10 Scent Pleasantness
9/10 Scent Strength
8/10 Lather Quality
Overall, I’m giving it a 9/10, and I think I’ll slot it in at #7 on the top ten list. Because, damn that stuff smelled nice. Seriously, I need to get the cologne. So… if anyone’s got a spare $120 kicking around, I’d really appreciate it!
Cost: I had a sample sent to me by a kindly redditor who wanted to know what I thought of the cream. For everyone else, however, I do recall Garry’s Sample Shop having had it in stock at one point, although he doesn’t right now, you might want to keep your eye there, and on the Wetshaving Sample Shoppe. Or, you could just go for it: 150 mL can be found for $45 in a travel tube or $55 in a glass jar, shipping included.
Gear used:
Ingredients: Aqua, stearic acid, myristic acid, glycerin, potassium hydroxide, coconut acid, glycol distearate, sodium C14-16 olefin sulfonate, parfum(fragrance), limonene, linalool, citral, phenoxyethanol, methylparaben, butylparaben, ethylparaben, isobutylparaben, propylparaben
AdvertisementsThere’s a new tool out that makes it easy for landlords to find out if one of their renters is listing an apartment on Airbnb, the room-renting company that recently overhauled its logo and transformed the Internet into giggling 10-year-olds.
It’s called Huntbnb, and using it merely requires you type in the address of one of your properties. Here, for example, is what showed up when I typed in the address of my building:
Airbnb doesn’t provide the exact address of a potential place to stay until you book it. Huntbnb, on the other hand, works by taking the location property owners type in. Its algorithm creates a geofence that encircles the pinned location, which unearths all the Airbnb properties listed within that radius. Afterward, those listings are further filtered out using the street name provided by the Airbnb lister.
The company has had its share of hurdles. In New York, for example, a third of New York City’s 19,522 Airbnb units are being rented out in an illegal manner. They’re effectively being listed as hotel rooms while the owners earn a handsome profit, without being present on the property.
Other times, though, landlords are just unhappy that their tenants are making a profit and allowing in a revolving door of visitors–such as when one of our editors got slapped with a restraining order for renting out his extra rooms.
In any case you can try Huntbnb out here.Linear gradients are easy to create in CSS and are extremely useful. As we'll go through in this article, we can make them visually much smoother by creating them with non-linear gradients. Well, non-linear in the easing sense, anyway!
Here's an example that shows how harsh a standard linear-gradient() can be compared to how smooth we can make it by easing it:
Screencap from "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" with gradients overlaid.
Il buono (the good): Smooth gradients in CSS that blends into their context.
Il cattivo (the bad): No text protection (bad accessibility).
Il brutto (the ugly): Standard linear gradients with sharp edges.
In this article, we'll focus on how we can turn Il brutto into Il buono.
The Frustrating Sharp Edges of background: linear-gradient()
Lately, I've been fiddling with gradients at work. I got frustrated with plain linear gradients because they looked like Il cattivo above.
/* Sharp edges :( */.image__text { background-image: linear-gradient( hsla(0, 0%, 0%, 0.6), transparent; ); }
I started looking into creating consistently more visually appealing gradients. More accurately, I quickly eyeballed some prettier-looking gradients as one-offs and then started tinkering when I got home.
Inspiration: Math and Physics
Since a gradient is a transition of color, I got inspired by how we approach transitions elsewhere.
I've always been fascinated by the The Euler (or Cornu) Spiral, which has a curvature that increases linearly with the curve length, i.e., as we walk along the line from (0, 0) the radius decreases linearly with how far we walk (since the curvature is the reciprocal of the radius).
The end result is a curve that transitions as smoothly as possible from a straight line to a curve. (Side note: straight lines in Euclidian space are curves with an infinite radius!)
Euler Spiral by AdiJapan, CC BY-SA 3.0
This type of curve is called a transition curve and is used in the real word. Next time when you exit a well-built highway, then notice how gradually you turn the steering wheel. We can thank Euler for keeping sudden changes in centripetal acceleration to an absolute minimum, i.e., his math is the reason the car doesn't flip over just as we exit the highway even at the highway speed limit.
The image below is an example of how gradual changes the changes are in the curvature of highways.
Intersection outside of Sagamihara, Japan by @digitalanthill
Inspiration: Typography
Type designers throughout history have been obsessed with smooth curves. We've done so because we don't want the letters and numbers to look like a combination of different shapes but in itself form a coherent shape.
It's why I've made the transition from a straight line to the circle in the "9" below as smooth as possible. It makes the number 9 read as a single shape and not a line plus a circle.
As type designers we have tools to help us achieve this. FontForge, an open source font editor, even has a Spiro/Euler drawing mode. One of the most popular type design extensions is Speed Punk, which visualizes the curvature.
Spiro mode in FontForge on the left and Speed Punk visualisation inside Glyphs on the right.
Inspiration: Design
Apple uses this approach to line-curve transitions heavily in both digital and hardware design departments. (See Apple's Icons Have That Shape for a Very Good Reason). When Apple launched iOS7, the icon masks were updated to have a much smoother transition from straight line to rounded corners.
Visualisation of the curvature of the iOS6 and iOS7 app icons.
(Side note: The iOS7 shape above is taken directly from Apple HIG, which unfortunately has some minor imperfections especially where the horizontal lines start curving. It's also sometimes known as a "Squircle".)
Inspiration: Web Design
In web design, we've been limited in some cases by what we're able to do. For example, border-radius doesn't offer any way to make a squircle like the iOS7 icon. Similarly with linear-gradient, there is no natural easings available.
However, we do have easings and bezier curves available in animations! They have enabled us to make animations look more natural, smooth, and subtle.
Screenshot from easings.net
Gradient Implications
Most times, in web design, we want the gradient to blend in as much as possible. When we have a text protection gradient like Il buono, we don't want the user to pay attention to the gradient itself. It should be rather invisible, thus, allowing the reader to focus on the image and text.
Scrim
In Material Design style guidelines for images, the designers at Google talk about text protection gradients. They call them a scrim. They recommend:
[the] gradient should be long… with the center point about 3/10 towards the darker side of the gradient. This gives the gradient a natural falloff and avoids a sharp edge.
A scrim according to Material Design guidelines
We can't create exactly that with linear gradients, but we can (and will) create a "low poly" approximation with more color stops.
A scrim with 5 color stops to show the principle
Using only 5 color stops (like in the illustration above) would create some serious banding. Adding more stops makes the gradient a lot smoother. This is exactly what I've done in the demo you saw in the first image in this article. Il buono has a 13 color-stop gradient, which makes it blend nicer into the image.
See the Pen The Good, The Bad & The Ugly - correct text by Andreas Larsen (@larsenwork) on CodePen.
Compared to the Material Design scrim, I've tweaked it to be a bit more linear in the beginning to achieve higher text contrast and gave it a smoother fade out.
Comparison between the Material Design scrim and mine drawn using 13 color stops.
If we compare the Material Design scrim to a plain linear gradient, then it will have to be ~60% longer to achieve the same half way contrast whereas my attempt only has to be ~30% longer. The idea is to avoid darkening more of the image than necessary but still blend in smoothly with it.
The two scrims compared to a plain linear gradient
I've chosen not to include the Material Design scrim as it's almost identical to the prettier easeOutSine. We can compare how linear-gradient, my scrim-gradient and ease-out-sine-gradient looks here:
Blending Both Ends
In the scrim example, we only need to blend one end as the other ends with the image. Sometimes, we need to blend in at both ends, and that's where the easing |
clearly had the strongest presentation. Unfortunately, overhead PA systems made audio pickup problematic.
Just a reminder: I am posting pictures of these interviews, as well as other things, on Twitter.Intro Reference Guide Book Install Guide Download Changelog Zenmap GUI Docs Bug Reports OS Detection Propaganda Related Projects In the Movies In the News
Nmap Network Scanning Firewall/IDS Evasion and Spoofing Chapter 15. Nmap Reference Guide Firewall/IDS Evasion and Spoofing Many Internet pioneers envisioned a global open network with a universal IP address space allowing virtual connections between any two nodes. This allows hosts to act as true peers, serving and retrieving information from each other. People could access all of their home systems from work, changing the climate control settings or unlocking the doors for early guests. This vision of universal connectivity has been stifled by address space shortages and security concerns. In the early 1990s, organizations began deploying firewalls for the express purpose of reducing connectivity. Huge networks were cordoned off from the unfiltered Internet by application proxies, network address translation, and packet filters. The unrestricted flow of information gave way to tight regulation of approved communication channels and the content that passes over them. Network obstructions such as firewalls can make mapping a network exceedingly difficult. It will not get any easier, as stifling casual reconnaissance is often a key goal of implementing the devices. Nevertheless, Nmap offers many features to help understand these complex networks, and to verify that filters are working as intended. It even supports mechanisms for bypassing poorly implemented defenses. One of the best methods of understanding your network security posture is to try to defeat it. Place yourself in the mind-set of an attacker, and deploy techniques from this section against your networks. Launch an FTP bounce scan, idle scan, fragmentation attack, or try to tunnel through one of your own proxies. In addition to restricting network activity, companies are increasingly monitoring traffic with intrusion detection systems (IDS). All of the major IDSs ship with rules designed to detect Nmap scans because scans are sometimes a precursor to attacks. Many of these products have recently morphed into intrusion prevention systems (IPS) that actively block traffic deemed malicious. Unfortunately for network administrators and IDS vendors, reliably detecting bad intentions by analyzing packet data is a tough problem. Attackers with patience, skill, and the help of certain Nmap options can usually pass by IDSs undetected. Meanwhile, administrators must cope with large numbers of false positive results where innocent activity is misdiagnosed and alerted on or blocked. Occasionally people suggest that Nmap should not offer features for evading firewall rules or sneaking past IDSs. They argue that these features are just as likely to be misused by attackers as used by administrators to enhance security. The problem with this logic is that these methods would still be used by attackers, who would just find other tools or patch the functionality into Nmap. Meanwhile, administrators would find it that much harder to do their jobs. Deploying only modern, patched FTP servers is a far more powerful defense than trying to prevent the distribution of tools implementing the FTP bounce attack. There is no magic bullet (or Nmap option) for detecting and subverting firewalls and IDS systems. It takes skill and experience. A tutorial is beyond the scope of this reference guide, which only lists the relevant options and describes what they do. -f (fragment packets); --mtu (using the specified MTU) (fragment packets);(using the specified MTU) The -f option causes the requested scan (including ping scans) to use tiny fragmented IP packets. The idea is to split up the TCP header over several packets to make it harder for packet filters, intrusion detection systems, and other annoyances to detect what you are doing. Be careful with this! Some programs have trouble handling these tiny packets. The old-school sniffer named Sniffit segmentation faulted immediately upon receiving the first fragment. Specify this option once, and Nmap splits the packets into eight bytes or less after the IP header. So a 20-byte TCP header would be split into three packets. Two with eight bytes of the TCP header, and one with the final four. Of course each fragment also has an IP header. Specify -f again to use 16 bytes per fragment (reducing the number of fragments). Or you can specify your own offset size with the --mtu option. Don't also specify -f if you use --mtu. The offset must be a multiple of eight. While fragmented packets won't get by packet filters and firewalls that queue all IP fragments, such as the CONFIG_IP_ALWAYS_DEFRAG option in the Linux kernel, some networks can't afford the performance hit this causes and thus leave it disabled. Others can't enable this because fragments may take different routes into their networks. Some source systems defragment outgoing packets in the kernel. Linux with the iptables connection tracking module is one such example. Do a scan while a sniffer such as Wireshark is running to ensure that sent packets are fragmented. If your host OS is causing problems, try the --send-eth option to bypass the IP layer and send raw ethernet frames. Fragmentation is only supported for Nmap's raw packet features, which includes TCP and UDP port scans (except connect scan and FTP bounce scan) and OS detection. Features such as version detection and the Nmap Scripting Engine generally don't support fragmentation because they rely on your host's TCP stack to communicate with target services. -D <decoy1> [, <decoy2> ][,ME ][,... ] (Cloak a scan with decoys) (Cloak a scan with decoys) Causes a decoy scan to be performed, which makes it appear to the remote host that the host(s) you specify as decoys are scanning the target network too. Thus their IDS might report 5–10 port scans from unique IP addresses, but they won't know which IP was scanning them and which were innocent decoys. While this can be defeated through router path tracing, response-dropping, and other active mechanisms, it is generally an effective technique for hiding your IP address. Separate each decoy host with commas, and you can optionally use ME as one of the decoys to represent the position for your real IP address. If you put ME in the sixth position or later, some common port scan detectors (such as Solar Designer's excellent Scanlogd) are unlikely to show your IP address at all. If you don't use ME, Nmap will put you in a random position. You can also use RND to generate a random, non-reserved IP address, or RND: <number> to generate <number> addresses. Note that the hosts you use as decoys should be up or you might accidentally SYN flood your targets. Also it will be pretty easy to determine which host is scanning if only one is actually up on the network. You might want to use IP addresses instead of names (so the decoy networks don't see you in their nameserver logs). Right now random IP address generation is only supported with IPv4 Decoys are used both in the initial ping scan (using ICMP, SYN, ACK, or whatever) and during the actual port scanning phase. Decoys are also used during remote OS detection ( -O ). Decoys do not work with version detection or TCP connect scan. When a scan delay is in effect, the delay is enforced between each batch of spoofed probes, not between each individual probe. Because decoys are sent as a batch all at once, they may temporarily violate congestion control limits. It is worth noting that using too many decoys may slow your scan and potentially even make it less accurate. Also, some ISPs will filter out your spoofed packets, but many do not restrict spoofed IP packets at all. -S <IP_Address> (Spoof source address) (Spoof source address) In some circumstances, Nmap may not be able to determine your source address (Nmap will tell you if this is the case). In this situation, use -S with the IP address of the interface you wish to send packets through. Another possible use of this flag is to spoof the scan to make the targets think that someone else is scanning them. Imagine a company being repeatedly port scanned by a competitor! The -e option and -Pn are generally required for this sort of usage. Note that you usually won't receive reply packets back (they will be addressed to the IP you are spoofing), so Nmap won't produce useful reports. -e <interface> (Use specified interface) (Use specified interface) Tells Nmap what interface to send and receive packets on. Nmap should be able to detect this automatically, but it will tell you if it cannot. --source-port <portnumber> ; -g <portnumber> (Spoof source port number) (Spoof source port number) One surprisingly common misconfiguration is to trust traffic based only on the source port number. It is easy to understand how this comes about. An administrator will set up a shiny new firewall, only to be flooded with complaints from ungrateful users whose applications stopped working. In particular, DNS may be broken because the UDP DNS replies from external servers can no longer enter the network. FTP is another common example. In active FTP transfers, the remote server tries to establish a connection back to the client to transfer the requested file. Secure solutions to these problems exist, often in the form of application-level proxies or protocol-parsing firewall modules. Unfortunately there are also easier, insecure solutions. Noting that DNS replies come from port 53 and active FTP from port 20, many administrators have fallen into the trap of simply allowing incoming traffic from those ports. They often assume that no attacker would notice and exploit such firewall holes. In other cases, administrators consider this a short-term stop-gap measure until they can implement a more secure solution. Then they forget the security upgrade. Overworked network administrators are not the only ones to fall into this trap. Numerous products have shipped with these insecure rules. Even Microsoft has been guilty. The IPsec filters that shipped with Windows 2000 and Windows XP contain an implicit rule that allows all TCP or UDP traffic from port 88 (Kerberos). In another well-known case, versions of the Zone Alarm personal firewall up to 2.1.25 allowed any incoming UDP packets with the source port 53 (DNS) or 67 (DHCP). Nmap offers the -g and --source-port options (they are equivalent) to exploit these weaknesses. Simply provide a port number and Nmap will send packets from that port where possible. Most scanning operations that use raw sockets, including SYN and UDP scans, support the option completely. The option notably doesn't have an effect for any operations that use normal operating system sockets, including DNS requests, TCP connect scan, version detection, and script scanning. Setting the source port also doesn't work for OS detection, because Nmap must use different port numbers for certain OS detection tests to work properly. --data <hex string> (Append custom binary data to sent packets) (Append custom binary data to sent packets) This option lets you include binary data as payload in sent packets. <hex string> may be specified in any of the following formats: 0xAABBCCDDEEFF <...>, AABBCCDDEEFF <...> or \xAA\xBB\xCC\xDD\xEE\xFF <...>. Examples of use are --data 0xdeadbeef and --data \xCA\xFE\x09. Note that if you specify a number like 0x00ff no byte-order conversion is performed. Make sure you specify the information in the byte order expected by the receiver. --data-string <string> (Append custom string to sent packets) (Append custom string to sent packets) This option lets you include a regular string as payload in sent packets. <string> can contain any string. However, note that some characters may depend on your system's locale and the receiver may not see the same information. Also, make sure you enclose the string in double quotes and escape any special characters from the shell. Examples: --data-string "Scan conducted by Security Ops, extension 7192" or --data-string "Ph34r my l33t skills". Keep in mind that nobody is likely to actually see any comments left by this option unless they are carefully monitoring the network with a sniffer or custom IDS rules. --data-length <number> (Append random data to sent packets) (Append random data to sent packets) Normally Nmap sends minimalist packets containing only a header. So its TCP packets are generally 40 bytes and ICMP echo requests are just 28. Some UDP ports and IP protocols get a custom payload by default. This option tells Nmap to append the given number of random bytes to most of the packets it sends, and not to use any protocol-specific payloads. (Use --data-length 0 for no random or protocol-specific payloads. OS detection ( -O ) packets are not affected because accuracy there requires probe consistency, but most pinging and portscan packets support this. It slows things down a little, but can make a scan slightly less conspicuous. --ip-options <S|R [route]|L [route]|T|U... > ; --ip-options <hex string> (Send packets with specified ip options) (Send packets with specified ip options) The IP protocol offers several options which may be placed in packet headers. Unlike the ubiquitous TCP options, IP options are rarely seen due to practicality and security concerns. In fact, many Internet routers block the most dangerous options such as source routing. Yet options can still be useful in some cases for determining and manipulating the network route to target machines. For example, you may be able to use the record route option to determine a path to a target even when more traditional traceroute-style approaches fail. Or if your packets are being dropped by a certain firewall, you may be able to specify a different route with the strict or loose source routing options. The most powerful way to specify IP options is to simply pass in values as the argument to --ip-options. Precede each hex number with \x then the two digits. You may repeat certain characters by following them with an asterisk and then the number of times you wish them to repeat. For example, \x01\x07\x04\x00*36\x01 is a hex string containing 36 NUL bytes. Nmap also offers a shortcut mechanism for specifying options. Simply pass the letter R, T, or U to request record-route, record-timestamp, or both options together, respectively. Loose or strict source routing may be specified with an L or S followed by a space and then a space-separated list of IP addresses. If you wish to see the options in packets sent and received, specify --packet-trace. For more information and examples of using IP options with Nmap, see http://seclists.org/nmap-dev/2006/q3/52. --ttl <value> (Set IP time-to-live field) (Set IP time-to-live field) Sets the IPv4 time-to-live field in sent packets to the given value. --randomize-hosts (Randomize target host order) (Randomize target host order) Tells Nmap to shuffle each group of up to 16384 hosts before it scans them. This can make the scans less obvious to various network monitoring systems, especially when you combine it with slow timing options. If you want to randomize over larger group sizes, increase PING_GROUP_SZ in nmap.h and recompile. An alternative solution is to generate the target IP list with a list scan ( -sL -n -oN <filename> ), randomize it with a Perl script, then provide the whole list to Nmap with -iL. --spoof-mac <MAC address, prefix, or vendor name> (Spoof MAC address) (Spoof MAC address) Asks Nmap to use the given MAC address for all of the raw ethernet frames it sends. This option implies --send-eth to ensure that Nmap actually sends ethernet-level packets. The MAC given can take several formats. If it is simply the number 0, Nmap chooses a completely random MAC address for the session. If the given string is an even number of hex digits (with the pairs optionally separated by a colon), Nmap will use those as the MAC. If fewer than 12 hex digits are provided, Nmap fills in the remainder of the six bytes with random values. If the argument isn't a zero or hex string, Nmap looks through nmap-mac-prefixes to find a vendor name containing the given string (it is case insensitive). If a match is found, Nmap uses the vendor's OUI (three-byte prefix) and fills out the remaining three bytes randomly. Valid --spoof-mac argument examples are Apple, 0, 01:02:03:04:05:06, deadbeefcafe, 0020F2, and Cisco. This option only affects raw packet scans such as SYN scan or OS detection, not connection-oriented features such as version detection or the Nmap Scripting Engine. --proxies <Comma-separated list of proxy URLs> (Relay TCP connections through a chain of proxies) (Relay TCP connections through a chain of proxies) Asks Nmap to establish TCP connections with a final target through supplied chain of one or more HTTP or SOCKS4 proxies. Proxies can help hide the true source of a scan or evade certain firewall restrictions, but they can hamper scan performance by increasing latency. Users may need to adjust Nmap timeouts and other scan parameters accordingly. In particular, a lower --max-parallelism may help because some proxies refuse to handle as many concurrent connections as Nmap opens by default. This option takes a list of proxies as argument, expressed as URLs in the format proto://host:port. Use commas to separate node URLs in a chain. No authentication is supported yet. Valid protocols are HTTP and SOCKS4. Warning: this feature is still under development and has limitations. It is implemented within the nsock library and thus has no effect on the ping, port scanning and OS discovery phases of a scan. Only NSE and version scan benefit from this option so far—other features may disclose your true address. SSL connections are not yet supported, nor is proxy-side DNS resolution (hostnames are always resolved by Nmap). --badsum (Send packets with bogus TCP/UDP checksums) (Send packets with bogus TCP/UDP checksums) Asks Nmap to use an invalid TCP, UDP or SCTP checksum for packets sent to target hosts. Since virtually all host IP stacks properly drop these packets, any responses received are likely coming from a firewall or IDS that didn't bother to verify the checksum. For more details on this technique, see https://nmap.org/p60-12.html --adler32 (Use deprecated Adler32 instead of CRC32C for SCTP checksums) (Use deprecated Adler32 instead of CRC32C for SCTP checksums) Asks Nmap to use the deprecated Adler32 algorithm for calculating the SCTP checksum. If --adler32 is not given, CRC-32C (Castagnoli) is used. RFC 2960 originally defined Adler32 as checksum algorithm for SCTP; RFC 4960 later redefined the SCTP checksums to use CRC-32C. Current SCTP implementations should be using CRC-32C, but in order to elicit responses from old, legacy SCTP implementations, it may be preferable to use Adler32.Steve Bannon, Jared Kushner, and Stephen Miller. Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
If the White House were anthropomorphic tableware (why not?), it would be an extremely leaky, fractious teacup. There would be a tempest inside it. And if that’s too many metaphors for you, you’re also probably not crazy about the multitude of voices and perspectives that are, according to some people (but not all people) warring within the West Wing and then dribbling out to the rest of us in the form of disembodied mutterings.
Donald Trump’s aides—the most high profile of whom are, at the moment I’m writing this sentence, Jared Kushner, Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller, Reince Priebus, and Ivanka Trump—famously bicker with each other, so much so that “the White House” is now a meaningless metonym. The Trump administration doesn’t speak with one voice. It talks over and around itself and up and down and sideways. When the White House is a set of anonymous-quote–spewing rival factions, you need to do some extra work to figure out where your news is coming from.
How can you tell which Trump adviser delivered which unattributed comment? Follow along with us below, but be warned that we’re providing this information only on deep, deep background.
Level One: Steve Bannon
Good news, beginners: A Bannon quote is pretty easy to spot. When he’s on the record, Trump’s bellicose chief strategist speaks in jargon befitting a student of ancient martial historians and fascist philosophers. He has vowed to fight for “the deconstruction of the administrative state.” He has invoked “Judeo-Christian values” as the answer to a “metastasizing” “Islamic fascist” movement.
When Trump removed Bannon from the National Security Council in early April, Rosie Gray at the Atlantic reported that “a senior White House official cast the move as not a demotion for Bannon,” but as a strategic rearrangement of key pieces on the administration’s chess board. Bannon’s role on the committee, this source continued, was to “de-operationalize” the changes wrought by former National Security Adviser Susan Rice. “Job done,” the source told Gray.
Sussing out that this “senior White House official” was Bannon himself would have been easy even if the Washington Post hadn’t lifted the veil of anonymity hours later. One tell was that the quote advanced a narrative favorable to Bannon, a guy who is not, shall we say, well-liked. The bigger signal was the source’s use of a conspiratorial, faux-intellectual, mostly nonsensical word. Reince Priebus has never de-operationalized anything in his life.
Likewise, consider the line “You’ll see the setting of the predicate,” uttered anonymously to the New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza before the House Intelligence Committee held its first public hearing on Russian intervention in the election. The statement is confusing and arcane as a piece of rhetoric. It also presumes there’s some kind of deep tactical framework for what should be a straightforward procedure. That sounds a lot like Bannon.
My colleague Ben Mathis-Lilley also pegs the chief strategist, a former investment banker with ties to the city of stars, as a font of “corny Hollywood pitch language.” Mathis-Lilley pointed me to the below quote from a New Yorker article on a brewing showdown between Congress and the White House:
“Next week is going to have quite high drama,” a top White House official, who sounded excited by the coming clash, told me. “It’s going to be action-packed. This one is not getting as much attention, but, trust me, it’s going to be the battle of the titans. And the great irony here is that the call for the government shutdown will come on—guess what?—the hundredth day. If you pitched this in a studio, they would say, ‘Get out of here, it’s too ridiculous.’ This is going to be a big one.”
The gleeful pugnacity, the instinct for theater, the tendency to see the world in terms of grand contests, the references to film studios, the fact that this would make for a very bad movie—this is pure Bannon. The alternate theory, that the quote sprang from Trump himself, is undermined by its general coherence, its quasi-erudite titan metaphor, and the deployment of the word irony, which may not exist in Trump’s vocabulary.
Level Two: Jared Kushner
Given that he texts and meets regularly with Matt Drudge and Joe Scarborough, there are whispers that Trump’s son-in-law helped shape negative coverage of his rivals on the Drudge Report and MSNBC. How can you tell, though, if a specific behind-the-scenes soundbite is coming from Ivanka Trump’s husband? Unattributed quotes tend to betray Kushner in two ways: They cull language from the world of business, and they evince a minimizing attitude toward his White House antagonists. Take this nugget of sabotage, from Vanity Fair, in which the anonymous speaker claims to speak for the president and uses the phrase “sustainable strategy”:
He [Bannon] is very talented at making himself seem the hero of the conservatives who elected Donald Trump … it’s a very smart thing to do on his part, but ultimately it’s not a sustainable strategy for him. The president sees through that kind of thing, and he’s aware of what’s happening … the reality is, if he keeps this up he’s not going to be here.
It seems probable that Kushner or someone in his personal junta leaked to Politico that Bannon was not as accepting of his National Security Council eviction as he claimed publicly—that, in fact, megadonor Rebekah Mercer had to persuade him to stay on at the West Wing. Kushner may have also told the Times that Trump resented Bannon’s fanatical advocacy for the Muslim ban, a measure that became an early stain on the president’s record.
He is also likely the adviser who said this to the Washington Post:
We [the Trump administration] chose to hire a lot of alphas. People in politics are insecure and will either adapt to the fact that this is an entrepreneurial White House and survive, or they won’t. The cream will rise and the [expletive] will sink.
Kushner “often talks about the presidency like it’s a business, describing it privately as ‘entrepreneurial’ and in ‘beta mode,’ ” according to Politico. He stands to benefit both from downplaying the palace intrigue and casting his (winning) side as the “cream.” And he can be ruthless, even coarse, behind closed doors.
Back in January, an unnamed adviser told Chris Cillizza that “a little bit of undercompetence and a slight amount of insecurity can breed some paranoia and backstabbing.” The source added, “We have to get [White House chief of staff] Reince [Priebus] to relax into the job and become more competent, because he’s seeing shadows where there are no shadows.” Though Priebus has sparred with Bannon, this quote murmurs “Kushner,” tempering casual, dispassionate cruelty (a measure of stupidity and a bit of self-doubt will naturally produce bad behavior) with a manager’s desire to optimize his staff’s performance. The quote is not personal; it is a diagnosis. Also, Bannon would never deny the existence of plotting “shadows.”
Level Three: Donald Trump
On one hand, the president hates anonymous quotes. He told the Conservative Political Action Conference in March that the “fake news … shouldn’t be allowed to use sources unless they use somebody’s name.” On the other hand, the president loves anonymous quotes. Less than a week after his statement to CPAC, Trump asked one of his primo “fake news” outlets, CNN, to identify him as “a senior administration official.” “There’s got to be a coming together,” this senior administration official said to a quorum of TV anchors. “The time is right for an immigration bill as long as there is compromise on both sides.”
It is not the most Trumpian of statements. (It doesn’t mention his Electoral College victory once!) But we know it emanated from presidential lips because, despite Trump’s earlier instructions, the White House put his comments on the record later that day.
In any case, closer inspection does reveal a few POTUS–y flourishes. When he’s feeling evasive, Trump likes to divest sentences of their subjects. There’s got to be a coming together. Of whom? How? As long as there is compromise. Between whom? Where? He tends to pair a strong statement with a slippery qualifier: The time is right … provided a 40-page rider of terms and conditions are agreed upon and met. Those terms and conditions are vague, too, and include weird redundancies: What kind of “compromise” doesn’t involve “both sides”?
Also, watch out for the pseudonyms “John Baron” and “John Miller.” As the Washington Post reported in 2016, these factotums have miraculously appeared in the press to defend Trump’s business exploits and vaunt his romantic desirability. If someone named John is losing his mind in print about the president’s decision-making prowess, wealth, business achievements, and/or sexual conquests, it is probably our commander-in-chief.
Level Four: Stephen Miller
When a judge blocked the Trump administration’s first travel ban, Miller went on the record to express his displeasure. “The whole world will soon see that [the president’s power] will not be questioned,” he fumed on Face the Nation. Scary!
Now compare a recent release from the White House press office, a response to a “San Francisco judge’s” unfavorable-to-Trump ruling on sanctuary cities. “Today, the rule of law suffered another blow, as an unelected judge unilaterally rewrote immigration policy for our Nation,” the statement went. “San Francisco, and cities like it, are putting the well-being of criminal aliens before the safety of our citizens, and those city officials who authored these policies have the blood of dead Americans on their hands.”
Border control is Miller’s dearest concern, so any language in a White House notice on immigration probably emerged from his brain. These remarks are (stealthy) twins. They both ignore the technical nuances that inform judicial outcomes and exude a florid, unsophisticated patriotism. This is the work of a hyperconservative college-newspaper op-ed columnist, perhaps one who went to Duke.
Level Five: Ivanka Trump
Now the game has gotten tougher. While Ivanka’s verbal idiosyncrasies aren’t all that difficult to pick out, she seems to leak fewer anonymous quotes. My colleague Jessica Winter does have a helpful hint, though, for descrying Trump’s fanciest, sneakiest adviser:
This is 100% Ivanka, she loves to say "if you will" https://t.co/RwVTVBr1ra pic.twitter.com/IjWW1ihcU2 — Jessica Winter (@winterjessica) April 16, 2017
The president’s silver-tongued daughter tends to speak in the melodious, lavish tones of ad copy. She will say numerous rather than many. (“I needed to divest with numerous businesses.”) She never omits words. (“I would ask them if that [criticizing my father] would render me more effective or less effective with the people ultimately making decisions.”) She piles on superfluous but elegant descriptors as if carpeting a floor in an array of soft fabrics. (She told Gayle King she expresses herself in the White House “quietly and directly and candidly.”) Her diction inclines toward the corporate-aspirational. (“We are all working hard at architecting the lives that we want to live and the lives that are consistent with our personal priorities.”)
So was it Ivanka who reproached the advisers bringing their “breathtaking personal agendas” with them to the White House? (The term breathtaking seems on-brand.) Was it she who indicted these turncoats’ willingness to “malign” her father’s inner circle? (She’s subtly disposed to petulance; it’s a trait she comes by honestly.)
Welcome to the boss fight. Priebus’ speech has no distinguishing features. The former chairman of the Republican National Committee is an establishment mascot, the party line made flesh. Here is something he said about incognito remarks in February: “I think that the media should stop with this unnamed-source stuff. Put names on a piece of paper and print it. If people aren’t willing to put their name next to a quote, then the quote shouldn’t be listed.”
Shockingly, Priebus himself has served as a sub rosa informant: The Washington Post revealed in March that after Trump chewed out his aides in the Oval Office, the chief of staff spent an hour “calling reporters off the record to deny that the outburst actually happened.” Priebus failed in his mission and doesn’t appear to have been ventriloquized anonymously before the real story came to light. Perhaps that’s because he wasn’t telling the truth. Or maybe his quotes were so boring that even seasoned political journalists couldn’t stay awake long enough to transcribe them.More than a dozen Syrian rebel factions have thrown their weight behind a proposed plan to create a single "national army" to unify the fractured opposition movement.
More than a dozen Syrian rebel factions have thrown their weight behind a proposed plan to create a single "national army" to unify the fractured opposition movement.
The idea was proposed earlier this week by the opposition's interim government in exile and by the Syrian Islamic Council (SIC), a body of Syrian Muslim clerics established in 2014 in Turkey.
"We must end the fractured state we are now facing and unify ranks," said the SIC, calling on rebels "to form one revolutionary army".
The interim government said the unified structure would "bring the downfall of the criminal regime".
By Friday, more than a dozen factions had backed the idea, including the prominent Islamist group Ahrar al-Sham and Turkish-backed rebels.
"We announce our support for the initiative launched by the SIC calling for a united national army," read a joint statement by Ankara-backed groups including the Mutasem Brigades.
Ahrar al-Sham said it was "ready to take all necessary steps to see the initiative succeed".
Since Syria's uprising broke out in March 2011, its various rebel components have tried and failed several times to form a lasting, unified front against President Bashar al-Assad.
In addition to losing territory to Assad's army, rebels have also clashed with jihadists from the Islamic State group and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.
That feeling of isolation may have pushed rebels to back this particular plan, said Charles Lister, an expert on Syria's rebel movement at the Middle East Institute.
"The only reason to say this might be different is because the opposition's situation is much more desperate than ever before," Lister told AFP on Friday.
"This is the only option they have left if they have any hope to be seen as legitimate."
Lister said idea was "very, very much a Turkish initiative" but had gained traction in recent weeks.
In particular, he added, rebels want to demonstrate to the international community that there were alternatives in Syria to Assad loyalists on one hand and jihadists on the other.A German soldier suspected of planning a terror attack has been arrested, prosecutors in Frankfurt said on Thursday.
The 28-year-old, whose name was not provided due to privacy laws, was arrested by police during training at the Bundeswehr base in Hammelburg, Bavaria. Police also searched 16 locations in Germany, Austria and France that yielded evidence.
Investigators believe the lieutenant was motivated by a "xenophobic background" to plan an attack, possibly on migrants and refugees.
Prosecutors said the man hid a loaded weapon in a bathroom at Vienna airport in January. He was then briefly arrested by Austrian police when he returned in February to retrieve it.
They later released the soldier due to insufficient evidence. However, the suspect's fingerprints indicated he had in late 2015 used an alias to falsely register as a Syrian refugee in Germany. In early 2016, he applied for asylum. He was subsequently granted accommodation and even received aid money.
Watch video 12:02 Share Germany in the Crosshairs of Terrorism Send Facebook google+ Whatsapp Tumblr linkedin stumble Digg reddit Newsvine Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/2ZUib Germany in the Crosshairs of Terrorism
The soldier apparently didn't attract the attention of authorities, even though he spoke French but no Arabic. During this time he was stationed in Illkich, France, where there is a joint German-French brigade.
Prosecutors believe the soldier planned to use the weapon from the Vienna airport to carry out a "serious state criminal offense." The weapon was illegal and not obtained from the Bundeswehr.
Police also arrested a 24-year-old student in the soldier's home town of Offenbach, near Frankfurt. Authorities believe he has a far-right extremist background and found items prohibited under weapons and explosives laws in his home.
Investigators are uncertain about all motives, but they have not ruled out the two men sought to carry out an attack in order to blame it on refugees.
The Military Counterintelligence Service (MAD) is currently investigating 275 cases of right-wing extremism within the Bundeswehr, in addition to dozens of cases of suspected radical Islamists and left-wing extremists.
cw/rt (AFP, dpa)An icy blast is due to hit Dundee in the middle of summer as the Disney Sing-a-long-a Frozen tour descends on the city.
With a fancy dress parade the show is expected to whip up a snowstorm in the when it comes to the Rep on Friday July 24.
Audience members are being asked to “Let it Go” and sing along with Elsa and Anna over two showings at 11am and 3pm.
Disney’s Frozen quickly became a global success and one of the biggest animated films.
The tale follows fearless optimist Anna who sets off on an journey to find her sister Elsa whose icy powers have trapped the kingdom of Arendelle in eternal winter.
Tickets are on sale at Dundee Rep box office 01382 223530 or online www.dundeerep.co.uk.“It hasn’t been a great start to the season,” Adelaide United coach Guillermo Amor said on December 6, and no-one was falling over themselves to contradict him. Adelaide were winless from the season’s first eight rounds and if buzzards weren’t exactly circling they were undergoing final safety checks before take of.
Amor, however, seemed calmer than he had any right to be. Reading aloud from the ‘Bumper Book of Coaching Cliches’ he recited the bit about his team being positive, about them playing well despite the results, about their confidence not being down despite everything, blah, blah, blah. Like a Johnny Depp-Amber Heard bio-security address, no-one was buying it, surely?
David Squires on... the 2016 A-League grand final Read more
Well, no-one apart from his players, it seems. After Amor’s comments his team went on the kind of come-from-behind run racehorses tell their grandfoals about. And after losing just one of their final 19 regular-season games Adelaide – whose early exit from the Asian Champions League was a blessing in disguise – dipped their heads and crossed the post in first place, pipping the Wanderers and Brisbane to the Premiers Plate. Then they promptly ate their cake off it. Now they’re on the verge of a most remarkable A-League double. Judging by the way they put Melbourne City to the sword last Friday night they are not yet sated. There’s a cherry to eat.
Standing in their way, of course, are the Wanderers who, but for a single point – dropped along the way like that five cent piece you don’t need until you’re at the cash register and five cents short – could have |
. And at this point, the term “graphic novel” essentially became synonymous with comics, and fans began to say, “They’re not comics — they’re graphic novels.” As if this meant that the six-issue collection of The White Goo of Spider-Man simply had to be respected the same way Watchmen or Will Eisner’s work was.
In this way, the term was drained of its original implications of literary quality, simultaneous with its employment as a signifier for precisely this.
To be continued."The vulnerability we discovered allows for a man-in-the-middle attacker to execute arbitrary code as the highly privileged Android'system' user," researchers say.
Millions of Xiaomi smartphones are vulnerable to a dangerous remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability that could grant attackers complete control of handsets.The vulnerability, now patched, exists in MIUI – Xiaomi's own implementation of the Android operating system – in versions prior to MIUI Global Stable 7.2 which is based on Android 6.0.The flaw, discovered by IBM X-Force researcher David Kaplan, potentially allows attackers with privileged network access, such as cafe Wi-Fi, to install malware remotely on the affected devices and fully compromise them.Researchers found some apps in the analytics package in MIUI, which can be abused to provide malicious ROM updates remotely through a man-in-the-middle attack.Researchers say they discovered vulnerable analytics packages in at least four default apps provided by Xiaomi in its MIUI distributions, one of those apps being the default browser app.The flaw allows an attacker to inject a JSON response to force an update by replacing the link and MD5 hash with a malicious Android application package containing malicious code, which is executed at the system level.Since there is not any cryptographic verification of the update code, the analytics package (com.xiaomi.analytics) will replace itself with "In order words, the analytics package neither uses HTTPS to query an update server for updates, nor it downloads the package over HTTPS, thus allowing attackers to modify the updates.The custom ROM ships on devices manufactured by developer Xiaomi – World's third largest smartphone maker with over 70 Million devices shipped just last year alone – and is also ported to over 340 different handsets including Nexus, Samsung, and HTC.Since the company has patched the flaw and released a over-the-air update, users are strongly recommended to update their firmware to version 7.2 as soon as possible in order to ensure they are not vulnerable to this issue that plagues Millions of Xiaomi devices.Is achieving financial freedom an important goal in your life?
If it is, don’t follow the conventional wisdom of buying the most expensive house you can afford.
Sure, by buying the biggest house you can afford you can grow into it, live in it longer and maybe even avoid a costly trade up in a few years. Fair enough.
But when it comes to achieving financial freedom, buying the most expensive house you can afford is the exact opposite of what you want to do.
In fact it can be said that the more expensive your home is the less chance you have of ever attaining financial freedom.
Expensive homes and financial freedom are what you might call “mutually exclusive”—having one reduces your chance of getting the other.
How could that be?
A house determines general consumption patterns
Most homebuyer’s hyper-focus on monthly payment as the main barometer of affordability. But owning a certain home is about so much more than the mortgage payment.
The more expensive the home, the more it costs for everything connected to it. That includes property taxes, insurance, utilities and maintenance of course, but there’s even more.
The type of home you live in often determines the kind of car you drive, the clothes you buy, the vacations you take and even the restaurants you eat in. Buying a more expensive home in a more expensive neighborhood is like instant lifestyle creep!
More expensive homes are usually located in more expensive neighborhoods and more expensive communities. Consumption patterns are often socially driven, that is, we tend to buy in ways similar to the people in our immediate social orbit. It follows that you’ll buy more expensive everything if you live in a $500,000 home as compared with a $250,00 home.
Not only do you pay more for the house, but you pay more for everything else each year that you live in the home.
A primary component of financial freedom is keeping your living costs low—an expensive house will hurt that effort on nearly every front.
A high house payment denies you options in a crisis
I think it’s fair to say that most people are pretty optimistic when they buy a home—no, let’s say they’re extremely optimistic when buying a home.
Yeah, that’s better.
Where am I going with this? If you’re optimistic, you buy the most expensive house—with the biggest monthly payment—you can afford. But what happens if you hit one of those unfortunate life situations we can loosely refer to as a reversal?
That can come in any form and they seem to be only more common these days than they have been in a very long time. I’m talking about a job loss, an income reduction, a medical disaster or any event that results in a decline in your financial situation.
The smaller your house payment, the more easily you’ll weather the storm, and the more quickly you’ll recover from it.
Reversals come in life—what really matters is maximizing our options to deal with them.
Since your house payment is probably the biggest single expense you have, the lower it is, the more options you’ll have for dealing with any crisis. The sooner you can put a crisis behind you, the sooner you can get back on the road toward financial freedom.
An out-sized house can increase debt
A house that’s at the upper end of your affordability range will leave you with less money for everything else.
The less money you have for everything else, the closer you are to going into debt. I’m not talking about your mortgage here either.
Since consumption patterns are heavily influenced by the size and cost of your home, it follows that if your house is at the upper end of your affordability range, it’s more than a remote possibility that everything else in your life will be too. That’s living on the financial edge, and people who live in that gray zone have a high propensity to use debt to fill in the financial gaps.
If you live in a less expensive home—meaning a home that’s well below your maximum ability to qualify—your overall cost of living will be lower and you’ll be less likely to need debt to pay for anything.
One of the foundations of financial freedom is being debt free; that’s much easier to achieve when you’re monthly house payment is well below you’re maximum level.
The lower your mortgage the faster you can pay it off
If you buy a home that’s beneath your means it follows that the mortgage on the house will also be lower. The smaller your mortgage, the easier it will be to pay it off ahead of schedule.
Owning your home free and clear is a big step toward financial freedom.
The more money you sink into a house the less you have for investing
In the mortgage world, the rule of thumb is that your fixed monthly house payment should not exceed 28% of your stable monthly income. Most people will go right up to that number on the payment to determine what price house to buy.
But let’s say you decide that you aren’t going to commit 28% of your income to your house payment—you’re going to cap it at 18%. If you make $10,000 per month, you want to limit your house payment to $1,800, even though you could go up to $2,800 per month and buy a much bigger house.
By making the choice to keep your house payment low—and to live in a much less expensive home—you’ll free up $1,000 of income each month. That’s and extra $12,000 per year!
If you invest $1,000 each month in mutual funds at 6%, at the end of 30 years—the time it would take to payoff a typical mortgage—you’d have just over $1 million saved!
Would an extra $1 million help you attain financial freedom?
Finally
Lower living expenses, more options in a crisis, less debt, paying off your mortgage sooner, an extra million dollars or so—can you see how financial freedom starts with a lower house payment?There are quite a few ways to store mutable data in Haskell. Let’s talk about some of them! Specifically, we will focus on mutable containers that store a single value that can be modified by one or more threads at any given time.
I’m not going to go into a ton of detail here - I just want to give an overview. I have provided links to the documentation and other resources at the end of each section for further reading.
IORef
First up is IORef, the simplest of all containers. It is a sectioned off bit of mutable memory for any number of threads to read/modify willy-nilly.
We can read this diagram as follows:
The whole action takes place in the IO monad/context.
monad/context. A new IORef was created in IO somewhere and provided to two threads: t1 and t2.
was created in somewhere and provided to two threads: and. At some point, t1 writes a value to the IORef using writeIORef :: IORef a -> a -> IO a
writes a value to the using A little later, t2 writes a value to the same IORef.
writes a value to the same. Finally, t1 reads the IORef using readIORef :: IORef a -> IO a
The following diagrams will follow the same general struture: time increases as we move downwards along a thread, and certain actions are taken within those threads.
IORef s are not very safe. They are highly succeptible to race conditions and other unintended behavior, and should be used with caution. For example, in our diagram: t2 modifies the IORef after t1 wrote to it - t1 probably expected that readIORef would return whatever it placed there. That is not the case, because t2 modified it between the write and read steps of t1.
MVar
MVar s represent a location in memory that holds a value as well. However, MVar s come with the guarantee that no two threads are modifying a variable at the same time.
An MVar is either empty or full of an a. When we try to takeMVar on an empty MVar, the current thread blocks (indicated by a black line) until a value is put back into the MVar. GHC ’s runtime is pretty good at determining when a thread is blocked indefinitely on an MVar read, so we don’t often have to worry about a thread hanging due to a bad program (for too long).
MVar s are still succeptible to race conditions, but are great for simple concurrent tasks like synchronization and basic communication between threads.
TVar
TVar s solve a different problem. They are associated with a mechanism called Software Transactional Memory - STM - - a construct that allows us to compose primitive operations and run them sequentially as a transaction. Think database transaction: if one STM action in a chain fails, all previous actions taken in that chain are rolled back accordingly.
TVar s have a similar API to MVar, with one major difference: They can’t ever be empty. TVar s can only be used in a singular thread, which is commonly executed as an atomic transaction using the function atomically :: STM a -> IO ().
STM provides a bunch of very useful primitives for working with transactions, and is worth exploring:
TMVar
This diagram should look pretty familiar! TMVar s are a mash between TVar s and MVar s, as you might expect from its name. They can be composed transactionally just like TVar s, but can also be empty, and shared across many threads.
Since all of these TMVar actions live in STM, they can be run in the same manner as when we use regular TVar s.
STRef
STRef s are a completely different type of mutable container. They are restricted to a single thread, much like TVar s, but guarantee that they never escape (they are thread-local). They live in a context called ST, indicating a stateful thread.
The s value in the type of ST and STRef is a reference to the thread that the ST computation is allowed to access.
ST and STRef s are mainly used to gain performance when you need to be closer to memory, but don’t want to give up safety.
Til next time!
BenRecently, OnePeterFive reported about Cardinal Robert Sarah – the Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments – and his mid-August visit to the French region of the Vendée which still stands in history for a courageous resistance against the French Revolution’s attempts to stamp out the Catholic Faith. We had then translated parts of a 12 August homily delivered by the African cardinal in Puy du Fou, an historical site of the Vendée. Today, we wish to sum up some of the important thoughts which Cardinal Sarah expressed in his homily on the following day – 13 August – in the Cathedral of Notre Dame de L’Assomption of Luçon. (Once more with gratitude, we owe it to the French Catholic website, Riposte Catholique, for bringing this text to our attention.)
In his 13 August homily, Cardinal Sarah discusses the readings of the day which speak about the scene with Jesus and His disciples in the boat in a great wind. Thus it happened that Cardinal Sarah was also commenting here on an image that had just been used by the ex-pope Benedict XVI when speaking about the Church as a boat sometimes seemingly “on the verge of capsizing.” And, indeed, Cardinal Sarah’s own words do appear to resonate or reinforce Pope Benedict’s own reflections. Cardinal Sarah said:
The readings of this Sunday Mass give us occasion to meditate on our Faith, and thus on the presence of God in our life. The first reading tells us frankly that God is not in the hurricane whose force and violence crack mountains and bruise the rocks, nor in the earthquakes nor in the crashes of thunder. He was neither in the fire nor in the noises – those with which our ears are saturated in our world of media frenzy and [our world] of vapid and all-too-often demagogic discourse.
After describing our secular world, Cardinal Sarah importantly applies this image of disorder also to our Church as he continues, by saying:
But it is not only the world which lives in the frenzy and in the vapid and demagogic discourse. The Church herself, in her doctrinal and moral teaching, lives today in a cacophony, in the confusion of theses, in the duplicity, in the double or triple truth, in an avalanche of interpretations and a pastoral demagogy which one could consider to be a great ecclesiastical disorder. [my emphasis]
Cardinal Sarah compares this situation in the Church with a “darkening, an eclipse of the decisive contribution of Revelation to morality.” He adds, saying that we have the “tendency to forget – with the return to the casuistic and our multiple pastoral plans or accompaniments – that God is present in the intimacy of our soul, in the murmur of a light breeze, in the depths of our heart.” God, according to Cardinal Sarah, is a “silent God,” he is a “tender and merciful God, slow to anger and full of love and truth.” The Triune God, says the prelate, “comes to us by marching through the sea of our doubts, our incertitudes, and even our treasons, our resignation and our refusal to believe and to love.”
Later in his homily, Cardinal Sarah returns to the image of a “barque beaten by the winds” which has
always been perceived, by the Church Fathers, as an image of the Church which advances, here below, in rowing against the counter-currents, in the middle of difficulties and of all kinds of tests – in particular persecutions. The day of our Baptism, we entered that barque which has a name: the Church.
Cardinal Sarah once more laments the current situation in the Church when he says:
Unfortunately, there are these cleavages that arrive. There are priests and religious that are even humanely and spiritually more impoverished than certain laymen who are of great human nobility and of great Christian humility, and completely dedicated to God.
Like the Apostles in the boat, we, too, might at times have fear, says Sarah, but Christ tells us “Don’t be afraid.” Today, as the cardinal adds, Christ again says to all of us: “Come!” But in order to get to Him, explains Cardinal Sarah, we sometimes have “to pass through the waters of tests and sufferings.” If we feel weak in this situation, the prelate recommends for us to imitate Christ who went into the mountains in order to pray. We find ourselves today in the midst of persecutions – the terrible ones in the Middle East, but also the ones that the Christians currently have to endure in the West for preserving Christ’s integral teaching. It is in this context of the persecutions that the prelate returns to the situation in the Church when he says:
Even in the Church – by lack of understanding, by ignorance, and also out of fear of appearing too “rigid” or “outdated” in the tribunal of the media, or of public opinion – certain people would prefer to choose only one part of the Gospels and of the Church’s teaching, by omitting that which troubles the “good conscience” of contemporary man who has been liberated from what one now calls the “prejudices” of religion. Under the [French] revolutionary Terror, one still spoke of “superstitions.”
But, Cardinal Sarah reminds us Catholics of our spiritual duty by saying:
Not any more to bear the cross of persecution would mean no longer to be a disciple of Jesus Our Lord Who is the Truth and the Eternal Life and Who asks from us the total giving of ourselves, up to the pardoning of offenses and up to the love of our enemies.
Cardinal Sarah reminds us that “our Faith is being fortified through such tests when our barque is being beaten by the waves of contestation and of opposition from the new prophets of the idolatry of a false humanism.” It is here that the Prefect for Divine Worship ardently calls upon the Blessed Mother to help us maintain our Faith in the middle of all these challenges and tests.
Let us then be further inspired by Cardinal Sarah’s words – also about suffering as a source of strength – and let us always turn with trust to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. May she help us endure the crosses that God allows us to have, and may her Heart also soon triumph as she conditionally promised.I’ve counted my plots before they hatched, I’ve duked it out with my brothers and sons, and I’ve lorded over an entire continent. Now, having lost more than I’ve gained and suffered more than I’ve succeeded, I’m finally ready to share Wot I Think about the majestic Crusader Kings II.
Did the word majestic give it away, or did my previous bursts of excitement already give you an inkling of how I feel about the strategic role-playing grandeur of Paradox’ latest?
It’s more than a bit good at what it does so rather than immediately talking about how much I’ve fallen for its brutish charms, I’m going to try and summarise exactly what that is first. What does Crusader Kings II set out to do?
The most important difference between this game and the vast majority of grand strategy titles is that it’s all about characters. There are thousands of the blighters populating the world at any one time, with skills, traits, personalities, jobs and relationships. You are one of them. You’re not a country or a culture, you’re a bloke, or less frequently a blokess, with a family, some friends and a huge gallery of foes. When you die, you’ll take control of your heir following the lines of succession in your locality.
There are big players, like kings, the Pope and his antis, and the occasional emperor, but mostly there are courtiers, waiting to be plucked from relative obscurity, landed with position and maybe even some land, and then cut back down to size when they start bulging out of their boots. There are children to marry off for political gain and there are children to quietly dispense with because do you really want your entire dynasty to be in the hands of Reginald whose jousting ineptitude has left him with a few splinters of lance in the amygdala and a severe case of being an absolute moron?
No you don’t because he’d need someone else to do the job of running your disintegrating duchy for him and the brains behind his brains are likely to be your spymaster, who has been a little too chummy with that cousin you never liked who has a claim on your most fertile parts, all based on an ill-advised, lust-fuelled marriage that your grandfather made forty years ago. Best, then, to make sure Reginald dies before you do or you’ll have to change the laws of succession and that’s going to piss off a whole other group of people, weaken your stability and bring the walls crashing down around your ears.
Does it sound like a soap opera? A particularly violent soap opera, laced with infanticide, religious warfare and sexually transmitted unpleasantries? Maybe the religious warfare and disease weren’t clear in the above example but believe me, somebody in the story has almost definitely contracted a case of genitirritation and most of them have definitely killed people for not reading the same books as them.
It sounds like a soap opera because it’s a bit like one. It’s also a historical epic, a bloody tale of intrigue and even a sort of sit-com. In fact, when you find yourself playing a four year old count caught up in the collapse of the Kingdom of Wales, ordered to defend your lands against the suddenly and, to your childish understanding, inexplicably pissed off Bishop of Rome, it’s hard not to laugh. If you’d been an adult and a master theologian you’d understand that your king had decided to believe that the three in one is actually the one made three and therefore everybody had to kill everybody else and mutilate their corpses so badly that they wouldn’t be allowed into Heaven, which runs a no trainers, all innards policy.
One of the reasons that Crusader Kings II is brilliant is because it understands that losing is fun. In fact, I don’t think winning is as much fun. Better the slow and noble decline than the bloat of victory and expansion. I’m sure it’s possible to learn exactly how the game works and be better than it but there’s so much happening with every minute that passes (the game is real time but can be paused) that I can’t be bothered to understand half of it and I certainly don’t want to decipher it because I’m not viewing the world as a machine but as a collection of minds.
When gluttonous, heavingly overweight Count Peter, well into his sixties, was given the choice of turning his mind to God in his dotage, he said “sod that and pass the boar’s cheeks”. A bit of piety might have been good for him and the prestige would certainly have cheered up his soon-to-inherit son, but you should have seen the size of the man. He was gargantuan, like a medieval Jabba with sixteen bastard children off fighting the battles he was too corpulent to partake in. I could have snaffled up the good stats but I’d never have forgiven myself; Peter was snaffling nothing but a county’s worth of wild animals with a side of eggs.
There are times when I’ve been a man of influence, particularly when starting on these British isles, where I always find myself more in control. It’s not because I know the lay of the land or believe that roleplaying an Englishman requires a striving for excellence, it’s because it’s a lot harder to be surrounded by murderous landgrabbers when you’re on an island.
In fact, I’d suggest that anyone starting out who is afraid of being bewildered by the amount of things happening around them gives Scotland or Ireland a shot. They’re both good starting points and you can go through a couple of generations struggling over control of that little corner of Europe before you even glance across and realise that –
Oh my sweet pajamas, what in the name of God has happened to the continent? Judging by the number of Muslims in Spain whatever happened was definitely in the name of God, although it may not have been the Scotch one. And is France really supposed to be that big? And why is Italy entirely comprised of men hitting each other in the kidneys with swords?
My absolute most favourite thing about Crusader Kings II is that the world will happily continue without me. Maybe if I play my kids right I’ll be the centre of attention for a couple of years over the centuries covered, but most of the time this is one of the games that suffers least from Truman Show syndrome that I’ve ever played. In that respect, Crusader Kings II is up there with Football Manager and Dwarf Fortress. It’s a strategy game, it’s an RPG but it’s also a simulator. Yes, it’s not a historically accurate simulator, with plenty of alterations to reality made for balance and to sustain dynastic evolution, but it is a remarkable study of alternatives, a playground of ‘might have beens’.
My most memorable game to date didn’t involve forging a mighty kingdom. I was playing a count on the borders of the Kingdom of Hungary. I was, by necessity, mostly passive. That’s when speeding the game up comes in useful. At its fastest rate, the years tick by fairly quickly, with automatic pauses when decisions need to be made. My king would occasionally call me into service, usually when he himself had been called into service, and my armies would dutifully chop their way through infidels or vulnerable neighbours. Other than that, I made marriages for my children, attempting to make something out of them so that when I passed on I wouldn’t have a total incompetent in charge of my tiny realm.
It was sometime around 1100 that everything went wrong. The young king called up all his levies and took us off adventuring into the east. As soon as the troops had marched out of earshot, the dastardly duke of Transylvania, one of the king’s vassals and possibly a vampire, began to assault all of Hungary with armies of his own. He declared independence and chipped away at the lands surrounding him, and Hungary, for the first time since 1066, was fractured.
But then, but then. An exchange of the mighty cash reserves I had built up in my passivity allowed me to hire mercenaries, raise my personal levy and march on Transylvania. I, the forgotten and the subservient, made Hungary intact once more.
I’d like to say the story ends with me being granted titles and bounty on the king’s return but that’s not what happened. I faded back into obscurity even as the borders of Hungary eventually expanded. There have been times when I’ve received thanks for noble deeds and times when I’ve received greater thanks for committing atrocities, but mostly Crusader Kings II doesn’t pander to the player.
And that is precisely why it isn’t an impenetrable mess of a game to the uninitiated. The game is not overwhelming, not in any way whatsoever, because it lets you get on with things, never forcing you to balance imponderable digits against one another. There is a great deal of information but you don’t ever need it all, and it’s only when at war or engaged in particularly complex plots that you’ll need to repeatedly pause the game to make sure your strategy isn’t failing spectacularly.
Most of the time, things will continue to happen and it’s very hard to find yourself in a dead end that isn’t logical and based around the readily understandable actions of people. This isn’t Victoria or Europa Universalis where having a slider in the wrong position can lead to severe punishment; Crusader Kings II is about people and what makes them tick.
The interface is simple as well, even though it may look daunting. You’ll only ever have to click the right button to interact with people and move armies, and the left button to bring up information, whether cycling through map overlays or selecting tabs. And there may seem to be a lot of them, but don’t be daunted. Ignore what you don’t understand until the need arises to understand it. Context may help when an event occurs, or you can dip into the dry but useful tutorials.
If you’re not terrified of maps then you can play and enjoy Crusader Kings II. It’s that simple. Do you like pondering alternate histories and creating grand narratives? That’s what this game is about. Do you enjoy courtly interplay and elaborate plots of succession, marriage and murder? That’s also what this game is about.
Heck, do you like A Game of Thrones? This is the best Game of Thrones game you will probably ever play, unless you really need the fantasy element and if you do, then for God’s sake just pretend that pagans are riding wolves and French people have six eyes or whatever it is you need to do, but play this game. There’s incest and intrigue aplenty and isn’t that what GRRARGH Martin is really all about?
There have been so many strategy games in recent years that have made me wish I was playing Crusader Kings instead and when Sengoku was among them, I was worried. It seemed like a poor foundation on which to build a sequel to one of my favourite games, lacking the complexity of interaction that I craved.
I needn’t have worried. Crusader Kings II is everything I wanted from a sequel and it’s a sequel that I hadn’t expected to ever see. The interface is improved, it’s visually far more attractive and the simulation model seems to create more interesting alternate realities. It’s also (for me and by most reports) almost completely stable and although I can imagine what will be added in the expected (and I’ve got to admit, hoped for) expansions, there are no features missing that I expected to be included. I haven’t even dabbled in multiplayer yet, which is also a thing that exists.
The biggest complaint appears to be the inability to play as Pagans or Muslims. It’s easily fixed with mods and I for one am glad those characters haven’t been crudely forced into the hereditary models followed by the dynasties of Christendom. If they are playable in the future, I hope the experience is quite drastically different, otherwise the brilliant emphasis on culture and people that is the game’s core would be compromised.
Now, what did they get wrong? Levies seem to replenish a little bit too fast.
There’s so much I haven’t written about but my initial draft was the typed equivalent of a man waving his arms and making incoherent sounds of delight and excitement. It’s such a huge game that people will find different ways of enjoying it and, of course, some people won’t find anything to love at all. Those people are dead inside. Anyone interested in emergent gameplay, dynamic narrative and the humanising of strategy would do well to spend a few days in the company of Crusader Kings II.
For me, the genius of Paradox’ best grand strategy titles has always been that they don’t tell you what to do or how to win. Instead, they give you the tools to find your own way through history and let you live with the consequences. When the consequences are so human they mean all the much more and this is probably the most human strategy game I’ve ever played. If it doesn’t wind up being among my very favourite games of the year, spectacular things will occur in the next ten months.Black farmers selling land back to whites
Cape Town - Black farmers have resold nearly 30% of the white farmland bought for them by the government, often selling back to the previous white owners, Land Reform Minister Gugile Nkwinti said on Wednesday.
He said the government had bought about 6 000 000ha to date, of which nearly 2 000 000ha has been resold.
"The government bought land and handed it over to aspirant farmers who then sold it again, in many instances back to the original owner," Nkwinti said.
Nkwinti was speaking at Wednesday's launch of a long-delayed new draft reform policy that aims to overhaul lagging efforts to transfer farms to the black majority, with restrictions on private and foreign land ownership
The 11-page draft sets out the state's vision to transform land ownership patterns and will lay the basis for future legislation.
Land Reform Minister Gugile Nkwinti reaffirmed South Africa's commitment to an open market system, where only willing private owners will sell to the state, but said the state planned to act on "distorted" pricing.
"There are no silver bullets to the resolution of the post-colonial land questions anywhere in the world," Nkwinti told reporters.
"In our country we wanted to solve it yesterday - it's not possible, such an emotive issue. So we think it's going to take a bit of time and it will require patience."
The draft proposes the leasing of state and public land, limits on private land, conditions and obligations for foreign owners, and communal tenure on land under traditional chiefs.
National asset
"Anywhere else, foreigners do own land but on strict conditions if they actually have that privilege of owning land," said Nkwinti.
"In our country as well, we have reached the point that we want to make sure that we take control of the national asset that is land. We've got to make sure that we do exactly the same as other countries are doing, to control the holdings of our land by foreigners in the interests of our country."
The state plans to keep buying white-owned farms to redistribute to blacks, but proposes tackling the sticky problem of pricing with a new land value office that will "level the playing field".
"The willing-buyer willing-seller model on its own, it's a problem, because it distorts the market," said Nkwinti, pointing to above market value prices.
"There will always be a willing-buyer willing-seller model working, except we want to make sure that some of the vagaries would be dealt with."
Redistribution efforts have largely failed so far with only 10% of redistributed projects productive - of 6.3 million hectares transferred - and Nkwinti said land reform targets were "slippery".
A previous bid to transfer 30% of farms by 2014 was unlikely as R40bn was needed to buy farms.
"I can't see us raising that kind of money to acquire the 30% we're talking about by 2014," he said.
The target had been "to transfer 30% of the 82 million hectares that is arable land in the hands of white commercial farmers to black emerging farmers," Nkwinti later told AFP.
"That's where you have a challenge - it's a fiscal issue as well as it's a qualitative, productive issue."
Sensitive issue
The proposed restriction on private land is a concern, said Annelize Crosby, legal adviser of the commercial farmers body Agri SA.
"We are very worried about the potential consequences of such a step because if you start interfering with that, there will be consequences," she told AFP.
"It's a very complex issue. I can see why it would be an attractive option for the ministry and government but I don't think they fully realise the possible consequences of such a step and just the complexity of it."
Last year, a quarter of the land buying budget was allocated to rescue collapsing projects, with 100% productivity now being targeted.
A land management commission is also proposed to advise, co-ordinate and regulate on land matters with subpoena rights and the power to seize or confiscate land gained corruptly.
Land is a sensitive issue in southern Africa where reforms in neighbouring Zimbabwe from 2000 saw more than 3 000 white-owned farms seized by militant supporters of President Robert Mugabe.
South Africa's much anticipated and delayed strategy will be open for public comments.
"We don't have answers, ready answers," said Nkwinti who said the "streamlined" document was meant to be a platform for discussion.
"We're looking for answers but we will search for answers together. What we have is a vision of where we should be going and the kind of institutions that will support that vision and make us actually realise it."ROSS TOWNSHIP (KDKA) – Police arrested a North Hills man for breaking into a church — one day after he got out of jail for breaking into the same church.
Yesterday morning, police arrested Alex Zintchenko, 20, for burglarizing St. Sebastian Church on Siebert Road. Investigators said Zintchenko broke into the church, tried to steal some audio equipment and then tried to break into a safe that contained valuable religious artifacts.
Parish workers detained the suspect until police arrived and officers took Zintchenko to the Allegheny County Jail on charges of burglary and attempted theft.
Apparently, however, Zintchenko made bail overnight.
At 5:30am this morning, Ross Twp police officers responded to another break in at St. Sebastian.
But Ross Township Police Sgt. Ben Dripps told KDKA that the 20-year old got away by apparently stealing a car.
“A short time later,” Sgt. Dripps added, “Ross Township police were called to the Holiday Inn which is an adjoining property to the St. Sebastian’s Church and School. Upon arrival there, we were informed that a vehicle had been stolen sometime within the last hour to two hours.”
According to police, Zintchenko took the car and drove it to his apartment. Police say they found the stolen car at his apartment and arrested Zintchenko.
At the time of his arrest, police say Zintchenko was carrying two speakers that apparently were stolen from the church yesterday.
Zintchenko is back in custody today.Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Pro-EU campaign boss in clash with Conservative MP
Lord Rose, the former Marks & Spencer boss who heads the pro-EU campaign group Britain Stronger In Europe, has been accused of a "scandalous misuse of data" as he appeared before MPs.
Tory MP Andrew Tyrie claimed the organisation was presenting as fact CBI figures which estimate the benefits of being in the EU are worth £3,000 a year to the average UK household.
He said the data was an "inference".
Lord Rose hit back, accusing the MP of "calling my reputation into question".
Appearing before the Treasury Select Committee, the former retailer said he stood by the figure and separate calculations produced by the CBI that estimate that EU membership benefits the UK economy to the tune of about 4-5% of output.
'Misleading'
During heated exchanges, Mr Tyrie said the figures were being given far greater weight and prominence than they deserved by the In campaign.
"You're leading the campaign with this number - it's one of the most important components to your case," he said.
"Economists have told us it is intellectually dishonest to persist with these claims. Don't you think |
student information systems,” Donna Braquet, the Director of the University of Tennessee’s Pride Center, told WATE. “Transgender people and people who do not identify within the gender binary may use a different name than their legal name and pronouns of their gender identity, rather than the pronouns of the sex they were assigned at birth.”
On the university’s website, Braquet writes:
“These may sound a little funny at first, but only because they are new. The she and he pronouns would sound strange too if we had been taught ze when growing up.”
Karen Ann Simsen, the University of Tennessee’s Media and Internal Relations Director, told WATE there is no mandate or official policy to use the pronouns.
“The information provided in the newsletter was offered as a resource for our campus community on inclusive practices,” said Simsen.Republican Senator-elect Mark Kirk may help push through a campaign-finance transparency bill opposed by Republican leaders during the lame-duck session.
Kirk defeated Democratic candidate Alexi Giannoulias for President Obama’s former Illinois Senate seat and is one of three new members of the Senate who will be sworn in to the chamber during the lame-duck session.
The Democracy is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Elections Act (DISCLOSE Act) would force groups running election ads to disclose the sources of their funding. In addition, the bill would prohibit foreign corporations, government contractors and TARP recipients from making campaign contributions.
The bill has already cleared the United States House of Representatives but failed to be passed in the Senate due to a Republican filibuster.
The legislation was drafted as a response to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, which ruled that limits on political spending by corporations violated the First Amendment and consequently struck down the McCain-Feingold campaign finance laws.
“Unless we enact new disclosure laws, secret contributions to outside spending groups are bound to dramatically increase in the 2012 elections, when both presidential and congressional races will be at stake,” said Democracy 21’s Fred Wertheimer. “Secret contributions in political campaigns are a formula for influencing-buying corruption.”
The American Civil Liberties Union opposes the DISCLOSE Act, which it says could compromise free speech.
“The ACLU supports the disclosure of large contributions to candidates as long as it does not have a chilling effect on political participation, but the DISCLOSE Act would inflict unnecessary damage to free speech rights and does not include the proper safeguards to protect Americans’ privacy,” said ACLU legislative and policy attorney Michael Macleod-Ball, in a media advisory. “The bill would severely impact donor anonymity, especially those donors who give to smaller and more controversial organizations.”
Kirk previously stated he supports enacting new campaign-finance transparency laws, which gives hope to Democrats who seek to pass the bill during the lame-duck session in Congress.
“I broke with my party early and backed the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform legislation,” Kirk said during an Illinois Senate debate in October. “Now we need to go further, and have all candidates disclose contributions within 24 hours on the internet.”
It remains to be seen whether Kirk would actually support the bill, which his Republican colleagues unanimously oppose. Additionally, during his campaign for Senate, Kirk referred to himself as the “42nd Republican senator, with the opportunity to put the brakes on any lame-duck overreach.”
“Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, essentially told any member of his caucus that if they voted for it he’d have their head,” Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Chris Van Hollen told reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast. “Because they understood there were a lot of these big special interests that preferred to operate in the dark.”
“Kirk should take the lead in pushing a disclosure bill through this lame-duck session of Congress,” writes Richard L. Hasen, a professor of law at Loyola Law School, at Politico. “He should also urge the remaining Republican moderates to cross party lines with him.”Why Elm is the best way to go for Web App development? Interview with Luke Westby
Guillaume Hivert Blocked Unblock Follow Following Jun 6, 2017
This is a transcript of an interview between Guillaume Hivert and Luke Westby, given in prevision of Elm Europe. We look forward to meet you at elmeurope.org!
– Guillaume: Hi! First of all, thank you for this interview. So, What for you is the best way to learn Elm?
– Luke: Hi! Oh, that’s a good, strong starting question. I don’t think it’s very easy to answer that question for a whole community. I can tell you the best way for me to learn a programming language. The best, most effective time, that I spent learning Elm was just writing Elm. Find a cool mock-up of an app on Dribbble, and try building it.
The problems you encounter while you’re doing that are going to be the problems you encounter while you’re building something for a company or something like that.
There’s also great books, and great blog posts, and talking with people about the language always helps, too. But, I think doing is the best way to learn anything programming-related from my experience.
And of course, it’s always good to have Slack open to ask questions when you need to.
– Guillaume: Yes, that’s right. So how did you discover and learn Elm?
– Luke: I discovered Elm in October of 2015, and I was working for a company that was getting onto the big JavaScript app bandwagon, and my task for the week was to get the whole bundling and transpiling system working. I was having a hard time with it. It was a lot of configuration, a lot of stuff to keep in your head at once, and it wasn’t really working how I needed it too. I had to do so much to make it work the way I wanted. In the height of this frustration, I went home and browsed programming blog posts or whatever. And I saw a post about Elm.
It was the ease of getting started that really struck me in such contrast to what I had been doing at work. You install the platform, write an Elm file, run Elm Make, and there’s an HTML file you can open right there. The whole architecture and all the data structures that you might ever need to get started are present in the core packages. I was just blown away by how many tiny little minutiae and questions it seemed to answer and leave you solve the problems you’re interested in solving.
I was more or less immediately convinced, which was impressive to me, because at the time I was sort of skeptical of things that compile to JavaScript. But I was so struck by how nice this was.
The way that I proceeded to learn it was almost exactly how I described. I had a to-do list app that was a little bit different than the canonical to-do MVC app that I wanted to make. So I worked, worked and worked through until it did the things that I wanted it to do. I never polished it up or gave it really nice-looking styles. I don’t really use it that much either.
But I encountered all the things you would encounter if you were working on a software product or a client project. Just asked tons of questions in the Slack and started answering some when I knew the answer. Frequently I could be wrong and people would correct me: “No, that’s incorrect and it’s a lie.” So, two people would get to learn something.
I think that might require a certain willingness to put yourself out there. But from what I understand, the Elm community is still very welcoming as it was then.
– Guillaume: That’s it. Keep the Slack open, continue asking questions and the community answers you. You can have a quite immediate answer — sometimes with a delay. And that’s true, the Elm community is really welcoming and that’s really a great point for the language.
One point which seems really hard to understand and may be difficult for the beginners are the JSON decoders. Do you agree?
– Luke: Oh, yes JSON decoders. I have no choice but to agree with you, yes.
– Guillaume: I saw a tweet from you about writing JSON decoders in JavaScript. So, what’s your opinion about JSON decoders?
– Luke: I’ve talked to a few people who’ve had a similar experience to me. JSON decoders are weird at first. Once you’ve just spent enough time with them and used them in enough sufficiently weird ways, you begin to really like them. They start to make more sense once the foundational parts of using them become second nature, become intuition.
Yes, they’re quite nice and I really like the way that it ensures type safety in the language, being able to read JSON in a fully typed language, plus validating a data shape so you don’t have to think about validation. You write your decoder because you have to, and you get this data shape validation for free.
– Guillaume: Yes, that’s true. And so, you load decoders in JavaScript?
– Luke: Yes, I copied and pasted most of the stuff from the native json.js file, and reworked it a little, and put it in a node app just to see how it went.
– Guillaume: Okay, and did you released it?
– Luke: No, I don’t think I will. This node app that I’m talking about is the server for Ellie, and I’m trying to delete that server altogether. I don’t release things that I don’t use, so…
– Guillaume: Okay, so for you, what are the main benefits of Elm, and how could you compare it to other languages? Maybe you tried React before — or after — Elm? There are many ‘opponents’ like React, ClojureScript, etc. What do you think about it?
– Luke: I gave a talk that touches on this at elm-conf US last year. The thing that I like most about Elm is that most of the decisions that don’t really matter are already made. You have immutable data structures and more complex data structures like ‘dicts’ and ‘sets’ and all those sorts of things. You have architecture that’s just there when you start and there’s lots of writing and explanation about how it works. You have this whole VirtualDom library, and all of them fit together in a very particular way where you only got one choice about how to wire everything up.
So, what I spoke on last year was that I have ADHD and that can make it hard sometimes if you’re working on a new JavaScript project. Imagine you use React, or you can use Redux. And you must choose which library you are going to use to make your Redux actions, which library you are going to use to compose all your reducers together, how you are going to deal with side effects and how you are going to do data structures. Although Create React App exists now and it’s quite nice, it didn’t at the time.
I’m kind of an inquisitive person, so I was using all these things on a project and I encountered things that seemed like bugs, didn’t sit quite right or could use another feature. So I went down rabbit holes of working these libraries, submitting PRs and getting involved there. I just never finished the thing I was doing.
What I really love about Elm is that you can sit down and build your app. That’s all you ever have to do. Once it grows you might want to bring in Webpack or something, but you can get the thing on the screen without having to deal with all those decisions at the outset. Then, once you’ve started, structure and architecture are there. So you’re always thinking about how to make a feature, how to improve this feature as opposed to how to refactor the library you’re using because you don’t like the way that data is represented or something like that.
– Guillaume: Yes, you have only the choice of the Elm architecture and that’s enough. You don’t have to choose between all the different frameworks in JavaScript. So for beginners, it’s also a great choice because you don’t have to make a choice early about the technology you want to use.
– Luke: Exactly. It’s also great for people with ADHD in my experience because the tendency to drift off and get bogged down in other stuff is always present. The best thing that I could have is the technology that just doesn’t come with that kind of extra.
– Guillaume: Yes, and so what do you think about switching to Elm from JavaScript? What could you say to someone wanting to switch to Elm? How to jump in? Because you often can hear the argument, “Yes, Elm is cool, but I can have the same functionality in React”?
– Luke: I think that 100% people should at least try it. In fact, the whole of what Elm provides is way bigger than the sum of its parts. Even if you take JavaScript libraries providing virtual-dom, functional state management, managed effects and immutable data structures and put them together, you’re still not getting what you get from Elm. Elm is a language that’s designed around these things.
The tools and the syntax help you to get the most of all those concepts. They fit together in a much nicer way than if you were to just put them together in JavaScript. The concepts in Elm are like a jigsaw puzzle. You have all these pieces but there’s a huge difference between taking the pieces and putting them in a box, and actually constructing the puzzle to see the picture.
– Guillaume: And for you, why should we go to Elm-Europe?
– Luke: The speakers. You found some fantastic speakers. I see a lot of people that I’ve talked to before and a lot of people that I haven’t heard from before. So, I think it’s a good mix of new faces and faces we all recognize. It’s a lot of great topics to cover. You put together a good and big schedule, so that’s quite exciting. I’ve never been to Paris, but I bet that’s a pretty nice place to be if you’re going to a Elm conference!
– Guillaume: So you can’t come to Elm-Europe, but if you could, are there one speak you want really, really attend?
– Luke: I don’t want to give any sort of indication that I think one particular talk is going to be better. I think everybody’s going to be great. I can offer a half-answer though. Brian Hicks is going to be given the State of Elm for the past year and I’m just really interested to see what the outcomes of that are, so I’m looking forward to that.
– Guillaume: And do you have something you want to say to everyone who will read the interview?
– Luke: If you’re going to Elm Europe, definitely remember to bring a notebook and take some notes. Type or scan them, and put them on the internet so I can read them.
Last year, at Elm Conf US, I made digital notes and they were fun to look at. They were nicely drawn and had all the good information from the talks. So, I think it’s so cool when people share notes from conferences. If I don’t have time right now to watch a talk, it’s cool to at least see what it was about.
– Guillaume: Otherwise, do you have some cool Elm programs to recommend or some package you would like to spotlight?
– Luke: Absolutely. elm-plot, first of all. It’s amazing. elm-css is cool. I like using it on projects. elm-test, of course. These are all things that the folks know about. I made a package called elm-http-builder, where you can use the forward apply operator and make HTTP requests with a pipeline style. You do get google.com and then there’d be a function with header. They all start with the word ‘with’ so you can build things up. Then, I always like to let people know about Ellie, if they haven’t heard about Ellie yet.
– Guillaume: You talked about elm-css. How are you using elm-css? Are you compiling directly to stylesheets?
– Luke: In Ellie, there’s a Webpack loader for elm-css now. I have a Webpack loader pipeline that will require a file called stylesheets.elm, then convert that to CSS with the Webpack loader and then go through the rest of the process with CSS loader and style loader. It works really well. There’s still a few quirks if you’ve got big projects, but nothing that would make me not want to recommend it. It’s really good.
– Guillaume: What you what do you think about the future of Elm?
– Luke: I expect a lot of improvements and additions to the tooling around the language. I still hear concerns about. “The change from 0.16 to 0.17 was so big and I’m not sure I want to use something that’s going to change so much so frequently”. I want to speak to those fears. My intuition is that it’s not going to change so much in the future. It’s just going to be new things making the language even nicer to use. We got the debugger in the last version. More things like that. We’ll see more and more things integrated and easier to use, with nice user interfaces and output.
– Guillaume: What do you think about Elm aiming to be mainstream?
– Luke: I absolutely think it will be mainstream. I always like to caveat that question. It seems to me that programming communities can tend to define success of a language or a library by how many people use it, and how many stars there are on the GitHub project and stuff. When I say that Elm will be mainstream, I don’t mean soon. Maybe it’ll be soon, but that’s not what I’m asserting. I think the language is going to continue to be nicer and nicer as Evan finds ways to make it nicer. And more and more people are going to be taking an interest and deciding that they can bring this into their projects.
– Guillaume: Do you have something you want to share or to say?
– Luke: I’m working on some really neat changes to Ellie and the way that it works. Those will be released maybe for the weekend after Elm Europe. Just keep an eye out for that. I’ll be sharing stuff about that on Twitter as it gets closer. Just enjoy the conference, make sure to take good notes, talk to as many people as possible and meet all the people. They’re all really friendly, lovely people.
– Guillaume: What are your personal projects with Elm and your future projects?
– Luke: Right now it’s just Ellie. There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes stuffs that I’m working on, which are not visible to the public right now. I’m spending a lot of time on it, but you’re not going to see a whole lot of little green squares on my GitHub for the past several weeks and maybe the next couple. It’s taken up all my Elm time.
It’s hard to predict the future. Something I’d like to build is tools that are like Ellie. For example, Brian Hicks released elm-benchmark. That’s the kind of thing where, if I want to make a quick benchmark, I’d prefer to open a web page and type in some Elm code. That would show me how fast it is right away. Maybe a tool like that. Another one is trying to figure out some sort of integration for elm-test that you can run in a user interface.
Taking these great things that run on CLIs or as part of programs, and giving them a nice UI representing how great they are under the hood. This would make the whole Elm platform more instantaneously accessible to people just getting involved and started.
– Guillaume: Thank for your time and the interview.
– Luke: Thank you for having me. I’m so honored.Swarm power for Germany
According to German news magazine Der Spiegel, the mini power plants have an efficiency of 94 percent, while most atomic power plants have a 30 percent to 40 percent efficiency.
by Staff Writers
Hamburg, Germany (UPI) Sep 11, 2009
How about a power station in your basement?
In a bid to create a decentralized electricity grid, German carmaker Volkswagen is launching thousands of mini power plants that could be installed in the basements of any residential home.
Together with clean energy provider Lichtblick, Volkswagen plans to install up to 100,000 small power plants -- able to generate heat and electricity -- in people's homes to generate enough energy to offset two nuclear power plants. Taken together, all mini plants would have a capacity of 2 GW.
The project could lure many Germans away from traditional utilities toward decentralized energy generation, which experts say will be the buzzword of tomorrow's energy mix.
The so-called at-home plants will be run by a natural gas engine based on the one that's powering the VW Golf car, marketed in North America as Rabbit.
"A lot of parts necessary for building mini power plants are already available in most modern cars," Rudolf Krebs, Volkswagen's engine developer, said in a statement.
Besides producing heat and power for their homes, the plants would feed excessive electricity into the regular grid. They would be connected electronically to create a giant intelligent power plant that can offset fluctuating energy demand and stabilize the grid, the companies involved say.
"You have to imagine the at-home plants like a swarm of fish: Many small units form a large, powerful community that creates swarm power," Lichtblick Chief Executive Officer Christian Friege said in a statement.
According to German news magazine Der Spiegel, the mini power plants have an efficiency of 94 percent, while most atomic power plants have a 30 percent to 40 percent efficiency.
For Volkswagen, the plant project is an alternative business model in times of slumping car sales. The Wolfsburg-based car giant, fresh from a merger with Porsche, said that the mini power plant project would likely secure manufacturing jobs. The carmaker plans to build around 10,000 mini plant engines per year in its factory in Salzgitter.
The at-home plant is already on sale in Hamburg (it costs $7,300 and is best suited for installation in an apartment building, where it should amortize rather quickly) and will be rolled out in all of Germany in 2010.General Commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces, Commander General Joseph Aoun, called on his army to be in a state of “full readiness” as tension is rising amidst Israeli military drills on the Lebanon-Israel borders, Al Jazeera reported yesterday.
Aoun also spoke about “threats and violations of the Israeli enemy, as well as aggressive intentions against Lebanon, the Lebanese people and the army.”
He stressed the “importance of facing any attempt to exploit the ongoing circumstances to cause sedition, division, chaos and posing danger to Lebanese unity, civil peace and Lebanese interests.”
In the middle of a political ordeal in Lebanon due to the resignation of Prime Minister Saad Hariri, Aoun said: “The exceptional political situation in Lebanon makes it important for the army to be on high alert.”
He also called for the army to commit to the UN Security Council Resolution number 1701 in cooperation with the UN forces in Lebanon in order to “maintain stability”.
Lebanon: What’s after Hariri’s resignation?I still remember the way Prince of Fools took me by surprise following The Broken Empire trilogy and how I needed a little time to adjust to reading something so different from the same author. Both book series were very much character-driven. Jorg a merciless, broken, cold-blooded killer, but also fiercely intelligent and a philosopher at heart. Hence his tale, just like his worldview, became dark, gritty, dramatic, his observations clever and beautifully worded. Jalan was funny and shallow, hence in the Red Queen’s War the poetic prose had been largely replaced by humour, and instead of revenge-seeking massacres we embarked on epic adventures the protagonist got pulled into.
I thought I learned my lesson then, which was that you shouldn’t start reading a new Mark Lawrence work with fixed anticipations. He’s incredibly talented and instead of trying to replicate what he did well in the past, what already proved successful, he will want to push himself and see how far he can stretch those creative muscles, reaching into different tones, styles or even genres. So it’s best if we just let go our expectations and keep an open mind, because if we don’t and keep on looking for what we want to see in his new books we might miss entirely what he’s giving us instead.
And yet, Red Sister once again took me by surprise. It was such a departure from everything I’ve seen Mark write before. But at the same time it also allowed him to show off skills and qualities he couldn’t showcase in the previous books. One of these was the ability to present us with a larger cast and the complex ways their relationships move the story forward. While Jorg travelled with his brothers, he didn’t allow anyone too close to him, and so we only got a restricted, blurred picture of his companions, his relationships with them simple and without emotional complications. Jalan, similarly self-centered, cared little for most people around him. He had a unique friendship with Snorri, but otherwise we only occasionally managed to glimpse behind his well-guarded walls and it was even more seldom that his feelings towards others have influenced his actions. (Unless they were fear or lust, of course.)
Nona however has always been someone who wanted to belong, to be accepted, someone who loved her friends, even when they turned against her. She’s both curious about people around her and cares about them. Which in turn allows us to learn more about characters who one way or other are important to her, and see how these relationships grow, change and affect her life, her immediate environment and ultimately her whole world.
She’s also a hero, following a villain and an anti-hero in the previous trilogies, with a disposition towards good, towards helping others and making the world a better place. This might have also contributed towards the book’s popularity with readers, several of them who admittedly didn’t like The Broken Empire books very much enjoying The Book of the Ancestor. Red Sister in fact has a higher Goodreads rating than either Prince of Thorns or Prince of Fools and let me tell you now:
If you liked Red Sister, you’re going to love Grey Sister!
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Here’s why:
1. The strengths of the first book become even more prominent in the second
Once foundations of a story are properly laid down in a first book, (think worldbuilding, (both in a geographical and in a cultural/political sense), introducing the main characters, or understanding the basics of how the magic system works, etc.), the second book should allow the author to build on those foundations and raise the story to the next level. Mark Lawrence doesn’t so much as takes things to the next level but takes off from those foundations and shoots for the stars.
The characters become even clearer, easier to set apart, yet more complex, their relationships stronger, more vivid, more colourful. In turn readers will likely find themselves more emotionally attached, and not just to the main character, but to a number of them, so letting themselves to be moved even more by their story. Seeds that were carefully sown between the icy storylines a year previously spring to life now, blossoming into the main plot of the trilogy.
“Who’s got something to report?” Nona looked to Ruli first. Ruli was on gossip duty, gathering any snippet of information that leaked into the convent through its connections with the outside world. Ruli had a talent for both creating and gathering gossip.
“I do! I really do!” Jula stepped forward, half-raising her hand before remembering that she wasn’t in class.
“I was reading the appendices in Levinin’s older works. Everyone always quotes from the Seven Histories of Marn but—”
“What did you find?” Darla had even less patience for Jula’s booklore than the others.
“More about shiphearts in one page than I’ve discovered in all the books I’ve searched through since we started looking!” Jula grinned.”
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2. Fewer classes
Reading a fair number of reviews since April I couldn’t help but note that in some cases people felt the classes were slowing the story down and they were eager to get to where they felt “things were happening.” I have to admit, this was something I also raised with Mark at the time of beta-reading, but he himself felt that they were important to understand how the magic system worked. Furthermore, he set out to write a magic school themed trilogy. How novices studied and trained there was very much part of the story itself. So if you didn’t enjoy them so much, fear not, there will be definitely fewer of those in the second book. And if you did enjoy them, you’ll be pleased to hear that those few that are yet to come will be really good!
“Zole got to her feet, scowling, as the Poisoner beckoned her to the front.
Sister Apple offered her a smile in return. ‘Now, Zole, tell me how much you love to dance.’ She raised a hand to forestall the objection. ‘And while you sell me the lie, also convince me, without using words, that you’re a native of Verity born to a merchant family of moderate wealth.’ In that moment the nun’s accent so mirrored that of Zole and Yisht that Nona could believe her born on the ice and raised for thirty years without sight of green.
‘I live to dance.’ Zole spoke through gritted teeth, tightening each word into something that sounded more like a Durnish sailor in pain than any subject of the emperor, let alone one of Verity’s moneyed class.”
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3. There’s more humour in the second book
No, we won’t have anyone turning into Jalan Kendeth all of sudden. But there will be definitely more humour arising from situations and from the stark contrast of characters in the book. Some of this will be down to a new character called Keot. Having said that it’s best not to know who this Keot is prior to reading the story and I hope that none of the early reviews will spoil it for you. Just know that he’ll be a great addition to what’s ahead.
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4. There’s also more action and more tension
Right from the beginning we get to worry about characters we grew fond of in the previous book. With the ice closing, the moon falling, the pressure grows on the world and on those who try to control it. Even the classes taking place won’t quite have that peaceful bliss to them anymore one might expect. With the inquisition’s deadly hand reaching into Sweet Mercy, its cold fingers trying to close around its prey, there’s a constant threat hanging over the Rock of Faith and it’s not the only one. Yet, it’s around the middle of the book when things really take off. Quite literally. In fact, it’s best to hide somewhere with the book from that point onwards, because chances are you won’t be able to put it down.
..
5. There’s even a little bit of romance – and not with whom you’d think!
Um… right. I won’t say anything about this one, not wanting to spoil it. Except that it’s all good.
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6. Another awesome ending
It’s quite spectacular how all the story-lines come together at the final location of the book. There might have been things you didn’t fully understand, small ones you didn’t think particularly important, actions characters took or didn’t take, letting you wonder why – it all becomes clear here. All I can say is trust the author, have faith, even when things don’t fully make sense mid-story. It’s all leading to an ending that you’ll enjoy. It’s a triumph!
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7. Another beautiful prologue and epilogue
They are once again beautiful, poetic, intriguing. They provide a very clever arc over the trilogy leading up to the main confrontation yet to come.
“The holy disdain anger, for what faith is not, at its core, about acceptance of things you cannot change? The wise call wrath unwise for few truths are to be found there. Those who rule us stamp upon rage for they see it clearly, knowing it for the fire that it is, and who invites such hungry flames among that which they possess?”
As always, you’ll also find a refresher at the beginning of the book, summarizing what’s important to remember from the first book.
.
And finally…
I hope you found the post interesting and weren’t disappointed about so little revealed in advance. As you might have gathered I’m really against spoilers and believe that things work best if you find them out in the book. I literally fought for as little of the wordbuilding to be revealed in the blurb of Red Sister as possible, because for me the experience of realising what was going on as I read the chapters made a big difference. I loved how it all gradually became clear in the story. Like the sun rising over the land. I actually found it all so intense, I even dreamed about the focus moon one night. Anyhow, I didn’t want other readers not having the chance at experiencing the same thing. I remember reading a sentence in Mark’s outline for the publisher concerning the book. It said: “The universe is dying.” It struck me as one of the most sad yet somehow still beautiful lines I ever read. Would I have felt the same way upon reading about all the red stars surrounding Abeth and understanding what that might have meant? Or would the experience have been even more profound? I’ll never know now.
Grey Sister is out next April, and we already have one of the covers revealed: The US cover by ACE features once again a beautiful art from French artist Bastien Lecouffe-Deharme that you can see HERE. The UK cover is still under development and as far as I know HarperVoyager is also preparing different cover artwork for the RED SISTER paperback, which is due to be released in February.
Mark finished writing the third book of the trilogy, Holy Sister, in the summer of 2016, but it’s yet to be edited by his publishers and will be out, closing the trilogy, in 2019. He also started writing a second trilogy this year based in the same world, which is promising to be just as good or if possible, even better than the current one. So yes, good times ahead! We can certainly rely on him for more great books to come! He also needs to eat in the meantime however so if you enjoyed Red Sister please consider pre-ordering Grey Sister as pre-orders help authors and the publication of their upcoming books tremendously.
Since this is most likely my last post here in 2017, let me also wish you a great holiday season and a happy new year! I hope you enjoyed all the content and giveaways this year on the site!
Ancestor’s blessings!
Agnes
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Pre-order links for Amazon US and UK
For the art at the end of the blogpost I unfortunately couldn’t identify an artist on the internet apart from the signature visible on the art itself. If anyone would know who it is, please let me know!
My spoiler-free post about beta-reading the trilogy, but mainly about Red Sister can be found here.Liz Cheney said in a statement early Monday morning that her decision to abruptly end her Senate campaign was prompted by health concerns in her family.
“Serious health issues have recently arisen in our family, and under the circumstances, I have decided to discontinue my campaign. My children and their futures were the motivation for our campaign and their health and well-being will always be my overriding priority,” she said in the statement.
“Phil and I want to thank the thousands of people in Wyoming and all across the country who have supported my campaign. As a mother and a patriot, I know that the work of defending freedom and protecting liberty must continue for each generation. Though this campaign stops today, my commitment to keep fighting with you and your families for the fundamental values that have made this nation and Wyoming great will never stop.”
News of Cheney’s decision first broke on Sunday night. It marks the end of a contentious five-month primary challenge against incumbent Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY) that never got off the ground.
She drew carpetbaggging charges from the beginning, having moved to Wyoming from Virginia in 2012. Those accusations had more credence after she wrongly claimed to be a 10-year resident of the state on an application for a fishing license, an error for which she later paid a fine.
Her campaign may have reached its lowest point in November after she used an appearance on Fox News to reiterate her opposition to same-sex marriage. On the same day of that television appearance, Mary Cheney, Liz’s openly gay younger sister, and her partner, Heather Poe, fired back on Facebook.
“Liz — this isn’t just an issue on which we disagree you’re just wrong — and on the wrong side of history,” Mary Cheney wrote.
Later it was revealed that the two sisters hadn’t spoken in months and that they would not be celebrating the holidays together.
The quarrel prompted their parents, former Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife Lynne, to release a statement in which they seemingly backed Liz.
But the campaign caused more than just familial divisions. Former Sen. Alan Simpson, a stalwart of Wyoming politics and close friend of the former vice president, described a tense exchange with Lynne Cheney over his support for Enzi. Simpson later weighed-in on the dispute between the Cheney sisters and blasted Liz for “destroying family relationships” in her effort to unseat Enzi.
Compounding matters for Liz Cheney, poll after poll showed showed Enzi holding massive leads among Wyoming Republicans.Cyberwar Or Moral Panic? Beware Of Ex-Politicians Screaming About Cyberthreats
from the let-it-go dept
We need to re-engineer the Internet to make attribution, geo-location, intelligence analysis and impact assessment -- who did it, from where, why and what was the result -- more manageable
For years and years we've been hearing about the supposed threats of "cyberwar" and "cyberterrosism." For nearly a decade we've questioned whether this was all hype, and the story hasn't changed. Sure, there are hackers and those who look to break into systems, but the realand overall threats still seem fairly minimal. But that's not enough for some people. Wired's Ryan Singel has a long, but excellent look at how former director of national intelligence (now consultant) Michael McConnell appears to be trying to build up a giant moral panic about this ill-defined threat, with the goal of basically ripping out the guts of today's internet to recreate it with almost no privacy at all. He recently claimed:In other words, we need to be able to spy on everyone. To build up this moral panic, McConnell isn't even just getting the press to write articles for him -- he's doing it himself. The Washington Post recently gave him op-ed space to ridiculously claim that the recent hack on Google showed we're "losing the cyberwar." Yet, as Singel points out, that was entirely different. It wasn't warfare, it was espionage. McConnell also played up some bogus threats, such as some old viruses and botnets that are hardly part of some dangerous "cyberwar."Singel then goes on to connect McConnell's efforts with various other political proposals lately -- suggesting that the government is moving towards more control of the internet and more monitoring. At times, unfortunately, the piece feels like it |
. Well, there goes the better part of the morning.
Of course, having a great social relationship can boost company culture. Once in a while, some water cooler talk can be a nice break from your hard work, but some people take this way too far. Some will come by your desk every few hours, and even remote workers might incessantly ping you on Slack. According to a survey conducted by talent mobility company Lee Hecht Harrison, talkative coworkers are the #1 disruption at work.
Here are the different kinds of chatty coworkers, and how to keep them from disrupting your day.
The Desk Lingerer
Super personable employees are capable of chatting just about anyone up, so they’re great in a customer-facing environment. They don’t do well, however, cooped up in an office and staring at a computer screen all day, so they often find other ways of socializing.
As a result, they become over-sharing desk lingerers. They love talking about what they did over the weekend, sharing their personal opinions, and asking you prying questions—all while you’re trying to get your work done and get home on time for once.
Lead by example
According to Professor of Conflict Resolution Dennis J.D. Sandole, in order to change someone’s perspective, you want to induce empathy, not sympathy. He promotes this so-called “platinum rule.” The basic gist of it, is that you have to invoke their empathy naturally, by getting them to realize their lack of consideration on their own.
Whenever you need to have a conversation with the desk lingerer, step into a conference room or a private space. Alternatively, if the desk lingerer wants to speak with you, ask if they’d like to speak privately, so you two don’t disrupt your coworkers.
This will bring their attention to how problematic the behavior is, without the need for chastisement. It will also set the expectations for when it is and isn’t appropriate to bother you. Of course, their weekend plans don’t require a meeting room, so they’ll think twice before engaging you in trivial conversations.
The Circumstantial Speaker
Circumstantial speech is a type of non-linear speaking that strays away from the point of the conversation only to circle back later. Coworkers that talk in this way often have valuable insight, they just take a long time to spit it out.
At times, you’ll have to work with these type of people, so here’s how to help them speak more succinctly and get to the point.
Monitor the conversation
People that go off on tangents will talk forever if you give them a chance, so butt in to make it a two way conversation. You can use three different approaches to keep the conversation on track:
Set time limits. You can do this at the start or in the middle of the conversation. Be polite and apologize, but say you only have three minutes to chat about the topic. Ask about the relevance. If your coworker has lost you in a seemingly irrelevant tangent, call him out on it. Ask how his comments are related to answering the question (not the topic of the question). Suggest a conclusion (even if it’s different). Think about how the current train of thought can possibly relate back to your question and jump to a conclusion. You’ll either be right and shorten the conversation, or your chatty coworker will feel like they have to justify their spiel quickly.
The Slack-er
Team messaging app Slack has a simple catch phrase: “Be less busy.” This chatroom app lets you chat in different channels, share any kind of attachment, and search the entire chatroom history for comments and documents. It’s supposed to make work more efficient by making communication as easy as possible.
Ironically, in the wrong hands it can be more distracting than useful. While it might seem like you’re working in a silent workspace, those swish sounds and notifications are just as distracting as people talking right next to you.
Some people take Slack use a bit too far. They use far too many @mentions and needlessly DM for every tiny problem. Get back your sanity— without nixing Slack altogether— by customizing your notification preferences.
Customize your Slack options
The red bubble on your Slack icon and the highlighted channel name is bound to give anyone anxiety that they’re missing something important. Here are a few ways to customize those options so they stop messing with your workflow.
Change notification settings. In the sidebar you’ll see a small down arrow next to the name of your team. Click it and select “preferences.” You’ll have the option of disabling some or all desktop notifications.
In the sidebar you’ll see a small down arrow next to the name of your team. Click it and select “preferences.” You’ll have the option of disabling some or all desktop notifications. Mute channels. If you have a whole group of people always blowing up your feed, you can mute just one channel. Do this by clicking the gear icon in the middle of the top bar, and selecting “mute [channel name].”
If you have a whole group of people always blowing up your feed, you can mute just one channel. Do this by clicking the gear icon in the middle of the top bar, and selecting “mute [channel name].” Use “Do Not Disturb” mode. In the same place where you edit your notification settings, you can put yourself in “do not disturb” mode. This disables all notifications for a select window of time. And don’t worry, when you’re back on you can click on @ icon on right of the top bar to see what you’ve missed.
And if you find a good combination of settings that keep those chatterboxes from distracting you, share them with your team! You can help institute a new protocol for when things like @mentions and DMs should or shouldn’t be used.
The Interrupting Chatty Coworker
Interruptors are the most common type of office chatterboxes. In fact, according to Columbia University’s Leslie Beebe, we are a whole nation of people with listening problems.
Beebe says that it’s a cultural thing. In other countries—Japan, for example— interrupting is a huge insult. She says “There is a space— called wait time— between when person A stops talking and when person B starts talking. In English, even people who aren’t considered interrupters start talking immediately after you stop talking.”
So if you work in the US, you’re literally surrounded by interruptors. Not only is their chatting distracting, but how are you supposed to collaborate with anyone if you can’t even get a word in edgewise? The trick is to learn how to make what you’re saying seem important to the last.
Use verbal and visual cues
People tend to interrupt others when they feel like they’ve already derived all the possible value from what you have to say. They lose interest in your contribution and are eager to tell you their perspective. This means you have to learn how to take back control of the conversation.
According to Michael Argyle, author of The Psychology of Interpersonal Behavior, you’re sending the following interruption cues to your interruptors:
Pausing mid-argument. You’re giving a window for the interruptor to jump in. Increase your speed to make what you’re saying come across as more urgent.
You’re giving a window for the interruptor to jump in. Increase your speed to make what you’re saying come across as more urgent. Not speaking concisely. You don’t want to be like the dreaded circumstantial speaker! Keep your argument clear and to the point.
You don’t want to be like the dreaded circumstantial speaker! Keep your argument clear and to the point. Not speaking enthusiastically. Don’t sound monotone. You can also try using your hands to talk. This will make you seem more engaged in the conversation, and not like you’re just saying things because you have to.
The combination of their impatience, and your inadvertent invitations to interrupt is sure to keep you out of most of the conversation. Use the right cues, to force them to hear you out.
Honesty is the best policy with a chatty coworker
While all these tips and tricks will help you manage your chatty coworkers, nothing works better than just being forthright about how disruptive they’re being.
Not only do people appreciate honesty, but openness will help you build a better relationship with your coworkers in the long-term. After all, wouldn’t you like to know if you were the office chatterbox?
P.S. If you liked this article, you should subscribe to our newsletter. We’ll email you a daily blog post with actionable and unconventional advice on how to work better.Excerpts of former Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton‘s forthcoming, post-election memoir, What Happened, are drawing wide attention for obvious reasons. 2016 was a dramatic year by any measure, and it doesn’t hurt that Clinton’s all but promised that, with nothing left to lose, this memoir will be the most unfiltered account by her yet.
In particular, an excerpt from her book released Tuesday has sparked massive debate, almost tuning out all the other criticisms of the book which range from how focus on Russia and James Comey distracts the Democratic party from instead focusing on the issues, to how some believe Clinton has failed to adequately take responsibility for her loss.
In this new excerpt, Clinton takes aim at Bernie Sanders, her rival in the primaries who’s made a name for himself as a progressive icon and has become something of a religious figure to left-leaning millennials. Clinton accuses Sanders of splintering the Democratic party by unfairly maligning it, and, further, accuses his supporters of sexism.
Here are some of the more controversial pieces of the excerpt:
“He certainly shared my horror at the thought of Donald Trump becoming President, and I appreciate that he campaigned for me in the general election. But he isn’t a Democrat — that’s not a smear, that’s what he says. He didn’t get into the race to make sure a Democrat won the White House, he got in to disrupt the Democratic Party. … I am proud to be a Democrat and I wish Bernie were too. … “Because we agreed on so much, Bernie couldn’t make an argument against me in this area on policy, so he had to resort to innuendo and impugning my character. Some of his supporters, the so-called Bernie Bros, took to harassing my supporters online. … “His attacks caused lasting damage, making it harder to unify progressives in the general election and paving the way for Trump’s Crooked Hillary’ campaign.”
Wow – "I am proud to be a Democrat and wish Bernie were, too." #ShePersisted pic.twitter.com/jSv7ilP5Nv — Tom Watson (@tomwatson) September 4, 2017
Of course, it’s worth noting that at least in this section, Clinton seems to ignore the good that Sanders did for the Democratic party, regardless of whether or not he identifies as a Democrat. That is, however much conflict his ideas brought to the party, this conflict yielded real change, which showed through in the Democratic party’s most progressive platform yet in 2016.
The platform called for a path to universal health care and marijuana decriminalization, as well as higher education for all and the goal of ending mass incarceration — even the end of the Hyde amendment, a once widely accepted, bipartisan law that prohibits federal funding for abortion procedures, and has jeopardized women’s health for generations.
Many of these ideas once seemed fringe until Bernie and his vocal supporters arrived on the scene. And it doesn’t hurt that he energized America’s progressive young who will canvas and vote, perhaps even launch campaigns for offices across the country, because of the powerful grassroots elements of Sanders’ 2016 campaign.
Clinton has taken heat from pundits and left-wing activists not only for criticizing Bernie, but for purportedly further dividing the party in doing so. They’re not necessarily wrong about this — the great Hillary vs. Bernie war of 2016 has had lasting impact on the party, both for better and for worse. And especially at a time when the party has become increasingly vulnerable — and at a time when its unity is needed more than ever before — her sharp criticism runs the risk of furthering this divide.
Nevertheless, this criticism is valid. Sanders has divided the party, and many of his supporters do espouse sexism, which only worsens when they ignore legitimate criticisms from feminists — or, worse, lash out with sexist attacks to deflect from accusations of sexism.
But Sanders did not divide the party merely by running, and Democrats should be thankful that he did run. Rather, he’s divided the party on whether or not identity-based oppression is worthy of being addressed, about whether or not abortion and LGBTQ rights are worth fighting for or should be conceded to win elections and elect economic progressives.
Sanders’ idea that the economy and an allegedly, inherently evil “political establishment” are the only things worth talking about, and everything else is a “distraction” from the “establishment” — essentially the argument Sanders made when Planned Parenthood endorsed Clinton in 2016 — has instilled a hostility to discussion of identity and women’s rights in his supporters. His rhetoric has sent the message that once socialism comes to America, all the other problems like sexual and racial discrimination will magically cease to exist, and as a result, his supporters have been led to believe that what they call “identity politics” is a smokescreen to distract from “real issues” — and, to clarify, in their eyes, women’s issues are not real issues.
Speaking of which, Clinton is right about another thing — sexism in Bernieland is a problem, and a serious one, at that. And it doesn’t just exist in the well-documented trolling and vitriolic, gender-based comments his supporters make toward female Clinton supporters on social media.
There’s a far more subtle but equally damaging sexism in Sanders supporters who hide behind their passive, action-less “pro-choice” stances in response to being confronted on their sexism, but simultaneously shrug off abortion rights and family planning resources as unimportant issues relative to the economy. The United States has the highest maternal mortality rates in the industrialized world, and with more and more success, lawmakers in states across the country are winning political battles to force women to give birth.
To real-life women, this isn’t a matter of identity politics — it’s their livelihood. You’d have to have never experienced identity-based oppression in your life to be able to call this a matter of “identity politics” rather than what it is — a national crisis around women’s rights that requires as much attention as pushes for universal health care. But regardless, without listening to women’s voices and grievances, many of Bernie’s supporters swiftly treat those who have the audacity to call attention to this issue to lofty, unsolicited lectures on the economy.
Bernie’s campaign brought the best and worst out of the Democratic party. Now, we have to move forward — but not without first understanding precisely what happened.
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.Subsidieregeling
De Referendumcommissie heeft op 27 november 2017 een subsidieregeling vastgesteld. Voor het komende referendum over de Wet op de inlichtingen- en veiligheidsdiensten 2017 is 2 miljoen euro subsidie beschikbaar voor activiteiten die het publiek debat over die wet stimuleren. Zowel rechtspersonen (organisaties) als particulieren kunnen subsidie aanvragen. Rechtspersonen kunnen maximaal 50.000 euro en particulieren kunnen maximaal 5.000 euro subsidie aanvragen.
Bij de toepassing van de subsidieregeling hanteert de Referendumcommissie beleidsregels. Hierin staat hoe de commissie de subsidieaanvragen beoordeelt.
U vindt hier de subsidieregeling, de toelichting daarbij en de beleidsregels. Binnenkort wordt de subsidieregeling ook gepubliceerd in de Staatscourant.
Aanvragen subsidie
De Referendumcommissie zal begin december op deze website het formulier beschikbaar stellen dat nodig is om subsidie aan te vragen. Vanaf het moment dat het formulier beschikbaar is kunnen aanvragen voor subsidie bij de Referendumcommissie worden vooringediend. De datum waarop de formele indieningstermijn aanvangt zal nog worden bekendgemaakt op deze website en in de Staatscourant.Image caption The researchers were able to spoof the route of boats
A system used globally to track marine activity is highly vulnerable to hacking, security experts have warned.
Weaknesses in outdated systems could allow attackers to make ships disappear from tracking systems - or even make it look like a large fleet was incoming.
Researchers at Trend Micro said their findings showed the danger of using legacy systems designed when security was not an issue.
But one vessel-tracking specialist said spoof attempts could be easily spotted.
Lloyd's List Intelligence's Ian Trowbridge said that in addition to the vulnerable technology - known as the Automatic Identification System (AIS) - other measures could be used to identify marine activity.
"The spoofing would immediately be identified by [Lloyd's List Intelligence] as a warp vessel," he said, "providing unexplained position reports outside of the vessel's speed/distance capability and thus subject to further investigation and validation."
'No checking'
The AIS system is used to track the whereabouts of ships travelling across the world's oceans.
For ships over a certain size, having AIS fitted is mandatory under international maritime law.
Small leisure boats and fishing vessels - for which it is optional - can purchase a transponder for as low as £600, making AIS significantly cheaper than alternative location systems.
It has long been thought that the pirates are basically using AIS as a shopping list Rik Ferguson, Trend Micro
It is designed to transmit data about a ship's position, as well as other relevant information, so that movements can be seen by other boats as well as relevant authorities on shore.
One other use is to alert nearby ships when a man or woman is overboard - an alert that can easily be spoofed, says Trend Micro's Rik Ferguson.
"It boils down to the fact that the protocol was never designed with security in mind," he told the BBC.
"There's no validity checking of what's being put up there."
Using equipment bought for 700 euros (£600), the researchers were able to intercept signals and make vessels appear on the tracking system, even though they did not exist.
In one example, the team was able to make it look as if a ship's route had spelled out the word "pwned" - hacker slang for "owned".
Somali pirates
The information broadcast by AIS is public - but when the system was first put in use, in the early 1990s, the technology required to receive the information was prohibitively expensive for those not directly involved in the industry.
But now, a typical internet connection can be used to see the locations of boats, as well as an indicator of what type of cargo they may be carrying.
There has been speculation that Somali pirates have been making use of the system.
"It has long been thought that the pirates are basically using AIS as a shopping list," Mr Ferguson said, "seeing what's coming into local waters, and what cargo it may have."
However, Lloyd's List Intelligence noted that captains are permitted to disable AIS if they feel their crew could be endangered by it.
Follow Dave Lee on Twitter @DaveLeeBBCPart 1
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“The Right to Difference”: Balkanizing France
Just as Jews in the U.S. have a leading role — in Hollywood and pop culture generally — in defining what is “American,” so have French Jews pushed to redefine Frenchness away from an ethnic or even an assimilationist definition, towards a Balkanized France in which Jews may live and operate as a separate group with no unified majority against them. They market this under the slogan “the right to difference,” which the LICRA has called its “philosophy.” As the LICRA’s DDV publication argued in 1978: “Any society which requires or pushes for assimilation is a racist society. Democratic secularism [laïcité] is the coexistence of all minorities in equality and fraternity. It is not the abolition of ethnic differences and specificities.”[1]
The LICRA claims that requiring immigrants to conform to French norms is to impose self-hatred upon them. Effectively, the LICRA is arguing that not only must the French allow themselves to be colonized by others but that the new arrivals should impose their non-European cultures. In 1981, the LICRA’s DDV magazine claimed:
To block the fascist demand of assimilation and national homogeneity, we must practice difference and pluralism. … These are the only effective barriers against a return of Nazism and of its French avatar: Vichy.[2]
And in the same publication in 1985: “To be anti-racist is not to demand the other to become oneself, it is to accept him as he is, to enrich oneself at his contact, to go towards him.”[3] One buzzword used to glorify the resulting Balkanization is that of “interculturality.”
The LICRA enthusiastically took on the role of simultaneously promoting non-European immigration and lamenting the inevitable “racism” which resulted from this (which they argued, with the usual pilpul, meant more immigration was required). In 1994, the LICRA co-organized a rally with left-wing parties, trade unions and “anti-racist” groups including the slogan “We are all immigrants,” notwithstanding the substantial rootedness of the French people for thousands of years.[4] Kling argues: “the systematic defense of foreigners was considered [by the LICRA] as a way of protecting themselves.”[5]
This activism has also at times been explicitly anti-French. Le Monde reports that in 1996 the LICRA, other anti-White groups (MRAP, LDH, Ras l’Front) and Freemasons held several meetings to oppose Pope John Paul II’s visit to France that year. The meetings were styled “anti-Clovis” gatherings, named after the Frankish king who converted to Christianity and founded the French monarchy; slogans were discussed, such as “We are all citizens, France is us, we don’t give a damn about Clovis.”[6]
Besides the agitation and propaganda of these groups, Kling reports that Alain Finkielkraut (neoconservative pundit) and Dominique Schnapper (sociologist, daughter of Raymond Aron[7]) were members of the 1987–88 Nationality Committee which redefined French citizenship in a more abstract and deracinated direction.[8] As a result, a purely civic, non-ethnic and indeed non-cultural definition of Frenchness is increasingly hegemonic in France. In 2009, Nicolas Sarkozy’s Minister of Immigration and National Identity Éric Besson, reputed to be a terrible race-baiter, argued:
France is neither a people, nor a language, nor a territory, nor a religion, it’s a conglomerate of peoples who want to live together. There are no ethnic French [Français de souche], there is only a France of miscegenation [métissage].[9]
Kling slams this as a “typically globalist definition,” whereas she argues that identity is “a carnal reality forged through the centuries and from tribulations lived together and not from vague abstract values.”[10]
The CRIF is similarly committed to Balkanization. As it argued in a 2010 meeting in Strasbourg: “For History to never repeat itself, France must be convinced that plural identities can be conjugated harmoniously with the values of the Republic.”[11] The CRIF appears to suggest that French history began with the Revolution of 1789, Frenchness being a body of recent values, rather than an ancient land and people reflecting tens of thousands of years of history.
Kling is keen to highlight the hypocrisy of the CRIF’s backing of multiculturalism in France given its unconditional support for the Jewish ethno-state that is Israel. She writes of Prasquier: “he has a quite different idea of Jewish identity; he however wants, concerning French identity, a disembodied vision, ‘soil-less,’ universalist, so much more reassuring than the plunge into a history of which he would not be part.”[12] (Not to belabor the point, but Prasquier was born Ryszard Praszkier in Danzig in July 1945.)
Growing Jewish Divisions on Islam
Kling also raises the tensions within the Jewish community on Islam, particularly with the rise of Muslim anti-Zionism with the Second Intifada in the early 2000s. Jewish so-called “new reactionaries” like Alain Finkielkraut, Éric Zemmour and Élisabeth Lévy have been allowed to voice criticism of Islam and immigration in mainstream media.[13]
Roger Cuckierman, CRIF president since 2013, wrote a somewhat incoherent piece evoking these anxieties on the demographic rise of Islam in March 2010. The piece essentially debates whether Christians or Muslims are more threatening to Jews, contrasting first Jews’ supposedly peaceful life under medieval Islam as against the medieval Christian pogroms and the modern European Holocaust, and then today’s Islamic anti-Semitism as against Jews’ happy contemporary position in the West. He writes:
It is clear that our children and grandchildren will live in an environment where Christian culture will have lost influence to the benefit of Muslim culture. … Demography is not only a social science, it’s especially an evolving whole of facts which modify the political and social environment in which we live. I am thinking of course of the demographic balance in Israel, like the demographic balance in France. I draw from this only one conclusion: Let us have many children![14]
What better statement of the threat posed to ethnic Europeans by their displacement and reduction to vulnerable minorities in their own historic homelands? Kling observes sarcastically: “What arrogance, what an illusion to imagine that Islam could be different by virtue of the miraculous air breathed in Europe, from what [Islam] has been for 1,300 years the world over!”[15]
Defining Jews as “More-Equal-Than-Others”
The CRIF has simultaneously, in addition to its verbal “republican universalism,” promoted the idea of Jews as part-non-entity (therefore with no agency, nothing to criticize or praise) and part-community with special rights. It’s the usual game of attacking the hated majority out-group’s cohesion and identity, while promoting their own cohesion and identity, including Israel. The CRIF wants Jews to both be individually recognized as equal citizens no different from any other and collectively recognized as a group with special rights. Prasquier explicitly made this demand in November 2009:
“How can one be Jewish?” The question has never been easy, and often, when one thinks to have resolved it, one complicates it. Yet the Republic seemed to have brought not only an answer, but the peace of decisions taken and the serenity of overcome dilemmas. To be Jewish was to be like the others, simply. To have the same rights and the same duties. … However, if we reject any recognition of a collective identity, this means, to say it with a brutality which alone can express precise things, denying everything which means that there is between Jews a common foundation of references, attachments and values which do not set them apart, but make them distinct. To say that all citizens are equal is not to say that they are all identical.[16]
This is, at bottom, the fundamental betrayal the CRIF of the Enlightenment contract proposed by the French revolutionaries and Napoleon: Cease to act as a group and you will be recognized as equal citizens (similar groups in America have betrayed the offer of the Founding Fathers).
Prasquier has also argued:
French Jews are not, and do not claim to be, a nation within the nation. They are Frenchmen, the children of Marianne, heirs of the Enlightenment and of that part of the enlightened philosophers and of equitable tolerance which have made us what we are. Secondly, and it is no doubt the most difficult thing to understand today, the Jews, beyond borders, are a people. Certainly, not a people founded upon blood, genes or rootedness in a soil. What they have in common is a heritage, symbolic and important, founded upon a moral law … forged by centuries of painful history, maintained throughout the dispersions and affirmed despite persecutions.[17]
Again, a definition of Jews by their supposed superior morality. We also find lies or ignorance in the denial of “blood, genes” in Jews’ self-definition, an obvious falsehood given that Jewish identity is inherited from the mother, given the existence of “atheist Jews,” and given the numerous genetic studies on the topic.[18] In the end, the endless gyrations in these long statements are nothing but ethnically-motivated obfuscations and pseudo-paradoxes to justify tribal privilege and double standards.
Like its American cousins, the CRIF has attempted to promote bizarre theories arguing for the moral superiority of Jews over non-Jews. CRIF Vice President Jean Kahn argued in 1986 that Jews had “a particular vigilant sensibility … which means that the Jewish voter is, by the conditioning of history, a voter with an extra touch of soul [un supplément d’âme].”[19] A CRIF member similarly argued in 2010:
But, what characterizes the Jews of France — above all — can be defined thus: the Jews carry the standard of republican values, deep in their hearts, of a France whose identity is plural, a France which must be welcoming and fraternal.[20]
This vision of Jews as passive moral agents randomly attacked by the irrational goyim has also been promoted by historians. For example, at a 2009 CRIF event, the Belgian-Jewish historian Joël Kotek, for a time a senior official at the Paris Memorial for the Shoah, said: “Ultimately, the Jews are despite themselves ‘the seismometers of modernity’.”[21]
The CRIF and the CRAN, the Black ethnic lobby, justify their explicit ethnically-motivated activism by championing it as enforcing “republican” universalism. CRAN President Patrick Lozès has stated: “the CRIF and the CRAN are indefatigable sentinels of the Republic, watch posts of our common values. The Republic is celebrated every year during the events organized by the CRIF and the CRAN.” Similarly, CRIF president Prasquier has claimed that “if the CRIF has one objective, it’s to fight against communitarianism.”[22] One can scarcely think of a more blatant ethnically-motivated contradiction!
Conclusion: France as Zionist Asset
Anne Kling has provided a great service in documenting the gradual fall of France since 1945 to its low condition of today. Reflecting a decades-long cultural struggle and the ethnic power imbalances at the head of the political-cultural apparatus, the country is now riven by double standards to the detriment of the indigenous French population and indeed threatening the very existence of the French nation. In this, groups like the LICRA and the CRIF have played a leading role, even as they enthusiastically support the existence of the Jewish ethno-state of Israel.
Kling summarizes her thesis thus:
The LICRA, the moral left, [allied] itself naturally with the political left and other so-called progressive forces to lead together in the name of antiracism and human rights, the offensive in favor of a massive immigration, rightly thought to be the best way of diluting a ‘national’ identity and cohesion considered threatening for various reasons. Towards those who would oppose this, the argument is ready and unanswerable: they are necessarily racist, nostalgic of Vichy, worse perhaps. In reality, the goal is for France to be deeply transformed. That the population — and thus its electorate — be modified in a direction favorable to the left. That she become plural [plurielle], by means fair or foul.[23]
Kling laments “the identitarian destruction of a country which was, even a few decades ago still, rich, proud of its history and its culture. And homogenous.”[24] This was “the weakening of a country deemed guilty” and the enforcement of “antiracism, the obligatory religion of universal man.”[25] Ethnic warfare through cultural means. We again must salute Kling’s courage in highlighting the role of the LICRA and the CRIF despite France’s censorious legislation:
If Muslims are today living among us in ever-greater numbers, it’s indeed because irresponsible and short-sighted politicians, under the pressure of so-called anti-racist associations, in fact anti-national and anti-identitarian, opened the doors wide open to them [...] To point the finger at these first causes, by refusing to confuse causes and consequences, is practically to run the risk of violating the law.[26]
Kling’s narrative is a story of generational change: of the passing of leaders who knew the war and who knew things had been very complicated (after all the overwhelming majority of civil servants and army officers had remained loyal to Vichy) to a Manichaen vision that can only be seen as a caricature. This was symbolized by the harassment of President François Mitterrand towards the end of his life by ethnocentric Jews — Mitterrand had been both an honored Vichy official and a resister; though Jew-friendly he kept friendships from the collaboration era and insisted on honoring Marshal Philippe Pétain as the victor of the First World War — against whom he could only protest: “Young man, you do not know what you are talking about.”
In a way, the story is a logical fulfillment. If the ethnocentrism of National Socialist Germany and the Jewish Holocaust were the supreme evil – Jewish ethnocentrism being unmentionable and communist crimes of lesser moral significance – as the Allies declared, then all people and ideas even vaguely associated with the National Socialist regime were also evil. Jewish groups like the LICRA and CRIF have simply pushed to rigorously extend these principles to France as a whole, including its history and very society, even if it means the destruction of the nation.
Barring a political revolution, there is every reason to think the influence of these groups will grow. It does appear that Jewry’s influence will differ somewhat between America and France. Intermarriage appears relatively high in the U.S. and the country’s elite increasingly features half- and quarter-Jews. The liberal wing of Jewry appears decidedly stronger in the U.S. than the neoconservative/Likud wing.
In contrast, French Jewish identity and conscious ethnocentrism appear more pronounced. There are more overt perceived threats in France. After all, a nationalist party, with a party leader who refused to kowtow to the postwar civil religion of “Holocaustianity,” consistently received 10–20% of the vote. Like the golem, Islamic immigration has, though promoted by Jewish groups, led to a growing community on French soil which is deeply anti-Zionist, no doubt more anti-Semitic than either the native French population or Hispanic and Asian immigrants to the U.S. Since at least 2002, with the Second Intifada and the Iraq War, this has increasingly been of concern to French Jewish elites. Finally, Israel is just next door, a four-hour flight away, meaning that French Jews can easily commune with an undiluted, unapologetic and indeed supremacist Jewish culture in an explicitly Jewish ethno-state. This means Jews can live in France and periodically go to Israel, or they can notionally perform their Aliyah and still have a foot in France, continuing to lobby on behalf of their ethno-state and people.
The future of the organized Jewish community in France will then likely be that of explicit dual loyalty. We already have examples: grandson-of-deportees-and-IDF-soldier-cum-French-government-lawyer Arno Klarsfeld, the repulsive “French MP” Meyer Habib representing French citizens in Israel, the rather “honest Zionist” Gilles-William Goldnadel who is close to the Likud party, and indeed CRIF President Roger Cuckierman’s son Édouard, an Franco-Israeli businessman active in both countries.
Thus I think all the reports about Jews fleeing France en masse for Israel are highly exaggerated: elite Jews are not going, and even those who do have by no means necessarily given up on doing their best to serve their tribe by meddling in French political life.
Organized Jewry in France may well come to actually oppose Islamic immigration or indeed allow the Front National to participate in government.[27] They will do this if they deem this (rightly or wrongly) to be in the interests of Jews and Israel. Tragically, I do not believe nationalists can come to power in France without either a political collapse or the tacit support of at least a part of the Jewish community. The French politico-media elite plays with the FN like a cat with a mouse.
Kling laconically notes: “[I]f ‘Israel is the State of the Jewish people’, why would France not be the State of the French people?”[28] Such appeals to moral consistency will never have any effect on the LICRA and the CRIF, whose religion appears to be hypocrisy, but they will be important in convincing Frenchmen and Europeans worldwide of the righteousness of self-defense, whose political name is nationalism. Every day, France weakens, but nationalism and anti-Zionism grow stronger.
End of Part 5 of 5.
[1] Ibid., 164
[2] Ibid., 166
[3] Ibid., 166
[4] Ibid., 186
[5] Ibid., 172.
[6] “Tous et toutes citoyens, la France c’est nous, Clovis, on s’en fout!” Ibid., 233
[7] Discussed in Guillaume Durocher, “The Jew as Citizen: Raymond Aron & Civic Nationalism,” Counter-Currents, November 5, 2014.
http://www.counter-currents.com/2014/11/the-jew-as-citizen-part-1/
[8] Kling, Le CRIF, 19.
[9] Ibid., 263.
[10] Ibid.
[11]Ibid., 210.
[12]Ibid., 263.
[13]I discuss the highly ambiguous and complex possible political ramifications of this in Guillaume Durocher, “Towards Kosher Nationalism?,” The Occidental Observer, January 17, 2015.
http://www.theoccidentalobserver.net/2015/01/towards-kosher-nationalism-1-the-unstable-jewish-gentile-dialectic/
[14]Kling, Le CRIF, 261-2. My emphasis.
[15]Kling, La France LICRAtisée, 247.
[16]Kling, Le CRIF, 265-6. My emphasis.
[17] Ibid., 25.
[18] To cite only one Jewish publication, Jon Entine, “Jews |
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Like this: Like Loading...The Connected City Award recognizes cities that demonstrate remarkable leadership in bringing 21 st - century wireless connectivity across their neighborhoods, educational systems and businesses, helping bridge the digital divide. Connected City leaders invest in wireless solutions that empower their residents and businesses and anticipate their future needs by having the wireless systems in place to encourage innovation and opportunity.
Working with city officials, Mobilitie invested millions of dollars and installed dozens of small-cell sites throughout the city in less than nine months, enhancing wireless capacity and speeds by up to 20 percent. The result is a wireless network and experience that is world-class and ready for the future with 5G technology already embedded. Furthermore, the company employed existing infrastructure, like street lights, for most of its build and designed its attachments and new structures to blend in—making the deployment virtually unnoticeable.
"Atlanta has long understood the importance of having world-class communications infrastructure in place as a way to attract businesses and improve quality of life," said Kasim Reed, mayor of Atlanta. "We've encouraged it and made it a priority—and it is a primary reason we've been successful in growing and adding higher-paying, 21st-century jobs that appeal to, help retain and attract top talent."
"Mobilitie's small-cell technology makes world-class wireless voice and data networks happen at a fraction of the expense and time of traditional networks," said Christo Karmis, President of Mobilitie.
"We've done it in Atlanta working in partnership with progressive-thinking city officials who realize that the next generation of innovation—such as self-driven cars—require significant capacity increases and the fraction-of-a second speeds 5G will deliver," said Karmis.
Small-cell technology expands network coverage and capacity using limited infrastructure (radios are the size of a laptop bag) installed at unobtrusive locations to augment the coverage of wireless carriers. It requires minimal space and low-power demands. The networks are 5G ready and designed to be upgradeable to accommodate future wireless demand.
"We're installing thousands of small cells across the country," said Karmis. "And as with Atlanta, these installs are permanent, unobtrusive long-term improvements to the communications experience that bring an unprecedented level of wireless connectivity—the lifeblood of 21st-century economies—that benefit people and businesses of virtually all sizes."
About Mobilitie
Mobilitie is the largest privately held telecommunications infrastructure company in the United States. As a global provider of complete wireless solutions, Mobilitie helps people stay connected on their mobile devices wherever they are. It funds, deploys and operates next-generation infrastructure that enables robust 4G LTE coverage and upcoming 5G services and speeds.
Mobilitie wireless infrastructure includes communication towers, indoor and outdoor neutral host DAS networks, small cells and Wi-Fi networks. Mobilitie's Advanced Technology Group engineers innovative wireless solutions that improve wireless service at the largest and most complex venues across all major industries—including sports and entertainment, real estate, hospitality, education, healthcare, government and transportation.
Mobilitie partners with cities and municipalities across the country to deploy next-generation small-cell sites and other infrastructure that provides local residents with enhanced mobile connectivity and wireless broadband access. Its high-density wireless infrastructure is designed to enable the richest, most interactive mobile experiences, including real-time video streaming, location-based services, social media and other mobile applications.
Mobilitie is headquartered in Newport Beach, California, and has regional offices in Atlanta, Chicago and internationally. To learn more about our wireless coverage solutions, visit us at www.mobilitie.com.
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SEATTLE, Wash. — A Maryland teen, who earlier this year became the openly gay scout awarded the highest rank of Eagle Scout, was in Seattle on Wednesday to deliver more than 125,000 signatures from his Change.org petition urging Amazon.com to suspend donations to the Boy Scouts of America until it lifts its ban on gay and lesbian leaders.
Tessier, flanked by supporters outside of Amazon’s Seattle headquarters, was joined at the petition delivery by Geoff McGrath, the openly gay Scoutmaster from Seattle whose membership in the BSA was revoked because of his sexual orientation.
Tessier, McGrath, Seattle-area Scout leaders, and members of the advocacy groups Scouts for Equality and GLAAD gathered outside Amazon headquarters to urge the online retailer to suspend its support of the Boy Scouts.
“I am standing here today outside of Amazon.com’s headquarters to deliver one important message: discrimination is nothing to smile about,” said Tessier.
“I’m asking Amazon to stand by its own policy and its commitment to the LGBT community, and remove organizations that discriminate against LGBT people — like the Boy Scouts of America did when they fired Geoff McGrath — from their AmazonSmile program.”
Amazon supports the Boy Scouts through it charitable giving program, AmazonSmile, which donates 0.5% of the price of eligible purchases a the charitable organization of your choice.
Amazon says it relies on “lists published by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control to determine if certain organizations are ineligible to participate.”
Last week, the co-founder of the SPLC said that if Amazon is following its own policies and the principles of the SPLC, on which Amazon claims to rely, the company should not include the Boy Scouts in the AmazonSmile program.
McGrath echoed that comment today in remarks made outside of Amazon.com’s headquarters.
“Amazon is not only condoning, it’s supporting discrimination right in its own backyard. Just a few miles from their offices is the church where I used to lead Boy Scouts Troop 98; that is, until I was told I could no longer serve because I’m gay,” McGrath said.
“Today, my fellow Scouts and I are here to deliver more than 125,000 petition signatures calling on Amazon to do one simple thing: follow your own rules and stop supporting discrimination against people like me.”
Representatives from Amazon received the petition signatures, but made no comments whether it will continue to include the Boy Scouts in the AmazonSmile program.
Wednesday’s petition delivery coincided with Amazon’s annual shareholders meeting in Seattle, as well as the Boy Scouts of America’s National Annual Meeting in Nashville.
Previously, UPS, Intel, Disney, Alcoa, and Lockheed Martin have suspended donations to the Boy Scouts until the ban on gay leaders is lifted.
This Story Filed Under- A swimmer was severely injured after being bit in the arm by a sea lion in the Bay on Thursday afternoon.
The 56-year-old man was swimming beyond the cove at Aquatic Park and was bitten around 1:45 p.m.
"He was swimming and said a sea lion came up to him and he splashed water on it and it didn't work. He yelled at it and then the sea lion came up and bit him on the arm and he used his arm to push him away and then it went away and he never saw it again after that," said Matthew Reiter with San Francisco Police Department's Marine Unit.
A sailboat happened to be nearby and saw the swimmer in distress, so he pulled the man onto his boat and immediately called police.
Police told the captain of that boat to bring him to the Hyde Street pier.
John Baxter with the San Francisco Fire Department tells KTVU several tourniquets were applied to the swimmer in an attempt to stop the bleeding. The tourniquet was applied by SFPD at Pier 45. The swift actions by emergency crews contributed to the swimmer's life being saved, according to San Francisco Fire.
The swimmer was then transported to Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital.
BAY RESCUE @SFPD MARINE07 Pulled 1 subject out of the water with reported sea lion bite extremity injury being treated by @SFPD officers as they bring victim to pier 45 to meet our medics pic.twitter.com/eDwEPKerid — San Francisco Fire (@sffdpio) December 14, 2017
The victim is expected to be OK, according to San Francisco fire.
KTVU spoke to a couple of swimmers in the area who say seeing sea lions in the water is more common than before. They say if they see a sea lion in the water, they swim the other way and don't make eye contact because they will rush a swimmer and bump them.
The swimmers speculate that mating season could be one reason why the sea lions are seemingly more aggressive than normal. There are other theories that swimmers here may be impacting the sea lions.
Dr. Claire Simeon, a veterinarian with the Marine Mammal Center, published a study with the University of California at San Francisco in 2015 looking at sea lion and seal bites and scratches.
She said researchers talking to the members of two San Francisco swim clubs found only 11 such incidents over a period of three years, and one of those had actually taken place in Washington.
The study found no clear patterns or common causes among the incidents. While it was clear that approaching the animals could cause negative reactions, many of the swimmers did not appear to have done anything to provoke the attack.
"As these animals are wild, their behavior can be erratic," Simeon said.
Experts recommend that swimmers and beach goers try to maintain a safe distance from seals and sea lions, as they have sharp teeth and a strong bite.
"I don't think that people should be afraid to go into the water," Simeon said. "We're lucky to be able to share our coastline with these amazing animals."
"We really want people to leave seals be and enjoy the bay," Simeon said.
The SFPD Marine Unit will be advising local swim clubs of the incident.
Leslie Dyste and Alyana Gomez contributed to this story.The Daily Star said last night that Real Madrid were lining up a proposal for Tottenham Hotspur which would see Luka Modric returning to the Premier League club. The deal sounded financially good for Spurs, with £30m being added to the Croatian but it just didn't sound wholly realistic.
Even if Tottenham wanted Modric back, and after last summer they may not, it's still hard to imagine that he'd be happy to return with his tail between his legs. Modric hasn't had a good season in Spain and has been roundly declared a flop but he'll be determined to prove that wrong and certainly wouldn't want to go back to Spurs as something of a failure.
In Spain there's another Tottenham story brewing. Today's copy of Sport newspaper has a feature on Gonzalo Higuain in which they claim he wants to go to London this summer. His long term girlfriend has a new job with the BBC which is in the city and is expecting the couple's first child, Sport say they have decided to set up home in the English capital and that he wants to find a team there this summer. They go as far as to claim he's been looking at property and visited the city two weeks ago. It sounds like it has more to it than most transfer rumours, given the job and relationship connection.
They discount Chelsea because everyone in Spain assumes the Falcao deal to be already done, and they say that Arsenal wouldn't pay the transfer fee, but they reckon that a deal could be sorted out with Daniel Levy and inevitably name Gareth Bale. If Spurs are to lose the Welshman then getting Higuain as part of the deal doesn't sound such a bad idea. The club need a top class striker and Higuain has shown he can justify that tag, but has suffered with the rotation at Real Madrid. Despite seeming like he's been around forever, he's still only 25 and so has much of his career ahead of him.
This sounds like an interesting rumour with some decent foundations, certainly worth keeping an eye on.
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Should you be a media outlet and wish to use this article, or part of it, then contact us for syndication details. Credit appreciated when taking the article basis or line. Sport Witness always try to provide credit for sources and if you ever feel we've missed someone out then give us a shout, likewise if you see our work, or versions of it, elsewhere then let us know.안녕하세요 네이버 스타캐스트 가족 여러분~!^^‘러블리즈 다이어리 1’보다 조금 더 성숙해진 모습으로 돌아온 러블리즈의 감성보컬 JIN입니다!여러분과 다시 인사를 나누고 싶어서 얼마나 기다렸는지 모르겠어요!첫 번째 에피소드에서 저의 졸업을 축하해주신 많은 분들께 감사하다는 말씀을 꼭 드리고 싶었어요! 감사합니다~!>_< 이제 저 JIN과 함께 지난 에피소드와 이어지는 ‘인지도 테스트’ 현장으로 함께 가보실까요~?부끄러워해도 시키는 건 다 했던 귀여운 리더 베이비소울 언니, 기분 좋은(?) 미션으로 얼굴에 웃음이 가시지 않았던 미주언니, 공주처럼 예쁘게 모든 미션을 한 번에 성공했던 Kei 언니,짓궂은 미션요구에도 불구하고 끝까지 웃으면서 마음껏 끼를 발산했던 ‘연예인’ 막내 예인이까지! 어쩔 줄 몰라 하던 처음모습과는 다르게 점점 적극적인 모습으로 미션을 성공해나갔습니다!저희끼리 했던 말이지만, 정말로 먼 훗날에! 언젠가 러블리즈 다이어리를 다시 하게 된다면 그때 그 자리, 같은 옷, 같은 미션으로 다시 인지도 테스트를 해보고 싶어요. 지금보다 더 열심히 해서 여러분들에게 더 많은 사랑 받을 날을 기대하고 있습니다! 생각만해도 벌써 가슴이 뛰어요!^^~행복한 상상을 하다 보니, 벌써 ‘러블리즈 다이어리 2’의 여섯 번째 에피소드 소개도 마무리 지을 시간이 다가왔네요! 너무 아쉽습니다.ㅜ^ㅜ 하지만 아직 ‘러블리즈 다이어리2’의 에피소드는 남아있다는 거! 다음 에피소드의 예고 혹시 보셨나요? 너무 흥미로울 것 같지 않으세요? 그럼 금요일에도 ‘러블리즈 다이어리2’ 잊지 마시고 꼭꼭 시청하기! 진과 함께 약속해요! 약~속!지금까지 러블리즈의 JIN이었습니다! 감사합니다!글 = JIN영상•정리 = 울림 엔터테인먼트After playing a very good first half of his second American Hockey League season, Nashville Predators prospect Vladislav Kamenev finally made his NHL debut on Jan. 6 against the Florida Panthers. In this translated interview, originally appearing on the popular Russian website Sport-Express, forward Vladislav Kamenev talked about his first games in NHL, return to the AHL and other interesting things.
* You can enjoy the original article in Russian language by A. Shevchenko here *
NHL Debut
Alexei Shevchenko: In spite of your good performance in the AHL, there weren’t many rumors about your possible call-up. How did it happen?
Vladislav Kamenev: As far as I know, there were some injuries at the Predators, therefore two players from Milwaukee were called up. It was very surprising to me. We were on a road trip in California, I already went to sleep, but then my coach called me. He told me that I was called up and that I needed to go. I packed my things and left, and it was already deep night. It was a hard flight.
AS: Because it was a night flight?
VK: Yes. We left at 11 PM, and I was with the team at 7 AM. Because of the time zones. The flight lasted five hours. We had a game against Florida on that same day. Do you remember that in the start of January a shooting happened at the Florida airport? We departed from there only one hour before the fact. We checked the news and were in shock. It was good to be able to escape all that.
AS: What did the coaches tell you before the game?
VK: We had a simple talk. The coach explained to me that he understand my condition, but that I still needed to get ready for the game as I’ll have some ice time.
http://gty.im/627405754
AS: The start wasn’t good.
VK: My team allowed a goal in my first shift. We created a scoring chance at Florida’s net, but they got the puck and replied with a goal. Not bad.
AS: Were you worried?
VK: At first I was, but fastly everything turned out better and better, and already in the second period I was feeling great.
AS: Did you have any scoring chance?
VK: A couple of chances, nothing more.
AS: After the training camp you were told that you had a problem with faceoffs. Did you solve it?
VK: The first game wasn’t good on this aspect, I won just one faceoff out of four. But against the Chicago Blackhawks I won many of them. I get told all the time that I need to work on faceoffs. I’ve been even asked to work individually with my coach on this, to watch videos with the best players. I’ll try to learn.
AS: I had a chance to watch your second game, against the Blackhawks. You played much better.
VK: Yes, I was already feeling more confident. It was a good game, I agree. I managed to play well.
Back to the AHL
AS: You were still demoted down to the AHL after that game.
VK: I’ve been told the usual stuff, I will be followed, I need to keep on working. But, of course, I’m very glad to have played in the NHL. I understood that I can play at such a level.
AS: Usually players who get demoted lose motivation. You didn’t get any point in the first couple of games for Milwaukee.
VK: I was simply unlucky, I had enough chances. No, you’re wrong, I started playing even more, and now I want even more to get back to Nashville. I understood how close I am to play in the NHL.
AS: In your of your games in the AHL, against Grand Rapids, [Detroit Red Wings prospect] Evgeny Svechnikov scored a double. And you were on the ice when it happened.
VK: He outplayed me twice. Somehow we don’t have a good record against Red Wings’ farm team. They win all the times.
AS: How did the guys greet you in Nashville?
VK: There were no problems. Everyone has good ties with young players. Veterans offered us to have a dinner all together.
AS: Did you pay for it?
VK: No, veterans did.
AS: You are among your team’s leaders in points scored. I cheer for you to win this competition.
VK: I think I am having a good season. I scored almost as many points as last year, but we still have half of the season. I don’t care about being the team’s top scorer. What’s the difference in points?
AS: Just a couple.
VK: I can be either the top scorer or not, but we need our team to win. I have other goals: I want to get called to Nashville not just from time to time, but constantly. But, of course, I know that I have a lot of competition. As far as I understood, the top team grabbed another center. It won’t be easy.
AS: Do you often play against other Russian players in the AHL?
VK: We play very often against Svechnikov and Grand Rapids. Also against Ivan Barbashev and his Chicago Wolves. We go to dinner together after the games. We play against Barbashev’s team a dozen of times during the season. Ivan is having a good season and, of course, he also really wants to get called up to St. Louis.
AS: I hear barking from another room as we speak.
VK: My friend gave me his dog a couple of days while he’s on a business trip.
AS: What is the breed of the dog?
VK: I’m not sure, but she’s really big. I can’t even get close to her, she just stays at the door waiting for my friend.
AS: Don’t you want to have a dog yourself?
VK: I would really love having one, but as soon as I think about it, then long road trips come to my mind. Where would I leave the dog when I’m not at home for a week?
AS: You have a strange calendar.
VK: Yes, sometimes we play three games straight, then just one game for a week. But on the other hand, I don’t think too much about it, as my life is pretty much always the same: practice, game, practice, road trip. Of course, now my emotions are through the roof after my NHL debut. I really want to get back there.
AS: Were you awarded something for your debut?
VK: Oh, that’s an interesting thing. I’ve been gifted a puck, I don’t even understand why. Should I have scored, then I’d understand, but…The US spy chief has admitted Al-Qaeda might be behind recent suicide bombings in Syria. While rebels threaten they will have to make an alliance with jihadists if they don’t see more help from the West.
The Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, while testifying before the Senate Armed Services, has acknowledged that blasts in Syrian cities since last December “had all the earmarks of an Al-Qaeda-like attack”.
"We believe Al-Qaeda in Iraq is extending its reach into Syria," Clapper told the Senate.
The Iraqi government confirmed ealier that Al Qaeda has been crossing from Iraq into Syria to carry out attacks on government forces.
At the beginning of the Syrian internal conflict the rebels relied primarily on small arms but over the months they have become increasingly more sophisticated in bomb-making.
Wednesday’s bombing in Damascus, meters from the UN mission headquarters, put the international jihadists into the media spotlight. Syrian rebels have openly admitted they were behind the attack, but the extensive use of explosives they have been using lately might point at more experienced jihadists from other countries, probably Iraq, where they mastered their terror tactics and bomb-making skills on civilians and US soldiers.
In the Free Syrian Army there are entire brigades that are being armed, paid and commanded by the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), an organization considered an Al Qaeda affiliate by the UN. The US State Department and the UK Home Office both regard it as a terrorist organization as well.
‘West pushes us to Al-Qaeda’
The Free Syrian Army insurgents stick to the demand that western support for them is insufficient. The rebels point out they have to deal with the regular Syrian army which has anything from mortars and tanks to fighter jets and assault helicopters at its disposal – and does not hesitate to use them.
So the rebels demand more arms and more western support. Theoretically, they might be satisfied with establishing a no-fly zone over Syria. That would enable them to repeat the Libyan scenario, where special forces from various countries were doing the job of ousting Muammar Gaddafi while local rebels were starring on western media as “true victors over an evil regime”.
But since the US leadership remains ponderous over how to introduce a no-fly zone over Syria as America is engrossed in the presidential campaign, the Syrian rebels’ feelings have been seriously hurt.
"We don't want Al-Qaeda here, but if nobody else helps us, we will make an alliance with them," suggests Abu Ammar, a rebel commander in the city of Aleppo.
"And you can bet if Al-Qaeda comes here, they will brainwash the people,” Ammar told AFP. “If Al-Qaeda enters Aleppo, the city will become their base within three months.”
While the West pretends to wage war on global terrorism, most politicians would not mind if the Syrian opposition united with al-Qaeda, believes Marcus Papadopoulos, a political analyst from online magazine Britain's Politics First.
“If you know the history, you will see that the West and Islamic extremism, though they do not get on with each other, they certainly get into bed with each other when there is a common foe,” he told RT. “Though this won’t come as a surprise to Western politicians, as they are quite aware of it, it will of course come as a surprise to domestic audiences in the West who are largely being fed a story that the Assad government is this genocidal mass murdering machine and the opposition are innocent bystanders.”
Despite the obvious signs of international terrorist organizations battling the regime of President Bashar Assad, the Syrian government finds itself further isolated as the Organization of Islamic Cooperation has suspended Syria's membership. The move is supposed to send a'strong message' to Damascus, which the group sees as the only culprit behind hostilities in Syria.
Another international body, the Arab League, expelled Syria from its ranks last year.
The Arab countries are showing a united front in dealing with the “apostate” Alawi regime in Syria, yet the money and arms they pump into Syrian rebels might end up in the hands of radical Islamist movements that appear to be working to steal the thunder in the Syrian conflict.
What many in the west fail to recognize is that Islamic terrorism is not necessarily a derogative term, it is a descriptive term to denote a guerrilla warfare tactic that justifies the use of terror and violence for achieving political goals.
The Syrian rebels are already starting to fear the political agenda of extreme jihadists that flock into their country. The aggressive tactics the intruders effectively use might soon give the Syrian rebels the choice of either joining foreign extremists in ousting the regime and building an Islamists state in Syria, or confronting them to build a “better Syria without Assad”. The example of a “better Libya without Gaddafi”, where tribal wars have become routine amid a drop in living standards, might be standing straight and tall in front of their eyes.A couple of Clinton staffers are scheduled to show up and provide testimony before Gowdy’s congressional committee investigating – among other things – Benghazi and Hillary’s private email server. But there’s one name on the invitation list who will either be a no-show or will only be coming to repeat over and over again that he is invoking his protections against self-incrimination under the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. His name is Bryan Pagliano and he was the former Secretary of State’s IT guy during her 2008 campaign and also did some work for her after she took over at State. (He was given the title of “strategic adviser and special projects manager” working for the Chief Technology Officer, but apparently worked directly for Clinton.) It seems that he’s lawyered up and his attorney thinks it might be a bad idea for him to go around answering any questions. (Washington Post)
A former State Department staffer who worked on Hillary Rodham Clinton’s private e-mail server tried this week to fend off a subpoena to testify before Congress, saying he would assert his constitutional right not to answer questions to avoid incriminating himself. The move by Bryan Pagliano, who had worked on Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign before setting up the server in her New York home in 2009, came in a Monday letter from his lawyer to the House panel investigating the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. The letter cited the ongoing FBI inquiry into the security of Clinton’s e-mail system, and it quoted a Supreme Court ruling in which justices described the Fifth Amendment as protecting “innocent men... ‘who otherwise might be ensnared by ambiguous circumstances.’ ”
As for Clinton herself, she released a statement saying that Bryan’s decision was “disappointing” and that she had “urged” him to testify. Yeah… good luck with that. But the point which her brief statement makes clear is that either Hillary herself or members of her team have been in contact with Pagliano and knew something was coming down the pike. Wouldn’t we all have loved to have been a fly on the wall for those conversations.
In some ways you really have to feel sorry for this guy. He wasn’t ever Bryan “the super spy who snooped on Putin” Pagliano. Nor was he Bryan “I get a quarter million dollars for fifteen minute speaking gigs at the Clinton Foundation” Pagliano. He was just Bryan “oh crap I got a blue screen again can somebody call Bryan” Pagliano. And with that in mind I’m fairly sure that he never signed on for this sort of imbroglio.
But in that same context I find myself wondering what it is that Bryan really had to worry about and what’s making his attorney nervous. After all… he’s the guy who installed an email server at the house when the boss asked him to do so. I can’t conceive of a set of circumstances where that would be an offense which merits prosecution. There’s no law against anyone – including the Secretary of State – just having a private server. And for that matter, if Hillary had even used the server but actually restricted it to strictly personal correspondence about her daughter’s wedding and scheduling yoga classes while dealing with all of her office business on a State Department account we wouldn’t even be having this discussion today.
Or does it go deeper than that? Having installed the server, one assumes that Bryan might also be the guy who had to maintain it for her, right? And if that’s the case then he would no doubt have had at least some level of access to the contents since he would be an administrator on the system. Odds are that he didn’t know or care what the contents of all those emails were so long as the system was performing up to par, but perhaps his attorney is warning him that if he had access to the emails or had even taken a peek at a few then suddenly he was in the middle of giant national security mess.
In any event, Bryan most certainly has the right to take the 5th. What the rest of the world makes of that decision is beyond his control but it certainly tosses another log on the fire of Hillary Clinton’s woes.This week, at the launch event for Diversity Role Models - a charity that aims to tackle homo/bi/transphobic bullying in schools - I heard the heart-breaking story of the suicide of Dominic Crouch, told by his father, Roger. Impassioned, articulate and dignified, Roger explained how a Year 10 game of Spin the Bottle generated escalating rumours that his son was gay. Feeling unable to talk about his experiences, Dominic texted 999 to say he was going to kill himself, only to be told that as he was not registered as a deaf user, no emergency service had been notified. Twenty minutes later, he jumped to his death.
Inspired by Dominic's death and Roger's subsequent activism, Diversity Role Models provide free workshops to secondary school pupils, where people of various genders and sexualities will discuss the insidious effects of queer-bashing and provide positive messages about the future. Like the US-led It Gets Better campaign, also sparked by teenage suicides, it may be criticised for over-relying on celebrity figures, possibly obscuring vital grass roots work, and for failing to address the structural roots of prejudice. (The suicide of 14-year-old Jamey Rodemeyer in New York, after making his own It Gets Better video led to him being further bullied, was particularly traumatising.) These criticisms are not invalid, and I'm sure that DRM's founder, ex-teacher Suran Dickson, has considered and assessed them.
But let's consider the "insidious effects of queer-bashing" for a moment. Allow me to take you to Horley, Surrey, in October 1996. (Imagine a high street full of charity shops, newsagents that only grudgingly stock papers besides the Mail, and residents writing uppity letters to Reigate & Banstead Council about the town centre's paving and you're there.) I've just turned 15, in Year 10 at the local comprehensive, and I'm on a coach to Belgium to visit the First World War battlefields.
The school's social hierarchies are ruthlessly exposed by the coach's seating arrangements. There's a brilliant Simpsons line where Milhouse tells Bart that their Springfield Elementary standing is "around three and a half. We get beaten up, but we get an explanation". Mine's slightly higher, as nobody ever touches me - I went through puberty early so have stubble and a deep voice (nightmarish given my wish to transition, but to my advantage here), I'm quick-witted enough, and competent at football, all of which secure some (grudging) respect. However, I admit to liking poetry and show no interest in finding a girlfriend, so I'm around level five on The Milhouse Scale, and sit nearer the front than the back.
Sick of being the outsider, I'm trying to ingratiate myself with the counter-cultural crowd. They disdain my musical choices (scorning grunge and Britpop, I listen to old music: with synthesisers!) so I need another way in. I see it: two boys, so unpopular that they're sat nearest the teachers. The guy who walks to school with me speculates about their sexualities, doing camp Seventies comedy-style impersonations of them with suggestive noises: despite - or more likely because of - frequently being called "queer", and prepared to do anything to stop people realising that I am, I join in.
They don't dare answer back. I never dare apologise.
We return, and I resume my post-school routine of secretive cross-dressing and contemplating suicide to Joy Division. I think about how my "friends" and I ruined these boys' trip, how I would most likely remain silent (at best) when the bullying came back to school with us, something they must be dreading, and how I would have hated to have been the subject of such abuse. Soon, inevitably, I was, even though my gender issues never became explicit. What goes around...
A decade later, I saw an old classmate at a queer-friendly disco in Brighton, and explained how I'd felt guilty ever since. "Don't worry," he said, "they weren't gay." Their sexualities, though, were only part of the issue. Constantly hearing "queer" as an insult and "gay" as a catch-all pejorative for anything insufficiently masculine (including transgender behaviour) I'd internalised this hatred, turning it into all-consuming self-loathing before firing it at seemingly easy targets, hoping this would deflect attention from me.
Simultaneously, I tried to conform to whatever I thought The Normal was. This meant not only suppressing my gender identity, with consequent lifelong mental health problems, but also not reading in my spare time, not pursuing my interest in art and not displaying sensitivity towards anyone else, as all these things were branded "gay". It took years to catch up, intellectually and personally: I can never know, but I strongly suspect I was not the only one who felt like this. Luckily, I did not help to cause, or meet a tragedy like Dominic's, but this cycle, unbroken, damages so many lives - not just lesbian, gay, bi, trans or queer lives - in so many different ways, and it's sad that it takes something as awful as the suicide of a bright young man to highlight the need for change.
What stopped me from taking my own life, like Dominic, Jamey and others? By Year 11, knowing that the end was in sight, but before that, finding people in the media who'd worked through similar issues. With reasons to look, I dug deep for inspirational trans people as none were prominent, but just before I left school, Dana International won Eurovision. I hate all Eurovision songs (bar Telex's) and hadn't watched, but her victory gave pupils a positive platform to share their opinions on transsexualism, and I was amazed to hear confident, popular confident classmates sincerely express their acceptance. If only this had happened before all this damage to myself and others, I thought, but it helped me find strength to come out as a cross-dresser soon after, putting me on my path towards self-acceptance, and sharing my experiences with others.
But no attempt to provide positive trans media representation ever quite assuages my guilt about what I did in my symbiotic, mutually destructive teenage circles. These memories still make me less willing to go into schools to evoke the discussion I desperately needed as a Section 28-era teenager, not just because I worry about which questions or actions I'd provoke, but also as I'd feel like a hypocrite. Our school's culture silenced everyone, including me, and I was too afraid to challenge the heteronormative bullying that filled the space: the long-term effect is to make me reluctant to work towards rectifying the situation even though I have the personal, psychological and intellectual distance that neither my classmates nor I had aged fifteen.
So whatever its limitations, Diversity Role Models can provide a structure for those wanting to plug the gap, setting healthier terms for debate and bringing personal contact to teens who may be too scared or confused to seek it for themselves. Even if it takes a generation or two to change the environment, it's a good start - for everyone.By popular demand, Niels' Bank has opened their legendary treasuries, and many fine add-ons are now available to discerning patrons.
To claim an add-on, you must first pledge to a Tier. Once you have done so, you can choose to overpledge by an amount equal to whichever add-ons you want - see the FAQ for an example. At the conclusion of the campaign, we'll send out a backer survey in which you can specify the add-ons you wanted. And now, here are the treasures, won by axe and blood from the Deeps:
Add-Ons: OGL/Pathfinder Supplements
$15 - Taken from the Vault: a Dwarven Armory. A digital copy of the OGL/Pathfinder Compatible equipment and item catalog, the wonders of the Upper Deeps and a crafting sourcebook. Contains a unique Holdfast Adventure and crafting rules for the gamebook.
A digital copy of the OGL/Pathfinder Compatible equipment and item catalog, the wonders of the Upper Deeps and a crafting sourcebook. Contains a unique Holdfast Adventure and crafting rules for the gamebook. $15 - Drunk, Broke and Bloody: A Holdfast Tavern Special. A digital copy of the OGL/Pathfinder Compatible ale, beer and spirits catalog and Inn & Tavern registry. Contains a unique prologue and epilogue for the Holdfast gamebook, which tells the tale of the celebratory nights before and after the main story.
A digital copy of the OGL/Pathfinder Compatible ale, beer and spirits |
three days. She guessed the whole unplanned journey would take the pair about 10 days.
"I wouldn't say I was ever really afraid — I was with another woman who is a really good friend of mine," she said, adding they had about a month's worth of food with them. "We had each other and we definitely had the resources to survive."
After about four days of plowing through the snow and brush, the GPS phone miraculously sprang to life and Whelan quickly made a call to her cousin in Winnipeg.
"Next thing I know there's chainsaws off in the distance and help was on the way," she said. "I might have been stuck in northern Ontario but it was the Manitoba boys that came to my rescue."
Dianne Whelan has been travelling on Canada's Great Trail since 2015. (Dianne Whelan / 500 Days in the Wild)
Whelan's cousin and a friend, along with their partners, drove from Winnipeg with chainsaws and an all-terrain vehicle.
Whelan is documenting her journey across Canada for a movie and her camera caught the moment when she first saw her rescuers cut through the bush ahead of her.
"Really love you, happy to see you," she exclaimed in the video, as she rushes to give her cousin a big hug. "Did I tell you how much I love you today?"
Getting stranded with a canoe on the longest trail in the world.on <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Vimeo?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Vimeo</a> <a href="https://t.co/X8a4rBPjXR">https://t.co/X8a4rBPjXR</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/500daysnthewild?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@500daysnthewild</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/TCTrail?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@TCTrail</a> —@diannewhelan
Whelan, whose previous work has included films shot on Mount Everest and in the High Arctic, has been on the trail since 2015.
It's a journey she's previously told CBC News she embarked on as a form of personal reconciliation — both with the land and with Canada's Indigenous People.
She estimates the journey will take her roughly four years to complete, and now that's she's out of the Northern Ontario wilderness, Whelan isn't letting her unscheduled adventure slow her down — she plans on getting started on the Manitoba portion of the trail as soon as she can.
Once she gets her canoe and gear out of the bush, that is.
"I'll go back and finish that section, but I won't be able to do that paddle now until the spring," she said.
"I've been faithful to every kilometer of this trail since I left Newfoundland two-and-a-half years ago and I intend to do every single one of them."'Okie' chocolate made, sold by Chickasaw Nation
DAVIS, Okla. – In a corner of a busy interstate corridor in America’s heartland, state of the art machines are pumping out thousands of chocolate goodies a day.
From chocolate bars to clusters, at Bedré Fine Chocolates, located near Davis, Okla., this process is done not only to ensure an abundant supply of chocolate delights were ready for Chocolate Day, July 7, but also for the remaining 364 days of the year.
Owned and operated by the Chickasaw Nation since 2000, Bedré recently started producing a variety of confectionery delicacies in a new, state-of the art 34,600-square-foot facility. In this new facility the chocolatier produces nearly 300,000 pounds of chocolate annually which is shipped to retailers nationwide.
Some, however, stays in the adjacent Bedré retail store. In the savory “chocolate boutique” a plethora of gourmet chocolates - from Meltaways (mint, caramel, hot fudge, peanut butter, raspberry, espresso), candy bars, clusters, twists, and sensations - can be found.
Don’t forget the “Oklahoma cow patties” and cowboy boot, cowboy hat and Oklahoma-shaped chocolates.
Chocolate of most shades and flavors can be found enveloping popcorn, peanuts, pecans, potato crips, cookies, orange slices, coffee beans or Bedré’s own caramel.
Bedré Fine Chocolate produces about 20,000 2-ounce chocolate bars a day, and plans to expand the product line are in the works.
The facility will even offer tours in the coming months, so visitors can experience the wonderful sights and smells of the chocolate-making process. The “Bedré Experience” tour will include the history of chocolate and the Bedré process, a behind the scenes tour of the manufacturing floor and chocolate sampling in several forms.
In addition, Bedré, the sole Oklahoma chocolate factory, is a member of the Made in Oklahoma program.
Launched in the late 1980’s, the Made In Oklahoma program assists companies in promoting agricultural products that are grown, produced or manufactured in the state of Oklahoma.
So, be assured, if you missed indulging in Bedré Chocolates during Chocolate Day July 7, you may still indulge during World Chocolate Day, September 4 or even National Chocolate Day October 28, and Bedré Chocolates will always have a large selection of treats to cure that chocolate craving.
Bedré Fine Chocolates is conveniently located at the southwest corner of I-35 at Exit 55 at 35 N. Colbert Road in Davis and is adjacent to Chickasaw Nation Welcome Center.
The Bedré retail store is open Monday to Saturday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
An additional Bedré retail store is located in Ada inside the Sovereign Family Clinic, 1007 N. Country Club Road.
Need a Reason to Celebrate Chocolate Day?
Do it for your health.
Chocolates contain alkaloids, a group of naturally occurring chemical compounds which are important for human body. The risk of heart problem is very less among chocolate eaters, according to researchers, and chocolate eating can also reduce blood pressure and sharpen the brain.
Remember all chocolate was not created equal: Dark chocolate packs more of a health punch overall; but even the bittersweet varieties can be high in calories, fat and sugar.
Bedre’ Fine Chocolate is located at the southwest corner of Interstate-35 at Exit 55 at 35 N. Colbert Road in Davis, Okla. It’s adjacent to the Chickasaw Nation Welcome Center.
Chocolate lovers can follow Bedré Fine Chocolate on Facebook (facebook/bedrefinechocolate) and Twitter (@bedrechocolate) or call 1-800-367-5390 for more information.
COURTESY PHOTOYanni 'John' Alexis Mardas also worked with The Rolling Stones
The Beatles‘ technology “wizard” Yanni ‘John’ Alexis Mardas – better known as Magic Alex – has died at the age of 74.
Athens-born Mardas was appointed head of the group’s Apple Electronics division in 1968, appeared in the Magical Mystery Tour film, and accompanied the band to the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s ashram at Rishikesh in India.
Originally taken on after John Lennon‘s appreciation of the light machines he’d constructed for The Rolling Stones in 1967, Mardas was later asked to construct a 72-track studio for The Beatles in the basement of the Apple HQ on Savile Row. It was designed but never completed after the group’s new manager Allen Klein shut down much of the Apple Corps venture.
Mardas claimed to have invented items such as an electronic camera, and ‘the composing typewriter’, a voice recognition device.
After Apple Corps, he founded a number of companies that specialised in bulletproof vests, armoured cars and night vision equipment, selling some of these to figures such as King Hussein of Jordan.
Mardas died at home in Athens’ Kolonaki district.
The February 2017 issue of Uncut is now on sale in the UK – featuring our cover story on Leonard Cohen. Elsewhere in the issue, we look at the 50 Great Modern Protest Songs and our free CD collects 15 of the very best, featuring Ry Cooder, Jarvis Cocker, Roy Harper, Father John Misty, Hurray For The Riff Raff and Richard Thompson. The issue also features our essential preview of the key albums for 2017, including Roger Waters, Fleet Foxes, Paul Weller, The Jesus And Mary Chain, the Waterboys and more. Plus Leon Russell, Mike Oldfield, Ty Segall, Tift Merritt, David Bowie, Japandroids, The Doors, Flaming Lips, Wilco, The XX, Grateful Dead, Mark Eitzel and more plus 139 reviews
Uncut: the past, present and future of great music.Halifax's round-the-clock on-street parking ban continues until further notice, the city said Thursday afternoon.
"Crews are reporting significant progress in clearing and widening the streets across the Halifax region, due largely in part to the exceptional cooperation of residents to find off-street parking over the past 24 hours," spokeswoman Jennifer Stairs said.
Police are helping snow-clearing crews by ticketing and towing vehicles parked on streets.
If you need parking downtown, Waterfront Development is offering free parking in its six Lower Water Street lots. It's free from 6 p.m. to 8 a.m. until Monday.
Halifax will also have free parking at its MetroPark lot on Hollis Street as long as the ban is in place.
Mayor Mike Savage earlier said he's grateful to businesses that have offered help to the city and people who are pitching in.
"This is an extraordinary winter and it's going to require extraordinary measure" said Savage.
Extra police crews have been working to make sure vehicles move before snow crews arrived. Some people didn't get the message, as 16 vehicles were towed during the 12-hour period beginning 3 a.m. Thursday.
Roads
Savage said the city's focus is getting streets open.
"We want to get students to school, universities open, we want to get businesses open, we want to get malls open. We want to get people moving in this city," he said.
Darrin Natolino, superintendent of winter operations, said the priority Thursday was priority one roads. He hoped to have residential streets opened by the end of the day.
"This will be a choreographed effort," he said. "The work we have to do will take several days. We have no intention of slowing down."
Savage says he thinks they can clear the streets without having to declare a state of an emergency.
"I think it's safe to say if you're outside shovelling your driveway and you leave your car on the side of the road. I don't think we're going to send a SWAT team in to yank your car," said Natolino.
"But leaving your car parked there overnight and going in and tucking yourself in to go to bed and we try to do our work? I'm sorry we have a job to do. We're using all the tools at our disposal."
CBC is offering free parking at 1840 Bell Road.Big business has too much power in Washington, according to 90 percent of Americans in a December 2005 poll.
Every week, headlines reveal some scandal involving politicians, lobbyists, corporate cash, and allegations of bribes. CEOs get face time with senators, cabinet secretaries, and presidents. Lawmakers and bureaucrats take laps through the revolving door between government and corporate lobbying. Whatever goes on behind closed doors between the CEOs and the senators can't be good or the doors would not be closed.
Just what is big business doing with all this influence? There are many assumptions about big business's agenda in Washington. In 2003 one author asserted, "When corporations lobby governments, their usual goal is to avoid regulation."
That statement reflects the conventional wisdom that government action protects ordinary people by restraining big business, which, in turn, wants to be left alone. Historian Arthur Schlesinger articulated a similar point: "Liberalism in America [the progression of the welfare state and government intervention in the economy] has been ordinarily the movement on the part of the other sections of society to restrain the power of the business community." The facts point in an entirely different direction:
Enron was a tireless advocate of strict global energy regulations supported by environmentalists. Enron also used its influence in Washington to keep laissez-faire bureaucrats off the federal commissions that regulate the energy industry.
Philip Morris has aggressively supported heightened federal regulation of tobacco and tobacco advertising. Meanwhile, the state governments that sued Big Tobacco are now working to protect those same large cigarette companies from competition and lawsuits.
A recent tax increase in Virginia passed because of the tireless support of the state's business leaders, and big business has a long history of supporting tax hikes.
General Motors provided critical support for new stricter clean air rules that boosted the company's bottom line.
The Big Myth
The myth is widespread and deeply rooted that big business and big government are rivals—that big business wants small government.
A 1935 Chicago Daily Tribune column argued that voting against Franklin D. Roosevelt was voting for big business. "Led by the President," the columnist wrote, "New Dealers have accepted the challenge, confident the people will repudiate organized business and give the Roosevelt program a new lease on life." However, three days earlier, the president of the Chamber of Commerce and a group of other business leaders met with FDR to support expanding the New Deal.
Almost 70 years later New York Times columnist Paul Krugman assailed the George W. Bush administration: "The new guys in town are knee-jerk conservatives; they view too much government as the root of all evil, believe that what's good for big business is always good for America and think that the answer to every problem is to cut taxes and allow more pollution." At the same time, "big business" just across the river in Virginia was ramping up its campaign for a tax increase, and Enron was lobbying Bush's closest advisers to support the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.
Months later, when Enron collapsed, writers attributed the company's corruption and obscene profits to "anarchic capitalism" and asserted that "the Enron scandal makes it clear that the unfettered free market does not work." In fact, Enron thrived in a world of complex regulations and begged for government handouts at every turn.
When commentators do notice business looking for more federal regulation, they mark it up as an aberration.
When a Washington Post reporter noted in 1987 that airlines were asking Congress for help, she commented, "Last month, when the airline industry found itself pursued by state regulators seeking to police airline advertising, it looked for help in an unlikely place—Washington." In truth, airline executives had been behind federal regulation of their industry for decades and had aggressively opposed deregulation.
In fact, for the past century and more big business has often relied on big government for support.
The History of Big Business Is the History of Big Government
As the federal government has progressively become larger over the decades, every significant introduction of government regulation, taxation, and spending has been to the benefit of some big business. Start with perhaps the most misunderstood period of government intervention, the Progressive Era from the late 19th century until the beginning of World War I.
President Theodore Roosevelt is usually depicted as the hero of this episode in American history, and his "trust busting" as the central action of the plot. The history books teach that Teddy empowered the federal government and the White House in a crusade to curb the big business excesses of the "Gilded Age."
A close study of Roosevelt's legacy and that of Progressive legislation and regulation, however, yields a far different understanding and shows that the experience with meat—big business calling in big government for protection—was a recurring theme. Roosevelt expanded Washington's power often with the aim and the effect of helping the fattest of the fat cats.
Today's history books credit muckraking novelist Upton Sinclair with the reforms in meatpacking. Sinclair, however, deflected the praise. "The Federal inspection of meat was, historically, established at the packers' request," he wrote in a 1906 magazine article. "It is maintained and paid for by the people of the United States for the benefit of the packers."
Gabriel Kolko, historian of the era, concurs. "The reality of the matter, of course, is that the big packers were warm friends of regulation, especially when it primarily affected their innumerable small competitors." Sure enough, Thomas E. Wilson, speaking for the same big packers Sinclair had targeted, testified to a congressional committee that summer, "We are now and have always been in favor of the extension of the inspection, also of the adoption of the sanitary regulations that will insure the very best possible conditions." Small packers, it turned out, would feel the regulatory burden more than large packers would.
Consider the story of one of the most famous "trusts" in American folklore: U.S. Steel.
In the 1880s and 1890s, rapid steel mergers created the mammoth U.S. Steel out of what had been 138 steel companies. In the early years of the new century, however, U.S. Steel saw its profits falling. That insecurity brought about a momentous meeting.
On November 21, 1907, in New York's posh Waldorf-Astoria, 49 chiefs of the leading steel companies met for dinner. The host was U.S. Steel chairman Judge Elbert Gary. The gathering, the first of the "Gary Dinners," hoped to yield "gentlemen's agreements" against cutting steel prices. At the second meeting, a few weeks later, "every manufacturer present gave the opinion that no necessity or reason exists for the reduction of prices at the present time," Gary reported.
The big guys were meeting openly— with Teddy Roosevelt's Justice Department officials present, in fact—to set prices.
But it did not work. "By May, 1908," Kolko writes, "breaks again began appearing in the united steel front." Some manufacturers were undercutting the agreement by dropping prices. "After June, 1908, the Gary agreement was nominal rather than real. Smaller steel companies began cutting prices." U.S. Steel lost market share during this time, which Kolko blames on "its technological conservatism and its lack of flexible leadership." In fact, according to Kolko, "U.S. Steel never had any particular technological advantage, as was often true of the largest firm in other industries."
In this way, the free market acts as an equalizer. While economies of scale allow corporate giants more flexible financing and can drive down costs, massive size usually also creates inertia and inflexibility. U.S. Steel saw itself as a vulnerable giant threatened by the boisterous free market, and Gary's failed efforts at rationalizing the industry left only one line of defense. "Having failed in the realm of economics," Kolko writes, "the efforts of the United States Steel group were to be shifted to politics."
Sure enough, on February 15, 1909, steel magnate Andrew Carnegie wrote a letter to the New York Times favoring "government control" of the steel industry. Two years later, Gary echoed this sentiment before a congressional committee: "I believe we must come to enforced publicity and governmental control... even as to prices."
When it came to railroad regulation by the Interstate Commerce Commission, the railroads themselves were among the leading advocates. The editors of the Wall Street Journalwondered at this development and editorialized on December 28, 1904:
Nothing is more noteworthy than the fact that President Roosevelt's recommendation recommendation in favor of government regulation of railroad rates and[Corporation] Commissioner [James R.] Garfield's recommendation in favor of federal control of interstate companies have met with so much favor among managers of railroad and industrial companies.
Once again, big business favored government curbs on business, and once again, journalists were surprised.
To cast it in the analogy of Baptists and Bootleggers, the muckrakers such as Sinclair were the "Baptists," holding up altruistic moral reasons for government control, and the big meatpackers, railroads, and steel companies were the "Bootleggers," trying to get rich from government restrictions on their business. Roosevelt was allied to the "bootleggers," the big meatpackers in this case. To get federal regulation, he found Sinclair a handy temporary ally. Roosevelt had little good to say about Sinclair and his ilk; he called Sinclair a "crackpot."
This preponderance of evidence drove Kolko, no knee-jerk opponent of government intervention, to conclude, "The dominant fact of American political life at the beginning of [the 20th] century was that big business led the struggle for the federal regulation of the economy." With World War I around the corner, this "dominant fact" was not about to change.
The men who gathered at the Department of War on December 6, 1916, struck a startling contrast. Labor leader Samuel Gompers sat at the table with President Woodrow Wilson and five members of his cabinet.
Joining Gompers and those Democratic politicians were Daniel Willard, president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad; Howard Coffin, president of Hudson Motor Corporation; Wall Street financier Bernard Baruch; Julius Rosenwald, president of Sears, Roebuck; and a few others. This extraordinary gathering was the first meeting of the Council of National Defense, formed by Congress and President Wilson as a means for organizing "the whole industrial mechanism... in the most effective way."
The businessmen at this 1916 meeting had dreams for the CND that went far beyond America's imminent involvement in the Great War, both in breadth and in duration. "It is our hope," Coffin had written in a letter to the DuPonts days before the meeting, "that we may lay the foundation for that closely knit structure, industrial, civil, and military, which every thinking American has come to realize is vital to the future life of this country, in peace and in commerce, no less than in possible war."
The CND, after beginning the project of government control over industry, handed much of its responsibility to the new War Industries Board (WIB) by July of 1917. That coalition of industry and government leaders increasingly took control of all aspects of the economy. War Industries Board member and historian Grosvenor Clarkson stated that the WIB strived for "concentration of commerce, industry, and all the powers of government." Clarkson exulted that "the War Industries Board extended its antennae into the innermost recesses of industry.... Never was there such an approach to omniscience in the business affairs of a continent."
Business's aims in the WIB were much higher than government contracts, and certainly business did not lobby for laissez faire. As Clarkson puts it, "Business willed its own domination, forged its bonds, and policed its own subjection." Business, in effect, shouted to Washington, "Regulate me!" Business called on government to control workers' hours and wages as well as the details of production.
A decade later Herbert Hoover practiced more of the same. Hoover's record was one not of leaving big business alone but of making government an active member of the team. As commerce secretary in the 1920s, he helped form cartels in many U.S. industries, including coffee and rubber. In the name of conservation, Hoover "worked in collaboration with a growing majority of the oil industry in behalf of restrictions on oil production," according to economic historian Murray Rothbard.
In the White House (where history books portray him as a callous and clueless practitioner of laissez faire), Hoover reacted to the onset of the Great Depression by pressuring big business to lead the way on a wage freeze, preventing the drop in pay that earlier depressions had brought about. Henry Ford, Pierre DuPont, Julius Rosenwald, General Motors president Alfred Sloan, Standard Oil president Walter Teagle, and General Electric president Owen D. Young all embraced the policy of keeping wages high as the economy went south.
Hoover praised their cooperation as an "advance in the whole conception of the relationship of business to public welfare... a far cry from the arbitrary and dog-eat-dog attitude of... the business world of some thirty or forty years ago."
Before FDR, Hoover got the ball rolling for the New Deal with his Reconstruction Finance Corporation. The RFC extended government loans to banks and railroads. The RFC's chairman was Eugene Meyer, also chairman of the Federal Reserve. Meyer's brother-in-law was George Blumenthal, an officer of J.P. Morgan & Co., which had heavy railroad holdings.
The New Deal and Beyond
After the groundwork laid by the Progressives, Wilson, and Hoover, the alliance of big business and big government continued throughout the 20th century.
Franklin D. Roosevelt implemented the same sort of government controls on the economy during World War II that Wilson had put in place during World War I, complete with rationing and price controls. Big business profited from the controlled economy in much the same ways that it had under Wilson.
President Harry Truman wanted his secretary of state's June 5, 1947, speech to Harvard's commencement to be a quiet one about the rebuilding of Europe. He didn't get his wish. The New York Times and the Washington Post both reported the story on the front pages. Within a day, the whole world knew about the Marshall Plan. But very few knew that a clique of mostly business leaders, called "The President's Committee on Foreign Aid," drafted the idea. Secretary of Commerce W. Averell Harriman, son of railroad magnate E. H. Harriman and former chairman of both Union Pacific Railroad and Illinois Central Railroad, ran the committee. Nine other businessmen joined him. "Throughout, business members—particularly Harriman— set the agenda and the tone for the group's work," historian Kim McQuaid writes. "Without the corporate politicians, Truman's effort would have failed. Men like [cotton baron Will] Clayton and Harriman arrayed foreign aid in procapitalist, anticommunist attire."
On Sunday night, August 15, 1971, millions of Americans watched President Richard Nixon lay out his New Economic Policy. Nixon had a reputation as a staunch conservative, but his New Economic Policy (a phrase borrowed, bizarrely, from Vladimir Lenin) showed Nixon to be a changed man. The federal government would prohibit any increase in wages, prices, or rents for 90 days. After that a "wage and price council" would dictate to businesses when and how much they could increase wages, salaries, and prices. The next day W. P. Gullander, president of the National Association of Manufacturers, declared that "the bold move taken by the President to strengthen the American economy deserves the support and cooperation of all groups." That reaction was typical among big business people. The New York Times reported on August 17, 1971, "Business leaders applauded yesterday, with varying degrees of enthusiasm, the sweeping proposals announced by President Nixon Sunday night."
George W. Bush, in the name of "compassionate conservatism," has handed big business big favors in the form of a prescription drug benefit from Medicare, an energy bill full of brand new special tax credits and subsidies to energy companies, and a record loan guarantee to facilitate business with known nuclear proliferators in China. A report by the directors of the Health Reform Program at Boston University's School of Public Health found, "An estimated 61.1 percent of the Medicare dollars that will be spent to buy more prescriptions will remain in the hands of drug makers as added profits. This windfall means an estimated $139 billion in increased profits over eight years for the world's most profitable industry."
"The greatest trick the devil ever pulled," said Kaiser Soze in the film The Usual Suspects, "was convincing the world he didn't exist." In a similar way, big business and big government prosper from the perception that they are rivals instead of partners (in plunder). The history of big business is one of cooperation with big government. Most noteworthy expansions of government power are to the liking of, and at the request of, big business.
If this sounds like an attack on big business, it is not intended to be. It is an attack on certain practices of big business. When business plays by the crooked rules of politics, average citizens get ripped off. The blame lies with those who wrote the rules. In the parlance of hip-hop, "don't hate the player, hate the game."
This article originally appeared in the July/August 2006 edition of Cato Policy ReportNetwork Security 1.2
Based on CompTIA’s list of Security + exam objectives (their PDF list of domains is found here: http://certification.comptia.org/docs/default-source/exam-objectives/comptia-security-sy0-401.pdf ), I’ll go through each one, giving examples and details where possible, so you know better what each listed item means, does and looks like. The examples are not in any particular order, preference, or even recommendation – they’re just quick-and-easily-found examples. I have no affiliations with any of the companies or products mentioned.
I mention these products and examples because:
1. When you’re starting out it can be difficult to get a grasp of what’s what;
2. If you’re in charge of a virtual environment, you probably won’t come in contact with many of these because they’re managed solely by your VM provider (e.g., firewall and NIDS); and,
3. If you’re in a small business you might not have any use for a host of load balancers, NIDs, routers, and switches, and/or may not have the resources (e.g., money and space) to try your hand at these.
This is the second installment.
Let’s begin…
DOMAIN 1.0 Network Security
1.2 Apply and implement secure network administration principles
Rule-based Management
Rules, rules, rules. You set the rules, filters or values. Examples of things that manage events using rules are firewalls, proxies and IPs. Whether the devices needs specific value input (e.g., Block Port 22) or an if-then statement (e.g., if port=22 then deny), you need to double-check the priority and sequence of the rules to make sure they don’t negate each other (if Deny All takes precedence, then no other port will be allowed).
Firewall Rules
When it comes to firewalls and since they’re typically defaulted to Implicit Deny/Deny All, it’s important to specify what you will and won’t allow. Allow All/Explicit Allow isn’t an option for security. You have to setup Inbound and Outbound rules for programs, services, port, protocols, users, computers and scopes. The rules are typically ordered and the last rule is Default Deny. This means “This rule is applied, then that rule and after all rules have been applied, Deny everything else.”
Here’s a CLI view of some firewall rules might look like:
ip access-list standard workstations
remark Permit only Cybrary computer through
permit 172.16.2.88
remark Do not allow BadGuy computer through
deny 172.16.3.13
Here’s what the text of the GUI might look like:
No. Permit Source Destination Service Interface Dir. Desc. 1 Yes 172.16.42.88 Any IP Eth0 In Permit
Be familiar with Explicit and Implicit, Deny and Allow.
VLAN Management
After you’ve split up your network into VLANs (which is done to help traffic flow), you’ll need to maintain them. Typically, VLAN1 is the management VLAN and from there you can specify, modify, isolate and manage your VLANs as you wish. It’s often done using CLI, though there are free, open-source tools like FreeNAC (found here, though out-of-date: http://freenac.net/).
Secure Router Configuration
A router may come with all ports open, so you’ll need to lock it down. There are also protocols, interfaces and trusted resources that you’ll need to allow or block. At minimum, you need to reset the default router password ASAP – as pretty much all default usernames and passwords for devices can be found on the internet with a brief search. If someone scans your network, they’ll see, among other things, what kind of hardware you have and will try the default username and password. If they have that, they own your device.
Access Control Lists
ACLs (pronounced “ACK-uls”), are aka filters. It’s what you do to specify who and what has access (both locally and remotely) to your gear and what they can do with it (e.g., read or make changes). Here’s what the network access list might look like on a firewall: access-list 10 permit 192.168.146.0 0.0.1.255
You will have separate rules for inbound and outbound traffic, each with Allow or Deny.
The anatomy of an ACL consists of 4 parts:
1. Rule Number
2. Protocol
3. Inbound/Outbound Rule
4. Allow/Deny
Port Security
The typical default is “Deny All” or “Implicit Deny,” so you have to set up rules in your org as to which ports you allow. You’ll allow port 80 and 443 for internet traffic, port 25 for email to pass through, port 22 if you need SSH (you should specify exactly what devices can access this), etc. Since each device is different in its default settings, you’ll need to check each device as soon as you can and secure it accordingly.
This also includes the use of physical network jacks. You can open or close the ports or designate what MAC addresses or device types are allowed on the jack.
Do an internet search for List of Well-Known Ports to get a good idea of what you need to start with.
Here’s an example (from http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/switches/lan/catalyst4500/12-2/25ew/configuration/guide/conf/port_sec.html) of how configuring port security might look like:
Switch# configure terminal
Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.
Switch(config)# interface fastethernet 3/12
Switch(config-if)# switchport mode access
Switch(config-if)# switchport port-security
Switch(config-if)# switchport port-security maximum 5
Switch(config-if)# switchport port-security mac-address sticky
Switch(config-if)# end
Switch# show port-security interface fastethernet 3/12
Port Security :Enabled
Port Status :Secure-up
Violation Mode :Shutdown
Aging Time :0
Aging Type :Absolute
SecureStatic Address Aging :Enabled
Maximum MAC Addresses :5
Total MAC Addresses :0
Configured MAC Addresses :0
Sticky MAC Addresses :11
Last Source Address :0000.0000.0401
Security Violation Count :0
802.1x
This can be used on wired networks, but it’s very often seen in reference to wireless networds. It’s the umbrella term for 802.11a/b/g/i/n 802.16, et al. Your computer is the Supplicant; the router is the Authenticator (using WEP, WPA, etc.); the Authenticator uses EAP to connect to the server, which is the Authentication Server. Then, when you’re authenticated it lets you in. Get familiar with the IEEE, who provides standards like this. And, be familiar with LAN, WLAN, EAP, EAPOL, MD5, PKI, TLS and Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) attacks.
Flood Guards
These are controls that you set to prevent things like DoS, ping floods, SYN floods/attack and MAC floods. You set rules on your firewall to prevent other devices from overwhelming your network with bogus traffic (e.g., 150,000 requests per minute). Your network has only so many connection points, so a flood will slow or cripple your network. Get familiar with SYN. An internal loop (see the next item) can create a flood.
Loop Protection
When you plug in two unmanaged switches to each other (accidentally, of course!), they’ll send packets to each other, never resolving where the traffic goes. Switch 1 (S1) gets the packet and forwards it through all ports (let’s say two ports) to Switch 2 (S2). S2 now gets 2 packets, and send those 2 through its 2 ports to S1, which now receives 4 packets, until the # of packets overwhelms the network and it slows down dramatically. It’s a Layer 2 (Ethernet) and Layer 3 (IP) event. To protect from this, we have Spanning Tree and Loop Protection. In short, these technologies look for loops by monitoring the traffic behavior and then disabling the port(s). cf. HP ProCurve Switches.
For a perfect example of how this can disable a network, see these articles about the network collapse of CareGroup in 2003:
1. http://geekdoctor.blogspot.com/2008/03/caregroup-network-outage.html
2. http://www.computerworld.com/article/2581420/disaster-recovery/all-systems-down.html
Implicit Deny
Many devices come with this by default. Unless something has been explicitly allowed, it’s implicitly denied. The configuration could look like this:
access-list 1 permit host 192.168.10.1
You’ll notice that there’s nothing to say “deny everything else.” Because Implicit Deny is the default, you have to state explicitly that the host 92.168.10.1 is allowed. Everything else, at this point, is denied.
It can be a pain, but going through the training of configuring something when starting from Implicit/Default Deny helps you understand ports, protocols, and your network much better.
Prevent Network Bridging by Network Separation
Network Bridging is where one network can see another network’s traffic. E.g., if you want to separate a guest wireless network from your real network, then make a new VLAN on your switch and direct ports/cable/traffic to that side of the switch (you’ll need 2 internet feeds, BTW– one going to your work network VLAN, and one feeding your WiFi VLAN). Otherwise, if you just try to hide your network from a guest WiFi that you’ve setup on your normal network (only obfuscation, not separation), then anyone who knows that the internal addresses are 192.168.x, 172.16.x, or 10.0.x can use something like AngryIP to scan and start detecting the IP scheme and devices on your network.
Log Analysis
If you administer a network, you’ll need to check your Event, System, Application, et al. logs to see what’s taking place. A couple of free log analyzers are Splunk Log Analyzer (http://www.splunk.com/en_us/solutions/solution-areas/log-management.html) and Log Parser (by Microsoft, though old). |
at the NHL level. He is a good skater with a powerful stride that can help him to drive the net and has the soft hands to finish in close. His wrist shot has great power and a hair trigger release. His vision and passing skill is also decent, but Zacha is very much a shoot first kind of player. He has 6 goals and 12 points in 13 games for the Sting this season.
7) Mathew Barzal, Centre, Seattle Thunderbirds (6’0″ 181 lbs): With 7 goals in 17 games, Barzal is following up on nice performance in the Ivan Hlinka tournament (7 points in 5 games, gold medal), with a strong start to the WHL season. The first overall pick in the 2012 WHL Bantam draft, Barzal is an outstanding skater, with top notch speed, great acceleration and outstanding pivots and edge work. He also has incredibly soft hands, great stick handling, and incredible hockey sense and intelligence. These skills alone would make him a dynamic offensive threat, but when you add in his great shot and excellent vision and play-making ability he is the total package as an offensive player. He does need to use that shot more, and would score more goals if he was a little more selfish. He has shown the willingness to play in the dirty areas of the ice, and shows flashes of adding a power game to his offensive finesse and skill after adding some weight this off-season.If he continues to grow and add that game, the sky is the limit for him both in the WHL and eventually the NHL.
8) Mitchell Marner, Forward, London Knights (5’11” 164 lbs): Following back to back hat-tricks on the weekend, Marner now has 10 goals and 22 points in 16 games for the Knights this season. He is yet another member of the strong Canadian team that dominated at the Ivan Hlinka. Marner had 7 points in the 5 game tournament. He is a little undersized, but that doesn’t stop Marner from playing a gritty game and getting to the front of the net or battling in corners. He has great speed, and very slick hands and can go end to end at any time. Has a decent shot, but it is his vision and playmaking skill that make Marner a potential top 10 pick in the 2015 NHL draft.
9) Yevgeni Svechnikov, Right Wing, Cape Breton Screaming Eagles (6’3″ 205 lbs): Svechnikov is a late-96 birthday who had an excellent tournament for Russia at this spring’s under 18s. He was also part of Russia’s 2013 Silver medal winning U17 squad, and the silver medal winning team at the 2013 World Junior “A” Championships. In his first season in North America, Svechnikov is opening eyes with his offensive ability, putting up 10 goals and 24 points in 18 games so far. He has good size at 6’3″ and an outstanding wrist shot and release. He is a strong skater, who loves to drive the net and can finish in close when he gets there. He has the speed to take a defender wide and the power to fight through checks and get to the front of the net. Svechnikov also has excellent vision and passing ability. He could fall below this due to the Russian factor, but basing purely on skill Svechnikov is a top 10 pick.
10) Lawson Crouse, Left Wing, Kingston Frontenacs (6’4″ 212 lbs): Was part of Team Canada’s Ivan Hlinka winning squad this summer leading the team with 6 goals in 5 games. He has followed that up with a strong start in Kingston putting up 7 goals and 10 points in 14 games to start the year. At 6’4″ and 212 pounds Crouse is a budding power forward. He has a powerful skating stride, but could work on his first step and acceleration. That good power allows him to fight through checks and get to the net. He loves to get in the forecheck, and finishes his hits along the boards. He is very good in protecting the puck in the cycle and has the soft hands to bang in goals from the front of the net. Lawson Crouse is also a good penalty killer, and defensive player. Is taking on a bigger role with the Frontenacs this season and seems to be thriving.
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Main Photo by Claus Andersen/Getty ImagesI had never known where the entrance was for the Bushwick Avenue-Aberdeen Street station on the Canarsie Line, popularly known as the L train. I was always looking around for it on Google Street View on Aberdeen Street, where the map says it is, and I had never seen the traditional railed staircase that subway lines use for entrances and exits on either street.
The station is actually a short brick building on the north side of Bushwick Avenue between Aberdeen Street and DeSales Place, just west of the expansive Evergreens Cemetery. The entrance is protected by barbed wire and cyclone fences from surrounding used car lots. It’s about as hidden and camouflaged a NYC subway entrance gets (compare it to the recently opened Fulton Transit Center, or “Oculus” on lower Broadway for visibility!) A similar entrance can also be found at the Jefferson Street station a couple of miles away.
Though the entrance is nothing to write home to Mother about, if she’s a transit design buff you should definitely let her know about the Canarsie Line mosaics, installed from 1924 to 1928 as the line was extended from Midtown to Broadway Junction. Perhaps sensing that the mosaics’ days were numbered, subway design honcho Squire Vickers, who worked for the IRT, BMT and IND when they were separate companies from about 1915 to 1040) oversaw the mosaics’ most ambitious designs on the Canarsie Line subway station, most of them under Wyckoff Avenue.
Why were the mosaics’ days numbered? After 1928, except for extensions here and there, the IND and BMT were complete and the new Independent (IND) subway would employ a much more streamlined, Machine Age look.
Shapes range from squares to triangles to hexagons and most of the colors of the visual spectrum were employed. See NYC Subway’s Canarsie Line page under the header The Canarsie Line Mosaics for an overview if you don’t have time to inspect every station on your own.
At Bushwick-Aberdeen gold and brown are the dominant hues, but earth tones like dark green make their way in as well.
As a rule, though not always, the presence of a building directly above a platform will necessitate the columns to be shored up with concrete, on which tiles are placed. The Canarsie Line is unusual in that the station names on the columns are tiled instead of typeset.
All these mosaics ate tiles can be grouped under an architectural style called Arts and Crafts that was popular in the latter 19th and early 20th Century.
Forgive the blurry images, as the flash on my camera isn’t working, likely needing a trip to the shop.
11/12/14New York Knicks center Joakim Noah said on Friday he chose to miss a team dinner at the West Point military academy because he is anti-war.
Colin Kaepernick to Trump: 'America has never been great for people of color' Read more
The Knicks are holding a training camp at West Point and were invited to dinner in the mess hall that featured cadets and a speech by a former colonel. Noah said he wouldn’t be attending because he doesn’t agree with sending young men and women to fight wars around the world.
“It’s hard for me a little bit,” Noah said after Friday’s practice. “I have a lot of respect for the kids who are out here fighting. But it’s hard for me to understand why we have to go to war, why kids have to kill kids around the world. So I have mixed feelings about being here. I’m very proud of this country. I love America but I just don’t understand kids killing kids around the world.”
Noah, 31, added: “At the end of the day, I’m not anti-troops. It’s just not comfortable for me to see kids going out to war and coming back having seen what they’ve seen, having done what they’ve done. It’s sad for me. It’s sad for me because they’re just sent out for things that I don’t really want to get into it to be honest with you. It’s hard for me.”
Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek said he supported Noah’s decision.
“That’s his right. He wants to be a part of the team group and do everything the team is doing. He just didn’t feel comfortable (attending the dinner),” Hornacek said. “We’re not going to pressure him into doing that. We had the speaker who I thought was fantastic. I told him, maybe we can get a little copy, if there’s a copy of the speech, just so he can hear some of it. That’s his right.”
Hornacek was asked if he understood where Noah was coming from. “Oh, absolutely,” he said. “Jo’s done, in all his stuff that he does against gun violence and all that, he just didn’t feel comfortable, so that’s plenty fine with us.”
Noah also said he supported athletes such as Colin Kaepernick using their profile to draw attention to social issues.
“I think there’s a lot of topics that definitely need to be more than addressed,” he said. “I think it’s a very important time right now. I think it’s great athletes are taking a stand. But it has to be about more than that. This country’s out of control. Kids killing kids. And it has nothing to do with, people are talking about the anthem but that’s not the point. There are things that need to be fixed.”Galileo Galilei is best known for his novel way of looking at Earth’s place in the solar system and his consequent problems with the Vatican. But long before all the fuss blew up over his cosmology, Galileo told us that while the physical attributes of the planet are present, they are perceptually nonexistent until they have been interpreted by our senses. This theory applies to wine as much as to anything else, and Galileo, who described wine as “sunlight, held together by water,” did not forget that fact. As he put it, “A wine’s good taste does not belong to the objective determinations of the wine and hence of an object, even of an object considered as appearance, but belongs to the special character of the sense in the subject who is enjoying this taste.”
Anyone who has ever attended a wine event knows the five S’s of wine tasting: See, Swirl, Sniff, Sip, Savor. The five S’s allow us to directly hit three of our five senses—sight, smell, and taste. This leaves us with two senses that we rarely associate with wine—hearing and touching. But ignoring them is a mistake. There are few things more satisfying than the classic Pop! of a Champagne bottle, however déclassé purists may consider it (they prefer an unostentatious hiss). More important, what a person has heard about a wine usually influences his or her perception of it. In fact, the multimillion-dollar wine advertising industry depends on this aspect of wine appreciation. As for that fifth sense, touch is also critically important in how we perceive wine—not through our fingers but through touch sensors in our mouths and throats. If we couldn’t feel the wine in our mouths, our experience of it would be incomplete.
Stocksnapper
The role that our senses play in our attraction to and appreciation of wine has been illuminated by generations of wine writers and critics. What has undeservedly received less attention is the brain, the hugely complex organ within which all that sensory information is processed and synthesized. We don’t just taste with our senses, we taste with our minds. And our minds are routinely affected by a host of influences of which, quite often, we are not even aware. Both our senses and our common sense can be led astray by any number of extraneous factors originating in what we know, or think we know, about the wine we are drinking. Figuring out how our minds work in such complex domains as the evaluation of wines—which are, among other things, economic goods—is the province of neuroeconomics.
Researchers discovered that individuals on average enjoy more expensive wines slightly less.
To study the relationship between consumer preference and, for example, the cost of wine, neuroeconomists typically set up blind experiments, in which the subjects are unaware of the parameters of the experiment. Researchers at the Stockholm School of Economics and Yale University have conducted a double-blind experiment—in which both the subject and the experimenters with whom they come into contact are unaware of the parameters involved—upon this relationship. Their sample of over 500 subjects included experts, casual wine drinkers, and novices. The experiment was simple. Subjects were asked to taste a succession of wines and rate them as Bad, Okay, Good, or Great. The wines ranged in price from $1.65 to $150, and the subjects were not told the cost. The responses for each wine were tabulated, and statistical analyses applied. Now, the average wine buyer might have hoped that this experiment would show that the price of a wine is correlated with its quality. This would certainly simplify life. But the researchers discovered that “the correlation between price and overall rating is small and negative, suggesting that individuals on average enjoy more expensive wines slightly less.”
Also in Food The Colors We Eat By Tom Vanderbilt When it comes to food, color is money. Food companies scan their products on the line with custom colorimeters to ensure mathematically consistent hues. Fruits and vegetables are shipped in chemically “modified” atmospheres, because “better stem and fruit color gives...READ MORE
To explore this relationship further, researchers at the California Institute of Technology set up an experiment in which they examined not only the dynamics of preference but also which regions of the brain might be controlling such preferences, in light of cost. To localize these, they turned to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The tough part of using this method on taste judgments is that the subject has to lie completely still, so the researchers had to devise a pump-and-tube system to deliver the wine to their subjects. Then the researchers threw a complication into the study that allowed them to pinpoint whether knowledge of price affected perceptions of taste.
First, they bought Cabernet Sauvignon from three different vineyards: an expensive $90 bottle, an intermediate $35 bottle, and a rock-bottom $5 bottle. Their subjects were all young wine-drinkers (aged 21 to 30) who both liked and occasionally drank red wine, but were not alcoholics. They placed the subjects in their MRI machine, connected the delivery hoses, and told them they were going to taste five different kinds of Cabernet Sauvignon. For each of the offerings the subjects were told the notional cost of the wine (as listed in the table), and then the wines were pumped into the subjects’ mouths in a predetermined sequence, for a set amount of time. Subjects were then asked a series of questions designed to determine their preference for each of the “five” wines. The experiment confirmed that perceived wine cost was a heavy factor in choosing preferences. But the real revelation was that a region of the brain called the medial orbitofrontal cortex was hyperactive in every one of the subjects while he was making his choice. It seems that we all use the same part of the brain to make decisions about wine, at least when money is involved.
This experiment clearly showed that the subjects’ preferences for the wines used in the study were strongly influenced by what they believed the wines had cost, and that this calculation was processed in a specific part of the brain. That’s a start. But the subjects were relatively young and naive about wine tasting, and one might legitimately wonder whether an expert wine connoisseur would have been tricked in the same way. This experiment has not been performed yet, at least with an fMRI machine. But it seems likely from the literature that prior knowledge is a significant factor in most people’s appreciation of a wine.
The psychologist Antonia Mantonakis and her colleagues looked at preconceived notions from another perspective. Before giving the subjects wine to taste, the researchers first planted in their subjects’ minds either the notion that they had previously “loved the experience” of drinking wine or that they had “got sick” from it. Whether the subjects actually remembered their earlier drinking experiences in either way was irrelevant to the experiment, since virtually everyone has had experiences of both kinds at some time in their wine-drinking lives. What was important was the initial suggestion offered to the subjects. And the outcome was perhaps to be expected: People who were given the positive suggestion were more influenced by it, and consumed more wine than those who received the negative one. Clearly, the tasters’ responses were affected by extraneous factors, and the recommendation to retailers was that in selling wine they should try to call up the most pleasant possible associations in their customers’ minds.
Experiments like these lead wine advertisers to ever-subtler ways of influencing people to buy their products.
Neuroeconomists have also been able to demonstrate by experiment something that has long been understood from anecdotal experience—namely, that our perception of wine is influenced not only by what is in the bottle but also by what we see on the label. Researchers conducted blind experiments in which they evaluated the role of the shape and color of the label in forming consumers’ preferences for wines. Although both variables were significant in consumer choice, the colors of the labels were less important than their shapes, or the shapes printed on them. The most successful labels were brown, yellow, black, or green (or combinations thereof), with rectangular or hexagonal patterns. You might ask whether preconceived notions of cost might have affected the outcome of the experiment. But since they found no correlation of cost with label preference, the experimenters felt confident in their conclusions.
Does how much you know about wines in general influence how you perceive a specific wine? And what is the value of a name? To assess at least the first question (getting at the second would presumably have been too expensive), researchers gathered experts, moderately informed wine drinkers, and novices, and presented them with an advertising campaign for a particular wine, a Zinfandel, before the tasting. The variables in this case were the quality of the wine as assessed by external experts, and the subjects’ preferences. In all cases, the experts were unswayed by the mock advertising campaign, while it did influence the novices. Most interesting, though, was the reaction of the moderately informed wine drinkers, who chose the same wines as the experts if they were allowed to consider both the ad campaign and what they knew about wine. Given time to consider their choices, they were able to set their preference based on the quality of the wine. But if rushed, they turned in the same results as the novices.
The results of the initial experiment prompted the researchers to repeat it with only novice wine drinkers. But now, before the tasting began they educated their subjects for 25 minutes about wine and its quality. Those novices turned in the same results as the moderately informed group had done in the first experiment; and here, too, the key factor in judging the quality of the wines correctly was allowing the subjects to think about what they had been told in the training session.
On one level, experiments like these show that advertisers are learning more and more about what influences our choices in wine, leading to ever-subtler ways of influencing people to buy their products. Consumers thus need to be on guard, because it is clear that how one experiences a wine is affected by a host of factors, some of which might seem to be irrelevant. (Mantonakis and her colleague Bryan Galiffi even showed that consumers significantly tended to prefer the products of wineries with hard-to-pronounce names!) The good news, though, is that if you educate yourself about wine and you use this knowledge as a standard when tasting a new one, you will more often than not be able to judge its quality accurately.
THE TASTEMAKER: Ratings by wine critic Robert Parker have such a powerful effect on consumers that a laboratory was established in Sonoma to advise winemakers on how to produce a Parker 90+ wine.
By the time you’ve swallowed a sip of wine, it will have engaged all five of your senses. In fact, a great wine is capable of delivering one of the richest multidimensional sensory experiences you will ever have—also, regrettably, one of the most expensive. Indeed, however you may score or describe the color, the clarity, the nose, the taste, and the mouth-feel of a wine, the end product will inevitably be summed up by just one number: the price. Although price and expectation go hand in hand, price and quality do not necessarily do so. It’s a confusing market. So it’s hardly surprising that a profession has grown up around the sensory evaluation of wine as an aid not only to its production, but to its consumption.
Once upon a time, the top English-speaking wine critics were British. They were, by and large, aesthetes who celebrated wine as part of a much larger total experience of life. They tended to describe the wines they evaluated in relatively abstract and stylistic terms: A wine was aristocratic, lean, restrained, or voluptuous. Eventually they began ranking wines by awarding stars to them (usually between 1 and 5), and then, as the profession became a little more focused, by adopting a 1 to 20 scale.
Then came the Americans, led by Robert Parker. A lawyer by training, Parker started his career as the world’s most influential wine critic by publishing a wine newsletter, gaining fame when he was faster than most of his rivals to identify 1982 as a classic vintage in Bordeaux. After this triumph, his Wine Advocate newsletter began to circulate widely in the trade.
Although price and expectation go hand in hand, price and quality do not.
Like his British counterparts, Parker carefully described the wines he rated, although he used a different vocabulary, based less on style than on a wine’s immediate impact on the taste buds. Suddenly, wines were jammy or leathery; they tasted of herbs, olives, cherries, and cigar boxes. But the most important ingredient of Parker’s formula was to rate wines on a scale of 50 to 100, exactly as his readers had themselves been rated for their performance in high school. No wine could score below 50, and between 50 and 60 a wine barely rated mention. A wine that scored between 70 and 79 was merely average; it had to score in the high 80s to merit serious attention. Here was a scale with which all Parker’s readers could identify, and although detractors railed (correctly) that such a finely graduated scale was ridiculous, there is no doubt that Parker has a highly discriminating palate and knows a good or interesting wine when he tastes it. Still, while the numeric scale gives wine ratings an aura of impartial objectivity, as human beings Parker and his colleagues remain creatures of preference. Rating something as diverse as wine in this way is a bit like asking someone to rate blues and yellows on the same preference scale: It can be done, but where each color tone will score entirely depends on which appeals more to the viewer. Still, there is enough agreement on what makes a wine great, or better than another, that a several-point spread will usually mean something significant to most people.
So the Parker rating scale caught on quickly, and was widely adopted. No longer did the wine buyer have to decrypt a critic’s lyrical description to decide whether he or she would actually like the wine described; now it was as simple as picking a wine that Parker had rated over 90. In turn, this meant a huge surge in demand for the wines that Parker liked, and prices for them rose accordingly.
Several years ago, as wines he had been accustomed to drinking regularly skyrocketed out of his financial reach, one of us rather sourly remarked to a wine merchant that he, at least, must have been happy with the Parker-driven price rises, which had presumably increased his margins. “Not at all,” he replied. “If Parker gives it over 90 I can’t buy it, and if he gives it less, I can’t sell it.” In its way, this is just as sad as the remark once made to us at a dinner party by an excessively affluent guest who declared that he only drank “the greatest” wines. Life, he said, was too short to drink anything else. It turned out that what he meant by “greatest” was actually “highest-scoring” and “most expensive.” Well, if ever a strategy were designed to cut people off from the captivating variety that is the most intellectually entertaining and sensually rewarding aspect of drinking wine, this must surely be it.
Parker has always preferred lush, powerful, in-your-face wines like those produced in the Rhône Valley or in the Merlot-dominated regions such as Pomerol and Saint-Émilion that lie to the east of Bordeaux. (“I enjoy full-flavored, but well-balanced, wines, but also many lighter styles as well. It is about balance, purity, and overall interest,” responds Parker.) So pervasive did his influence become that producers all over the world began to use the technologies available to them to produce alcoholic, fruit-forward wines that would score high on the Parker scale. Out the window went ideas of terroir, replaced by a search for the wine that would score a perfect 100 on the Parker scale. An analytic laboratory was even established in Sonoma that, for a fat fee, advises all comers on how to produce a Parker 90+ wine.
The world is not a static place, however, and the Internet has changed the rules of the game yet again, allowing a huge chorus of pundits a voice and simultaneously creating a more perfect market that has taken away much of the thrill of the chase. In what we can presumably take as a nod to the times, even Parker not long ago sold a stake in his newsletter to Singaporean interests. But there is no doubt that Parker’s precise attention to numbers and his detailed criticism caused fine winemakers worldwide to pay extra attention to both the growing of their grapes and their winery procedures, and it contributed to a general rise in standards that was also driven by improvements in technology.
The happy upshot of all of this is that today we have a greater range of high-quality wines and wine-drinking experiences available to us than ever before. But great as this news is, it does leave oenophiles with an unprecedented degree of responsibility. As Galileo so perceptively remarked 400 years ago, and as the neuroeconomists have now so meticulously documented, a wine’s sensory effects depend as much on the mind of the drinker as on the wine itself. Casually swigging cold white wine on a hot day can be fun and refreshing; but taking the trouble to know a bit about wine, and to learn just what you yourself prefer, will make the sensory experience of wine drinking a lot more rewarding.
Ian Tattersall is a paleoanthropologist and Curator Emeritus at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. He has written numerous books in addition to A Natural History of Wine, most recently The Rickety Cossack and Other Cautionary Tales from Human Evolution.
Rob DeSalle is a molecular geneticist and a curator in the Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics at the American Museum of Natural History. Along with A Natural History of Wine, his books include Welcome to the Microbiome, written with Susan Perkins.
Excerpted fromA Natural History of Wine by Ian Tattersall and Rob DeSalle, published by Yale University Press in November 2015. Reproduced with permission of Yale University Press. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
The lead photocollage was created from an image from EdStock / Getty ImagesAbstract
In 64 apparently healthy adult humans (ages 17-74 yr) ingesting controlled diets, we investigated the separate and combined effects of age, glomerular filtration rate (GFR, index of age-related renal functional decline), renal net acid excretion [NAE, index of endogenous acid production (EAP)], and blood PCO2 (PbCO2, index of respiratory set point) on steady-state blood hydrogen ion ([H+]b) and plasma bicarbonate concentration ([HCO3-]p). Independent predictors of [H+]b and [HCO3-]p were PbCO2, NAE, and either age or GFR, but not both, because the two were highly correlated (inversely). [H+]b increased with increasing PbCO2, NAE, and age and with decreasing GFR. [HCO3-]p decreased with increasing NAE and age but increased with increasing PbCO2 and GFR. Age (or GFR) at constant NAE had greater effect on both [H+]b and [HCO3-]p than did NAE at constant age (or GFR). Neither PbCO2 nor NAE correlated with age or GFR. Thus two metabolic factors, diet-dependent EAP and age (or GFR), operate independently to determine blood acid-base composition in adult humans. Otherwise healthy adults manifest a low-grade diet-dependent metabolic acidosis, the severity of which increases with age at constant EAP, apparently due in part to the normal age-related decline of renal function.image via Susan Prolman/Good Food Institute
Members of Congress and their staffers were treated to a reprieve from the usual Washington baloney last Friday – both figuratively and literally – as the Good Food Institute, the nation’s leading nonprofit focused on a sustainable food supply, and Beyond Meat, the brand best known for its pea-protein-based Beyond Burger, hosted a Capitol Hill tasting event of the epic burger so meaty it’s sold in the meat department at Whole Foods Market.
With more than 150 guests including Congressman Brendan Boyle (D-PA), and Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the event drew members of Congress and senior staff members from both sides of the aisle. And they weren’t just there for the free lunch – the event was centered around a discussion over the importance of more support for plant-based foods in Washington, specifically proteins that come from plants, like Beyond Meat’s Beyond Burger, which looks, tastes, and cooks like animal protein.
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Plant-based meat and other foods (like nondairy milk, yogurt, and cheese) represent significant opportunities for the climate, our health, and our nation's economic growth. According to the Good Food Institute, by 2054, as much as one-third of the entire protein market will be plant-based, and it's already creating jobs. By 2022, the meat-alternative market will be valued at nearly $6 billion, create more than 60,000 jobs, and contribute more than $6 billion to the GDP. "Clean" meat, which generally refers to lab-grown synbio meats like those manufactured by Northern California-based Memphis Meats, can use 99 percent less land than animal-based meat, create 96 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions, and use 96 percent less water than livestock agriculture.
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“This event was a wonderful opportunity to introduce Members of Congress to the plant-based meat industry, which is right on the cusp of a market revolution,” Joanna Grossman, a GFI policy specialist, said in a statement. “By supporting such business innovation, policymakers have the power to build a healthy, humane, and sustainable food system that, increasingly, also happens to be aligned with consumer demand.”
Beyond Meat founder Ethan Brown, and Bruce Friedrich, executive director of the Good Food Institute, spoke to the guests – some of whom had never eaten a veggie burger before – about the changing protein industry and the prospects it presents for America.
“[It’s] incredible that there is now a solution to such global problems as food security and environmental protection that is directly in line with business growth and consumer demand,” says Emily Byrd, Senior Communications Specialist at GFI. “We think it’s critical that policymakers are aware of this game-changing opportunity to support positive innovation that unites people from every political perspective.”
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Meet the Vegan Cheese Brand That Changed the WorldCLOSE Meet the Vermont's largest maple processor, Butternut Mountain Farm in Morrisville. Chief Executive John Kingston takes us behind the scenes at the company's processing and storage facility. Emily McManamy, Burlington (Vt.) Free Press
Other states expected to follow in footsteps of USA's leading producer.
Tegan Marriott holds a sample of maple syrup to the light to check for clarity at Butternut Mountain Farm. The company is one of the biggest processors of maple syrup in Vermont and is responding to this year’s new maple grading standards. (Photo: Emily McManamy, Burlington (Vt.) Free Press) Story Highlights Written accounts of boiling maple sap into sugar date to the 16th century in North America
Maple syrup was born during the Civil War era when tin cans and spouts were developed
Vermont may be best-known state for maple syrup but others also produce it
SOUTH ROYALTON, Vt. — For the first time in three decades, Vermont has changed the names it gives to differing grades of maple syrup, dropping the well-known Vermont Fancy for the more descriptive, if less fanciful, Golden Color/Delicate Taste.
As the No. 1 producer of maple syrup in the United States, Vermont is expected to lead the way for other states to adopt the new names by 2015.
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Vermont produced about 40% of the total U.S. syrup crop of roughly 3.25 million gallons in 2013. All of the New England states make maple syrup, along with Pennsylvania, New York, and even a few states outside the Northeast, such as Virginia, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin.
Vermont's remaining designations of Grade A Medium Amber, Grade A Dark Amber, and Grade B have been replaced by Amber/Rich Taste, Dark/Robust Taste, and Very Dark/Strong Taste. Very Dark/Strong Taste is a syrup that was not even available on the retail market previously, according to Matt Gordon, executive director of the Vermont Maple Sugar Makers Association here.
"It was about a 10-year process, not something that was a quick, fly-by-night decision," Gordon said. "Now we have very distinct syrups to offer."
All of the new names are designated as Grade A. Grade B is no more.
The new system also has a Processing Grade, which may not be sold as packaged maple syrup but goes instead to food-processing companies that use it as an ingredient in a variety of products, ranging from yogurt to maple-flavored sausage.
Butternut Mountain Farm and other maple syrup companies in Vermont must replace their labels to comply with new syrup grading standards. (Photo: Emily McManamy, Burlington (Vt.) Free Press)
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, and Agriculture Canada, the USDA's counterpart in Canada, also are expected to change their grading systems in 2015 to mirror the ones adopted in Vermont, according to the Vermont Agency of Agriculture.
Canada is a far bigger producer of maple syrup than the United States, with total production last year of about 10 million gallons, much of it from Quebec.
Not everyone is happy with the new grading system. Within Vermont, some long-time sugar makers are convinced the state will relinquish its position as the maple syrup leader by using the same names as everyone else.
Under the old system, only Vermont had Fancy syrup.
"Vermont has spent many years and even more dollars promoting her products. Maple being at the top," said Ken Bushee a sugar maker in Danby, Vt.
"We have touted the difference in our syrup, how much it is preferable to others. Very discouraging to now think of our syrup being lumped in with all the rest, all that promotion is lost in this shuffle," he said. "I believe it is more for the ease of universal packaging than to make it easier for the customer."
Bushee's family has been making maple syrup on a farm in Danby for more than 100 years. Bushee and his wife, Francie, took over the operation in 1978 when Bushee's mother decided "she was not wanting to be in the sugar house."
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Bushee said the new names may be descriptive, but they're not "user-friendly." He has a hard time picturing a customer coming into his farm store asking for "Golden Color/Delicate Taste" syrup.
Matt Gordon respectfully disagrees.
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"For most people, it became apparent how helpful this will be not only for international sales, but also for folks coming to visit Vermont," Gordon said. "The new grading standards give a better indication of what's in the bottle, especially since so much syrup is sold in tan, opaque jugs."
The International Maple Syrup Institute developed the new standards with plenty of input from Vermont producers. The institute has no physical location, but its executive director is based in Spencerville, Ontario.
John Kingston, chief executive officer of Butternut Mountain Farm in Morrisville, Vt., said the transition presents a formidable logistical challenge, migrating from existing labels to new labels. Butternut is one of the biggest processors in the state, filling some 70,000 square feet of space with storage, bottling lines and a maple sugar production area.
The company bottles not only its own syrup but also syrup for many other producers, big grocery chains and others.
"I think it's the right thing for the industry," Kingston said of the new labeling standards. "With that said, it's a considerable investment and challenge for the industry as well."
Dan D'Ambrosio also reports for the Burlington (Vt.) Free Press.
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.81 square miles. Its population as of the 2011 Canadian census was 390,095.
The Halifax Regional Council is the main governing and legislative body for the Halifax Regional Municipality. The Halifax Regional Council is made up of 17 elected representatives: the mayor and 16 municipal councilors.
Halifax Attractions
Besides the Citadel, Halifax offers several interesting attractions. One not to be missed is the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, which includes artifacts from the sinking of the Titanic. The bodies of 121 victims of this tragedy in 1912 are buried in Halifax's Fairview Lawn Cemetery. Other Halifax attractions include:
Halifax Climate
Halifax weather is strongly influenced by the ocean. Winters are mild and summers are cool. Halifax is foggy and misty, with fog on more than 100 days of the year, especially in spring and early summer.
Winters in Halifax are moderate but wet with both rain and snow. The average high temperature in January is 2 degrees Celsius, or 29 degrees Fahrenheit. Spring comes slowly and eventually arrives in April, bringing more rain and fog.If you bought a car camping pass to Coachella, congratulations. For $85 more, you purchased twice the festival as the hotel heathens. They’ll be spending their mornings desperately looking for a taxi wait under two hours and wondering why they didn’t get a hotel closer to a shuttle line. You’ll be spending yours deciding between the slip-n-slide and the mini-carnival.
But that kind of freedom comes hard-earned, and there’s a lot of planning to do before you go if you want to have the kind of kickass campsite worthy of the modern-day Woodstock.
First thing’s first: Know who you’re camping with. That way, you can split up who brings what and save some money because, let’s face it, Coachella ain’t cheap. Each camping spot is 10’x30′, and you can pack a fair amount of people in there. For a better solution, have multiple people with their own car camping passes in your group. You only need one per space, so getting a second one doubles the number of people you can camp with, not to mention doubling the room to set up your dream campsite.
If you have multiple campsites, you’ll have to caravan down to Indio to ensure you drive in right next to each other. Otherwise, there’s no guarantee you’ll get spots next to each other. If you’re not leaving together or it’s a longer drive, set a meeting point at a grocery store near the grounds to reconvene. You can also stock up on supplies there. Some things to pick up:
Fruit and vegetables, and lots of them. Nothing like eating healthy to stave off the guilt for the drugs you’re doing. More specifically, avocados. They’re a super food, they turn into bowls when you finish them, and you can play mini croquet with the pits. Goldfish, jerky, and other salty foods. That water retention will be worth the puffy face. Gatorade. Bring water if you want (it’s readily available all over the grounds), but Gatorade and Gatorade powder will do a lot to help your electrolytes. Coachella is as hard on your body as any sporting event. Booze. Cases of beer are fine, but if you get liquor, make sure you either put them in plastic or hide them well. No glass allowed in the lot.
If you’re bringing a camping stove (propane only on the grounds), you can also pick up stuff like pancake mix, eggs, maybe even some steak. It’s a little extra work, but there’s nothing like coming back to the campsite after a long day and having a full, home-cooked meal. Share with the neighbors, and they’ll hit you back. If you run out of food, there’s an on-site store with some options, and a shuttle that’ll take you to the grocery store in the mornings.
Once you arrive, you’ll appreciate having that case of beer. The security line is just one big tailgating party. Guards are tearing apart entire cars, in some cases taking off paneling to check inside (so make sure you hide your stash well), which takes a little bit of time. Get out of your car and meet some people, and pray you chose the line with the lazy volunteer who’s not being paid enough to care.
You should fill up your gas tank again before you go into the grounds, since you never know when you’ll need to run your car and you can’t leave once you’re there. The campground opens at 9am the day before the festival. If you’ve done everything right so far (and if you’ve read to here, you should) and you’ve arrived early enough, you’ll get a prime spot close enough to the festival to avoid too much walking, but far enough away from the gates that you avoid the casual looters and the crowds of the main pathways.
Set up your camp however you’d like. I’m not an architect. Really though, go crazy guys. Make your camp recognizable. Put up strings of lights and inflatable toys — this will look cool as shit, but it’ll also make camp easier to find, especially in the dark when you’re stumbling back with a ringing in your ears. Also, stake down your tents and canopies! If the weather acts up like it did in 2012, it’ll be more than the answers blowing in the wind.
Ideally, you’ve brought car paint to decorate your ride. Write “Carpoolchella” in a visible spot in the best design you can come up with, because officials wander the grounds looking for that specific word. If they like your style, you have the chance to win free VIP tickets for life. What have you got to lose? Make sure you only draw on the windows though, as car paint can fuck with the actual paint job.
Inside the campground there are lots of shower trucks, but lines can get insanely long in the mornings. Shower in the evenings if you’re willing to miss a set. Alternatively, bring a Sun Shower, a little bag of water you can hang in your campsite. Or there’s always baby wipes and dry shampoo.
Once you’ve got everything set up and you know where everything is, you’re on your own. Goldenvoice loves to keep people guessing when it comes to their plans. One minute you can be riding a little carnival in a back corner of the lot, the next you can be rocking out at a silent disco. Don’t get too caught up in what you think you should be doing. Follow your nose. And when your non-camping friends arrive, try not to rub in how much better your morning has been than theirs. But hey, don’t be afraid to rub it in a little.
Your packing list, from someone who cares
To live
Tent – Duh. If you’ve got a big car, you could sleep in the back, but then you have to decide between privacy and airflow. Coachella is hot and sexual enough as it is without choosing between one or the other. Canopy – It’s like a tent you shouldn’t be naked in, but that’s okay. Great for shading the rest of your camp. Tarps – You can use them on the side of the canopy to make shade, or to block off the windows in your car to cool them down. Folding chairs – Sit on these. Or just look at them. I don’t care. Folding table – They’re not just for beer pong anymore. Although they are also for beer pong. Camping stove – You don’t necessarily need it, but nothing beats a hot, home-cooked meal after destroying your body all day. Propane only allowed. Pot and skillet – For use on the stove. Plates and utensils – Disposable is best. Cooler and dry ice – For keeping your food and drinks. Air mattress with battery-powered inflator – You’ll be so tired you could sleep on broken glass by the end of the day, but glass isn’t allowed in the campground, so this will have to do. Sleeping bag or blankets – It doesn’t get too cold at night, but it’s nice to have in case. Pillow – Unless you’re that hardcore. Battery packs – Your phone is going to die. If you don’t want to run your car to charge it, this will be a good alternative. Jumper cables – Just in case. Stick around Monday morning and count the number of people who need them, then come back here so I can say I told you so. Fan – It’s nice to have. Combine with a mister to beat the heat. Wet wipes – They’re a godsend replacement for toilet paper in the desert environment, and can be used as a shower if the lines are too long. Saline nose solution – For getting rid of that giant dusty booger you don’t want to pick in front of your neighbors. Sunscreen – It’s the desert. I hear it’s sunny there. Toothbrush/toothpaste – For your mouth, yo. Ibuprofen – Your body will hurt. It doesn’t have to. Baby powder – If you’re a heavy sweater, this stuff will keep the chafing at bay. Earplugs – I don’t care if you’re up until 5 in the morning. There will be somebody with a sound system up until 6. Spare keys – Your friends might need them. You might need them. Duct tape – For when everything goes to shit. Trash bags – Don’t be that guy.
To enjoy living
El-wire strings – Good for lighting up your campsite to make it easier to find, and to make it cool as fuck. Get the battery-powered kind to make it nice and portable, since you might want to bring some into the grounds to make yourself easy to find as well. Inflatable toys – Mostly just for fun, but if you bring one into the grounds, it can be your totem so your friends can find you. Inflatable pool – The least necessary. The most fun. Flag – If you can set one up, it’s a good way to identify your campsite. Body paint – A fun way to get ready for the day. Car paint – To win that Carpoolchella award. Cards – King’s Cup is a great way to pass some time. Speakers – Drown out the tinnitus when you get back at night with a little more music. Camera – You can’t bring a DSLR into the festival itself, but you can take some sweet pictures of yourself going down the slip-n-slide next door. Condoms – Better safe than sorry, ya know?
For the festivalImage copyright Welsh Government Image caption The series focused on the early years of playwright William Shakespeare
A US TV series based on the life of William Shakespeare which received government aid and was filmed near Bridgend has been cancelled.
Turner Broadcsting said there would not be a second series of Will, which ran on its cable channel TNT.
The Welsh Government has refused to say how much support it gave, but predicted an £18m boost to the local economy.
The Conservatives said the claim was "unsubstantiated" and accused ministers of a "wearisome lack of transparency".
Work to dismantle sets has been taking place at the Dragon Studios site.
Will, which started production last year and began airing on TNT in July, focused on the earlier years of the young playwright.
It was based at Dragon with location shooting taking place around south Wales and London.
Its final episode aired on Monday.
The series had been billed as the biggest budget US TV production ever shot in Wales, with a set that included a replica of the Globe theatre.
Image caption Suzy Davies said the Welsh Government "cannot hide behind commercial confidentiality"
The Welsh Government told BBC Wales that the production had received grant funding, but that the amount could not be disclosed due to commercial sensitivities.
Grant terms required the production spend a certain proportion of its budget in Wales on a Welsh crew, goods and services.
The government said the production had "over-achieved on the projected Welsh spend figure" but that final figures were yet to be confirmed.
'Significant impact'
Commenting on the end of production, a spokeswoman for the Welsh Government said: "While this is disappointing we acknowledge and accept the nature of TV series and that they can be cancelled at any point in their run.
"The reasons for cancelling could be numerous; for example it could be due to viewing figures, a lack of international sales or a loss of interest from key creatives."
The spokeswoman claimed that the production had had a "significant impact" on the Welsh creative industries sector and that it was "anticipated the production will have generated £18m spend into the local economy".
"We have also built a very good and useful relationship with TNT Productions, who are prolific in TV and film production, and there is every possibility that they will bring another production to Wales," she added.
Welsh Conservative culture spokeswoman Suzy Davies said it was a shame that a second series had not been commissioned.
But she added: "In what has now become a wearisome lack of transparency, we once again find ourselves faced with unsubstantiated claims by Welsh Government about how much money its investment in a creative industry project has brought to the local economy.
"The Welsh Government cannot hide behind commercial confidentiality - it should disclose the figure and the exact terms of the grant, just as has done previously with Screen Wales support."
The Welsh Government has been asked to respond to Ms Davies's comments.Madoff says his victims were 'greedy'
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- In his second jailhouse interview, Wall Street scammer Bernard Madoff told a reporter that his victims were "greedy" and the U.S. government is a "Ponzi scheme," though he insisted that he's a "good person."
"Everyone was greedy," said Madoff, according to New York Magazine. "I just went along. It's not an excuse."
Madoff loaded the interview with caveats, claiming that he told investors they were better off investing in government bonds and that he warned them, "I could go crazy and do something stupid."
Of his burned investors, Madoff reportedly said, "Now if you listen to [them,] they're living out of Dumpsters and they don't have any money, and I'm sure it's a traumatic experience to some, but I made a lot of money for people. Does it justify it, no?"
He also claimed that the hedge funds and banks were complicit.
During a series of a dozen telephone interviews with reporter Steve Fishman, Madoff explained how he launched his investment firm with only $500, only to see it morph into a Ponzi scheme in the early 1990s. After several years, he realized he wasn't going to be able to get out of it, but continued to claim that his family members knew nothing about it.
"It was a nightmare for me," he reportedly said. "Look, imagine going home every night not being able to tell your wife, living with this ax over your head, not telling your sons, my brother, seeing them every day in the business and not being able to confide in them."
Madoff told the magazine that he went on suicide watch after his son Mark hanged himself in December, 2010, on the second anniversary of his father's arrest for orchestrating the largest Ponzi scheme in history.
The long-running scheme stole billions of dollars from hundreds of victims before it finally came crashing down in 2008. Madoff pleaded guilty in March, 2009, to running the Ponzi scheme and was sentenced to 150 years in federal prison. He is currently incarcerated at a prison in Butner, N.C.
He told the magazine that his "notoriety impresses" the other prisoners. "It shouldn't, but it does."
He also blamed the government for being part of the problem.
"The whole new regulatory reform is a joke," he said. 'The whole government is a Ponzi scheme."
But the Ponzi schemer himself claims that he's not that bad, at least according to his prison therapist, who told him that he's a "good person."
"You're absolutely not a sociopath," said the therapist, according to Madoff. "You have morals. You have remorse."Jeff Bryant, writing for the Education Opportunity Network, reviews the many times that Democrats have said that Indiana Governor Mike Pence is an extremist, far out of the mainstream.
They will highlight his association with the Koch brothers, ALEC, and other far-right ideologues.
But the embarrassing fact is that Democrats endorse most of Pence’s views on education.
The fact is that Pence is squarely in the mainstream of education “reform,” the kind that is supported by a bipartisan coalition in D.C. and in the states.
What Pence adopted as his education policies resemble a hodge-podge of what is commonly referred to as “education reform.”
Indeed, organizations that espouse the reform agenda give Pence’s education record rave reviews.
“Mike Pence Is the Veep Education Reformers Need,” declares the Center for Education Reform. CER leader Jeanne Allen declares in her statement, “Mike Pence is a true pioneer of educational opportunity.”
Pro-reform American Federation for Children gushes, “Governor Pence is a longtime champion for educational choice, believing that every child, regardless of family income or ZIP code, deserves access to a quality education.”
At Forbes, reform cheerleader Maureen Sullivan’s list of “seven things” to know about Pence’s education stance reads like a checklist from the reform movement, including charter schools, standardized testing, merit pay for teachers, vouchers, and curriculum geared toward workforce preparation.
So, although Pence has strayed from reform orthodoxy at times – voting against the No Child Left Behind law passed under President Georg W. Bush and steering his state out of the Common Core (which he initially embraced) – he is generally recognized as an education reform leader, making him, in fact, aligned with many Democrats who’d never want to be caught dead supporting what Pence generally espouses.
For decades, both Democrats and Republicans have dined at the salad bar of education reform, with Democrats taking a heaping helping of charter schools but light on the vouchers please, and Republicans insisting on standardization but hold the Common Core now that we’ve gotten a taste of it.
Democrats eagerly sat alongside Republicans at the same education policy table in Indiana too. Most of the education policies Pence supported as governor have been a continuation of policies created by fellow Republicans – his predecessor Mitch Daniels and state superintendent Tony Bennett, who suffered a humiliating defeat during Pence’s tenure. But those policies often drew the praise of former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.
In a visit to the state in 2011, Duncan and Bennett commended each other for their “efforts to overhaul education,” according to a local reporter.
In another visit to the sate a year later, Duncan “complimented,” according to a local news source, Bennett and Indiana’s leadership on the state’s expansion of charter schools and state takeovers of local schools – another popular item in the reform salad bar.
A New York Times article from 2013 lumps Duncan and Daniels, along with former Michigan Governor John Engler, together in the education policy arena, writing, “They all sympathize with many of the efforts of the so-called education reform movement.”
Will Democrats continue to embrace school choice, now that it is the heart of Trump and Pence’s education platform?It appears Fabian Castillo will be staying in Turkey, at least until the end of the year.
SI.com understands that FC Dallas and Trabzonspor have reached an agreement to conclude what has been a strange and awkward transfer saga. Castillo will remain with the Süper Lig team for the remainder of 2016 in exchange for a transfer free of approximately $3 million. In January, Trabzonspor will be on the hook for additional funds, otherwise Castillo’s rights will revert to Dallas.
It's unclear how much money FCD will be owed in January. The original fee for Castillo was $4 million, meaning the new arrangement could simply mean more up front, or it may involve an overall increase.
FC Dallas will keep two-thirds of the transfer fee. The rest goes to MLS.
Castillo’s decision last month to leave for Trabzon without permission, followed by the signing of a new contract before the transfer was finalized, put Dallas in an odd position.
The player clearly wanted to move, but FCD and MLS were concerned about whether Trabzonspor was willing and able to pay the fee. The two sides came to a compromise early last week—FCD would receive $2 million now and $2 million in January. But the money never arrived. While Castillo's agent claimed to be in New York City meeting with league officials, Dallas was put into the uncomfortable position of ordering Castillo, who was still in Turkey, back to Toyota Stadium for practice.
Instead, a minimum of $3 million is headed from Turkey to Texas, with more due over the winter.
FC Dallas is 1-0-1 since Castillo left the team the day it traveled to Denver for a game against the Colorado Rapids. FCD hosts Nicaragua’s Real Estelí on Thursday evening in their CONCACAF Champions League opener.Francis Maude met 19 of the government’s top suppliers yesterday and talked through plans to cut costs.
I spoke to one of my sources yesterday and was told that at the meeting the government asked for immediate savings this year and ongoing cost reductions.
He said the next phase will be interesting as the companies ask the government how they can do it.
Although my source said no numbers were mentioned in the meeting another well connected contact of mine said the government had set tough targets.
“I was not in the meeting but I was told the government wants a 20% cost reduction without the offer of project extensions,” said my source. Normally when a customer negotiates a reduction in price they agree to extend the contract. Give and take.
And it does not end there, according to my source, with contracts currently in negotiation expected to have cuts more brutal than 20%.
The source said it is fine that the government asks private companies help cut costs but if the figures he has been told are correct it “shows a tremendous lack of understanding of how the suppliers work.”
Jean-Louis Bravard, who is director at consultancy Burnt-Oak Partners and was previously a global head at EDS, said suppliers can help the government reduce costs significantly through long term projects.
“These can be more significant and can bring short term, cost reductions and improve performance.
He gave an example of government BPO which mixes outsourcing and mergers and acquisitions. Outsource at first but then encourage private companies to acquire the government operations. This would take wages and pensions off the government bill.In September this year, the NSW Children's Court decided to permanently remove the children and in a rare move, published its decision because it laid new ground on when children could be permanently removed. In Victoria, there was another order two months ago to remove children from another branch of the family. Apprehended violence orders have been taken out to stop the parents approaching the children, who have been placed in homes and in foster care. Next week one mother will face charges relating to an attempt to remove a child from care. All names in this article have been changed due to legal requirements not to identify child victims...... Just a short drive from Canberra is a small town in prime merino country. The wide main street and substantial buildings point to an era when Australia rode on the sheep's back. There are still big properties, but up in the valleys that stretch out from the town are smaller farms, used increasingly as hobby farms or boltholes for those on the fringes of society. The Colt family were in the second category. There is no suggestion they were part of a religious cult. They seemed motivated by a desire to keep below the radar of the law.
Two sisters paid a relatively modest sum for the land from a local farmer in 2009 and soon the rest of the family followed from interstate. ''The day they arrived it looked like the circus had come to town,'' says a neighbour. ''Caravans, cars filled with kids. '' Soon after the Colts arrived they came to the attention of police and the education department for failing to send their children to school. The education authorities were unable to find the farm because it was so hidden, but a local policeman visited early on and told the mothers they had to send their children to school. The younger ones were enrolled in a small bush school with remedial teachers, while the older children were enrolled at the high school. The day they arrived it looked like the circus had come to town. Neighbours realised there was a large group living on the land, but the Colts kept to themselves and returned stock that strayed onto their property.
''Apart from the noise of the chainsaws, they didn't really worry us,'' a neighbour says. ''I knew there were children living up there, but I never heard any noise of laughing or playing.'' The family were seen in town shopping and two of the men worked for the local shire. The men also chopped down trees and sold it for firewood. The family also received money from Centrelink. But all was not well. The children's attendance at school was patchy, several of them were rake thin and wore dirty clothes. Soon risk-of-harm reports began coming in to the Department of Family and Community Services from teachers and the local bus driver. But it took two years before the department acted. Finally, in June 2012, the authorities visited and were met with scenes of harrowing deprivation. One police officer told colleagues she would never get over what she saw that day. Proceedings before the Children's Court heard the family was living without permanent electricity or running water. There were no toilets and they washed in a tub. One caravan housing one group had dirt, cigarette butts and rubbish on the floor. Three children's beds were dirty and unmade, cooking facilities were very dirty and a gas barbecue was used for heating inside the confined space. The second caravan had dirt on all surfaces and two broken windows.
A third mother slept in a tent with her daughters, while the sons slept in another. There were exposed electricity wires, chainsaws without covers, and piles of rubbish, the reports said. The children were observed to be neglected in significant ways. Most were far behind their peers in terms of educational development and some had no formal schooling at all. Some were developmentally delayed and others showed signs of more permanent intellectual impairment. Several of the children were unable to speak intelligibly. Their dental health was appalling and several did not know how to use a toothbrush. The family were given a timeframe to fix up the property, but in the meantime more information emerged and the director-general of FACS decided the children needed to be removed immediately. Since taking the children away, the authorities have uncovered an even darker picture: of intergenerational incest and child sex abuse involving children as young as five.
Away from their families, the children began exhibiting inappropriate sexual behaviour and told carers they had engaged in sexual acts with each other and watched adults having sex on the farm. The department ordered genetic testing to clarify the status of the children. The tests showed that all but one child of the 12 removed had parents who were related or closely related. The four mothers, Rhonda, Betty, Martha and Raylene, have disputed the genetic testing, saying it is wrong and offering the names of alternate fathers. All were either dead or unable to be located. Older members of the family have not been tested but the judge in the Children's Court made several references to ''intergenerational incest''. According to the court record, the Colt grandparents, Tim and June married in New Zealand in 1966 and came first to South Australia during the 1970s with their six children. They moved to Victoria, South Australia again, then Western Australia, before ending up in NSW. There is evidence the abuse began back then and possibly even earlier.
Dwayne, one of Betty's sons, told his carers he and his siblings were told never to tell anyone that their father was in fact his grandfather, Tim, because his mother, Betty, would be sent to jail because she had started having sex with him when she was 12. Betty has had 13 children. The testing of the five children under 16 showed that the 15 year old had closely related parents, possibly a father/daughter, while the other four had related parents. But the incest has not stopped at one generation. Tammy, Betty's third child, aged 27, has come to the attention of authorities in Victoria after one of her children died at Canberra Hospital of a rare genetic disease, Zellweger syndrome, and she and Betty failed to attend an appointment to discuss the role close consanguinity between parents can play. Her two remaining children were taken into care in February this year. At a hearing to take out an apprehended violence order against her partner, Derek Colt - who had threatened ''to kill her if he couldn't have her'' - she told a social worker Derek was in fact her younger brother and father of her children.
She also revealed she had been abused within the Colt family from the age of 12 when other family members began having sex with her, including her brothers and cousins. She said the same happened to other girls on the farm and that her mother, Betty encouraged this activity. When the girls fell pregnant, they were not permitted to see a doctor in case someone discovered what was happening. Sometimes there were miscarriages but Tammy managed to secretly put herself on the pill from the age of 16. The big question to be answered is how these children - and their mothers before them - managed to fall through the child protection net in a civilised country such as Australia. Part of the problem is that child protection is a state-based responsibility. When the Colts came to the attention of authorities the family simply snatched the kids and moved states, choosing isolated places to resettle. But against that background there is evidence the Colts were registered for federal benefits, raising questions about how state authorities were unable to follow up on these vulnerable children.
In the case of the NSW authorities, the Department of Community Services received seven risk-of-significant-harm reports in the two years before July 2012 when the children were removed. Asked why it had failed to act, the department refused to provide any detailed response as the matter is ongoing. ''The children are safe and living with foster carers,'' the department said. ''Like many child-protection matters, this case involves a number of complexities and Community Services caseworkers are working closely with FACS' partners in Health, Education and in the non-government sector to provide ongoing support and assistance to the children.'' The mothers have contested their children's removal in the courts and continue to agitate for their return. Loading But the Children's Court judge found they had not come to terms with ''their own traumatic past'' and until they acknowledged the history of incest in the family they would be unable to engage in therapy and be protective parents.If you need to know which way to go, your best bet is to ask a man, according to new research that suggests men have a better sense of direction than women. Although men and women specialize in their own tasks, researchers wanted to uncover if a good sense of direction has more to do with sex hormones or cultural conditioning.
In order to test if culture or hormones plays a role in direction, women were given testosterone and asked to perform tasks in a virtual environment.
The researchers, from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, conducted fMRIs and found that men used more shortcuts and different parts of the brain to complete the tasks when compared to women.
The women who received testosterone were also able to orient themselves better in the four cardinal directions. Carl Pintzka, a medical doctor and Ph.D. candidate at the university said, “Men’s sense of direction was more effective. They quite simply got to their destination faster.”
The puzzle that both the men and women had to complete involved wearing 3-D goggles and using a joystick to navigate a maze in which they had 30 seconds to complete each given task.
The results showed that the men completed 50 percent more tasks than the women, and men and women have different navigational strategies. Dr. Pintzka added, “If they’re going to the Student Society building in Trondheim, for example, men usually go in the general direction where it’s located. Women usually orient themselves along a route to get there, for example, ‘go past the hairdresser and then up the street and turn right after the store’.”
Researchers determined that using cardinal directions was more effective because it offers greater flexibility and that directions are completed faster because it depends less on where you currently are.
Although the fMRI testing showed that both men and women use large parts of their brains for directions, those parts vary between each gender. Men typically used the hippocampus more, while women tended to use their frontal areas more. Dr. Pintzka explained, “That’s in sync with the fact that the hippocampus is necessary to make use of cardinal directions. In ancient times, men were hunters and women were gatherers. Therefore, our brains probably evolved differently. For instance, other researchers have documented that women are better at finding objects locally than men. In simple terms, women are faster at finding things in the house, and men are faster at finding the house.”
A different group of women were then given testosterone under their tongue while others received a placebo. Dr. Pintzka said, “We hoped that they would be able to solve more tasks, but they didn’t. But they had improved knowledge of the layout of the maze. And they used the hippocampus to a greater extent, which tends to be used more by men for navigating.”
It has been shown that losing your sense of direction is an early sign of Alzheimer’s disease.
“Almost all brain-related diseases are different in men and women, either in the number of affected individuals or in severity. Therefore, something is likely protecting or harming people of one sex. Since we know that twice as many women as men are diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, there might be something related to sex hormones that is harmful,” said Dr. Pintzka.
Dr. Pintzka hopes that by understanding more about the different areas of the brain, which are used to complete different tasks, it can offer a greater understanding of Alzheimer’s disease as well.
Source:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-12/nuosnews, latest-news
A BATHURST councillor has again moved to assure the public that the proposed dual naming of Mount Panorama would have no impact on the world-famous racing circuit. The Bathurst Aboriginal Lands Council has applied to have the Mount’s traditional name, Wahluu, formally gazetted. The process took its next step last week when the Geographical Names Board (GNB) announced it was seeking public submissions on the proposal. GNB chairman Des Mooney said the dual naming would not spell the end of Mount Panorama but, rather, mean the area could be referred to by either name. “Once an area has been dual named it can be referred to by either name and it is not intended for one name to take precedence over the other,” he said. “In this instance, if the proposal for dual naming is successful, it will mean the area would retain the name Mount Panorama, but could also be called Wahluu.” Cr Monica Morse said she strongly supported the dual naming and wanted the public, particularly racing fans, to be assured it was not an attack on the Mount Panorama name. And she said the lead-up to Bathurst’s bicentenary celebrations next year was the perfect time to pursue dual naming. “We need to take steps to involve and engage the local Aboriginal community,” Cr Morse said. “We are working closely with the Wiradjuri people and local Aboriginal people, wherever they have come from, to tell our shared stories, and Wahluu was a very important part of that culture.” Cr Morse said there remained some misunderstanding in the community about the purpose of dual naming Mount Panorama. “Just reading some Facebook comments and an online petition [opposed to the dual naming], I’m concerned some people still do not understand what we are trying to do,” she said. “Mount Panorama will always be Mount Panorama, that’s not going to change. But we do have to be sensitive to the importance of local geographic features to the Aboriginal people.” Submissions on the dual naming close on September 15 and can be lodged at www.gnb.nsw.gov.au or mailed to the Secretary, Geographical Names Board, 346 Panorama Avenue, Bathurst, 2795.
https://nnimgt-a.akamaihd.net/transform/v1/crop/frm/storypad-R4QLdja6tcWkSy7923tPkh/b6d30660-27c5-4ece-bd69-c17c692fcf42.jpg/r4_145_3087_1887_w1200_h678_fmax.jpgSince we’ve entered the Obama era, we’ve learned that the same America that elected a black President twice is supposedly a seething caldron of secret racism. Don’t like Obama? You must be racist. Don’t like Democrats? Definitely racist! So you’re opposed to Obamacare? Obviously racist. Sick of the IRS? Racist, racist, RACIST! Are you Republican? A Tea Partier? Just a plain old white guy? You’re a super racisty racist!!! We’re now even regularly hearing speculation that people are unknowingly racist, subconsciously racist or just racist by virtue of the fact that they somehow benefit from “white privilege.”Here's an alternative idea: 99% of the cries of racism today are made for political reasons by people who habitually cry racism every time they have a problem or alternatively, just by hypersensitive, coddled losers who are desperate to blame anyone but themselves for their own failures.Just as an example, nobody wants to hear the poor put-upon First Lady of the United States complaining that she was discriminated against because someone asked for her help getting something off the shelf at Target. Similarly, someone asked her husband to go get some coffee because he was wearing a tuxedo and the person mistook him for a waiter? Boo freaking hoo. A lot of people get mistaken for store employees at some point in their life. I’ve been mistaken for a Wal-Mart employee – and despite the fact that I wasn’t wearing a blue smock with “How may I help you?” on it, it never occurred to me to blame it on racism. “That’s because you’re white!” No, it’s because I’m not an asshat who chalks up every minor inconvenience in my life to race.Along similar lines, no one wants to hear a man worth almost 300 million dollars, like Floyd Mayweather, claiming he’d be worth a lot more if he were white. This is a guy who has made hundreds of millions of dollars punching people in the face for a living while he beats women in his off time and he’s complaining that he got a raw deal? What’s wrong with noting how ridiculous that sounds?The same goes for Oprah Winfrey, Spike Lee, Whoopi Goldberg, Chris Rock, Jamie Foxx and dozens of other rich, spoiled, pampered brats who’ve been handed success on a silver platter. Apparently, they all think we should treat them like Rosa Parks because of some minor inconveniences in their life that may have |
or Cub Foods, Olson said in the complaint.
After the officer was released, surveillance camera footage showed Foster fiddling with Post-its, a cigarette pack and the pills before telling his supervisor he had to leave early.
As Foster left the store, officers stopped him and found the pills in his backpack. Further investigation showed Foster apparently deleted the photo of the pills he took when he first approached the undercover officer, the complaint said.
If convicted, Foster faces up to 10 years in prison and a $20,000 maximum fine.
Katherine Lymn is a University of Minnesota student on assignment for Star Tribune.ADVERTISEMENT
Still afraid of the dark? It's probably time to get over it. New evidence from Ohio State University found that a dim light at night — whether it comes from a night-light, or staying up late in front of a computer or TV — may be making you depressed. Here's what you should know:
What happened in this study?
University researchers exposed hamsters to a faint light when they went to sleep. Within a few weeks, the animals began to exhibit classic symptoms of depression. The hamsters spurned sugar water (normally, a reliable lure for hamsters) and were more lethargic than peers who slept in complete darkness. They performed poorly on behavior tests. Brain scans revealed changes in the hamsters' hippocampus typically associated with depressed people. "The results we found in hamsters are consistent with what we know about depression in humans," says study author Tracy Bedrosian.
What does artificial light do to the body?
Artificial light disrupts our natural circadian rhythms, which may in turn alter the body's hormone levels. "When people spend too little time in darkness, it seems that the body suppresses release of the hormone melatonin," says Laura Blue at TIME, which is thought to fight a myriad of conditions, including tumor growth and cancers. According to the American Medical Association, interrupting the body's circadian rhythm could also lead to obesity, diabetes, and reproductive problems.
So I should get rid of my night-light?
The team speculates that artificial light may be part of the reason depression rates have soared in recent decades. There is good news, however: When the afflicted hamsters were again allowed to sleep a full eight hours per night in the dark, their depressive symptoms disappeared completely. This offers gloomy night owls some hope, says Bedrosian. "People who stay up late in front of the television and computer may be able to undo some of the harmful effects just by going back to a regular light-dark cycle and minimizing their exposure to artificial light."
Sources: Medical Daily, My Health News Daily, TIMEThe Federal Communications Commission’s major vote is mere hours away. On Thursday, the five members of the FCC board will vote on whether to end net neutrality, the principle that internet service providers cannot provide preferential access to certain sites or force consumers to pay for faster access to specific content. The vote could end the internet as we know it.
To watch the vote livestream, click here to view the meeting on the official government feed. The meeting will run from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Eastern time. Fourth on the agenda out of seven items is the “Restoring Internet Freedom” item, with docket number 17-108.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, a Donald Trump appointee, is behind the plan, which would reverse the FCC’s 2015 decision to officially reclassify the internet as a utility, making it subject to more stringent regulations. The five-person board includes three Republicans and two Democrats, who are expected to vote along party lines in favor and in opposition, respectively. As such, barring a shock turn of events, the plan will likely prevail three votes to two.
While Pai has argued his plan would simply move the internet back to the “light touch” regulations that were in place before 2015, part of the reason for that change two years ago was that the FCC had to respond to court decisions that said it could no longer legally enforce net neutrality under those less stringent rules. That’s why Thursday’s vote threatens to create a whole new internet, one where ISPs like Verizon, AT&T, and Comcast have disproportionate power.
Pai has given few substantive interviews about his plans since introducing them just before Thanksgiving, though this Wednesday did see him appear in a bizarre, misleading video from the conservative site The Daily Caller in which he claimed everyone’s favorite memes would survive the end of net neutrality.
Plans to reverse net neutrality have come under intense criticism from internet communities, who fear a service split into tiers with service providers choosing which websites to prioritize in terms of traffic bandwidth. A public consultation on the issue was highly criticized, after it was revealed that a number of comments appeared to come from automated services.
Communities have carried out a number of days of action in protest of the plan. Two organized Reddit days, November 21 and December 1, saw a huge uptick in viral content on the front page relating to the cause, particularly notable as even the Super Bowl didn’t receive as much attention. A number of protests at Verizon stores across the United States have drawn attention to the fact that Pai used to work as a lawyer for the carrier.
The group Voices for Internet Freedom plans to hold a protest outside the FCC during the meeting, with Democratic representatives like Maxine Waters and Keith Ellison in attendance. The activist site Battle for the Net has some information on last-minute work net neutrality supporters can do from theiromes, including calling their senator or representative if they support Pai’s plan.
Read the description of the agenda item for the FCC meeting below.UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones recently took issue with what appeared to be a relatively easy path for Alexander Gustafsson to earn a rematch. This came after It was announced that Gustafsson would fight Little Nog, and assuming a win there, would get a shot at the winner of Jon Jones vs. Glover Teixeira, which will take place in March. When the fight was scrapped, the replacement for Little Nog was Jimi Manuwa.
“Really? You want [Gustafsson] to have the rematch that bad?” Jones told Ariel Helwani, as transcribed by MMAFighting. “No disrespect to Nogueira, but lets see Gustafsson vs. Cormier. It makes so much sense. If me, Cormier, Gustafsson and Teixeira are the toughest four guys in the division, lets put us in a little a round robin pool and see who’s the toughest of us four. Why throw Lil Nog into the picture?”
Do your job Jon, a chuckling UFC president Dana White explained.
“Jon, I love you, you’re not a matchmaker,” said White. “Fight your fight, he’ll fight his fight, and don’t worry about it. When you talk like that it makes it sound like you’re worried about it.”Share This Video Facebook Twitter EMAIL
If you couldn’t already tell, we’re very excited about Comedy Central’s Review. Its third and final season premiered last week, promising all kinds of new and wonderful horrors for show-within-a-show host Forrest MacNeil (Andy Daly) to explore. Yet the darkly funny program’s previous two season are rife with comedy gold, as are Daly’s stories about putting it all together. For in addition to starring in Review, the Upright Citizens Brigade-trained improv comedian also serves as a writer and producer on the series. This means he sometimes edits episode cuts… in public.
Per Daly’s recent appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, one of the first season’s more memorable moments concerns “Making a Sex Tape/Being a Racist/Hunting,” in which Forrest tries and fails to convince his then-wife to make a sex tape. Dedicated nonetheless, he gets his hands on a lifelike sex doll and goes to work. After Actor Daly performed the scene, Producer Daly had to edit it, so he took his laptop to a not-so-discreet location:
“The weirdest thing that happened with that segment is, because I’m also a producer on the show and I’m involved through the editing, I was watching a cut of it at a coffee shop. I’m sitting in a coffee shop and I’m watching a cut of it on my laptop. Of this segment where I’m having sex with this rubber doll. I’m just sitting there taking notes and observing the cut. After a half hour of this, I turn around and realize there’s a whole bunch of people who can see my screen.”
Of course the cut wasn’t final, and none of the otherwise mandatory blurs or pixelations were in place quite yet. So anyone sitting behind Daly in that particular coffee shop on that particular day probably saw one of the most surreal things they’d ever witnessed. “It’s just them watching a man watching himself have sex with a rubber doll and taking notes,” he added.
Seeing as how this is Review‘s final season, and Daly has already plotted out, filmed and edited what will and will not be shown, I know it’s too late to make any suggestions. Should Review come back for any reason, however, I’m convinced Forrest should review this very scenario.Boy, 10, suspended from school after he pretended to shoot an IMAGINARY bow and arrow at a classmate
Johnny Jones was punished by the South Eastern School District West in Pennsylvania
His parents are considering legal action after a mark was put on his permanent record
A 10-year-old boy was suspended after he pretended to shoot an imaginary bow and arrow at his classmate, the family's attorney said this week.
Johnny Jones was disciplined after he playfully responded to his friend's imaginary gun duel during class in October, by making an imaginary bow and arrow using his pencil.
Johnny was reported by a girl in his class at the South Eastern School District West in Pennsylvania.
Johnny Jones, 10, was suspended from South Eastern School District West in Pennsylvania for shooting an imaginary bow and arrow in October
Following a lecture by their teacher, Johnny and the other boy were suspended for one day under the school district's zero-tolerance policy against weapons and their school records marked to say they had violated it.
MailOnline was awaiting a response from Principal John Horton and Superintendent Dr Rona Kaufmann at the school.
The parents of Johnny Jones are considering legal action and want their son's school record expunged.
The family's attorney John Whitehead, from the Rutherford Institute, said today: 'We all want to keep the schools safe, but I’d far prefer to see something credible done about actual threats, rather than this ongoing, senseless targeting of imaginary horseplay.'
The Rutherford Institute has asked that the school remove the incident from the ten-year-old's permanent record.
The school district has until Friday to make a decision on the incident.
According to the South Eastern School District’s Zero Tolerance policy for 'Weapons, Ammunition and other Hazardous Items' the school bans possession of guns, knives and other instruments that can be used to harm.
It also bans students from carrying replica or lookalike weapons - but makes no mention of the imaginary.House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., says the "violent" members of Antifa — those members of the anti-fascist group who allegedly attacked conservative demonstrators over the weekend in Berkeley, Calif. — should be arrested and prosecuted.
"Our democracy has no room for inciting violence or endangering the public, no matter the ideology of those who commit such acts," Pelosi said in a statement Wednesday, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. "The violent actions of people calling themselves Antifa in Berkeley this weekend deserve unequivocal condemnation."
The article pointed out that the famous California liberal distanced the Democratic Party from the group.
In addition, Pelosi told the Denver Post’s editorial board: “You’re not talking about the far left of the Democratic Party — they’re not even Democrats. A lot of them are socialists or anarchists or whatever.”
Thirteen people were arrested and five others were injured Sunday after more than 100 black-clad, hooded protesters with masks and weapons attacked and overwhelmed peaceful demonstrators.
"They came with black masks, they carried weapons, they were pounding people down with their fists and feet," University of California-Berkeley College Republican Ashton Whitty told Fox News' "The Story with Martha MacCallum" Monday night. "I knew I had to get out of there.
"Everything was great until Antifa showed up," Whitty added.
Pelosi, who represents a district in neighboring San Francisco, had been criticized for not condemning the Antifa violence as forcefully as she had warned about the potential for unrest at a Patriot Prayer rally that had been planned for Saturday.
Berkeley's mayor, Jesse Arreguin, had previously spoken out against Antifa, saying the group should be classified "as a gang."
"They come dressed in uniforms," Arreguin said. "They have weapons, almost like a militia, and I think we need to think about that in terms of our law enforcement approach."Rumor around the industry these days is that Greg Berlanti and Ali Adler are developing a live-action television show based on the DC Comics character Supergirl. Berlanti is no stranger to the superhero genre -- his resume includes The CW's Arrow and its spinoff The Flash. He also produced, alongside Adler, the short-lived ABC drama No Ordinary Family.
Supergirl is in the early stages of development, but it's looking to capitalize on the success of its peers. Of course, a big part of that would ride on who they got to play the title role, so while Berlanti and Adler are busy working on a script, we thought it would be fun to focus on casting. There are plenty of young actresses who could bring Kara Zor-El to life.
Below, we've chosen 10 talented women worthy of the role. Before you ask, no, they're not all blonde-haired with blue eyes. That's what contacts and hair dye are for. Just keep an open mind and embrace the possibilities.
Who's on your short list for Supergirl? Let us know in the comments, or tweet it at us at @syfywire!Back To the Top
Among Sergeant York's most treasured honors is the following letter, written by Lieutenant Colonel Buxton to the girl whom York married as soon as he returned:
Hq. 82d Div., A.P.O. 742,
American E. F., France
26 February, 1919
Miss Gracie Williams,
Pall Mall, Tenn.
My Dear Miss Williams:
It has come to my attention that you are one of the people at home who, by virtue of friendship, is interested in Sergeant Alvin C. York, Company G, 328th Infantry.
Entirely without any suggestion on the part of my friend, Sergeant York, I should like to tell you and his mother something of the very high esteem in which he is held by the officers and men of this division.
Until the 82nd Division entered the fight in the Argonne, it was my privilege to command the battalion of which Sgt. York's company was a part. During those many trying days Sgt. York grew daily in our esteem as very efficient noncommissioned officer and as an unusual influence for duty and good conduct among his comrades. Not only was this record maintained during the terrible battles in the Argonne, but on the 8th of October, 1918, Sgt. York performed acts of extreme heroism and presence of mind which won him the Distinguished Service Cross and the personal thanks of Major General Duncan, Major General Summerall, and General Pershing himself.
With a little detachment of men from G Company, he faced an entire German Battalion in an isolated ravine, far from any American assistance. Nine Americans were at once shot down, but Sgt. York fought on until the German major and 131 German officers and men surrendered as prisoners. There were only seven Americans left besides Sgt. York, who had himself personally borne the heaviest brunt of the fighting. This achievement on his part came at a very critical time and unquestionably saved the lives of large numbers of his comrades, who would have later been attacked by this captured battalion.
I will be a great satisfaction to Mrs. York and yourself to know of the respect which all of us feel for the manly Christian Character displayed by this splendid American.
OCTOBER 8th 1918 (continued) After the Armistice was signed, I was ordered to go back to the scene of my fight with the machine guns. General Lindsey and some other generals went with me.
We went over the ground carefully. The officers spent a right smart amount of time examining the hill and the trenches where the machine guns were, and measuring and discussing everything.
And then General Lindsey asked me to describe the fight to him. And I did. And then he asked me to march him out just like I marched the German major out, over the same ground and back to the American lines.
Our general was very popular. He was a natural born fighter and he could swear just as awful as he could fight. He could swear most awful bad.
And when I marched him back to our old lines he said to me, "York, how did you do it?" And I answered him, "Sir, it is not man power. A higher power than man power guided and watched over me and told me what to do." And the general bowed his head and put his hand on my shoulder and solemnly said, "York, you are right."
There can be no doubt in the world of the fact of the divine power being in that. No other power under heaven could bring a man out of a place like that. Men were killed on both sides of me; and I was the biggest and the most exposed of all. Over thirty machine guns were maintaining rapid fire at me, point-blank from a range of about twenty-five yards.
"A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee."
~ Psalm 91:7 ~ OCTOBER 9th 1918 Argonne Forest, France-- Well now, as we went on fighting our way through the thick forest of the Argonne woods, we could hear the cries of our boys who were getting shot, and oh my, we has to sleep by the dead and with the dead. But when we were seeing so many of our boys being shot, all we could say was just to say as we saw our fallen comrades-- "Good-by, pal; I don't know
where you're camping now--
Whether you've pitched your
tent 'neath azure skies
Or whether o're your head the
bleak storm winds blow.
I only know that when your final
call came for you
It almost broke my heart to see
you go." But I trust pal, that you were ready to meet that last call. Yes, and now you be careful that the last final call don't find you not ready to meet your God in peace.
OCTOBER 10th 1918 Fleaville, The Argonne Forest.-- We got to Fleville.
OCTOBER 12th 1918 Sommerance, The Argonne Forest.--We had got to Sommerance, and during this time we had lost many of our men and were still losing them, as you know that you can't fight in war without losing men, and the Germans was shelling us awful with big shells, also gas, and the boys laying there that they couldn't bury. Oh my, I can't tell you how I felt, and when those big shells would come over and bust, then I heard my comrades crying and mourning. All we could do was to trust God to protect us and look up and say-- "Good-by, old pals, your body sleeps here 'neath the sod;
Your soul, I pray, has gone home to God." So we stayed in the front at Sommerance until we got relieved by the Eightieth Division boys.
We stayed in actual fighting in the Argonne from the time we went in, which was the morning of October 8, to November 1. Over three weeks. Fighting in the front line all the time and through those terrible woods. And we were mussed up right smart-the woods and us.
There were not many of the Greeks and Italians left. But what were left were still fighting like a sackful of wildcats. I sure did like those boys now.
The nearest I came to getting killed in France was in an apple orchard in Sommerance in the Argonne. It was several days after the fight with the machine guns. We had a very heavy barrage from the Germans suddenly drop down on us and we were ordered to dig in and to lose no time about it. Some of us were digging in under an apple tree. The shells were bursting pretty close. But we didn't take much notice of them. Just kept right on digging.
It's funny: after you have been at the front a right smart while you can almost tell where the shells are going to burst and what size they are. And this morning they were close, but not close enough to scare us. And then they got closer. And we dug faster.
I have dug on farms and in gardens and in road work and on the railroad, but it takes big shells dropping close to make you really dig. And I'm telling you the dirt was flying. And then, bang!- one of the big shells struck the ground right in front of us and we all went up in the air. But we all came down again. Nobody was hurt. But it sure was close.
NOVEMBER 1st 1918 Argonne Forest-- So we came out of the lines to a German rest camp and there we got something to eat.
I was made a sergeant just as quick as I got back out of the lines. But, oh my! so many of my old buddies were missing and we scarcely seemed the same outfit.
NOVEMBER 2nd 1918 Argonne Forest-- And then we started out and hiked to a French camp.
NOVEMBER 7th 1918 Aix-Les-Bains--I took train for Aix- Les-Bains. I had a furlough for 10 days.
NOVEMBER 8th 1918 Aix-Les Bains--So I got to Aix-Les-Bains and went to the Hotel De Albion and I stayed at this hotel from the 8th to 16th and I went around and saw some fine scenery. I got on a motor boat and went over to Italy and there I saw some good scenery.
There was a bunch of us had been given a ten day leave to Aix-les- Bains. We went down there for a rest. We had been in the Argonne for several weeks. Without any relief and were tired and worn out.
We were staying in private places. There were no military places there. We just went around seeing the historical places, the old Roman baths, and up on the mountain.
Back To the Top
NOVEMBER 11th 1918 Aix-Les-Bains.-- and the Armistice was signed. And they sure was a time in that city that day and night. Yes. Say, did you think that the Armistice was signed on the eleventh month on the eleventh day and the eleventh hour of 1918? And another thing, did you ever know that the war just lasted 585 days from the time that the President declared war against Germany until the Armistice was signed? And did you ever know that in this little short time of 585 days that the Americans was over here in France holding a seventy-seven mile front in the Argonne Forest?
I don't know that I can just exactly tell my feelings at that time. It was awful noisy. All the French were drunk, whooping and hollering. The Americans were drinking with them, all of them. I never did anything much, just went to church and wrote home and read a little.
I did not go out that night. I was all tired. I was glad the Armistice was signed, glad it were all over. There had been enough fighting and killing. And my feelings were like most all of the American boys. It was all over, and we were ready to go ho me. I felt they had done the thing they should have done, signing the armistice.
NOVEMBER 17th 1918 Champlitte, France--Well, I'll go on. I stopped at Champlitte and the French had a dance there that night and they had to go by my bed to where they was dancing, and the girls would pull my feet until I couldn't sleep.
DECEMBER 25th 1918 Langres, France-- I went to see President Wilson and his wife at Langres, where they had a review. So there was a large crowd there. I enjoyed myself very well. But I didn't get any dinner. So I was not enjoying a Christmas dinner, you see. Ho ho. So I went back to my company that night and it was after dark. So Mrs. Wilson was dressed very nice and she had a smile on her face all the time.
She was wearing a smart seal skin coat with a big fox collar and a close fitting seal skin toque with a bright red rose trimming on one side and a little bunch of holly at her throat. So she looked very pleasing. And Mr. Wilson was wearing a large black silk hat with a light gray fur coat. He also had a smile on his face. So that cheered the boys to see Mr. and Mrs. Wilson and hear them talk. Ho ho.
That was on Christmas day, 1918. We went out to parade at a town named Langres and had a review for President and Mrs. Wilson. I don't know how I came to be selected. Divisional orders came for me and the corporal who had been decorated with the D.S.C. to be color bearers for the review to be given for President Wilson.
I didn't have any conversation at all with the President at that time. I think President Wilson is one of the greatest Presidents America has ever had. There is much that could be said about him as a great men.
There is his great leadership of the nation. There is the way he understood all about the war and what we were all fighting for. The Germans, too. But the greatest thing about him was his spiritual side. He believed in God.
JANUARY 2d 1919 Fouvent-Le-Bas-I went to school and stayed there until the 12th.
JANUARY 12th 1919 La Frette.-I come back to my company
JANUARY 16th 1919 Prauthoy.-I went to Prauthoy and remained there until the 18th
I didn't begin to go out and travel over France and talk to our soldier boys until January. I don't know why they picked me. I was called to divisional headquarters, and I stayed around there for a week or ten days.
Their idea was to have me talk to the boys. I was traveling around, in and out, from my division headquarters, something like six weeks.
I spoke in the Y huts and out in the open to the battalions and to the assembled troops on the ground. I got good representation everywhere.
Our division chaplain, Rev. C. Tyler of Milwaukee, often traveled with me. He was a nice man and a powerful preacher. I first talked to the boys in our Eighty-second Division and then I went to other outfits.
FEBRUARY 1st 1919 Prauthoy.-I rode a horse and carried the Eighty-second Division flag in a horse show.
FEBRUARY 3d 1919 Argonne Forest.-I went back to the Argonne Forest.
FEBRUARY 11th 1919 Prauthoy.-They had a Div. review and I got my D.S.C. that day.
During the fighting in the Argonne, right at Fleville and at Sommeance and St. Juvin, Headquarters sent a man up there and he asked me a lot of questions, and questioned my captain and the lieutenants. And that was the first I knew I was to get anything.
The first decoration I got was the D.S.C. That was on February 11. They lined up the whole division, and General Pershing pinned the D.S.C. on me. He decorated two or three more men at the same time. He decorated one of the stretcher bearers of my platoon.
General Pershing is a great man in my estimation. He is a clean-cut military man. He made a wonderful leader for the American Troops. I would just as soon or a little rather follow General Pershing's command in battle as any man I ever saw or heard of, because I think he is a wonderful commander.
FEBRUARY 16th 1919 Prauthoy-- I went to church. It was Sunday and a rainy day and we had a nice talk.
FEBRUARY 19th 1919 Prauthoy-- At 6:30 P.M. I had service at 325 Inf. Headquarters, and we had a large crowd and a very good time.
February 21st 1919 Luxeuil-- I had service at Luxeuil with the 326 Inf. at 3:45 P.M. And to have services at 7 P.M. But we started, and the car got out of shape and we couldn't get there. So I had to call up back to Prauthoy and get another car to come out and get me and take me back to Prauthoy. It was about daylight next morning. Ho ho.
FEBRUARY 22d 1919 La Frette-- I went to La Frette to my company to get some things I had there and to see my pals.
FEBRUARY 23d 1919 Prauthoy-- I went to church there in the Y.M.C.A. We had services there at 10:30 A.M. and also at 7 P.M. as it was Sunday.
February 24th 1919 Champlitte-- I went to Champlitte to have service at 7 P.M. There was dancing. So I had to wait until they got their dance over, and that was about 7:30 P.M. So we sing and we had prayer and I went ahead with my little service. So we had a very nice time.
FEBRUARY 25th 1919 Prauthoy-- I had services at Prauthoy. Had a large crowd and good order.
FEBRUARY 26th 1919 Prauthoy-- On the night of the 26th of February I started for Bordeaux.
FEBRUARY 27th 1919 En Route to Bordeaux-- I was on the train and it came on awful cold with a snowstorm about 3 P.M. We was in box cars and it was cold and tough. But that was better than sleeping in those old French barns where the cows sleep in the parlor and the chickens in the dining room. Ho ho.
FEBRUARY 28th 1919 Bordeaux-- On the night of the 28th we got to Bordeaux.
MARCH 1st 1919 Bordeaux-- We waited until daylight and then we got out, and I went up in town and got me a nice room and bed.
MARCH 2d 1919 Bordeaux-- It was Sunday and I went to church at Y.M.C.A. at 7 P.M.
MARCH 3d 1919 Bordeaux-- I never did anything until night and there was to be a Bible class at 6:30 P.M., and at 7 P.M. I give a lecture after we sang and had prayed. We had a large crowd and good order.
MARCH 4th 1919 BORDEAUX.--I went to 327 Inf. at 7 P.M. and gave a lecture. Before I gave the talk we sang and I prayed and then gave the talk, and then they wanted me to come back and give another talk on the 5th.
MARCH 5th 1919 BORDEAUX-- But I couldn't get any car out, so I didn't go. It was a fine day, so I just stayed around town and took things as easy as I could. But yet, when I wasn't at work I got homesick.
MARCH 6th 1919 BORDEAUX.--I went out to 327 Inf. and gave them a lecture at 4 P.M. and then come back to my billet.
MARCH 9th 1919 BORDEAUX--It was Sunday. I went to church at 10:30 A.M. and we had a very good service and a very good crowd to preach to, and the morning lesson was on Matthew (4) and we had a very good lesson. So we had a talk given to us by Chaplain Tyler. So I went to church again at 7 P.M. and we had a large crowd for service, and the evening lecture was from 1st Corinthians, 3d Chapter, and 9th verse. So we had a good service and we had a number of brief prayers by the boys, and then our Y.M.C.A. girls served hot chocolate to the boys after service.
So we have services at 10:30 A.M. and 7 P.M. every Sunday and our Bible class is on Monday at 6:30 P.M. So we are having some good services. And I pray that we will have good results. You know that in Hebrews, second chapter, that Paul says, "Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward; how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation..."
MARCH 14th 1919 ST. SILVA.--I returned back to my company at St. Silva.
MARCH 15th. ST. SILVA.--Went to a ball game.
MARCH 16th. CASTRES. --It was Sunday. I went back to Castres to church. And I got back to St. Silva about 10 P.M.
MARCH 25th. En Route to Paris-- I started to Paris. I went to Bordeaux and from there to Paris.
MARCH 26th Paris-- I got to Paris.
MARCH 27th Paris-- I was traveling around looking at the city.
MARCH 28th Paris-- I rode on the Paris wheel and took a train ride down to St Louis 14 Plait at night.
MARCH 29th Paris-- I went to the Opera House. I went to Gare du Nord in the morning and I went to Hall De Voige in the afternoon, and then I took the train at 7:26 at night.
This first trip to Paris was on a furlough for five days. Three or four of us went from the same place. I don't remember the other fellows' names.
Well, when I was in Paris I just went in and went to a place where all the boys went to on leave there. I spent my five days looking about seeing the most historic places.
I went to the tomb of Napoleon. I went to the soldier's grave where Perishing placed the wreath on it -the unknown soldier, it was. I went to Versailles where the kings' palaces are. I went to the Grand Opera. I disremember what opera it was.
I liked Paris all right. It was a right smart place. The Eiffel Tower was not running at the time. I went to see it but I didn't climb it. It was tolerably high.
I went to most all the historical places. I walked several miles through town. I remember I got up there and got lost, Ho Ho. I got all turned around in my directions. HO ho. So I got a mademoiselle to tell me what street to go to and where to stop. Some of the people knew me. I got good representation everywhere.
MARCH 30th St. Silva.-I got back to my company.
APRIL 6th. En. Route to Paris to Bordeaux and I left Bordeaux for Paris on the 8:30 train.
APRIL 7th Paris--I arrived in Paris at 8:30 A.M. and 10:30 A.M. was our meeting. I was there on time at the Hotel De Babriel. So we had the meeting all day until 5:30 P.M.
This second time I went to Paris was to attend the first meeting that was called to organize the American Legion. I represented my division as a noncommissioned officer. Captain Williams of the machine gun company represented the commissioned officers of our division. And we all organized the American Legion that day in the Hotel. And there were officers and men representing all of the different American outfits in France. So I am a charter member of the American Legion.
I went out to Versailles the next day and they were signing a peace treaty, and I saw Clemenceau, Foch, and Pershing. I had a couple of talks with Marshal Foch, and I also had a talk with him when he pinned a little medal on me.
I think he is a very great man and a man of great intelligence. He is a fine leader for an army and I think Europe had no better leader in command than Marshall Foch.
He impressed me very much each time I met him, although he could not speak English. We had to speak through an interpreter. Like our own Woodrow Wilson, he is a very spiritual man. He is very religious and always goes to church and believes in prayer, which is a fine example.
It is significant that there two great leaders and General Pershing, too, are all religious men who believe in prayer. So the men that led us in the war were put in charge was the war ended. so you see here is proof that the spirit is mightier than the sword.
APRIL 8th Paris--I saw the queen of Rumania. She is a very good looking lady. So I stayed in Paris until 8:26 on the night of the 9th.
APRIL9th Paris--I was at the grave of Lafayette. I also saw the wreath of flowers that John J. Pershing laid on his grave on the 4th day of July, 1918, when he said, "Lafayette, we are here." These words are long to be remembered.
And I also saw a wreath of flowers President Wilson put on the grave on the 20th day of November, 1918, and I also saw the little village where they are going to lay the bodies of 50,000 American Soldiers. The place should always be near and dear to all Americans. The place is Montfaucon.
APRIL 10th St. Silva--I got to Bordeaux at 8:30 A.M. So I went from Castres to division headquarters. And I |
explained that it is the recollections of the events by previous Doctors, written down to help their future self because of their memories getting out of synch. (DWM 489)
As the Eleventh Doctor is about to drop down from the bottom of his TARDIS, the metal harnesses used to hold Matt Smith to the bottom of the police box prop are visible.
Billie Piper's screen credit at the end identifies her as playing Rose, not the Moment, despite dialogue in her introductory scene directly indicating that Piper is not playing Rose.
Deleted scene Edit
A short deleted scene on the BBC Doctor Who website features the War Doctor, the Tenth and Eleventh arriving at the Tower of London in ankle shackles. The Eleventh says his shoes "bring the cool" and that the Tenth "wouldn't understand the cool", whilst the exasperated War Doctor declares they haven't drawn breath "since Richmond". Likely a result of the scene being dropped from the main episode, it also lacks post-production background cropping to edit out present-day buildings from the location shoot.
Continuity EditBecause cornering is king and time is money
There was a time—before my coaching business picked up, before kids—when I could ride my pick of motocross, downhill, cross-country or dirt jumps any day of the week. Those days were glorious! But, thankfully, I don't have that kind of flexibility anymore. Odds are that you're in a similar boat and can't ride awesome trails every single day. That's good because:
You need rest. You need variety. You can only ride as well as you live—if your life is out of balance, your riding will suffer.
That Sunday shred is rad! But it's not where you learn new skills—it's where you execute the skills you already have and reap the rewards. Driveways, cul-de-sacs, or even parking lots on your commute to work are great environments to dial in new movement patterns because they're accessible and consistent.
Use the following CDSKF (cul-de-sac kung fu) drills to develop the essential skills that empower all great cornering. Start with Level 1, work up to Level 2, and then dive into Level 3. Your riding will feel better with each quality practice session.
Setup
Ride your normal bike. Seat down. Flat pedals are nice because you can wear the shoes that are already on your feet.
Seat down. Flat pedals are nice because you can wear the shoes that are already on your feet. Pick an open area. Pavement is best to start. You can add dirt later.
Pavement is best to start. You can add dirt later. Place cones, gloves, fish heads, or other targets in a square about 15 paces apart. You'll be making 90-degree turns around your course.
or other targets in a square about 15 paces apart. You'll be making 90-degree turns around your course. Turn in the direction that feels best (probably to the left, like Zoolander) when you're learning. This will speed up the process. When turning to your good side feels great, start turning the other way, too.
(probably to the left, like Zoolander) when you're learning. This will speed up the process. When turning to your good side feels great, start turning the other way, too. Practice often. Five minutes of practice five times a week is way more helpful than 25 minutes of practice once a week. If you can manage 25 minutes five times a week, you're killing it!
Level 1 – Make Angles
Bikes turn the way skis turn: When you lean them onto an edge, they do the work. Most riders are terrible at this until they really practice. Take this one step at a time:
1. Lean Your Bike
Extend your inside arm into the turn. Your shoulders should stay level and your bars should be leaned. Keep your hands weightless so the bike can steer itself. This sets an edge, which makes your bike turn.
2. Load Your Foot
As you lean the bike, drop your outside pedal and smash 100 percent of your weight into that foot. This action loads the edge and increases traction, a skill that will save you in a surprise off-camber turn.
3. Drive Your Hips
As you initiate the turn, start pointing your hips where you want to go. A ski coach from Mogul Logic once told me to imagine there's a flashlight in your belly button. This adds power to your turn, and it creates space for your saddle to lean under your thigh. It also helps you look into the next turn.
If you're too busy to ride your local cul-de-sac, practice this tricky movement while you're on a conference call:
Level 2: Make It Smooth
At this level, you're going to execute the exact same movements, but you'll concentrate on fully integrating them.
Lean the bike as you load your foot. Rather than flopping your bike and foot into the turn, gradually increase the lean and load. Pass through a moment of maximum lean and load, then release the pressure as you return your bike to upright. This massively improves balance and increases traction.
Simultaneously, remember to drive the turn by opening your hips. Your hips should hit maximum "openness" at the same moment of maximum lean and load.
Watch and feel the flow of the turns in the video below. Notice how the hands, feet, hips—whole body—act as one integrated unit:
Level 3: Generate Speed
Your mind is about to get blown to pieces. Are you ready?
You can pump through corners–even flat ones–just like you'd pump through a depression in the trail or between rollers on a pump track. Break it down like this:
Imagine pumping through a depression in the ground, or between rollers on a pump track. Get heavy–push into your pedals–on the downside. Get light on the upside. Gain some speed. Most new-school MTBrs understand this idea. (view illustration) A turn is nothing more than a sideways depression. The greater your cornering forces, the truer this feels. Berms seem pretty obvious, but flat turns, when ridden well, are also sideways holes. (view illustration) When you get heavy in the beginning of a turn, that's like getting heavy on the downslope of a depression, and that generates speed. In skiing, they call this "early pressure." It's also one way Peter Sagan out-corners other professional road racers downhill. (view illustration)
Watch and feel the timing and flow of this turn. The more aggressively you pump a turn, the more power you need, and the more level your feet will stay.
Do it well. Do it often. Tell me how it goes!
Cul-de-Sac Kung Fu: At-home drills for on-trail masterySTURGIS, MI – The fatal shooting of a fellow trooper was "at the forefront" of Michigan State Police Trooper Timothy Wagner's mind last month when he pulled his handgun and pointed it at an 18-year-old woman during a traffic stop near Sturgis.
That's according to a written statement Wagner provided to Detective 1st Lt. Chuck Christensen after Christensen informed Wagner he was under investigation for allegations of excessive force. The statement is included in a nine-page report by Christensen obtained by the Kalamazoo Gazette under the Michigan Freedom of Information Act.
Wagner was westbound on U.S. 12 at about 5:35 p.m. April 15 when he spotted the woman's eastbound red Pontiac, which he clocked on radar going 77 mph in a 55 mph zone, according to the report.
In-car video from Wagner's cruiser shows him doing a U-turn to catch up with the Pontiac. The driver pulls over to the shoulder about 45 seconds after Wagner made the U-turn and about 35 seconds after he activated his lights and siren.
Wagner exits his cruiser with his handgun drawn and approaches the Pontiac.
"With the recent incident involving the murder of Tpr. Paul Butterfield while approaching a vehicle at the forefront of my mind I elected to 'clear' the vehicle for my safety as I feel the vehicle could have suddenly pulled to the side in an effort to lure me into a vulnerable position where I could easily be shot," Wagner later told Christensen in his statement.
Video from Wagner's dash-mounted camera shows him handcuffing the woman then taking her to his cruiser, where the conversation between the two is recorded. The woman apologizes to Wagner, telling him she was trying to get home because she had gotten a call from her father informing her that the family's home had been broken into.
St. Joseph County dispatchers confirm the report of the break-in to Wagner as the woman sits in his patrol car.
Wagner tells the woman, "I chased you for two miles with my lights and sirens at almost 80 mph. Do you see a problem with that?"
"Yes, I do," she responded. "I honestly didn't see you."
John McDonough
At the end of the audio captured from inside the car, Wagner asks the woman, "How'd you like having a gun pointed...." The rest of his statement is inaudible.
St. Joseph County Prosecutor John McDonough, who was asked by Michigan State Police to review the incident, focused on that statement in calling for Wagner, a 19-veteran of MSP, to be fired.
McDonough considered whether to authorize charges of felonious assault and conduct unbecoming a public official against Wagner, but ultimately decided his handling of the traffic stop did not warrant criminal charges. In a statement issued Wednesday, however, the prosecutor wrote that he was "appalled and disgusted" by Wagner's conduct.
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"When he asked if she enjoyed having a gun pointed at her I became sick to my stomach," McDonough wrote. "... I do not want Trooper Wagner to have the opportunity to do anything like this again and certainly not in St. Joseph County."
Attempts by the Kalamazoo Gazette to reach Wagner through his union, the Michigan State Police Troopers Association, were unsuccessful. Wagner has been placed on paid administrative leave pending an internal investigation by MSP that is ongoing.
In a statement issued Wednesday, officials at MSP's Coldwater Post, where Wagner is stationed, said: "The video associated with this traffic stop clearly shows actions by the trooper that are not consistent with department policy. Inappropriate behavior like this is not condoned or tolerated."
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Christensen began his investigation of the incident April 22, after the woman's parents filed a complaint.
The woman's father told Christensen that he was at his home in Bronson on April 15 reporting a break-in to another state trooper, Keegan Riley, when his son let him know that his daughter had received a traffic ticket. The man told Christensen that later, as he was walking through his kitchen he saw his daughter and "noticed (she) was crying."
"He said he told her not to worry about it (traffic ticket) and she told him a gun had been pointed at her," Christensen recounted in his report. "Next, he asked Trooper Riley about the situation and Riley explained to him he heard the radio traffic and that the traffic stop took place because of the driver attempting to flee.
"(He) told me he asked (his daughter) about the situation and she responded that she never saw the police officer until she was pulled over... Later in the interview he explained that (his daughter) told him the trooper asked how she liked having a gun pointed at her, which really made him angry."
The woman later explained to Christensen that she had been at baseball practice on April 15 when she received a call from her father that their house had been broken into. She left practice wearing her baseball pants and hooded sweatshirt and got into her car after removing her cleats.
As she was making her way to Bronson on U.S. 12, the woman said "she noticed police lights in her rearview mirror near Halfway Road and immediately pulled over."
After she was handcuffed by Wagner, the woman said "she was confused and scared and kept telling the officer that she was sorry but added her house had just been robbed so she was trying to make it home. (She) admitted to me during this interview she was driving too fast and was speeding," Christensen said in the report.
Once Wagner confirmed the woman's statement about the break-in at her home, she told Christensen, Wagner's demeanor changed and "he told her that they were 'going to take this as a learning experience' and explained he would be writing her a traffic ticket but added he should be taking her to jail because of her refusal to stop."
"(The woman) told me at one point during this exchange she apologized to the officer about scaring him and he replied that it was okay and stated to her 'you didn't like having a gun pointed at you, did you?' And she responded no."
In the statement Wagner provided to Christensen on April 28, he made no mention of the remark to the woman about having a gun pointed at her.
Wagner did say that after he clocked the woman's car at 77 mph he observed in his mirror that the car "appeared to continue accelerating" and never braked "as virtually every vehicle on the road will immediately brake after passing a fully marked patrol car in broad daylight."
Wagner said that after he began pursuing the woman's Pontiac, it initially did not slow down and was traveling at more than 80 mph. After he stopped the car, Wagner said he was aware there were no other officers in the area and a backup officer "was some distance away."
"Based on my 19+ years working road patrol chasing a vehicle for a mile with lights and siren activated to conduct a traffic stop is extraordinarily unusual," Wagner said. "I have previously been involved in pursuits of this distance which resulted in the driver's subsequent attempt to flee on foot. I therefore considered this incident an attempt to Flee & Elude, which is a felony, and positioned myself to intercept the driver should they flee on foot."
Wagner's comment about Butterfield stem from that trooper's fatal shooting last fall. Butterfield was shot in the head by Eric John Knysz without warning or provocation after he pulled over Knysz for a traffic stop on Sept. 9 in Mason County.
Rex Hall Jr. is a public safety reporter for the Kalamazoo Gazette. You can reach him at rhall2@mlive.com. Follow him on Twitter.A shake-up of Japanese-language schools is in the cards as the government tries to lure more foreign students but faces up to the fact that many facilities are poorly run or even corrupt.
According to education ministry officials, most of the problems stem from the fact that oversight of language schools has been handed over to the Justice Ministry, whose primary concern is not learning but immigration administration. Although the education ministry still has some say, oversight of school quality ends up falling between the cracks.
“Increasing the quality of Japanese-language schools is practically a national policy but bureaucracy is getting in the way,” an education ministry official said. “It’s going to be difficult to improve the situation unless some serious wrongdoing surfaces.”
The Justice Ministry plans to mandate more stringent screening of schools, in part by revising ordinances. However, the education ministry is skeptical of whether this will have much impact.
One education ministry official attributes the lack of clear regulations to the fact that Japanese schools are run by a range of institutions including schools, companies and nonprofit organizations. This makes it difficult for them to be overseen by one authority.
The schools used to exhibit a certain level of quality when they were being examined by the privately run Association for the Promotion of Japanese Language Education, they say. But after the association’s examination process was found to lack transparency during a rare screening of state-funded projects by the Democratic Party of Japan, responsibility for oversight was shifted to the Justice Ministry, which has little experience overseeing schools.
In all, 208,379 foreign students were enrolled at colleges and language schools in Japan as of May 2015.
By country, Chinese topped the list at 94,111, but Vietnamese and Nepalese surged to 38,882 and 16,250, respectively, while South Koreans dropped sharply to fourth place with 15,279 students.
Unlike Chinese students, who have a major advantage studying Japanese because it uses kanji, a Chinese invention, people from countries where the characters aren’t used usually struggle.
“The most difficult thing about Japanese is kanji,” says a 25-year-old Vietnamese student at Intercultural Institute of Japan, a language school in Tokyo’s Taito Ward. “One character has a lot of meaning and many ways to read.”
The student, who had attended a Japanese school in Ho Chi Minh two days a week for six months before coming to Japan, said the language becomes even more difficult when advancing from conversation to reading, adding it would be impossible to keep up if a student came to Japan with no preparation.
Many Japanese companies now operate in Vietnam, where studying the language is more popular than ever. Some families have been known to sell their house to fund their children’s study in Japan.
A Nepalese student who used to study in Fukuoka at a language school that was nailed for illegal job placements said students often spend their free hours working to pay the school fees.
“Many students fell asleep during class because they worked too hard,” the student said. “It was impossible to make a living only by working 28 hours a week as legally permitted.”
The school advised students to open multiple bank accounts to receive their wages to avoid trouble from the Immigration Bureau.
The Japanese Language School Association says the number of schools rose sharply from 460 in fiscal 2012 to 549 in fiscal 2015. Critics say many of them are more about making money than teaching the language.
“The number is increasing but the quality is poor,” an industry insider said.
Since many students come to Japan with aspirations to study its culture and technology, the spread of poor or corrupt language schools might discourage many from coming in the first place.
“Language schools are the first place foreign students go when they come to Japan. If they get a bad impression, it will eventually lead to the decline in foreign students coming to Japan,” said an owner of a Japanese-language school who asked to rename anonymous.SLO Solidarity leader Matt Klepfer received a death threat over Facebook Tuesday night after the unregistered club’s list of demands to university administrators was made public.
The message, which came from a hastily constructed Facebook account with the name “Mordecai Shekelburg,” included references to hanging Klepfer and an anti-Semitic slur directed at the political science sophomore, who is not Jewish.
It read, “The day of the rope will be coming soon, and you people will be the first to go. If you don’t like how it is in this town, you can all go somewhere else. We have a nice thing going here, and if you fuck with that you’re going to have some pretty angry young white men on your hands. Kike.”
Klepfer logged a report with the University Police Department (UPD), which gave him a ride home in one of their vehicles. He received phone calls and text messages from Vice President for Student Affairs Keith Humphrey and Dean of Students Jean DeCosta as late as 10 p.m. on Tuesday night, he said.
“Hopefully UPD will be able to figure out who that fake profile was made by, by contacting Facebook or whatever they need to do,” Klepfer said. “And then going from there, filing either criminal charges or university-related disciplinary action.
The Facebook profile, which had three friends and used a profile picture of actor Chad Michael Murray, appeared to have been made on Tuesday night.
Klepfer said he thinks the account’s creator was a Cal Poly student because he or she added students as Facebook friends and listed the university as a place of education.
“This message had a very White Supremacist sort of tone to it, and if that sort of thinking still exists on this campus, it really shows that a social justice-oriented movement is really needed,” he said.
Klepfer composed the email containing the list of demands, which was a collaborative effort of multiple SLO Solidarity members.Madame Clairevoyant: December Horoscopes
Aries: Every single day that you wake up, every single day that you’re here and alive on this strange wild earth, you call on immeasurable courage. There are nightmares that you face and there are battles that you fight. Sometimes they are bigger and sometimes they are smaller, and sometimes you’re bright and funny and wild enough that nobody can see, but they’re there, and they’re real, and you’re braver than you even think. Give yourself a little credit, this month. Give yourself a little rest.
Taurus: It can be hard, sometimes, to feel like you’re even allowed to dream, in such a hard strange world, but try not to suppress your thoughts of a future full of light. Try not to suppress all your desires. You don’t have to be satisfied with a world full of cruelty or a world that isn’t enough. There is this whole bright world that we live in together, this whole world in motion, and it needs you to dream the things only you can dream, to do the things only you can do.
Gemini: There are things that you can forget, and there are things that will stay with you until they’re ready to leave. There are things that are yours to carry, and things that are yours to let go of. There are trees that keep their leaves all winter and there are trees that drop them, every year. There is world full of sun and rain and mountains and dirt, and you don’t have to do everything on your own. You’re not the only person in this world and you’re not alone.
Cancer: Sometimes the world gets to be too bitter, sometimes the world gets to be too much. Sometimes the inside of your own head can feel like a cave, like the bottom of the ocean, like a strange cold planet. Try to remember, this month, the times that it feels like home. Try to remember the times that your mind is just a mind, inside a human being who is a human being, just trying to move through this world, just trying to live. All of these are okay, all are good, all are you.
Leo: It’s not always easy to leap into action–the world is so big and your head is so full, and it’s hard to know which dreams you can trust, which visions are truth. Keep moving with courage. Keep moving with your eyes open to the tangles and the sweetness all around you. The world is bigger and smaller than you think. There are so many different roads that will lead you to so many different places. There are so many roads that will all lead you home.
Virgo: It might be hard to see your place in the world, this month. It might be hard to see your own face in the mirror. It might be hard, knowing who you are, knowing where to go, knowing how to live. This month is going to ask for courage from you, in quiet ways. You are kind and you’re strong and your heart is open, and these are the things that matter right now. These are the things that will lead you through dark places. These are the things that will keep you warm.
Libra: The world is full of warmth and yellow light and pine trees and kind hearts, and the world is full of wrong things, large and small. Cruel things, noisy and silent. And all of these things exist together, and all of these things exist right now, and it isn’t your job to do the arithmetic of adding them all together and looking for a total. It isn’t your job to find a solution. There are wrong things and cruel things that you’re healing from, and this counts, and it matters, and it is work, too.
Scorpio: The paths through this world are tangled and varied. There are so many ways to be kind and there are so many ways to be cruel and it’s hard sometimes to know which is which, just by looking. Sometimes the best path is the easy one and sometimes it’s the hard one, and the only way to know is to keep your eyes open. The only way to know is to try. Remember, this month, that there’s always time to change your mind. There’s always time to turn around.
Sagittarius: This is a month for grappling with your strength, with your power, with your desire. You can have anything you want, but knowing what you want is a challenge you could spend your whole life figuring out. You don’t need to know right now. You don’t need to predict the future. Desire won’t kill you, and neither will the bright sparkling unpredictability of the world. This is just a month for moving. It’s a month for opening doors. It’s a week for stoking the fire in your dreams.
Capricorn: It can be get so exhausting, being brave. It can tire you out, saving your own life over and over again. It can tire you out, surprising yourself with your own toughness. There’s no answer, this month, but to keep moving. There’s no answer but the clouds and the trees and the sound of sweet voices out on the street. There’s no answer but to try to treat yourself with kindness. Get enough air. Get enough sleep. Get enough air. Things don’t make sense but they’ll be okay.
Aquarius: Sometimes the world feels off its axis, and sometimes your limbs feel heavy as stone. Sometimes you can get so tangled up in slow days your bright wild desires feel like a burden, like a pain, like they could eat a hole right through your stomach. This is a month for remembering that your desires are a gift. Your desires are a strength. They can move you. They can teach you how to live. There is magic that has always been inside you, and it’s in you even now.
Pisces: There is wisdom to be found in other people, this month. There are truths to be found outside of yourself. Our own thoughts are expansive and wild but they aren’t infinite. Our own bodies contain worlds, but they don’t contain everything. There are still things to learn and still things to see. There are still things that can surprise you with their beauty, with their strangeness, with their clear golden songs. You’re still growing, even when you can’t feel it, and this is right, and this is good.I would have waited an eternity for this. Paul Hitchens is one of the most recognisable names (and faces) in the Transformers collecting community, not just because of his numerous and significant contributions to conventions, the community, the discovery and cataloguing of variants, rarities, prototypes and history of Transformers animation, but also as a representative of the community and the brand in various media including TV, DVD, radio, print and publications. He is as well known for being a long time collector and enthusiast as he is for being one of the most reputable and enduring toy dealers in the business, The Spacebridge. Beyond all of these things, he is someone I look up to as a close friend, a father, a level-headed collector and someone I’d ask for advice given just about any situation, collecting or otherwise. It is a credit to him that his interview is probably the most anticipated of any before, and it’s a credit to me that I was finally able to get him to agree to it!
Because of Paul’s long standing in the community, I have asked him to describe how the scene has changed in the last 15 years as opposed to the normal 10 years I ask all interviewees, and it’s also why he’s the only one allowed to use sub-headings! Bring it, Hitch.
1) Who are you and what do you collect?
My name’s Paul Hitchens. I’m 37, married with two children & live just outside London, England. I’m a Transformers collector & dealer. Many people know me by the name Spacebridge or Hitch.
I was a dealer at (deep breath) Botcon USA 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007. OTFCC Chicago 2003, 2004. Botcon Europe 1999, 2002. Transforce London 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004. Auto Assembly Birmingham 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013. Cybercon New York 2005. Conversions / B.O.T.S Holland 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014. Roll Out Roll Call 2013.
I’ve done work with the BBC, Channel 4 & SKY on Transformers. I also provided the commentary & extras for Sony’s 2007 DVD release of the animated movie. I’ve presented panels at Botcon & Cybercon & contributed towards several books. I collect Transformers, but rarely the toys...
I mainly collect prototypes, original artwork, store displays, anything related to the 86 movie & G1 Inferno (My first Transformer) / Hot Rod (My childhood favourite). I also have a love for rare paperwork or sometimes just the plain strange & unusual.
I’ve tried to select photos to go along with this article of items that aren’t pictured to death on the internet or stuff I haven’t already featured on my Facebook page. Sadly 90% of my collection lives in boxes split across 3 different sites miles apart so I rarely see it all together.
2) How has the collecting scene changed in the last 15 years?
I tend to interact with the Transformers community with two different heads, my collector head or my dealer head. I feel there have been several key influences that have changed Transformers collecting over the past 15 years
The rise (and fall) of eBay
15 years ago pretty much every Transformer I found was from a childhood collection. You could still walk into toy stores & find G2 or Euro Gold box sitting on the shelf. I can remember in 1997 buying in Spain 100+ gold carded Combaticon Swindles for 100 pesetas each (about 50p) and yes I still have a box of them. Ebay wasn’t widely talked about or used. I remember there were groups of fans who would host local meets ups (I’ve included a picture of my table at one of these meet up trying to sell a sealed G1 Mirage for £75. It never sold, I still have it!). Without eBay being a strong influence prices were random, they were (as they should be) the right price for the right buyer. Then around 2002 there was a change. The phrase “that’s cheaper on eBay” echoed around toy shows.
Going back to my two heads, my dealer head & my collector head. The rise of eBay was devastating as a dealer. For many years I had concentrated on bringing G1 toys that were never released in the UK into the UK. I would spend thousands on Swoops, Trypticons, Blasters, Omega Supremes & sell them in the UK. I suddenly became aware of torrents of abuse aimed at me online, criticising my prices vs eBay. I’m sure Maz (the guy who runs these blogs) won’t mind me saying, he was once one of the people complaining about me online (He was one of the polite ones though!). When you are a dealer at a show people don’t realise that as a dealer you were up at 4am, drove for 2 hours, spent 2 hours carrying boxes & setting up, then you have been standing up for hours without a break/food. I think I snapped at Maz once for asking to look at rare toys (I wrongly thought) he had no intention of buying. I said to him “talk to me when I’m not running my stall”, he did & now I consider him one of my closest friends. Remember dealers are people too, usually tired dirty ones! Looking back at this time (late 90’s), I have pictures of my table at a show selling a sealed Liokaiser giftset for £200. So, yes, I was terribly expensive wasn’t I? If you were more expensive than eBay back then it was a crime. Few people considered the costs involved in being a dealer at toy shows. So I started dealing at fewer events & selling on eBay instead.
Putting my collector head back on... eBay was wonderful. So many rare & unusual items cropped up, things I had never seen before. For many years I was one of very few people who cared about prototypes or other rare items & you got them for a steal!
I feel now though eBay has come full circle and its own popularity is harming it. Everybody who has any vintage Transformer thinks they have hit the jackpot! Even more so when the new films came out. There are several dealers now on eBay who regularly sell items as “mint complete” when you can see from the pictures it’s broken & incomplete! The phrase “it’s cheaper on eBay” was replaced by eBay horror stories. Buyers came back to me at shows because they could see & handle the toy before buying it. Also as I had ridden the storm of abuse about my prices, as eBay fell out of favour I fell back in. Many people bought off me on eBay as they knew what they were getting & trusted me. Sadly now eBay is full of Transformers junk or people trying to sell the left foot from a £1 toy for £5. On the flipside the days of scoring things for my own collection on eBay are gone. Everybody is on there every 5 minutes, waiting for the next mis-listed Diaclone or unreleased prototype.
Re-issues & Fakes / Bootlegs
I can vividly remember Botcon 1998 I took maybe 30 loose G1 Hot Rods with me (and sold them all!). Hot Rod was fairly common in the UK but rarer in the US (particularly Targetmaster version). Looking back the G1 car I used to sell for the highest price was... Skids! Why? Because decent mint condition ones were near impossible to find. Jump to 2014, which are the rarest G1 cars? Wheeljack, Mirage & Sunstreaker. Toys that few people cared about 15 years ago, but now, they haven’t been re-issued so everybody wants them. The once prized Hot Rod & Skids are now two a penny. Re-issues destroyed the value of some pieces, the God Ginrai giftset once a $1,000 piece sealed, now just as rare & sells for a quarter of that. I feel the good of reissues FAR outweighs the bad though. It has made minty G1 toys available to the masses & more importantly made once impossible toys such as Stepper easily obtainable. I proudly display many reissues in my collection! I wish Takara would continue to release more reissues & listen more to fans about the toys they choose.
15 or 10 years ago I never had to look at a G1 toy & worry it might be fake. Sure there was the odd bootleg but they were terrible in quality. The rise of the fake G1 over the past few years I honestly feel is one of the worst things to happen to the Transformers community. These toys aren’t being made to give collectors the toys they want. They are being made to deceive & make money. Official Takara re-issues are different to the original release and are of superb quality. These fake cassettes, Primes, Dinobots, cars etc are designed to catch out unsuspecting collectors. You can go onto eBay right now & find loads of these fakes presented as the real thing. I even was duped myself into buying a fake boxed Gnaw last year. I thought with all my experience I would have known better. I’ve found myself many times having to explain to somebody that one of their prized toys is a fake, nearly always a Prime or Reflector. It’s a shame Hasbro hasn’t done more to stamp this out. However I did once purposely buy a fake G1 toy which I display. A red G1 Mirage. It’s a toy I would love to own an original of but I never will (until that lotto win) so when the fake was released I did buy it. My excuse, it’s not passed off as an original so I don’t mind. I wonder sometimes if the people making these fakes, if they stopped trying to make perfect G1 packaging, put “reproduction” on the copyright & sold them for double their actual cost (which believe me isn’t very much) would they make more money overall?
3rd party items are an area I am still undecided on. I have good close friends who think it’s amazing & I can’t lie, some of the designs are beautiful. I just can’t get out of my head “it’s not a real Transformer” I honestly don’t own a single 3rd party toy.
The 80’s Kids
Most Transformers fans 15 years ago were people who had the toys as a child. If you were at Botcon 1998 then you were probably born 1972-1979. Many collectors start out by trying to buy back the toys they had as a child, I know I did. You didn’t really see couples with children walking around the shows in the 90’s. Now that group of 19-25 year olds at Botcon 1998 are now 35-41. Many now have families of their own & their lives have gone through the cycle of first home, first wedding, first promotion at work... What I have seen over the past 15 years is many long term collectors drop out of the hobby, usually to get married & have a family, then return to the world of Transformers a few years later. A few have even sold their collection to me then come back to me looking to buy it all over again. The collectors that have stuck with the hobby throughout have usually ended up completing their G1 collection then looking for something else to buy. This coupled with the fact that they usually have much more money to spend on toys than they did when they were 20 has created a whole generation of high end, high spending collectors. It may be Lucky draw items, Diaclone or AFA graded, these collectors have found something new to concentrate their time & money on.
The Next Generation
I’ve been trying to think when I first noticed this. I think it was around the time of the 2007 movie & Transformers Animated TV series. Suddenly there were collectors who didn’t care about G1. They didn’t have G1 toys, they didn’t want G1 toys. As an old time collector & dealer I found this very odd at first. It took me a long time to embrace this & switch my dealing away from mainly G1. Just recently I visited a collector to buy a few figures from. He was proudly displaying his Universe / Classics collection. I made a comment about comparing the figures to their G1 version. He looked at me puzzled. He had no clue that these toys were based on toys from 30 years ago! |
Obama’s America” was “unacademic.”
“I’ll be honest, I don’t think most of the students really like D’Souza,” he said. “The students are a lot more moderate than D’Souza.” He added, “It’s an outstanding academic school, and we have an unacademic reputation.”
Regardless of their opinions of Mr. D’Souza, students who were interviewed agreed that his family situation was relevant. “I do highly respect him for resigning,” Ms. Cowan said.Here are the three trees
Ilex vomitoria “schillings”
Bursera simaruba. Gumbo limbo
Bougainvillea. Not sure which variety yet.
Lets start with my favorite, the ilex:
This is the side view. This view shows off nicely all the weeds I’ve been cultivating.
I hate to tell you this, and most experienced bonsa-ists will agree with me when I say it, but the tool that is best suited for weed pulling is….the tweezer.
Chopsticks are very useful as well; if you’re dexterous enough.
Many weeds require that the entire root system be removed. Or you don’t really accomplish much.
The weed will just grow back.
I weed, then remove the top layer of soil in case there are weed seeds present
I fertilize now (it is early November in Florida. I am cutting the ilex back so I want some growth before winter. I will have to protect the new growth until it hardens off though) as well.
Then I put a fresh coat of bonsai soil on top and add my pre-emergent weed preventer.
Time to do some carving.
Just about all of that has died back. The reason why: there were too many cuts done in the same area at the same time and the flow of sap was impeded by those cuts. Simple reason. It would have been better if I had either cut one or two a season and left the others branches to speed the healing process or if I left a stub and didn’t make a flush cut. Then I would have left the route that the sap flows open.
The ilex is similar to the azalea in the case that, when doing significant cuts, it’s best to be conservative in so doing.
It’s also similar in the case that new branches must be grown occasionally as the old ones will become so woody that the sap flow is diminished, and the branch slowly withers. (I discuss this a bit in this post)
You can see how rotten the wood was. I just scraped it out with my scissors.
There’s the front. If you look closely you’ll see several wounds that need addressing.
In fact
That’s a scissor coming through from the back.
My goal in this carving is, first, make it aesthetically pleasing, second, make it believable and third, to make it last.
To achieve the first two I must ensure that I accomplish the last.
This entails making a route for the water to drain.
Like so.
What’s surprising is the extent that the living bark still there.
Like here.
Carving done; let’s get to wiring.
Here is a tip that, after helping out in some workshops recently, most people don’t know about.
This is an unadulterated bit of the tree
When the teacher tells you to clean it up, do it like this:
Leave the growing tips but remove the interior leaves. This makes it easier to wire. Way easier. Trust me.
Next, wire.
Before applying the wire. Note the naked interior.
Wire every branch.
Front, back, and side and side.
I plan on using a wood hardener on this tree. I have a big one I carved and experimented on but the wood just continues to deteriorate. One brand of wood hardener is called MinWax. It’s kinda like a resin that penetrates the pores of the wood and harden into a solid, non-decaying substance.
Next tree is the gumbo limbo
I quote “I can do this tree in one cut”
First though, the base. This will obviously be a bunjin tree. Or literati if you prefer.
A small digression, if you would. I’ve been in bonsai a while. I read a lot. When I first started people used the word “mame” for a small tree. Now they use shohin. Fine. It’s more correct in Japanese. Maybe.
This year, the hip word is “chuhin”. I’ve read it,but no one, until this year, has ever used it in my hearing.
So when we say literati or bunjin (or, bunjin-gi, as it should be) I smile a bit.
Digression done. Sorry if you’re offended dude. Really.
Gumbo limbo: in French “chat chapeau” in Spanish “el gato in a sombrero”.
Sorry.
Bursera simaruba. It is in the same family as frankincense and myrrh. It’s a very neat tree whereas it will root as a cutting at any size.
There was a tree on the island of St. John, about a 5 inch trunk, that broke off about 5 feet from the base in a hurricane in 1995. The bottom re-sprouted quickly. The top landed upright, touching the rocky ground. It dod nothing for about 9 months until the rainy season and then put down roots.
The early settlers would cut down trunks and use them for fence posts. Which would quickly root into the ground and start growing.
The resinous sap is used in everything from incense to an anti-inflammatory used to treat gout.
It was also the principal wood used by the wood carvers that carved carousel horses.
In bonsai, it is not uncommon for an artist, while trudging through the coastal marshes in search of buttonwood, to cut an interesting branch off a tree and bring it back to root and grow.
The common names are varied. Some just call it turpentine tree or, my favorite is “the tourist tree”.
Why? There bark is red …..
and peeling.
As you can see.
My one cut:
And some wire
Elegant and simple.
Next tree is one I got from my friend Tony down in Cape Coral.
A spectacular shohin (or chuhin- hee hee) tree with great character and very sexy movement.
It looks to me it might be a bit of side root off a larger tree.
Very unique shape. The front is deadwood that will need to be dressed and then treated with a wood hardener.
First, though, lookie what I found:
Bag worms. There were three.
Tony, check your trees!
These suckers will girdle a branch and kill it.
In the details you can see the deadwood deterioration quite clearly.
On a bougie it’s usually sufficient just to use a wire brush to clean it up.
But I cheated, my carving tool was already out for the ilex so…..grrrrr..
Now, the pot it was in did not have very good drainage and it was totally unsuitable for the style (sorry Tony)
Plus I have this nice Taiko Earth oval pot (Rob Addonizio) on hand. I’m not really repotting here. I’m replanting. The new pot is slightly larger than the previous one and I’m not raking the roots at all.
Isn’t that a sweet pot? Check out Rob’s blog here.
Some new soil
And some wire
And there it is.
What have we learned about these three trees? They all grow in Florida quite easily. They make great bonsai trees. They have odd characteristics that lend themselves to be either despised or loved.
And what links them together in a tale?
Not much except that I worked on them on the same day.
Well, there is a rich historical drama I could weave about the discovery of Florida and the New World. Where common men became as kings and kings were destroyed. But I won’t here. That’s a long story.
Maybe, if we have time to sit and have some beers, I’ll tell it. Cheers!
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The story that the Costco company pulled a cake design because a Christian Arizona mother complained that its design looked demonic was a hoax perpetrated by a freelance writer and his girlfriend.
The story was picked up by Inquisitr.com and relayed by multiple news sources, including Raw Story.
As of press time, Inquisitr had taken the post down and Albrecht was angrily trying to justify his actions on Facebook.
“To the stalkers stalking my Facebook page,” he wrote, “I am aware and have known that the US Costcos do not have an online ordering system. They removed the cakes from their Australian stores. The US Costcos require an ordering form. But these stalking trolls already know this because I linked the Australian Costco online ordering form in my Inquisitr article. I am also aware of the history of ‘616’ and the change to ‘666.’”
The original Inquisitr article claimed that Costco had pulled the dinosaur cakes in the U.S. and in particular from the stores in the Mesa, AZ area.
Eckert has taken her own Facebook profile offline, but a screen capture of the now-deleted timeline proclaims that she is in a relationship with Albrecht.WASHINGTON — The White House, facing a storm of criticism for President Obama’s absence from Sunday’s peace march in Paris, said Monday that his team erred in failing to dispatch a high-ranking American official to join the show of solidarity against terrorism. But French officials quickly rejected the idea that Mr. Obama had snubbed the event.
“It’s fair to say that we should have sent someone with a higher profile to be there,” Josh Earnest, the White House spokesman, said at his daily briefing with reporters, which was dominated by questions about the lack of a prominent American presence at the march.
Asked to respond to critics who questioned the decision not to send a more recognizable American official other than Jane D. Hartley, the United States ambassador to France, Mr. Earnest said, “We agree.”
Yet he offered no rationale as to why no such representative — including Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., who hastily traveled to Paris to attend a counterterrorism meeting there on Sunday and recorded television interviews in the hours before the march — made an appearance. He said that the decision had not been made by Mr. Obama.Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan could not bring any light to what happened to a military plane that was reportedly shot down by Syria, as he talked to media after the plane's disappearance.
Erdogan did not confirm reports that Damascus had apologized for shooting down the plane. The PM also refrained from sharing any information about the fate of the two pilots, who were reported as rescued earlier. Further statements are expected after a security meeting.
Senior presidential adviser Arshad Harmozlo said that the early reports were baseless, reiterating the PM’s statements. “We have no confirmation surrounding the Syrian apology or even that Syria has shot down the jet,” he said as cited by Al Arabiya.
Rescuers have already found an ejector seat and parachute in the sea, but no signs of the plane or pilots so far, Turkey's state television reports.
The plane crashed into or nearby Syrian territorial waters earlier today, according to reports. A missile fired by the Syrian defense system shattered it to pieces after which the jet plunged into the Mediterranean Sea.
Syrian vessels have joined a search operation, which was launched immediately after the Turkish military lost radar and radio contact with the craft. The plane took off from Erhac Airport in the eastern province of Malatya at 10 a.m. local time.
Unconfirmed reports suggest that Syrian defense forces had been shooting at two foreign planes.
“Witnesses spotted two jets flying in from Turkish territory. One of the planes went down in Syria’s territorial waters, while the other one made off,” says Ihab Sultan, a local correspondent in Syria, told RT.
Relations between Ankara and Damascus have become marred by Turkey’s open support of the Syrian opposition, which is seeking to topple the government of President Bashar Al-Assad. On Friday, Turkey denied the Syrian government’s accusations that it is supplying rebels with arms.
Still, Turkey remains a NATO member, which means that in the event of an attack it could summon the aid of all the alliance members. In April, Turkey already called on NATO to protect its borders as cross-border fire from Syria hit a refugee camp on Turkish territory. These statements were condemned as “provocative” by Assad’s government.
International relations expert Mark Almond says in the event of a NATO intervention scenario, Turkey might launch a probing flight to assess Syria’s capabilities.
“If the NATO countries were really thinking of some kind of intervention to assist the rebels against Assad’s regime, the first thing they’ll want to do is to knock out Syria’s air forces and defense systems. So some kind of a probing flight testing Syria’s responses would be possible. But it is also possible this is a tragic mishap,” Almond told RT from Bilkent University in Ankara.The voting has finally begun, and this is the first in a series of conversations with entrepreneurs who are navigating — or suffering — through this election season. Over the course of the next several months, we'll track the primary calendar and ask business owners about the candidates they are backing, the issues that matter most to them, and their own role in the democratic (with a little “d”!) process. You can read the whole series, and much more, here.
Today, businessman Michael Fairbrother will cast a vote of protest.
Fairbrother is not struggling. In fact, he's at a pretty good place now. He opened Moonlight Meadery in 2010. A longtime home brewer of mead, a kind of wine made from honey mixed with water or fruit juice, Fairbrother invested his life savings — $500,000 — to turn his hobby into a business. At the time, he was the chief operating officer at a small but thriving web design company. "I thought I was going to be moonlighting," he recalled. "That's how I came up with the name." Instead, "by the time the first batch went on sale in July, I realized I had to make it my full-time job, and I quit the next day."
It was a bold move for the software engineer, who'd been toying with the idea for three years, ever since his mead proved unexpectedly popular at a Christmas party. The beer he brewed languished, but "when I pulled out the bottle of mead, the women were knocking themselves over to get a taste of it. That's when I knew I had a business." When he won best in show at a regional homebrew competition, he finally pulled the trigger.
Soon, he moved production from his garage to a 2,000 square-foot factory. Today, the 49-year-old Fairbrother employs 14 people, and distributes more than 70 varieties of mead to 34 states and exports them to China, Japan, and Australia. (Seventy varieties? When you consider the many different kinds of honey, and the many different kinds of fruit juices you can dilute it with to make mead, the possibilities, he says, "are almost infinite.") Last year, Moonlight's revenues reached $1.2 million, and it booked its first operating profit.
And yet, for all his success, and good fortune to make a living doing what he loves, Fairbrother is angry — very, very angry. For several years he has wrestled with the opaque cost structure of group health insurance for his business, and he resents the way health insurers have continued to profit even under the Affordable Care Act. "It didn't take long for the insurance companies to figure out how to rig the game," he said. "If you walked into a winery, and I could trick you into walking into a different door where I charged you a different rate, that's all insurance is!"
The game is rigged. The phrase might tip you off: this man who began his political life voting for Ronald Reagan thirty-some years ago now backs Sen. Bernie Sanders. " The way I see it," he told me, "he's "prepared to put up a good fight against corporate money, all those special interests."
Now, to be clear, it's been a long time since Fairbrother has voted Republican. When I brought up politics, he first called himself an independent, but then quickly revealed that he is registered as a Democrat, and voted for President Barack Obama twice. (" 'Independent' is more of a concept," he allowed.) Republicans, he insisted, are simply out of touch with most Americans. "I've grown my company since 2010 with Obama in office. How could I complain? I'm better off than I've ever been in my entire life!" (And he doesn't blame Obama for the Affordable Care Act's lapses: "It took a lot of people to craft that plan and make sure that insurance companies wouldn't get hurt.")
But Fairbrother has lost faith with Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party's all-but-official candidate. "I was going to vote for Hillary, and I just kept looking into the issues with the emails and the big money supporting her. And when I heard that she needed a billion dollars to run her campaign, I thought, how was that even possible?"
Pundits often presume that Sanders is doing so well in New Hampshire — he has a 99 percent chance of winning the Democratic primary, according to FiveThirtyEight — because as a senator from neighboring Vermont, he has some sort of home field advantage. But Fairbrother, for one, knew nothing of Sanders until recently. His 20-something kids started talking about the curmudgeonly senator, and Fairbrother took special note how he got most of his money in small contributions from individuals. "I started taking a look at what he had to say, and what he stood for over his career, and it started making sense to me."
Fairbrother also noticed how people his kids' age swooned over Sanders. "The way he's speaking about things really inspires young people," he said. "I think people trust what he has to say." Suddenly, he sees Sanders supporters everywhere. "It feels like a groundswell," he continued. "Maybe it’s the circle of influence around me — people in my industry, people coming through my shop — I see a lot of people talking about a positive change."
Though Sanders has identified himself as a Democratic Socialist, Fairbrother doesn't claim any kind of socialism. "I wouldn't think of myself that way at all," he said. "But I think the rules have been rigged for a long time, and I think everyone, not just the billionaires, needs a fair shot." Indeed, Fairbrother's outrage is filtered through his experience building Moonlight Meadery — that is, as a capitalist. In addition to his beef against the insurance industry, he pointed to state tax law, which levies much higher taxes on locally made wine than on either beer or imported wine. "I go to the state house in New Hampshire, and there area 10 times more lobbyists in the room than small businesses, representing Anheuser-Busch and the California Wine and Grape Grower Association," he said. "They don't want to see my company succeed, because that would mean less shelf space for them."
(Meanwhile, in Washington, the recent omnibus federal spending package, which became law last December contained a tax break for Fairbrother's cider-making competitors. The provision, ushered through Congress by Democratic senator Chuck Schumer of New York, raised the limit on the amount of alcohol cider can contain before it is subject to the same excise taxes levied on wine from seven to 8.5%. "I want a level playing field," Fairbrother said.)
In any event, Fairbrother doesn't believe Sanders is really a traditional socialist, either. "I certainly understand the history of socialism and how everyone thinks it hasn't worked or never will work, but I don't see Bernie Sanders as someone who will take that same path," he explained. And if Sanders raises taxes, that's fine with Fairbrother, who anticipates that within a few years, he'll be making enough to be affected by the tax increases that Sanders promisies. "I'm not worried about the tax rates, as long as they're fair. "
I asked Fairbrother what other business owners think about his commitment to Sanders, and he told me about a meeting of his small C.E.O. peer group where the topic came up. "There were several who thought he was the right candidate, but didn't think he would get elected," he said.
Fairbrother himself has no such doubts. "I think that he has a better than average shot," he said. "Corporate America and the media have overlooked his potential to get elected."
But if Sanders doesn't win the nomination? "I wouldn't vote for Hillary Clinton," he maintained. "I really think that Hillary has set herself up with too much super PAC money and money from the elite.
"I'd probably vote for Bernie as an independent."In a very strange and sad story developing out of Pennsylvania, one of Michael Bloomberg’s “Mayors Against Illegal Guns” members has found himself in jail. James Schiliro, mayor of Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania, was arrested this past Thursday for official oppression, reckless endangerment, unlawful restraint, false imprisonment, and furnishing a minor with alcohol.
Schiliro ordered a local policemen to bring him a 20-year-old male to his home. At which point Schiliro allegedly served the minor alcohol and tried to have sex with him. When the minor refused, Schiliro apparently retrieved multiple handguns, where he then proceeded to fire one of them in the minors direction as a form of intimidation.
Schiliro was released on bail and states he will be fighting the charges.
.@mikebloomberg Looks like James Schiliro took your advice and demanded action. — VindicatorGC ✠ (@VindicatorGC) April 4, 2013
Schilirio is one of 600 mayors who signed on to an open letter to Harry Reid and the United States Senate from MAIG and published as a paid advertisement in USA Today.
[Inquisitr | WND]How an 11-person team built Dale Chihuly’s colossal glass sculptures at the ROM
How an 11-person team built Dale Chihuly’s colossal glass sculptures at the ROM
The Seattle-based artist Dale Chihuly creates delicate universes filled with cosmic planets, floor-to-ceiling ice spires, Technicolor gumdrops and otherworldly sea creatures—all from hand-blown molten glass. Since the 1970s, when a car accident left him unable to safely blow glass himself, he’s become a maestro, leading a dozen artisans to fulfil his colourful visions. They light up the Bellagio in Las Vegas, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and now the Royal Ontario Museum. Simply named Chihuly, his new exhibition runs until January 2 and features 11 immersive installations (some of which were made specifically for the ROM) that trace the evolution of his work. Eleven of his staffers spent two weeks installing the pieces. Here’s how they did it.
Float Boat
Many of Chihuly’s works are tied to his personal experiences. Float Boat was inspired by a trip he took to the Finnish design studio Iittala in the 1990s. There, he used the river and rowboats to experiment with glass forms. It took three people about three days to complete the installation.
Icicle Towers
This installation was created specifically for the ROM. Chihuly wanted to make sure his work meshed with the architecture of the Daniel Libeskind–designed space.
Persian Ceiling
Chihuly first made these flower-like forms, which he calls Persians, in 1986, but he didn’t install them in a ceiling like this until 1992, at the Seattle Art Museum. The set-up has since become a favourite among gallery-goers.
Laguna Torcello
This is a part of Chihuly’s series Mille Fiori (Italian for “thousand flowers”), named after a lagoon island in Venice, which is Chihuly’s favourite city. The work here spans decades and includes some pieces from his time working in Niijima and Nuutajärvi.
Red Reeds on Logs
Chihuly and his team first made these “Reeds” in 1995 by stretching molten glass downwards from a mechanical lift.“Pressure is a privilege”—Billie Jean King
As a member of the All-Star Ultimate Tour, I am beyond lucky to have a platform from which to share my thoughts with the broader ultimate community. So in spite of my somewhat crippling fear of sharing my writing with anyone, and in the spirit of celebrating the pressure I feel and the privilege granted to me, the following are my musing as the tour comes to a close:
Earlier this summer, I asked my friend to put some podcasts onto my phone before my plane ride home to Seattle, the big flight that marked the beginning of my All-Star experience. Anticipating nerves on my flight (because I have a mild to moderate fear of flying) and boredom from clocking double-digit hours of driving each day on tour (because I get car sick from reading), podcasts seemed like an optimal solution. However, I couldn’t have been more wrong about their necessity. #Vanlife has been one of the best ways I could think of to get to know my teammates, as well as acquire new skills like voice-throwing and landmark identification. Furthermore, on my flight to Seattle, I befriended Ken, the passenger next to me, who just so happened to be a pilot. Much to his chagrin, Ken spent his flight having an in-depth conversation with me about flying, planes, and contingency plans if anything were to suddenly go awry. Despite learning the intricacies of flying, and just before piling into Shady Van surrounded by new friends, I actually did manage to make it through one podcast; and, serendipitously so.
The podcast episode to which I refer is “The Lady Vanishes”, an episode of Malcolm Gladwell’s series titled Revisionist History. Gladwell’s podcast centers on the story of a painter in the late 19th century whom you’ve likely never heard of before; her name is Elizabeth Thompson. Chances are you haven’t heard of her because after her painting “The Roll Call” was hung on the line in Gallery II of The Royal Academy’s annual exhibition (which is a HUGE deal), she was denied membership to the same institution by just one vote. She was shutout of art society, and she vanished. Gladwell shares Thompson’s story to help exhibit the concept of “moral licensing”. The gist of the social psychology phenomenon is that “past good deeds can liberate individuals to engage in behaviors that are immoral, unethical, or otherwise problematic,” (Gladwell, The Lady Vanishes). In the case of Elizabeth Thompson, this meant that following her initial success with “The Roll Call,” her talent was pushed to the background and her existence was overshadowed by her male counterparts.
Like Elizabeth Thompson, we accomplished something amazing—we successfully promoted women in ultimate by showcasing individual talent and increasing media devoted to female athletes; however, our work is far from over. What we have accomplished is not enough, and when the tour ends, the work we continue to do is paramount as we strive to reach gender equity in our sport. Gladwell explains the concept of moral licensing with the metaphor of a door, and I think it applies here, too. With tremendous support from the ultimate community, one door has been cracked open, and we 17 All-Stars were able to slip through, bringing with us our host teams, their communities, and a good portion of the ultimate community. I have some trepidations of sounding overly preachy here, but we cannot take the successes of the All-Star Ultimate Tour and feel liberated. We cannot shut the door again on everyone else. Those who have power, those that have helped to open the door, need to recognize their power, and follow on what Gladwell deems a “virtuous trajectory."
Consider all the work there still is to do. Think about the privileges and opportunities afforded to males in our sport, the most popularized of which is the pro leagues. Think about the discrepancies in media coverage that exists between male and female sports that further notions of men as superior athletes. Think about the recent crediting of female Olympians’ successes to their husbands. Think about how much work there still is to do, think about how we’re going to do it, and do it. We will not be more Elizabeth Thompsons. We will not vanish.By Miguel Rivera
There seems to be some trouble in making a fight between fellow former four division world champions Juan Manuel Marquez (56-7-1, 40 KOs) and Miguel Cotto (40-5, 33 KOs).
The fight has been rumored for several months as neither boxer has been active for a while. Cotto has been out of the ring since last November's decision loss to Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez. He was going to fight in June, but pushed back the date when his handlers were unable to secure a suitable opponent.
Marquez, who turns 43-years-old in August, has been away from in-ring action since May of 2014, when he won a twelve round decision over Mike Alvarado. Since that fight Marquez was dealing with a left ankle issue that prevented him from actively training. Several proposed return dates were pushed back due to the ankle.
Marquez wants to fight Cotto, but says the Puerto Rican star is demanding a catch-weight of 150-pounds. Marquez is open to doing the fight at 147-pounds, the welterweight limit.
Cotto was recently fighting in the middleweight division, but he was weighing in a few pounds below the 160-pound limit. For the bout with Canelo, the contract weight was 155-pounds.
Cotto's trainer, Freddie Roach, told BoxingScene.com a few months ago that he had serious doubts about Cotto's ability to get down to the welterweight limit.
"[Cotto] was talking about a fight at 150 pounds, but that's a lot of weight. We are analyzing the situation and look for what's best in this situation. We are going to rest this week, and then wait to see what's going to come next. If nothing, then I will probably retire," revealed Marquez to ESPN Deportes.
"We are looking at something important, something good. The priority was Cotto, but it can not be at that weight. We would be giving away too much of an advantage and we are not going to give away advantages. We want to make competitive fight."
"It is not obsession for me [the fight with Cotto]. We want to make one last fight to give a good show to the people, but if we can not [face Cotto] then will go and make the best decision."Republicans in Congress have put in a dismal fiscal performance in 2013. The party could not come together to defund the disastrous Obamacare law. No progress was made tackling entitlements or eliminating programs. Republicans joined with Democrats to move ahead the wasteful farm bill. And the year began with a large income tax increase.
Yesterday, Republican leaders reached a discretionary spending deal with the Democrats for 2014 and 2015 that blows up the 2011 Budget Control Act. That Act had been the GOP's only major spending accomplishment in years.
The 2011 Act and related sequester have been bearing fruit and providing discretionary spending control the last two years. Now Republican leaders are throwing it away in return for revenue increases and spending trims that are mainly tiny and phony. The largest trim is a health care provider reduction that is supposed to take place a decade from now. Why should anyone consider that a real cut given that party leaders showed with this deal that they could not even stick to the BCA cuts for more than two years?
Before the new agreement, current law set discretionary spending at $967 billion in 2014. The new budget deal would raise that cap to $1.012 trillion, which is a spending hike of $45 billion. Why would Republican leaders agree to that? They're the ones who always claim that it's the Democrats who are the big spenders. America's Founders planned for the House to be the body defending the people from a big-spending Senate and president, but today's House is completely falling down on the job.
On paper, the new budget deal only lifts current spending caps for 2014 and 2015, and the caps in later years remain in place. The problem is that appropriators of both parties never sleep; they are not going to go into hibernation for the next decade contented with current spending limits.
Instead, it's a sporting challenge for appropriators to try and raise spending every single year. The ten-year numbers mean nothing to them - especially now that they know Republican leaders will probably cave in easily next time. That's why Rep. Paul Ryan's comment yesterday that the new deal "reduces the deficit" is meaningless.
The deal does not reduce the deficit this year - it hikes it $45 billion, give or take some change in the unlikely event first-year savings do materialize.
If this deal is enacted, a precedent will have been set, and the big spenders in both parties will sadly gain even more clout going into future budget negotiations. Blowing through existing budget caps by $45 billion this year could set the stage for spending hundreds of billions of dollars more over the coming decade.Wolfram Alpha, the geniuses who brought you the sophisticated "knowledge engine" and taught Siri practically everything she knows, have bestowed upon the world a new online activity even more narcissistic than Googling yourself: running analytics on your Facebook account.
Wolfram Alpha's "Facebook report" puts personal analytics within everyone's reach and lets users actually benefit from the big data they've passed over to the social network. Plus, it's a whole lot of fun.
The things I learned from my "Facebook report," which I generated by entering "Facebook report" into the Wolfram Alpha site and giving it access to my Facebook profile, include:
How many of my friends are single, engaged, hitched, in a relationship or "other"
Which of my friends actually care enough to "like" or comment on my posts (Jason, Craig, you two are the best. Quite literally.)
The friends of mine with whom I share the most mutual friends (a list dominated by my closest friends and college acquaintances most likely to become politicians )
The frequency with which certain words appeared in my Facebook posts (I apparently use "Facebook," "new" and "know" quite a bit)
The post of mine that received the most "likes" and the most comments
The average length of my posts (perhaps I've been trained by Twitter to think in short bursts: my average Facebook post as 103 characters.)
The percent of male vs. female friends I have
How frequently I shared different types of information with Facebook over the past two years (photos vs. status updates vs. links) and how it varies over the average week
And much, much more. As Stephen Wolfram, who helped pioneer Wolfram Alpha's "knowledge engine," notes, "When you type 'facebook report', Wolfram Alpha generates a pretty seriously long report -- almost a small book about you, with more than a dozen major chapters, broken into more than 60 sections, with all sorts of drill-downs, alternate views, etc." (Wolfram's blog post introducing the feature includes a subtle dig at the social network: "I have to admit that I’m not a very diligent user of Facebook (mostly because I have too many other things to do). But I’ve got lots of Facebook friends (most of whom, sadly, I don’t know in real life)."
Try the tool for yourself here.I must confess- I am all about them nuts. I enjoy them in my face. A lot of us do. However, it is that nut tolerance privilege that allows me to do so- a privilege that some do not have. So after far too long, I introduce my first nut-free granola recipe, in the form of banana bread-y goodness.
DISCLAIMER: I do use coconut oil in this recipe, so if that counts as a nut for some of you, I do apologise. However I have avoided using any peanuts, almonds, pecans, hazelnuts, walnuts, conventional nuts etc etc etc. If you want me to do a nut-free recipe without any coconut oil either, drop me a line. Put me in my place. Tell me to try harder god dammit.
Does this granola taste like banana bread? Hell yes. Is there any added sugar? Hell no.
Get ready to get hyped for breakfasts all over again. This one’s a good ‘un.
Ingredients
140g Oats
100g Raw Buckwheat Groats
3 Bananas (like a medium, average size. Don’t go overboard with your bananas, don’t skimp on your bananas. Be firm but fair.)
60g Raisins
3tsp Cinnamon
20g Coconut Oil (the kind that is solid at room temp.)
Method
1. Preheat your oven to 180°C. In a food processor, blend together bananas until they reach the consistency of a chunky paste. Add the cinnamon and half of your raisins. Blend until the bananas are smooth.
2. In a mug, microwave your coconut oil for 30ish seconds (or until melted). Pour into your food processor with your banana goop, and blend together for 20-30 seconds. Set aside.
3. In a mixing bowl, mix your oats, buckwheat and remaining raisins together. Pour your banana goop into the bowl with your dry ingredients and mix thoroughly. Pour out onto a foil-lined baking pan and flatten out with a spatula or the back of a spoon.
4. Bake your granola in the oven for 45 minutes, and take it out to give it a stir about every 15 minutes, so that it gets crispy and golden brown on the bottom as well as the top. Don’t worry about some of it sticking to the foil, this will happen. I find that if you wait for the foil to cool after removing the granola, and you give it a bit of a scrunch, you get a lot of the mix come off the foil like crunchy banana chips, and you can throw these right into the mix with the rest of your joyous granola.
Serves 6, because who goes to that kind of effort for anything less than 6 good portions of breakfast.
Per Serving:
259 Calories
7.3g Protein
6g Fat
48.2g Carbs
AdvertisementsGerard Houllier will lead the official Liverpool FC Legends side including Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher and Ian Rush into action at the Sydney ANZ on |
ichi Sakamoto was everything Iñárritu’s overbaked pseudo-western wasn’t — understated, evocative, and ultimately rousing.
The Revenant isn’t screening in the Quad Cinema’s short tribute to the Japanese composer, but some of Sakamoto’s greatest work is. A classically trained pianist and ethnomusicologist, he had already achieved international fame as a member of the pioneering Japanese synthpop trio Yellow Magic Orchestra when director Nagisa Oshima hired him to star in and score the 1983 P.O.W. drama Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence. His music for the film is at times playful, even bordering on pop — particularly in the catchy main theme — and at times discombobulating, almost atonal. The seesawing mood makes an ideal match for Oshima’s heated, surreal tale of obsession and torment.
Scoring diverse films, Sakamoto has revealed himself as surprisingly good at pastiche: His music for Pedro Almodóvar’s High Heels (1991) is the noirest noir that ever noired. His traipsing boleros and Vertigo homages in Brian De Palma’s Femme Fatale (2002) are unforgettable. (Also included in this retro is a rare 35mm screening of Volker Schlöndorff’s 1990 The Handmaid’s Tale, a first go at adapting Margaret Atwood’s seminal novel.)
But I’d argue that Sakamoto’s best work came in collaboration with Bernardo Bertolucci. An opera fanatic, the director often had lush, unabashedly melodramatic scores in his earlier pictures (think back to Georges Delerue’s rhapsodic melodies for The Conformist, Ennio Morricone’s sweeping marches for 1900, or Gato Barbieri’s crashing jazz crescendos in Last Tango in Paris). He clearly connected with Sakamoto’s ability to mix the lyrical and the ethereal, to nestle brisk compositions within stretches of melancholy ambience.
In 1987’s The Last Emperor (the score for which, composed in collaboration with David Byrne and Cong Su, won Sakamoto an Oscar), the simple, childlike melodies of the early scenes speak to the internalized life of the protagonist, who was crowned emperor of China at the age of two and lived in seclusion in the Forbidden City through his teenage years. When the monarch Pu Yi (played by John Lone) finally leaves his palace and confronts the outside world, Sakamoto comes rushing in with an orchestral blast of ominous yet strangely stirring strings. The film and its score are a meditation on the majesty and menace of power. Every note of triumph for Pu Yi hastens his downfall and damnation.
Bertolucci’s The Sheltering Sky (1990) might represent Sakamoto’s greatest work yet. Set in North Africa in the years after WWII, this adaptation of Paul Bowles’s cult novel strikes yet another balance — this time between the sensual and the existential. As husband-and-wife American travelers, John Malkovich and Debra Winger (both excellent) are seduced by the rapturous beauty of the Sahara’s silky dunes. And yet the desert’s fearsome grandeur also forces them to confront their own mortality. To match their journey, Sakamoto creates a circular theme that always returns to the same few minor notes, even amid vast, droning soundscapes. The effect is that of a slow-burn, existential nightmare built out of moments of great lyricism. It’s about as perfect a match between movie and soundtrack as I can imagine.
Forbidden Colors: Ryuichi Sakamoto at the Movies
May 12–15, Quad Cinema“Globally, the lowest price of biofuel is 90 per cent higher than that of the average fuel; this is due to the high cost of the materials needed for the manufacture of biofuel.” Khaled Fouad, Zagazig University in Egypt
Related topics Biofuels
Conservation
Energy
Environment
R&D
Engineering
Enterprise
[CAIRO] Researchers at Egypt’s National Research Centre have produced a biofuel suitable for aeroplanes after successful semi-industrial experiments conducted last December.The centre was officially commissioned by the Egyptian Ministry of Civil Aviation to find a local biofuel to power aircrafts. This was to support the implementation of the International Air Transport Association plan, aiming to halve carbon dioxide emissions caused by aviation companies by 2050. Commercial aviation contributes about 2 per cent of global carbon emissions annually.Gizine El Diwani, professor at the centre’s chemical engineering and semi-industrial experiments department, says it all started with the production of a biofuel for cars. The researchers made biodiesel from the seeds of the jatropha tree — the seeds’ oil content is between 20-25 per cent. The oil can be easily extracted using organic solvents such as hexane, according to El Diwani.Because the properties of jatropha oil differ from those of traditional engine oil — in terms of viscosity, density and degree of combustion — it has to go through a number of fairly simple chemical processes to be adapted for use in running engines.At this stage, the fuel is suitable for car engines. To be suitable for jet engines, it should be able to resist freezing until at least minus 45 degrees Celsius. The research team sought to resolve this at a later stage in the fuel’s development.El Diwani explains: “We managed to improve the freezing point of jatropha biofuel through a thermal cracking process, using thermal stimuli at a high temperature and pressure to bring the oil [temperature down] to minus 40 degrees [Celsius] without [it] freezing. Then, we were able to reach minus 45 degrees by introducing some [chemical] additives.”El Diwani adds that Egypt has successfully cultivated vast land areas with the jatropha tree, in an area of the Upper Egypt desert estimated at around 1000 acres. The success of biofuel production experiments is expected to encourage the research team to increase the area reserved for growing the tree.Khaled Fouad, a researcher in the field of aeronautical engineering at Zagazig University in Egypt, sees a fundamental advantage in the production of biofuels from jatropha seed oil. “It is a non-edible tree for humans and animals, which grows in sandy desert soil and gets irrigated by sewage water — making it a unique source of biofuels.”However, Fouad pointed to a serious challenge in the high cost of production, which he attributes to the use of additives to lower the freezing point. “Globally, the lowest price of biofuel is 90 per cent higher than that of the average fuel; this is due to the high cost of the materials needed for the manufacture of biofuel," he said. The researchers are currently working to address this, according to Salwa Hawash, a member of the research team. “We will try to eliminate the materials [currently] used to lower the freezing point by adding hydrogen to the thermal cracking process, and we expect positive results that will cut the cost.”Another semi-industrial experiment on the biofuel will be conducted after introducing this type of cracking. The team hopes to complete all industrial experiments and begin to use locally-manufactured biofuel in aeroplanes by the end of 2017, according to El Diwani.Advertisement
Owning a quality pair of headphones is very important for anyone who wants or needs to listen to music by themselves on a regular basis. In fact, they’re more important than the device actually playing the music itself, whether it be a home stereo system, an mp3 player, or a smartphone. A decent pair of headphones can make up for a trashy player.
However, headphones do not have to cost a fortune. Sure, audiophiles who can detect the slightest flaw in playback will need to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars acquiring all the equipment needed to deliver that perfect experience. But the majority of us, who are proudly anything but audiophiles, can spend a small amount of money on equipment that will suffice. And with no Dr. Dre Beats in sight.
Please note all the prices are as listed on Amazon.com and were correct at the time of writing.
The ATH-M30 from Audio-Technica are closed-back stereo headphones designed for home users and studio engineers. The cushioned headband, large soft earpads, and lightweight design should ensure comfort even after long use. Sound quality is superb but these aren’t listed as being noise-canceling. Build quality is great, with a robust feel throughout.
Tech: 40mm driver, 20-20,000Hz frequency response, 100dB sensitivity.
Price: The list price is $119.99 but these can be bought for around $45.
Sennheiser HD203
The HD203s from Sennheiser are closed-back stereo headphones designed primarily for home use. These are quite comfortable for short periods of time but can start to annoy after being worn for longer periods. Sound quality is good, with clear, clean, and subtle definitions between the low, mid, and high ends. Build quality is good if not a little plasticky.
Tech: 40mm driver, 18-18,000Hz frequency response, 115dB sensitivity.
Price: The list price is $49.95 but these can be bought for around $38 on Amazon.
The HARX700s from JVC are closed-back stereo headphones again designed mainly for use at home thanks to their bulky nature. These are very comfortable to wear even for long periods, although your ears will become warm and sweaty. Sound quality is fantastic, although some users suggest they need breaking in to truly shine. Build quality is just fine.
Tech: 50mm driver, 8-25,000Hz frequency response, 105dB sensitivity.
Price: The list price is $59.95 but these can be bought for around $32 on Amazon.
The MDR-XB300s from Sony are closed-back stereo headphones that are big and bulky but ultra-comfortable as a result. The ear pads are very soft to the point you can forget you’re wearing headphones at all. Sound quality is great, but these are all about the bass at the expense of the low and mid ranges. Build quality is solid, and these should last a long time.
Tech: 30mm driver, 5-22,000Hz frequency response, 100dB sensitivity.
Price: The list price is $49.99 but these can be bought for around $32.
The PortaPros from Koss are collapsible stereo headphones that sit on, rather than over, your ears. They have been on the market for many years but still hold their own against new contenders. These are the only small, portable headphones on this list, but both the sound quality and build quality are good enough given the type of user they’re being aimed at.
Tech: 30mm driver, 15-25,000Hz frequency response, 101dB sensitivity.
Price: The list price is $49.99 but these can be bought for around $32.
What About The Rappers?!
I wrote this article after researching headphones to purchase for myself, and I ended up buying one of those listed above. What really struck me was how expensive the named brands are, and by named brands I mean those named after rappers. Dr. Dre Beats are everywhere, but for several hundred dollars you’re getting headphones that are arguably only equal in quality to ones many times less expensive.
If you need to be seen to be wearing headphones backed by Dre, Ludacris, or RZA then that’s up to you, but you need to be aware that you’re not necessarily getting the best bang for your buck. I enjoy mocking Apple fanboys every time they spend a fortune on a computer that’s available in another form for a lot less money, but they look positively sensible compared to those buying headphones purely for the name that’s written on the side.
Conclusions
The five pairs of headphones listed here will all serve you well, and there are many more at around the same price point that will suffice. Push your budget closer to $100 and the options grow considerably. As always when buying new hardware of any kind be sure to read a range of reviews from different sources, and if possible also head into a store to try those on your shortlist out for yourself.
Image Credits: Five Wun o Clothing, PoolieBy POLLY DUNBAR
Last updated at 10:57 13 April 2008
Boasting a three-speed gearbox and spare oil lamps, she represented cutting-edge technology in 1902.
Now this one-family-owned Peugeot 5HP has proved she has staying power too by cruising through her first MOT test – 106 years since taking to the road.
The car is being sold for £100,000 and needed the certificate as she was taken off the road just before the MOT test was introduced in 1960.
Yet she needed only a quick clean of her fuel line and an infusion of petrol to pass. "She started as soon as I swung the handle," said car broker Gavin McGuire, who took her for the MOT.
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Heirloom: Glenys Donald, mother of fifth owner Malcolm, showing the car to Leah, her grandaughter, last year
The dark blue two-seater, with just 2,000 miles on the clock, was shipped to England from France in 1902, the year the Boer War ended.
The registration plate, A01, reveals she was the first registered in Cumbria.
Until recently, she had left the county only once, for a car rally in Yorkshire. She has a single-cylinder engine and all her original features, and comes with spare lamps that can be pinned to the outside to prevent anyone smashing into her in the dark.
Wealthy landowner William Parkin-Moore was the first proud owner. Spying her in Peugeot's new English showroom on London's Brompton Road in the summer of 1902, he was drawn to her compact, sleek design.
He forked out £185 – £15,650 at today's prices – and she was delivered to his Whitehall estate near Mealsgate, Cumbria.
He put the 9ft by 4ft car in his garage and in December 1903 she became the first motor vehicle to be registered in Cumbria. A local blacksmith made the number plate.
But a year later, Mr Parkin-Moore upgraded to a Daimler after deciding the Peugeot's top speed of 28mph was not enough – after all, a galloping horse could go faster.
The A01 spent the next 34 years in the garage until Mr Parkin-Moore's death in 1937, when his nephew Henry Donald inherited her.
Henry never drove her and in 1944 gave her to his brother George, who kept her in his garage until 1956.
Then George passed her on to his 18-year-old son Dennis, who drove her around the village of Raughton Head.
Dennis, now 69, said: "My father may never have driven her but, being a typical 18-year-old, I wanted to. With just a turn of the handle she started with a steady chug, chug, chug.
"She was quite easy to handle but it was tricky to remember to double-declutch when moving up, rather than down, through the gears."
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Top dogs: Two boys and a pet in the car at Henry Donald's home between 1937 and 1944
Now Dennis's son Malcolm, 36, the fifth and present owner, is selling the car. And keeping up the family tradition, he has barely driven her.
"We feel that considering her age and condition she deserves an owner who can now take her out and about, so that other people can see and enjoy her for years to come," he said.
Car broker Mr McGuire, who has the car at his Surrey home, said she was being sold as a fully roadworthy vehicle, ready to be driven.
She is not the oldest car to take the MOT but is one of the oldest to be put through the test for the first time.
"This is a most remarkable car – not just because of her age but her condition," said Mr McGuire.
"Many veteran cars have had parts replaced but not this one. Anyone behind the wheel can experience what it was really like to drive an Edwardian car when it was new."
But he added: "It could not be described as a smooth ride. The whole thing comes to life when you start her, almost as if there is an animal inside.
"The speed she achieves might be likened to a good pony at a very fast canter.
"But she is utterly charming. In her day, it was like having a brand-new BMW."The European Parliament has adopted a resolution recognizing Palestinian statehood in principle. A total of 498 MEPs voted in favor, while 88 were against.
A parliamentary session in Strasbourg on Tuesday could not decide on the matter, opting for further negotiations, but on Wednesday the European Parliament eventually adopted a resolution that “in principle” grants the troubled region statehood.
"[The European Parliament] supports in principle recognition of Palestinian statehood and the two-state solution, and believes these should go hand in hand with the development of peace talks, which should be advanced," the motion said. The vote also saw 111 abstentions.
The European Parliament reiterated its support for the two-state solution "on the basis of the 1967 borders, with Jerusalem as the capital of both states, with the secure State of Israel and an independent, democratic, contiguous and viable Palestinian State living side by side in peace and security on the basis of the right of self-determination and full respect of international law."
MEPs emphasized the EU's strongest opposition to any acts of terrorism connected with Palestinians' campaign for statehood, however.
Several of the EU's 28 member countries were already in favor of full recognition. Sweden in October became the only EU member so far to officially recognize Palestine as an independent state.
The European Parliament vote comes as the Palestinians are soon to make their case at the UN Security Council in New York, where they will ask for a complete Israeli withdrawal from East Jerusalem and the West Bank to the 1967 borders in two years' time.
These discussions follow a tense summer period when Israel carried out its controversial Protective Edge operation against the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and elicited international condemnation for the number of civilians killed and damage that would take decades to undo.
READ MORE: Palestine resolution: US ‘unresolved’ ahead of Security Council meeting
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is adamantly against any resolution under which Palestine gains back the occupied East Jerusalem and West Bank, believing it would lead to “terrorists” running wild and causing regional problems.
"Attempts of the Palestinians and of several European countries to force conditions on Israel will only lead to a deterioration in the regional situation and will endanger Israel," Netanyahu said Monday.
Although the US, which has been trying to broker a two-state solution, has been a close ally of Israel for years, it is now also taking on a more stern tone with the Israeli leadership.
"This isn't the time to detail private conversations or speculate on a UN Security Council resolution that hasn't even been tabled, no matter what pronouncements are made publicly about it,” US Secretary of State John Kerry told journalists Tuesday.
It remains to be seen what Washington’s actions will be at the Security Council, when Palestine makes its case for a full Israeli withdrawal.Skipper, turn this thing around! Incredible wall of sand whipped up by cyclone hits remote stretch of Western Australia coast
Strong winds carried the sand from the Indian Ocean to the north-western town of Onslow
The region was already bracing itself for category-three cyclone when storm hit
It is the latest wild weather to strike the country after days of destructive bush fires in south-eastern Australia
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An enormous wall of dust has hit part of Australia as residents brace themselves for a tropical cyclone.
The stunning images of the wild dust storm were captured by tugboat works and aeroplane passengers near the town of Onslow in north-western Australia.
Local reports say the huge swathes of red sand and dust had been picked up by strong winds in the Indian Ocean before being dropped near the town.
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Menacing: The towering red dust storm is pictured rolling across the ocean as it approaches Onslow in West Australia Tsunami of particles: Tugboat worker Brett Martin captured the terrifying wall of dust about 25 nautical miles from the coast About to be engulfed: Ships are dwarfed by the huge cloud of dust which sailors said reduced visibility to just 100 metres The tsunami-like wave of sand could be seen travelling for miles and dwarfed ships out at sea.
Tugboat worker Brett Martin, who shot some of the pictures, said before the storm hit conditions were calm and glassy. RELATED ARTICLES Previous
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Next A Christmas card come to life: Jerusalem hit by worst... Plain terrain and automobiles: Amazing pictures of Dakar... Share this article Share But when the dust arrived visibility was reduced to just 100 metres and the swell rose to two metres.
Looming on the horizon: Local weather forecasters said the dust had been picked up on land in the Indian Ocean Terrifying: Families in the region were already preparing for the arrival of a category-three cyclone when the dust storm arrived The dust storm engulfs the town of Onslow: It is the latest incident in weeks of dramatic weather in the country that has been besieged by terrible bush fires after unprecedented high temperatures
CREEP, JUMP, SUSPEND: HOW SANDSTORMS FORM
A dust or sand storm is a weather phenomenon common in arid regions like the Sahara.
They develop when a strong wind blows loose sand and dirt from a dry surface, firstly causing them to 'creep' along the ground then saltate (or 'leap') into the air.
When the particles then begin to break into smaller ones, they eventually become suspended in the wind. The term sandstorm is used most often in desert environments while dust storm is applied when finer particles are blown long distances, especially over urban areas.
It is the latest incident in weeks of dramatic weather in the country that has been besieged by terrible bush fires after unprecedented high temperatures and strong winds ravaged much of the south east.
Now, Australia's first cyclone of the storm season is intensifying off the country's northwest and is expected to start affecting coastal areas in mining powerhouse Western Australia state from today, according to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (ABM).
ABM's manager of climate services Glenn Cook told The Australian the dust storm was not directly related to the cyclone - the centre of which is still hundreds of kilometres away.
Wind gusts in Onslow reached 63mph and the dust storm was made worse by the lack of rain in the region.
Climate information officer John Relf told The Australian: 'If it's pretty dry in land, boom, there you go. It was the right recipe.'
He said dust storms were rare and may only happen once or twice a year, if at all.
The dramatic weather is set to continue as the category-three cyclone heads to north-western Australia.
Local forecasters warned of 60mph gales and gusts of more than 80mph and oil and mining operations are preparing to close when the cyclone lands.
Car giant Chevron is also set to evacuate workers from Barrow Island - about 30 miles off the coast.
Not over yet: The dramatic weather is set to continue as the category-three cyclone heads to north-western Australia Rare event: Climate information officer John Relf said dust storms like the one that hit Onslow (right) were rare and may only happen once or twice a year, if at all Inferno: South-eastern Australia, including New South Wales, has been ravaged by days of vicious bush firesDeviantARTist Zoroko went and created this Zora Link costume for herself to wear to Ohayocon. It looks good. No -- great. No -- AMAZING. It almost makes me wish I knew how to sew. But it DOES make me wish I could have sex underwater without drowning (I never learned to swim).
In the end I never really kept track of the final amount, but I estimate this costume cost at least $300. Each part took a good amount of time-I would say that the helmet was probably the most difficult out of the entire costume. It was interesting trying to get the helmet to fit comfortably and get it to stay on my head without any problems (lots and lots of hidden velcro!). The hat is filled with poly-fill to give it a more full overall look.
There are more details about how Zoroko made the costume over at her deviantART page if you're interested, but I'm having a hard time concentrating on anything but the whole underwater sex thing. And I'm not just saying that because I'm standing on a chair with my penis in the fishtank, but I 110% am. Dammit you little plastic pirate, put the rum down and pay attention to me!
Hit the jump for several more shots of the impressiveness.
Zoroko's deviantART
Thanks to Einstein, who invented relatives or something.President Trump took aim at the media early Friday morning, accusing journalists and news outlets of belittling and disparaging his early accomplishments in the White House.
No matter how much I accomplish during the ridiculous standard of the first 100 days, & it has been a lot (including S.C.), media will kill! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 21, 2017
Trump is set to hit the symbolic 100-day mark in his presidency on April 29. Those early days are typically considered a bellwether for a presidential administration and its ability to govern.
With little legislative achievement to speak of, Trump has focused on executive actions to roll back Obama-era regulations and climate policy.
The biggest success of Trump's young presidency, alluded to in his tweet, has been the nomination and confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, whom Trump picked to replace the late Antonin Scalia.
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But some of the president’s highest-profile campaign promises have foundered in his first months in office.
Two controversial executive orders barring citizens of certain Muslim-majority countries and refugees from entering the U.S., for example, were blocked by federal judges amid concerns that the orders amounted to a ban on a religious group.
And a House GOP measure to repeal and replace ObamaCare ultimately failed after Speaker Paul Ryan Paul Davis RyanBrexit and exit: A transatlantic comparison Five takeaways from McCabe’s allegations against Trump The Hill's 12:30 Report: Sanders set to shake up 2020 race MORE (R-Wis.) pulled it amid dwindling support from Republican lawmakers.
Still, Trump has managed to make good on other promises, such as his vow to crack down on illegal immigration. He has already directed his administration to more aggressively enforce immigration laws and has authorized the construction of a long-touted wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Also casting a shadow over Trump’s first 100 days is a set of ongoing investigations into Russian election interference and potential ties between members of Trump's presidential campaign and Moscow. Both the Senate and House Intelligence committees are probing the matter, and the FBI is conducting its own investigation.
Trump and his aides have repeatedly denied any collusion with Moscow, and the president himself has called the investigations a “witch hunt” akin to McCarthyism during the Cold War.Ending a five-year court battle over music piracy, the major record companies on Thursday settled a copyright infringement lawsuit with LimeWire, a popular file-sharing network, for $105 million, the Recording Industry Association of America announced.
In the suit, filed in 2006, the labels and the R.I.A.A., their trade group, accused LimeWire of running a Web service “devoted essentially” to piracy by allowing users to upload and download songs without permission. LimeWire began in 2000, and the labels contend that Mark Gorton, 44, the site’s creator and a defendant in the case, continued to operate it even after the Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that a similar service, Grokster, could be held liable for infringement.
Although the $105 million settlement is far from the $1.4 billion the labels had sought as a maximum penalty, the companies are hoping that the case will act as a deterrent to further piracy since Mr. Gorton, a former Wall Street trader with millions in personal assets, will also face liability.
“We are pleased to have reached a large monetary settlement following the court’s finding that both LimeWire and its founder Mark Gorton personally liable for copyright infringement,” Mitch Bainwol, the R.I.A.A.’s chairman, said in a statement. “As the court heard during the last two weeks, LimeWire wreaked enormous damage on the music community, helping contribute to thousands of lost jobs and fewer opportunities for aspiring artists.”
Five years ago, Kazaa, another peer-to-peer file-sharing system, settled a suit with the major record companies for $115 million.
In the suit, the labels identified more than 9,000 recordings made since 1972 that had been traded on LimeWire without permission and sought damages of up to $150,000 for each song. Judge Kimba M. Wood of United States District Court in Manhattan ruled a year ago that LimeWire had violated copyright, and when the settlement was reached, the case was in trial to set damages.
In October, Judge Wood ordered that most of the service’s functions be disabled, and the company said it was shutting down on Dec. 31.
LimeWire had argued that illegal file-sharing was not solely responsible for the music industry’s woes, pointing to CD counterfeiting, bankruptcies of music retailers and other problems.
“The record companies know and have known that their problems started well before LimeWire,” Joseph Baio, LimeWire’s lawyer, told the jury in his opening statement at the damages trial.
On Wall Street, Mr. Gorton co-founded a hedge fund that in 2007 had a reported $117 million in assets.cryptogon.com news – analysis – conspiracies
December 8th, 2010
Via: Reuters:
U.S. government inflation data is “a sham” and is causing the Federal Reserve to vastly understate price pressures in the economy, influential U.S. investor Jim Rogers said on Tuesday.
The U.S. central bank uses inflation data that relies too heavily on housing prices, Rogers told the Reuters 2011 Investment Outlook Summit, and he criticized the Fed’s $600 billion bond-buying program.
Rogers, who rose to prominence after co-founding the now defunct Quantum Fund with billionaire investor George Soros some four decades ago, said he was betting against U.S. Treasuries. “I expect interest rates in the U.S. to go much, much, much higher over the next few years,” he said.
The core personal consumption expenditure index, which removes food and energy costs, is the Fed’s favored measure of inflation and was flat in October for the second straight month.
“Everybody in this room knows prices are going up for everything,” Rogers told the Reuters Summit.
The Fed began its $600 billion bond buying program last month, its second round of quantitative easing, to boost a sluggish U.S. economy, citing excessively low inflation and high unemployment.
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You must be logged in to post a comment.LONDON (Reuters) - Lower airfares, cheaper food and rising profit margins are among the benefits that should flow from tumbling oil and commodity prices - but only after a long lead time.
A driver pumps petrol into his car at a petrol station in Brussels March 8, 2011. REUTERS/Yves Herman
Having poured $400 billion (262 billion pounds) into commodities over the past decade, many investors are now selling. Their confidence that risky assets could only float higher on a rising tide of cheap central bank money has crumbled as the global economy fails to respond to the stimulus.
Even China, an important buyer of natural resources, is slowing. Inflation, against which gold in particular is a classic hedge, is falling nearly everywhere.
Price pressures will ease further if natural resources keep falling. That is bad news for exporters such as Saudi Arabia and Brazil but good news for net importers.
Weaker commodity prices should be positive for the world economy on average because falling inflation supports consumer spending, said ABN AMRO economist Han de Jong.
Standard and Poor’s Goldman Sachs Commodity Index.SPGSCITR has fallen 6.6 percent so far this year.
But raw materials represent a small part of most firms’ costs, so it is not surprising that some businesses, especially those in very competitive markets, are not getting carried away.
“There are thousands of components in a car so the impact might not be that great,” said Cui Liyan with Great Wall Motor Co Ltd (601633.SS) (2333.HK), China’s top maker of SUVs and pick-up trucks. “Great Wall has never passed on additional costs to consumers when commodity prices have surged in the past.”
For a U.S. economy experiencing slow growth, cheaper energy is a positive, said Michael Ward, chief executive of CSX Corp CSX.N, the country’s second-largest railroad. But CSX itself is indifferent because it runs a fuel surcharge programme. “Over time, we’re passing the increases or decreases in fuel to the customer,” Ward said.
An official at South Korea’s largest food maker, CJ CheilJedang Corp (097950.KS), said it normally takes four to six months before a fall in agricultural futures prices passes through into the firm’s product prices.
OIL IS THE ONE TO WATCH
The lurches in gold, including the sharpest one-day drop in 30 years on Monday, have grabbed the attention, but falling oil prices are of much greater economic significance.
Brent crude is down about 16 percent from the year’s high at $119.17, hit on February 8.
Economists at JP Morgan estimate a 15 percent drop in the price of oil, caused by a supply increase, would be enough to lift global economic output this year by 0.2 percentage points.
But if the price fall reflects a darkening economic outlook, the same 15 percent decline is consistent with a 0.5 percent downgrade in global growth prospects for the year, the bank calculates.
An executive at Indian engineering company Larsen & Toubro (LART.NS) said the broader fall in commodity prices cut both ways. Cheaper materials would help profit margins and, if the trend were sustained, would increase the chances of lower interest rates, he said. But prices were falling for a reason.
“Prices are down today because the investment cycle has slowed and demand for commodities has slowed. If this extends over the long term, it cannot be a good thing for a projects company such as ours,” he said.
THE EXCHANGE RATE FACTOR
Pinpointing the repercussions of the commodity sell off is further complicated because it cannot be seen in isolation.
KCE Electronics Pcl (KCE.BK), a Thai maker of printed circuit boards, should be sitting pretty because it uses a lot of copper, which is down 12 percent so far in 2013.
But executive director Panja Senadisai said the savings are outweighed by the strength of the Thai baht against the dollar, which hurts KCE’s exports.
The story is similar at Tenneco Inc’s (TEN.N) Indian subsidiary: the auto components maker is seeing lower prices for steel and rubber - the key Tokyo Commodity Exchange rubber contract has shed more than 8 percent this week - but a weak rupee and high inflation are diluting the benefit.
Currencies also muddy the waters for Japan Airlines Co Ltd (9201.T), with a weakening yen on balance a negative for the airline, said JAL spokesman Taro Namba. Still, JAL has already responded by announcing a 7.6 percent cut in cargo fuel surcharges from May 1 to 122 yen per kilogram on long-haul international routes. And Korean Air Lines Co Ltd (003490.KS), South Korea’s biggest airline, expects a drop in fuel surcharges to lead to lower passenger ticket prices with a one month’s lag.
PASSING ALONG THE FOOD CHAIN
Cheaper food is a particular boon in countries with uncomfortably high inflation. Take Indonesia, where inflation scaled a nearly two-year high of 5.9 percent in March.
Thanks to falling prices for everything from rice to meat and shallots, the month-on-month rise in consumer prices will probably be less than 0.1 percent in April, according to deputy central bank governor Perry Warjiyo.
Business models differ and not everyone is rushing to pass on cheaper inputs. Danish shipping group A.P. Moller - Maersk Group MAERSKb.co is an example.
“Our job is to make sure that the customers understand that they actually have a big value proposition by shipping with us... The customers are willing to pay a bit more. This is not a commodity. There’s more to it than just shipping a box,” said chief executive Nils Anderson.
With global inflation by and large benign, the door is open for leading central banks to provide even more monetary stimulus. St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said he would favour increasing the pace of the Federal Reserve’s bond buying if inflation continues to go down. U.S. consumer prices rose just 1.5 percent in the 12 months through March.
Falling commodity prices and slower wage growth give the Bank of England more scope to resume bond-buying to try to galvanise the economy, BOE policymaker Martin Weale argued.
Even the conservative European Central Bank has hinted that it is open to doing more. With the bank’s economists forecasting an inflation rate of just 1.3 percent in 2014, well short of its target of just under 2 percent, more and more economists expect an interest rate cut next month.
China too has increased policy room. “The drop in global commodity prices is obviously very good news for China, because it will help lessen imported inflationary pressure and leaves Beijing much more scope to expand credit and loosen monetary policy to bolster the domestic economy,” said Yuan Gangming, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
INDIA VS AUSTRALIA
India, Asia’s third-largest economy, is hoping that the commodity rout will not only dampen inflation but also reduce its twin deficits. Crude and gold imports contribute nearly 45 percent of India’s total import bill.
“The fall will help us deal with the widening current account deficit, which is the biggest worry for the government,” said a senior official at the ministry of finance in New Delhi.
India spent $169 billion on foreign oil in the fiscal year that ended in March, 9 percent more than the year before. That is a big factor behind a full-year current account deficit likely to have been around 5 percent of GDP - a level the central bank governor has called unsustainable..
And because India heavily subsidises consumer fuels and fertilizer, the government’s budget deficit for the new fiscal year could well come in below its target of 4.8 percent of GDP if global commodity prices keep declining, the official added. The fall in crude prices could halve the oil subsidy bill.
Australia would appear to be an obvious loser from an end |
designs on the Arctic.
***
The race for the Arctic’s precious resources isn’t new. The hoard of gas and oil is surrounded by powerful nations – Russia, Denmark, Norway, the US and Canada – and they all want a piece of the pie.
Russia itself has been drilling in the Arctic Circle for decades. In August 2007, it made a dangerous and globally provocative move by sending two Russian mini-submarines 4,200m (14,000ft) below the North Pole to plant a rust-proof titanium flag on the seabed to stake a claim on the territory.
Project Iceberg could be the nation’s power play to make sure it keeps a regional monopoly on those two resources
Now, in 2017, the global community is keeping a close eye on Russia as it seeks to expand its grip and influence on Arctic waters – and the valuable resources within. For Russia, oil and natural gas are key sources of both energy and income. Project Iceberg could be the nation’s power play to make sure it keeps a regional monopoly on those two resources.
Russia is already expanding its military might in the Arctic, building more bases in the area after opening several earlier this year. In April, BBC journalists were the first foreign journalists allowed to film Russia’s military brigade stationed in the Arctic, close to the Finnish border. The increased military presence in the region is a sign of Russia’s growing Arctic ambitions at a time when receding ice is making the energy resources it holds more accessible than ever.
In much the same way as extracting oil from the North Sea was considered to be an engineering challenge in the 1970s as nobody had operated drilling platforms so far north in such difficult weather conditions before, the Arctic poses similar barriers today. With water up to 5km (3.1 miles) deep in places and largely covered with ice, the Arctic is arguably the hardest place in the world to drill for oil.
But then, nobody has attempted anything like Project Iceberg before.
The Foundation for Advanced Studies, the Russian equivalent of America’s Darpa, states it is planning “fully autonomous underwater, under-ice, development of hydrocarbon fields in the Arctic seas with severe ice conditions”. In other words: oil-seeking robotic submarines.
But there are some who suggest Iceberg’s stated goals are unrealistic – and that they may be a smokescreen for the development of military systems that can be deployed under the ice.
What is almost certain is that the project will add muscle to Russia’s vast territorial claims in the Arctic, which are currently under consideration by the UN.
***
The centrepiece of Iceberg is the 182m-long (600 ft) Belgorod, the largest nuclear submarine ever built. The Belgorod will carry out underwater surveys and lay communication cables under the ice, but its main role will be to act as a mothership for a flotilla of smaller submarines.
“The Belgorod submarine is a platform for deployment of various systems, including ones that do not yet exist,” says Vadim Kozyulin, a defence analyst at PIR Centre, a thinktank focusing on security issues.
This is the reason for the sub’s enormous size: a new 30m (100 ft) section has been added with docking facilities for both manned and unmanned submarines.
Perhaps the most ambitious part of Project Iceberg are the plans for the word’s first underwater nuclear power plants to act as pitstops for the swarms of submarines
But perhaps the most ambitious part of Project Iceberg are the plans for the word’s first underwater nuclear power plants to act as pitstops for the swarms of submarines that will be deployed.
These underwater power stations will sit on the sea bed and act as recharging points for passing unmanned subs. The current design is for a 24-megawatt reactor with a lifetime of 25 years. Each one will operate almost entirely autonomously with technicians only visiting once a year for routine maintenance.
But Russia has a poor record on nuclear safety at sea, having lost seven nuclear submarines since 1961, some of them because of reactor problems. Accidents on board vessels operated by the former Soviet Union account for 14 of the most deadly nuclear incidents to have occurred at sea. In one case the entire sub was exposed to high radiation levels, while another suffered a loss of coolant and a partial reactor meltdown. One such accident was dramatised in the Hollywood movie K-19: The Widowmaker.
Russian power company Nikiet actually suggests that having no human operators will improve safety. No humans means less risk of human errors like the one which lead to the Chernobyl disaster, where operators overrode the safety systems that would have shut the reactor down.
“My sense is that much of the nuclear technology proposed here is mature and well understood,” says William Nuttall, professor of energy at The Open University in the UK.
Eugene Shwageraus of Cambridge University’s Nuclear Energy Centre says that while the reactor might be unmanned, it could still be supervised, and in that sense it would be similar to many modern reactors which require little operator engagement day-to-day.
“Today’s reactors are already quite ‘autonomous’, producing power 24/7 with reactor operators just observing the plant diagnostic instruments’ readings,” says Shwageraus.
The underwater reactors are said to be at an advanced stage of development, with the aim of having the first one operational by 2020
The underwater reactors are said to be at an advanced stage of development, with the aim of having the first one operational by 2020. And while there will be some humans involved in this aspect of Project Iceberg, many other routine operations will be carried out by robots alone.
The workhorses will be deepwater unmanned submarines or autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). AUVs are currently used in small numbers by many nations, and generally under close operator control rather than roving freely. Russia has previously lagged in this area, but they seem to be catching up.
The Harpsichord-2R-PM AUV has been developed for Iceberg, and is intended to be the forerunner of a whole family of different underwater vehicles. This two-tonne, 6m-long (20ft) torpedo-like craft is currently being tested in the Black Sea but has also being used to help in the recovery of crashed aircraft. In 2009, one of these AUV’s located a Russian Navy plane, which had crashed killing all 11 people on board during a training flight. The plane had come down in the sea off Sakhalin, a Russian island near Japan, but the search on the surface was hampered by ice and severe weather. The AUV’s ability to operate by itself beneath the waves allowed it to successfully recover the black box flight recorders needed to help determine the cause of the crash.
While AUVs are often already used for underwater surveying, there is no precedent for using them to drill on the sea bed. Igor Vilnit, head of Russia’s largest submarine design company the Rubin Central Design Bureau for Marine Engineering, claims they are on course to have a working AUV drill in action in as little as five years.
Amid all this drilling and underwater exploration, though, there are bigger changes afoot that extend beyond even the simmering political tensions. Climate change is hastening the melting of the Arctic’s ice caps – this presents a slew of challenges for the indigenous peoples who call the region home, as well as for wildlife, like polar bears.
But as rising temperatures melt the Arctic ice cap, leaving the region more hospitable and accessible, climate change is also likely to exacerbate the political turmoil in the area too.
***
At a conference in March, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said development of the Arctic region would help to build neighbourly relations with surrounding states and that it should be a "territory of peace and cooperation". But this is hardly consistent with other Russian activity in the area.
Some 50 former Soviet Arctic military bases have recently been reactivated. The Russian army has new Arctic Brigades, and showed off special military vehicles for polar operations in this year’s May Day parade. Russia‘s Northern Fleet is also to get its own advanced icebreaker, as well as “ice capable” patrol vessels, essentially mini-icebreakers armed with anti-ship missiles.
Project Iceberg is also going ahead in the face of sanctions imposed by Western countries against Russia in the wake of its annexation of Crimea. The sanctions restricted the access that Russia’s oil and gas companies had to the sort of foreign finance and technology needed to develop wells in the difficult Arctic environment. Instead Russia has chosen to go it alone. Earlier this year the country began a complex horizontal drilling operation from a remote peninsula on the edge of the Laptev Sea to reach oil reserves up to 15km (9.3 miles) under the frozen ocean.
The underwater water reactors might, for example be used to power Russia’s planned sonar fence, known as Harmony, which detects and tracks Nato submarines
But Kozyulin is dubious about the chain of underwater nuclear recharging stations that are planned under Project Iceberg, calling them “too fantastic”. He asks why, if this is supposedly a commercial drilling operation, are Gazprom or one of Russia’s other oil companies not involved? Kozyulin finds it easier to believe Iceberg’s true purpose is a military one. The underwater water reactors might, for example, be used to power Russia’s planned sonar fence, known as Harmony, which detects and tracks Nato submarines.
Russia is pursuing claims for an expanded underwater territory in the Arctic with the UN's Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf. These claims conflict with those of other nations including Canada, says Stephen Blank, a Russia expert at the American Foreign Policy Council. Russia has had some success with UN claims in the past.
“The Commission gave Russia the right to extensive holdings in the Sea of Okhotsk (in the Western Pacific) in 2013,” says Blank. “Moscow promptly converted it into an exclusive naval bastion and preserve for its energy companies. That would likely serve as a precedent regarding the Arctic.”
Blank believes the Russian military build-up is due to fears that other nations might try to seize the energy resources in the Arctic first.
“It would not surprise me if they have also had a secret deep-water deployment of some sort for some time,” says Blank.
It is hard to tell if the Iceberg plan to exploit Arctic gas and oil is realistic, or whether Russia simply wants to secure the territory so that it can exploit it at some time in the future.
What nobody should doubt is Russia’s determination that if anyone is to profit from the Arctic, it will be them.
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If you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter, called “If You Only Read 6 Things This Week”. A handpicked selection of stories from BBC Future, Earth, Culture, Capital, and Travel, delivered to your inbox every Friday.The House of Commons is debating an NDP motion Tuesday that calls on the government to halt its plan to dismantle the wheat board's exclusive rights to market Prairie wheat and grain.
Manitoba MP Niki Ashton's motion, up for debate on a scheduled Opposition day when her NDP caucus has an opportunity to set the agenda, calls on the government to respect that "farmers have a democratic right to determine the future of their own supply management tools and marketing boards."
The motion would set aside the same legislation the House voted in favour of sending to committee at second reading on Monday night.
Ashton's motion calls for a "full and free" vote to be held to determine what Prairie farmers want for the existing Canadian Wheat Board's "single desk" system, through which all wheat and barley grown inside defined boundaries in Western Canada must be sold.
Ashton's motion "That, in the opinion of the House, farmers have a democratic right to determine the future of their own supply management tools and marketing boards; and recognizing this right, the House calls on the government to set aside its legislation abolishing the Canada Wheat Board (CWB) single desk and to conduct a full and free vote by all current members of the CWB to determine their wishes, and calls on the government to agree to honour the outcome of that democratic process."
"How can they stand in opposition to the idea that farmers should be deciding their destiny?" Ashton asked, kicking off the debate on Tuesday morning.
The government has not conducted a vote to determine if a majority of farmers who sell their grain through the existing wheat board want its monopoly removed. The wheat board itself conducted a plebiscite this summer on the topic, with a small majority voting in favour of the existing single desk system.
Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz has dismissed the wheat board's plebiscite results as an "expensive survey" and less representative of what Prairie farmers want than the fact that Conservative MPs were elected in rural ridings across Western Canada on a platform to dismantle the board's monopoly.
Ashton denounced the Harper government's "arrogance" in claiming to know what western Canadian farmers want based only on the results of the last general election.
Farmers to lose role
The wheat board has functioned as a "shared governance" organization since legislation in 1998 transformed it from a Crown corporation to one in which farmer-elected representatives hold the majority of the seats on its board.
The government's legislation would dismiss the 10 farmer-elected board members, leaving in place only the five government-appointed members.
The remaining board members would be tasked with developing a viable plan for the wheat board to continue to function as a voluntary grain pool organization. During this transition period, the government would continue to finance some of the board's business.
In five years' time, if the government does not agree that a viable plan is in place for the board's future as a voluntary entity in an open market system, the board could be shut down entirely.
During the debate on Tuesday, Ritz called his government's plans "democracy at work," saying that the NDP's "fear mongering" will not stop the "marketing freedom" Conservatives promised in the last election. Ritz also warned that opposition "scare tactics" could "destabilize a multi-billion-dollar western grain industry" and "undermine the livelihoods of thousands of grain farmers of all sizes."
Ritz said the marketing conditions of 2011 are "not similar to those of 1943" when the mandatory wheat board system began. "Refusing to adapt and evolve is not a recipe for success, but a guarantee of long-term stagnation," he said.
"Right now farmers are voting with their air seeders and their trucks" by growing other crops, Ritz said, noting that when oats were taken out of the wheat board's marketing system in the late '80s, the total acreage of oats planted in Manitoba increased and new processing plants were built as a result of the change.
The government believes new opportunities will be available for wheat and barley growers if this legislation passes. Ritz noted that for the first time ever, the Minneapolis Grain Exchange will be allowing Canadian grain to be used to settle futures contracts.
"The IntercontinentalExchange Futures Canada in Winnipeg has announced that its own spring wheat futures contract based in western Canada will be ready for trading as soon as the bill receives royal assent," Ritz added, calling these futures markets an "important risk management tool" that would soon be available to Canadian producers.
Motion likely doomed
The Conservative government is expected to use its majority to defeat the NDP motion and continue with its plans to transform the wheat board.
Previously, the government used time allocation to limit the amount of time the House of Commons would debate its legislation before the vote on second reading.
The bill has now been sent to a special legislative committee for review. Because Conservative MPs hold the majority on that committee, no significant delays are expected before the legislation is sent back to the House for a final vote.
On Tuesday in question period, Manitoba MP Kevin Lamoureux asked for the committee to hold meetings in Western Canada so grain farmers could appear as expert witnesses to share their views on the bill. Ritz said that wasn't necessary because government MPs hear from farmers every weekend when they return home to their ridings.
"That's what we do for fun," Ritz said, "and [farmers] continue to tell us get this job done."
Ritz hopes the wheat board legislation can clear the Senate and become law before the end of 2011, allowing farmers and other businesses involved in the Prairie grain industry to prepare for selling the 2012 wheat and barley crops on the open market.
On Monday, NDP MP Pat Martin asked the ethics commissioner to review potential conflicts of interest on the part of seven Conservative MPs who have personal or family business interests in Prairie grain farming.
One of the Tories Martin named was David Anderson, the parliamentary secretary responsible for the Canadian Wheat Board.
"If the government is going to allow government MPs who are in a conflict of interest to vote, why won't they let Prairie farmers vote on how they want to market their grain themselves?" Martin asked in question period on Tuesday.
Anderson was under fire separately on Monday when he was found to have posted an animated video on his website in which a fictional wheat board bureaucrat tells a young farmer character who wants to market his own crop to "slow down, young man. You are talking Eskimo."
National Inuit leader Mary Simon called it a racist slur.
In a written statement on Tuesday, Anderson said the video was removed as soon as he became aware of the offending language. However, the animation was still available in the site's video gallery on Tuesday afternoon.
"I was assured that the video had been removed," Ritz said when Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett asked for an apology. "If it hasn't, it will be coming down."This story originally appeared on Grist, and it is reproduced with permission.
You know all that pollution that we’ve been dumping into the oceans for decades? All the plastic, DDT, PCBs, mercury, etc. that we’ve been shamelessly washing away like the memories of too many tequila shots and poor decisions? Well, like those tequila shots the next morning, it looks like it’s all coming back up.
Here’s the rub: When we dump chemicals into the ocean, they get absorbed by microbes, which then get eaten by fish, which then get eaten by bigger fish and other animals until, over time, these chemicals accumulate in those larger animals.
Fulmars—seabirds that live in northern Canada—are one such animal. And according to Mark Mallory, a biologist at Acadia University in Nova Scotia, these fulmars eventually bring our discarded chemicals back on land…in the most disgusting way possible. Here’s more from Smithsonian:
[Mallory’s] studies found that fulmars are like the great cleaners of the ocean, ingesting a lot of plastic as well as chemicals that sometimes adhere to plastic. When the birds get back to Cape Vera, they vomit or defecate onto the cliffs, and the contaminants are then washed down into the freshwater pools beneath.
The nutrients from the fulmar guano bring algae and moss but also attract small midges and other aquatic insects—a tasty snack for Snow Buntings, largely terrestrial birds that will feed the bugs to their chicks.
Unfortunately for those adorable little Snow Buntings, their tasty snacks are also filled with chemicals, and thus, the game of pass-the-pollutant continues.
“We may think of the Arctic as this remote, pristine region, but it’s not,” adds Jennifer Provencher, a graduate student in eco-toxicology at Carleton University in Canada who frequently collaborates with Mallory. Provencher has found plastic and chemicals in the stomachs and livers of the Thick-billed Murres that live on the cliffs of Coats Island in the north of Hudson Bay. She has also found that Great Skuas can ingest plastic from preying on northern fulmars.
The winged predators aren’t the only things with an appetite for birds. Provencher says that the Inuit in northern communities eat murres…That means the junk we dump into the oceans could be coming back to affect human health.
Veronica Padula, a researcher who studies seabirds off the Alaskan coast, told Smithsonian that she’s found significant concentrations of phthalates—chemicals used to make plastics flexible and harder to break—in kittiwakes, Horned Puffins, and Red-faced Cormorants. She says that these chemicals ultimately get into the birds’ reproductive tissue and perhaps even into their eggs, which could then infect egg-eaters like eagles and foxes.
And in case you’re still not convinced that our pollution is coming back to haunt us, a recent study found that three species of Canadian waterfowl that humans hunt for food contained plastics and metals in their stomachs.
“It’s actually quite scary, especially when you start looking at what these chemicals do,” Padula told Smithsonian. “You kind of want to find a bunker and hide.”
You probably also wanted to find a bunker and hide the morning after that alcohol-soaked rager. But deep down, you knew that you were getting exactly what you deserved. That wasn’t your first rodeo, and, still, you downed those shots like a freshman at welcome week.
Likewise, bird shit laced with toxic chemicals is exactly what we deserve now—we had our rocky initiation at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, and here we are again. So what say we cut back on the pollution, buy some fancy beers, and play this drinking game to Planet Earth like grownups?
Grist is a nonprofit news site that uses smarts and humor to shine a light on the big green issues changing our world. Get Grist in your inbox here, and follow them on Facebook and Twitter.Owen Coyle says that Wigan Athletic had a bid rejected for AS Monaco striker Emmanuel Riviere.
Wigan Athletic manager Owen Coyle has revealed that he tried to sign AS Monaco striker Emmanuel Riviere during the transfer window.
The 23-year-old is currently Ligue 1's top scorer, having netted five times since the start of the season including the winning goal in the 2-1 victory over Marseille on Sunday.
Coyle admitted that he had lodged a bid for the Frenchman but was knocked back by the league leaders.
"We did make offers for strikers, because I do think we're short in that area, but it didn't happen," Coyle told Wigantoday.net. "There was one in particular, Emmanuel Riviere, who we bid £5m for a couple of weeks ago. But it's sod's law that he started the season with five goals in three games which put paid to that.
"He got a hattrick the other week,but even as late as Sunday there was a chance of it happening because they were chasing a lad at Atletico Madrid. We made our offer again, and he was only named on the bench against Marseille.
"I'm watching the game thinking: 'Fine, just don't put him on, we've still got a chance here.' But [Radamel] Falcao turned his ankle at 1-1, Riviere came on, left his two markers for dead and scored the winning goal against the top of the league! Claudio Ranieri rightly wants to keep him now, which I totally understand. If we could have brought him here it would have been an unbelievable signing for us."
Riviere joined Monaco in January.A couple of months ago, I headed out to Ukraine with my friend Al for a trip. You can read about the time we spent in Kiev in this post.
As part of the trip, we decided to take a day ‘tour’ to Chernobyl, and the nearby abandoned town of Pripyat. Yes… the site of the 1986 nuclear disaster.
Visiting such a place seems like a strange thing to do, and I was a bit hesitant at first, as I don’t really want to be a gawping tourist of tragedy. However, there are two different ‘exclusion zones’ around the plant, and you need to pass through military checkpoints where your passport is checked before you are allowed to enter. While there are some people who stay on the outskirts, it is estimated that nobody will ever be able to live inside the 30km exclusion zone again. It’s simply too contaminated.
The only real way for foreigners to see the area is to go with a registered guide, but as we were told, we weren’t tourists, we were ‘visitors who were interested in the impact of radiation on the local wildlife’. An interesting disinction presumably made by the Ukranian government somewhere to justify letting people in. Sadly Al wasn’t able to come, as he felt ill, so I braved the radiation on my own.
So there’s a thing. The radiation level was fairly minimal in the air itself, but we were warned not to touch the ground or any plants… etc. They said that we wouldn’t be allowed back out of the exclusion zone without being decontaminated if we got particles on our clothes… but the machines they used to check our exposure on the way out seemed more for show than anything, so I’m not really sure how much truth was in those warnings, or whether it was just security theatre.
What was interesting was that there were a number of ‘hot spots’ throughout the exclusion zone where they believe that radioactive material had been buried at some point, and we were able to see the numbers on our geiger counters shoot up as we got closer to them. The signs apparently marked out where these were, but they did say that tresspassers liked to sneak in and move these around for a joke. (!)
One particular story that struck me was how after the initial meltdown, radiation blew into a nearby forest, turning the leaves of the trees red. Not knowing what to do with them, the Soviets cut down the trees and buried them – which irradiated the entire area and water table. Normally in the minibus we had, radiation levels were pretty low, but when we drove over where the red forest used to be, it shot through the roof. It’s apparently one of the most heavily radioactive areas in the world.
Another interesting thing was seeing the wildlife in the exclusion zone. For whatever reason, the animals seem to have been unaffected by the high levels of radiation, and have flourished in the absence of human development. It was really interesting to see how they interacted with people given this… There were a lot of stray dogs for example, who wanted to come say hello.
and a bunch of foxes, who were incredibly curious and at peace with humans. It was a very surreal experience.
I have to admit to not knowing a whole lot about the Chernobyl disaster before I visited Ukraine, and it all kind of took me aback. The USSR kept the meltdown a secret from the rest of the world until unusually high levels of radiation were discovered at plants in Sweden, which is pretty mind blowing.
What was even more crazy was discovering just how ill-equipped the Soviets were for something of this magnitude. It took them a long time to work out what was happening, and when they did, their initial actions risked a second and third explosion that could have wiped out most of Europe. That was only averted by the actions of some incredibly brave firefighters and divers who went deep into the heart of the affected area, ultimately sacraficing themselves to horrible deaths to – literally – save the world. It was a pretty humbling thing to be in that place and learn about.
As part of the trip we were able to get pretty close to Reactor 4 which was the epicentre of the disaster, which is now covered with a specially designed sarcophagus. They’re not really sure what to do with such an enormous amount of radiation, and so it remains in place, sealed up.
What is perhaps craziest of all is that the plant’s other reactors were still functioning even up until recently – and people still work there, though they are limited by how long they can stay nearby in a month.
On a lighter note, there was one remaining statue of Lenin, just outside of where the workers would stay. The rest of them have been torn down, but this one was left… because, hey… who cares about a statute left standing in a place nobody can live?
We visited a bunch of small villages and towns in the lead up to the plant. It was pretty crazy to see just how much nature had taken over in such a short space of time. In the picture below, this ‘path’ used to be a town’s main road.
Technically you are not supposed to go inside the buildings, out of health and safety concerns (if you’ve read my Kiev blog you might find this ironic), but clearly this wasn’t enforced too strictly. That said, apparently if a guide was caught inside a building, they would lose their license – and if a regular person is caught without a guide nearby, even outside, then they are treated as a ‘stalker’, and immediately put in jail for 15 days (!).
Of course, we took a look inside some buildings.
There were some things inside these places that had clearly been placed in a certain way for visual effect. Knowing that didn’t make it any less creepy… in fact it probably made it even creepier, thinking of other people being in the same, isolated place. From reviews online, it had been made out like the guides were the ones who had set this stuff up, but it seemed more likely from spending time with ours that it was actually unauthorised visitors to the area before they clamped down on things a bit.
Either way, it made for some interesting scenes. This was legitimately a nursery at the time the disaster happened.
Whilst the outlying towns were pretty fascinating, Pripyat itself was on another level. A proper city with all the amenities you would expect, it was largely home to workers from the plant and their families. It had a population of just over 49,000 at the time of the disaster. To give you an idea of size, that is about 13,000 more people than the city of Stirling.
There was a fair amount of distance to be explored, as you can imagine, and our guide said that even if you spent ten years here you’d never quite be able to see it all. It was pretty difficult to navigate at times, as everything had been overtaken by nature again. Our guide had photographs showing what certain areas looked like, which was pretty mindblowing to see. The stadium, for example… which was now completely covered in trees:
It was an utterly surreal experience, and it felt like we had been dropped into the set of a video game. It turns out that Pripyat actually is used as a level in Call of Duty, which I’m not surprised about at all.
We opted to veer off the scheduled plan, and headed up to the roof of one of the flats, to get a view over the city – something that groups don’t usually do.
We climbed up about ten floors of old concrete steps, probably inhaling asbestos and all sorts as we went, to pull ourselves through an old hatch on the roof.
The view was worth it though, even if it did start to piss it down with rain.
There were a few other main sights to see, like the school and leisure centre.
The school is probably one of the most famous scenes, thanks to the presence of the gas masks that are lying all over the floor, and hanging from the roof.
Our guide explained that this whole thing was totally set up by a French journalist who came in the 90s or early 2000s to document Pripyat. They found boxes of gas masks that were kept in the school to use to teach children how to put them on properly during the cold war, and spread them all over the place for added effect – which is where they’ve stayed to this day.
One of the most impressive sights though was the swimming pool, with its diving board, and huge windows that were blown out (or panned in?) long ago.
Finally, possibly the most infamous of all of the sights in Pripyat – the fun fair.
As the story goes, this Ferris Wheel was set to open the day after the disaster, and so children ever got to go on it. Pretty eery.
Before we headed back to Kiev, we took one final stop at a structure so large that the scale was utterly impossible to capture, even with a wide angle lens.
This mammoth construction legitimately looks like something a James Bond villian would have erected. In reality, it was apparently a top secret missile detection system built during the cold war. Even on military maps, it remained unmarked, and it was only discovered as a result of the disaster. If Chernobyl hadn’t happened, then it is believed that the Soviets would have torn it down before anybody knew about it. It remains a mystery, as nobody knows how long it took to build, when it was built, or much else about it at all. It goes on for about as far as the eye can see, and is pretty unbelievably striking. I can’t really describe just how massive and intimidating it is in person.
And that was that. I left more fascinated by Chernobyl and the surrounding areas that I was when I arrived. If I ever got the chance to go back, I definitely would.
Here’s a short video with some more pictures:
AdvertisementsIn an effort to untangle itself from its parent company, the France-based Atari SA, Atari US has filed for bankruptcy and will sell all its assets in the next three to four months. They have already locked down a debtor-in-possession investment of $5.25M from investment advisory Tenor Capital Management and hope the move will land them some fresh business.
What assets are on the auction block? That would be classic franchises like Pong, Centipede, Missile Command and Asteroids, so Hollywood get out your checkbooks for those film rights. Wait, you're telling me there's already an Asteroids movie in development? Of course there is.
Also for sale is the logo of the company itself, making you wonder what exactly they'll have left other than a name when this is all over. But such are the drastic steps required in this tough economic climate and even legends aren't safe. In its tumultuous 40 year history, Atari has consumed companies and been bought and sold quite a bit, and this might just be the latest step as the brand carries on through the years.
If you bought Atari, what would you do with it?Now, I did a make pretend comic about my border crossing and I blogged an abridged version of what actually happened on the Canadian border and though this comic IS slightly exaggerated, it is the whole story.
The funny thing about crossing the border for the first time is that it makes you feel like you are doing something wrong even when you’re on a totally legal voyage. Everyone warned me to just lie about what cargo I had and what I intended to do with it. I, foolishly, decided to be honest. To be fair the border guard was an attractive woman in full body armor and a steely gaze. I felt that she looked directly into my soul. I mentioned that I was going to a convention and had prints and exactly how much I had and for what I was join got sell them. She then directed me to pull over to the commercial lane, after more than a few sighs and admonishing comments about “rules set in place for crossing the border for a reason” and what not.
I then was pulled out of line and directed by two more very bored border guards to the commercial lane where another attractive, yet stern woman directed me to “get out of your vehicle and come inside” to which I replied “do I leave my care here and just get out?” She then very angrily scoffed, “No, park first!” (She was disgusted that I was not, in fact, psychic). I then parked and was about to walk into the only door I saw on the imposing concrete building (which was the guard post door. It would’ve been really bad if I had tried to open that door), when a kind construction worker pointed me down a hidden gravel path that lead to the actual entrance (I am not exaggerating this part at all).
Once inside the paramilitary installation, the two large and mustached guards behind a bullet proof window were quite bothered with the fact that they needed to talk to an American and that I couldn’t relay all information they needed to them in a nanosecond. I finally relayed all the necessary info and they couldn’t keep from chuckling every other word in light of my difficult situation.
They would not let me throw or give my prints away. I said, “Well I won’t sell them then, I’ll just give them away at the con” to which they replied, “How would we know that that was true?” Now, I didn’t want to push my luck, so I didn’t say what was on my mind; “How would you know either way?” They said I could file for a code that would take up to 3 days to process, so that wasn’t an option. The only option I had was to go back to America. They did give me a piece of paper telling the US border guard the situation so that no more problems arose.
Once back in Detroit (yeah, I crossed over at Detroit) I found the only parking spot in the entire city and called my wife to see what she thought I should do. There were a few heated exchanges and I landed on sending the prints across the border overnight. You may wondering “Why didn’t you just turn around and try to cross back over and NOT declare your prints?” Well, I’ll tell you. They specifically told me NOT to try that because my license plate had been entered into the computer and they would know.
At this point I have sent the prints over the border and added $240 to my trip and am somewhat nervous to try a return trip. So I man up and head back towards the Great White North. It’s finally my turn at the guard booth (Different from the first I should clarify) and the young man inside didn’t even ask me about anything except what I was doing in Canada and how long I was staying. I COULD”VE JUST LIED AND SAVED $240!
So this, ladies and gentlemen was my first experience with Canada. May your journeys go more smoothly.
P.S. They never probed me physically though they did used there authority and words to abuse me mentally.
Happy Wednesday,
JavisThe competition between television content distributors - traditional cable, satellite TV, streaming-video companies, and even the pirates out there - has just crossed an important line. Dish Network chomped firmly on the hand that feeds it by providing a new service called “Auto Hop,” which allows consumers to press a button to skip entire advertising pods during a TV show.
DVRs were bad enough, but at least they required a little work, if not skill, to successfully execute. Not to mention the consumer would still sort of see the ads as they whipped by at 4X speed.
But one button and POOF?
It's time for advertisers to take action.
Yes, there are some hurdles for consumers to jump in order to "Auto Hop" that you can read about in Eric Savitz's article, "Dish: Prime Time TV, No Ads; Can They Get Away With That?" But Advertisers can no longer just sit back and watch the content distribution market fight each other for dominance. Not when part of that fight now includes sacrificing the exposure those advertisers have paid for, which, in turn, pays for the very content these distributors are distributing.
Dish Chairman, |
the Jets, and just as Pittsburgh did with the Penguins. That's, frankly, why Edmonton, like very small markets, has to decide if it wants to be a major league city. At some point, all small markets need to decide if they want professional sports franchises. If they do, they need to develop viable P3 models to attract and retain pro sports franchises. You know, that's especially the case for Edmonton, which is one of the smallest pro sports markets in North America. That's the case. That's the key takeaway here. The other thing we have to realize, I think it's important, is that it's not particularly productive to discuss or debate the specific individual elements of the funding framework. What matters, as Mayor Mandel has said, is that the whole package works, and the whole package here is a) the opportunity here to sustain the Oilers and then, through the Oilers, to turn Edmonton's downtown into a magnet for new people and new investment, and b) to expand Edmonton's taxbase by billions of dollars for the benefit of the entire city. It's clear we're willing to partner with the city to meet this need to try to capitalize on the opportunity, but we can only do so on terms that are fair and make sense for both sides. That means for us we need a deal that is commensurate with other small markets, even though Edmonton is one of the smallest of small markets, and even though the city of Edmonton gets way more upside through downtown revitalization and the CRL than you would normally find in other markets. I think the other point to make is the deal presents little risk for the city because the city needs a new arena anyways. For our part, on the other hand, we're taking a lot of risk by committing to one of the NHL's smallest markets for 35 years, which by its nature, (is) a relatively small reward on the hockey side (but) a bigger reward on the real estate side, however, that carries with it its own risks and uncertainties. So, fundamentally, all we want is a model that will sustain the team for the long term and is on par with other small markets and what they've done to sustain their teams.
But, you know guys, notwithstanding everything, all the hurdles, we've never been more excited about the potential for Edmonton to have this world-class arena at the heart of a world-class sports and entertainment district in the heart of a great city. We know that everyone loves the design. It would be an incredible signature landmark for the city and not just because the building is a good-looking building, (but) because we've listened to the public. It's sensitive to an urban landscape and everything else that can be done around it by us and others. Aside from that, let's face it, we've obviously just as excited about our team. We really feel this whole project is far too important to fail. We're confident we can get a deal done if the city will work with us creatively and constructively towards a solution that works for both parties.” David Staples: As part of the New York agreement, the city agreed to approach the province about this casino issue you are asking about, seeing if they can help you out in some way with the casino. So my understanding is they’ve made this approach to the province. What exactly do you want in terms of a casino? What kind of revenue would it generate, what kind of split would you get, and have you approached the province yourself about this matter because it’s their decision, not the city’s, as you know. DK: David, look, I’m not going to get into the specifics or comment on what’s been reported. We committed not to negotiate this deal in public and we’re going to keep our commitment. But I can tell you that the incremental costs when compared to the incremental revenue in this deal are not enough for us to justify a 35-year commitment in one of the league’s smallest markets. We don’t care if it’s a casino or a gaming initiative or something else. We need a mechanism to offset capital and operating costs just like Pittsburgh and Winnipeg. Casino and gaming is just one way and it happens to be used in other markets all over North America. That’s why it was part of the initial framework because it’s used in other parts of North America. That’s neither really here nor there, whether it’s casino gaming or something else. Pittsburgh has a complete reversion of their ticket tax to the team. They’ve used that in a way to subsidize operating costs. Winnipeg has all kinds of subsidies from business subsidies to property tax subsidies to gaming subsidies to a whole whack of things, so we’re not set on casino gaming. It was merely a mechanism in the initial framework that everybody knew had to be delivered in one context or another to make the funding model and the framework work DS: How would you say in terms of the city’s take-up of this issue on the casino, or on this particular issue, (city councilors) (Kim) Krushell’s saying she’s surprised at the Katz Group’s new demands, Bryan Anderson saying he’s taken aback. In terms of their take-up of your issue here on the casino money, how would you characterize what you’re thinking about the negotiations and where it’s at and what’s your state of mind?
DK: Well, David, the New York City framework was clear on a number of things, OK? Nobody should be surprised, in our view, and as I said in my initial statement, this is not a new thing. This goes back a long time. Why the councilors were surprised – the mayor and the administration certainly shouldn’t be because the framework goes back a long time and the New York meeting was almost a year ago – I can tell you, though, the New York framework was very clear on a shared vision for a new arena that enriches Edmonton, revitalizes downtown and serves as a catalyst for this billion-dollar CRL, and it was very clear that a condition of the deal had to be to ensure the Oilers’ sustainability long term. Now, the vision stands, but based on everything we know, subsequent to the New York framework, some things have changed. The costs of the arena and the winter garden are higher. Based on the design of the building, revenues will be lower, costs will be more than expected. The casino that was contemplated in the framework to act as a mechanism to help offset operating costs hasn’t happened, so that’s a change — merely one way to skin the cat. We have a better understanding now of things like taxes and what’s been done in other markets. We also have a better understanding, to be frank, that the CRL is going to be double in value relative to what it was supposed to be. So we have things that have changed, but I can tell you one thing that has not changed is the recognition in the initial framework that we require this mechanism to offset capital and offset operating costs, and casino or gaming – Winnipeg does it by casino/gaming, Pittsburgh does it I think by casino – was penciled in as the way to facilitate that. Relative to what the city has done with the province – you’ll have to ask them – we’ve been told by the city from the offset relative to this and other matters dealing with the province to let them deal with it. DS: So you haven’t approached the province yourself? DK: Our people have had discussions, but I don’t know precisely the specifics. As with everything having to do with the province, these things are kind of bigger picture arrangements between the province and the city. DS: You brought up the Winnipeg deal a few times. Mayor Mandel might say you can’t cherry-pick good things from the Winnipeg deal because, he would point out, the Winnipeg arena was built from the start largely with private money – yes, going forward, there are these subsidies in various tax concessions and also some lottery money – but at the start, there was far, far more private money going in than we see in Edmonton. So, in total, he’s characterizing the Edmonton deal as a very generous offer from the city to an NHL team – that’s what he said on the radio last week. What would you say to his position?
DK: Well, relative to Winnipeg, the MTS Centre was built in 2004 for $144 million. It’s a different day, it’s a different time, it’s a different project, and costs are different. Of that amount, I think $54 million came from various orders of the government. But the one big difference, David, is the arena is 100 per cent privately owned. In Edmonton, the city way back insisted on owning the arena. Now, I might feel differently if I owned the arena, but I don’t. The city is going to and they want to. Winnipeg’s entire subsidy, operating capital – irrespective of the original capital costs, which was 10 years ago – is over $12.5 million a year. Now Pittsburgh, which is maybe a more direct comparison because it’s a newer facility, was built in 2008 for about $320 million, probably consistent with our price today adjusted for inflation. The team made no upfront capital investment, they paid a rental number -- $5 million a year – they pay no property tax, they have complete reversion of the ticket tax, and they have a cap on capital maintenance. And you know what? That market is three times the size of the Edmonton market. Three times. DS: I want to ask you about the CRL. New property taxes from this new development around the arena if it’s built will be gathered in a downtown community revitalization levy, which the city estimates will raise conservatively $1 billion in new property taxes over 20 years. So $45 million of that as you said is slated to go to pay for the new arena. Is that the right amount? If not, why not, and how much should it be? DK: Well, David, you know, our position is this deal has to be a win-win for everyone, and you have to look at all of these things, what’s reasonable in the context of the deal. And the CRL, you’re quite correct, is something that is unique to the Edmonton structure. For instance, they didn’t have that in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh did not get an enormous annuity and windfall when they cut the deal with the Penguins. Our initial belief was the revenues from the CRL could finance the whole cost of the arena because, at the time, it was worth $1.2 billion. The city then said it wasn’t possible, even though $1.2 billion seems like a lot of money. They decided, for whatever reason – I don’t know why – that they’d only commit $45 million to the arena. That’s how we wound up with the ticket tax, because they wouldn’t commit more than $45 million from the CRL. Now we know that the current estimates are as much as $2.5 billion for the CRL. That’s something you really should ask the city because we’ve been trying to find out the right numbers and ask for the internal reports many times and we haven’t got them. What I can tell you, though, is that the windfall of the CRL, if it comes, will all be because the Katz Group and the Oilers are there to underpin the arena development, which brings us full circle back to the need for the Oilers to be sustainable for the long term.
DS: So how much of the CRL should go now, would you say.. What should we get from the CRL for the arena? DK: I’m not going to negotiate in public. I’ve suggested that already, and I can tell you you need to look at the facts and make some decisions. The CRL is a goldmine for the city. The Oilers are the anchor for the arena and the arena is the catalyst for the CRL. Some would argue it should pay for the whole arena. We’re not asking for that, David, OK? We’re willing to partner with the city to meet the needs of everyone and capitalize on the opportunity. All we’re asking for is a deal that’s fair and makes sense for both parties and that is commensurate with other small markets – i.e. Winnipeg and Pittsburgh – even though the City of Edmonton gets way more upside through revitalization and the CRL. John MacKinnon: Daryl, it’s John MacKinnon here. Just taking a bit of a different tack – and you’ve talked earlier in your own remarks of the timing of you coming publicly in this fashion -- as we talked about earlier as well, it coincides obviously with the onset of an NHL lockout, which was preceded by really a lot of spending on the part of owners around the league – not necessarily you guys, but certainly Minnesota spending like $100 million each basically for Parise and Suter and so forth. Is there a mixed message here -- the perception maybe from the public that the deal here may be changing or there’s a new or different ask coming to the public at a time when the league itself is in fact in lockout? Is that an unfortunate juxtaposition? DK: John, as I said to you, the ask for a mechanism to offset capital costs has been in the framework from the beginning. I have no idea why it’s such a surprise to members of council. Relative to the lockout – lookit, the only people that can talk about the lockout are Gary Bettman and Bill Daly, but I will answer your question on timing and why now, OK John? If we don’t move quickly, this deal’s done. Time is our enemy. This thing’s been going on for four and a half years. Our lease expires in less than 24 months. Costs are mounting every day on the design process. Construction-cost inflation in Alberta is a fact of life. The longer it takes, the more it will cost. Even if we were to stop the design process now, we’re looking at an additional $25 million in costs just from the design fees and construction-cost inflation in Alberta. At some point – and that point’s soon – the costs will become prohibitive for everyone and there’ll be no project. That’s why time and delays are our enemy right now. JM: You mention earlier – and again, just referring to this apparent disconnect from your point of view, these components of the formula have been there all along – but for whatever reason this has occurred, you have seemingly some councillors, at any rate, who were – I don’t think they were pretending to be surprised or somewhat taken aback – obviously, to facilitate, to move this forward, the relationship between you and that council has to be I think sorted out, at this point. And you indicate it’s really not your business. But pragmatically, how do we get to that at this point.
DK: Well, John, my team … if you want to look at our track record and judge the quality of our commitments and what we’ve done from the outset, we -- Katz Group -- have made our investments of time and money in absolute good faith and without regret. We do remain confident we can make this work if the city will work with us creatively and constructively. We continue to do that today with the administration. Just to put things in context, John, I think this is really important that we look at how we really got here, all right? Because people forget. I bought the Oilers because EIG (Edmonton Investors Group) was fractured and Edmonton’s ability to keep the team was at risk, OK? Nobody can doubt that. That was only four years ago. EIG knew and I knew that the key to Oilers’ sustainability was a new model and a new arena. I stepped up. Nobody else would, John, OK? I stepped up with two goals: to insure the Oilers’ long-term sustainability in Edmonton and to turn Edmonton’s need for a new arena into something unbelievable for the city. I’ve been at this five years, OK? I spent $200 million on the team, I’ve funded operating losses since, I’ve put $70 million into acquiring land. Nobody can question my good faith or my commitment. We’ve made enormous progress over the last five years that even relevant to this arena, we know what the public wants in terms of the design. We know what it’ll cost. We now know what the CRL will generate. We are determined to find a deal that works. We feel we’re close to realizing the opportunity, but only it achieves the fundamental goal of ensuring that the Oilers and the NHL are sustainable in one of the league’s smallest markets for the long term. The city has little risk, John, and every deal has to look at risk reward. So the city has little risk but they have enormous reward, because it needs a new arena that it otherwise would have to pay for by itself, and without us – so what do they get? They get a 35-year deal for the NHL in Edmonton; they get a subsidized arena because the NHL team is there to play in one of the league’s smallest markets; they get a revitalized downtown, that new downtown will drive a $2 billion-plus CRL annuity; Katz Group, for our part, we make a 35-year commitment to the NHL’s some would say smallest market, and we get a cost sharing of some elements but nothing yet that’s commensurate with Winnipeg, even Pittsburgh, which is three times the size of the Edmonton market. And neither Winnipeg nor Pittsburgh has the upside of the CRL to offset the investment they’re making to keep their pro sports franchise in the city. You look at the risk reward – in your mind, is that deal disproportionate? JM: Well, in the overall … DK: It’s a rhetorical question. You know what I mean?
JM: I do. You mentioned that – and this is clear and we’ve seen this happening over time and there’s been a lot of frustration and a lot of stakeholders hear about time passing and time passing and costs increasing and inflationary factors kicking into gear -- and you mention if something isn’t achieved soon, what does that mean? What is the timeframe, in your mind? What is sort of the drop-dead date? DK: Well, I think it comes down to construction costs. We were ready to go years ago. I don’t know the numbers, but I think in the last year – Bob (Black, Katz Group executive vice-president)’s got the numbers through Alberta Infrastructure – prices are up significantly in the last couple of years, let alone when the mayor’s leadership report four years ago said we should build a $450-million arena. A $450-million arena four years ago, I can tell you, sure isn’t a $450-million today. And if we wait because of the boom going on in Alberta, I’m very concerned this deal’s going to price itself out of the market. So when I say ready to go, we’d like to be able to agree on a deal within the next month or two, and we’d like to be able to break ground on the project in the spring and get had pricing late fall, or else costs could be up another 10 per cent, John. I mean, this thing has been dragging. Quebec City is in the ground before us and they started, like, three years after us. You know what I mean? It’s something like that. DS: Daryl, this is David again. Your lease is up in 2014 and kind of the implication of what you’re saying is if the city is going to do this on their own without the Oilers, it’s going to cost them a lot of money, so is the implication of that that one of the options is moving the team or selling the team to another location. Is that a possibility? DK: No, I was merely making the point, David, that other cities all around North America – from Quebec City to Kansas City to Seattle to Hamilton – build arenas on their own even if they don’t have an NHL or NBA team. Why? Because big cities need arenas, because they’re multi-purpose sports and entertainment venues. They are tantamount to infrastructure. For those cities who are fortunate enough to attract an NBA or an NHL team, those teams act as a subsidy for the city because they would otherwise be left with having to pay all the costs themselves. Kansas City is a perfect example. Brand-new arena, no NBA team, no NHL team. So, I’m saying Edmonton has to build one anyway. Why? Because our arena now was built in 1972 and is falling apart. So as a major-league city, you need a public sports and entertainment multipurpose venue. I was making a comparison to cities who have done this and continue to search for NBA and NHL teams. Relative to moving the team, I’m focused on making this deal work. God knows I’ve spent enough money. My wife thinks I’m nuts, OK? Guys, don’t laugh. I’m tellin’ ya, she thinks I’m nuts. If this doesn’t work, what can I say? Obviously, all bets are off, and we’ll have to figure out what comes next. And I don’t know what that will be, OK? That’s truthful. But I’m focused on making this work. And I’m continuing to spend a pile of money. And we just want a deal that’s commensurate with the other small markets even though the City of Edmonton is going to walk away with a $2-billion CRL that these other cities did not have.
DS: You called Edmonton, when you were first talking to us here, the smallest of small markets. My understanding, though, it’s more like a market right now in the range of the No. 10 market in the NHL, in there, and that you pay into revenue sharing in the NHL. So it’s not, right now, a small market. Some people would say it’s not a small market and that means that the Oilers are in a position to build the arena largely privately. So what would you say first to the size of the Edmonton market right now, the size of the Edmonton market going forward, and this notion you should be doing more to build this privately as we saw Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver. DK: Well, No. 1, I can tell you the way we look at the markets. Markets are determined by the size of their media market. The size of the media market determines TV revenue, advertising and sponsorship revenue. Edmonton and Winnipeg are tied for the smallest markets in the league. That significantly affects revenue and the ability to grow. So I don’t know where you’re getting your numbers, but we in the league don’t look at it that way. DS: Well, from ticket revenues would be the … DK: Ticket revenues are not relevant. Everybody should sell out if they win, if they have a winning team. Further, ticket revenues – the way the NHL looks at it – have foreign-exchange risk. So in our view, if you have a winning team, everybody should sell out, that’s just the way it is, but what some markets have that others don’t are enormous media markets, and that drives an enormous part of a team’s revenue. So when I say Pittsburgh, who on paper – I described their deal – is three times the size of Edmonton, Dave, that’s the size of their media market that controls television, advertising, sponsorship and the like, OK? That’s the big variable. DS: Does not Edmonton, though, have a larger base of people who are willing to pay top dollar for NHL tickets and does that not also something (that’s used for) a formulation of how big the market is? DK: No, it doesn’t. Edmonton could be viewed as a very loyal hockey market but you have to also understand we have the lowest corporate season-ticket base in the National Hockey League. We have more of an individual season-ticket base when you look at every other team in the league. That’s something that’s a challenge for the Oilers. To be frank, that’s something that the Calgary Flames, for instance, don’t have. They have a very big corporate base. Relative to your question to the need for public money to sustain the NHL or professional sports, let’s be frank, the only privately funded NHL arena that hasn’t been a financial disaster is ACC (Air Canada Centre) in Toronto, where they have the Leafs and an NBA franchise. Everyone else lost their shirts. Dave, you know that. They lost their buildings and their teams, right?
DS: Correct. DK: So this has to be a private-public partnership. I don’t think anybody denies that. Now, Edmonton is a great hockey town, not necessarily a great hockey market. We have the best and the most knowledgeable and, to be honest, loyal fans in the NHL. That’s what we believe. But Edmonton is tied for the smallest media market in the league by far, and we have the lowest percentage of corporate season-ticket holders. And in already a small market, you guys, we have to compete with a taxpayer-subsidized facility currently being renovated at public expense to better compete with us. You know who that is? JM: It’s Northlands. DS: I’m assuming that is a rhetorical question. DK: The reality is we need a new arena. The city needs one. The arena doesn’t generate enough for us to build it ourselves, especially if we’re not going to own it, that it has huge benefits to the city that warrant public investment. No. 1, it locks up the Oilers and the NHL for 35 years, and that’s pretty important; (No. 2,) You gain an iconic landmark that can transform the city’s identity; (No. 3) Enormous, expanded tax base, including multi-billion-dollar CRL; (No. 4) Major catalyst for much-needed revitalization of our downtown core; (No. 5) Billions of new investment downtown; (No. 6) New sports-and-entertainment district; (No. 7) Stronger draw for people to work, live and play downtown, which helps all our employers. The city has been focused on the downside risks of the project, which is appropriate, but they also have to look at the benefits. We have to think about the city’s future and design a future boldly and with some confidence, OK? We need a P3 that can sustain the Oilers that is commensurate with other small markets. That’s what we need. That’s all we’re asking for, and we’re willing to partner with the city to meet this need and capitalize on this opportunity. But we can only do so on terms that are fair and make sense for both parties. DS: Councillor Don Iveson said this past week he heard talk that, with all these what he characterizes as new demands, that the talk is the Oilers are trying to scuttle the deal so they can get a better deal elsewhere. This is some of the chit-chat, gossip that is going around city hall that he’s hearing and relaying. What do you say to this concern? DK: Well, so he’s questioning my track record and good faith. I just went over with you guys how much I’ve spent and what I’ve committed to this project. He’s suggesting he doesn’t believe me. That’s ridiculous. If you want to judge the quality of my commitments, guys, look at what we said we would do with the hockey team four years ago and what we’ve done since, and we’re just getting started. The Oilers are the talk of the National Hockey League, just like Edmonton can be the talk of North America if we get this deal done. We’ve made every investment of time and money in good faith and without regret, and I’m confident we can make this work if the city will work with us creatively and constructively towards a solution that works for both parties. I didn’t hear what Don Iveson said, but how is that productive?
JM: It’s John again here, Daryl. I always find it interesting, the whole discussion – you’re clearly very impassioned – this is something I know you believe in very strongly and have thought through with great detail but also with the sense of doing something grand for the city you’ve been part of for a long, long time, and I’m grateful, so is David, for this opportunity, but would it have been more appropriate for you to make this impassioned discussion to city council -- you had the opportunity and declined it – or in a larger public forum? DK: Well, you know, John, that’s what the mayor and the administration should be doing. I think we’ve added up, John, all the money this deal will cost us if we do it. I think it’s between $500- and $700-million. Now you know why my wife thinks I’m nuts. DS: What did she say to you, exactly? DK: I can’t repeat what she actually said to me (chuckles). We didn’t go to the last council meeting because we are in negotiations with administration and the mayor and administration suggested we shouldn’t go if a lot of the issues weren’t resolved and there’s still a lot of outstanding issues. At the appropriate time, we will go to city council. You guys forget I made my impassioned pitch over two years ago, July 20 or whatever. JM: 21 DK: Over two years ago, guys, and where are we? We’re still banging our heads against the wall. Like I said, Quebec City already broke ground. So we’re either going to do this deal or just the lapse of time is going to preclude us from doing it. But nobody can question our commitment or that we’ve made our investment of time and money in good faith and, you know, my guys talk to the administration daily. None of this would have even come into the public vein, David, but for the leak, which we’re still trying to find out where it came from. Because we were in the midst of negotiating and trying to finalize things with the city based on the initial framework that did include a casino mechanism, and if it didn’t work out, it didn’t work out, but when two parties are trying to make a deal, it’s just not sufficient for one to say ‘too bad, so sad, you guys eat it.’ That’s not how two sides make a reasonable deal. You work together and find alternatives. I was surprised that councillors were surprised because they should not have been. They should have been, I would imagine, briefed and had copies of the framework and been kept up to speed, but to have my integrity and commitment questioned, and to suggest this is new and came out of nowhere just is not true and not fair. JM: Last October, the New York meeting at NHL headquarters, for a time anyway, seemed to have facilitated something concrete. There was a framework that came out of that, there seemed to be some positive momentum, and obviously Gary Bettman’s involvement was central to that process. Is there an opportunity or some occasion where another intervention by Bettman would help or is that actually a part of the process in an ongoing way?
DK: I don’t think so. We came out of the New York meeting, we had our list, we had our framework, John. We were supposed to have the deal signed, sealed and delivered by the end of the year. It’s over a year later, we’re not even close. I’ve been working on this, John, for four-and-a-half years. I’m probably in it for $300 million, including the team. I understand everyone’s frustrated, but not everyone’s spent $300 million. To consider our track record and what we’ve done from the outset, when the team was on the ropes and at risk four years ago, and what we’ve spent to get it to this point and all the good things we’re trying to do. What happened the last couple weeks just isn’t even fair. You know, John, some guys just wouldn’t put up with it. DS: How close are you to throwing it in, Daryl? This is David here. DK: Lookit, I’m focused, David, on trying to make this deal work. I have a lot of advisors and friends. I say in jest they tell me I’m nuts but why would you put yourself through this? DS: What do you tell them? DK: Lookit, everything that’s worth doing is worth making sacrifices for. Nothing is easy to get done. There’s no deal, no transaction that’s easy to get done. This has been maybe more trying, but I think we are close to realizing our vision with the city and I think if we work together and are reasonable, we could do so. So, I’m committed to trying to make this happen, but you ask one of the reasons I’m talking to you guys is because of timing and delay. We have to move quickly. Time is our enemy. The longer it takes, the more it will cost, and costs will make it more prohibitive for all of us. So it’s crunch time, and that’s why I’m talking to you. DS: How important is the office tower project and what would you like to see from the city in that regards? DK: Well, Dave, I think I’ve said three times I’m not going to get into negotiating in public, because I committed to the city I wouldn’t do that. So that’s why we don’t leak stuff and we don’t negotiate in public, OK? But that is a very good question and I’m glad you asked it, because this is where you really see how the whole package has to work for everyone. And to Steve Mandell’s credit, he has always said this isn’t a line-item exercise, you can’t cherry pick, we need an overall package that works for both parties and realizes the full potential for the City of Edmonton. OK? So relative to the office building, the public had great insight relative to design. On the arena, through our focus groups, they said it had to work on all four sides – there could be no back door. They didn’t want to see loading docks and all that stuff. You can understand why. So the solution was to shroud the loading bays with a commercial building that we would build as part of the private-sector development around the arena. To make economics work, we need the critical mass, obviously, of an office tower. And guess what? The city actually needs office space that could save, by their report, taxpayers money by centralizing all their office space. So what we’re saying to the city is if they went to an RFP, we would compete for it, and if we won, then together with the arena we’d have a critical mass to build a hotel and related projects. Now, all those things working together would supercharge the CRL and drive it forward faster for the city to realize its billions of dollars in tax revenue. Without office space, it might not be possible to achieve the current design. Now, to be clear, we need an anchor tenant. It doesn’t have to be the city. It could be others, but it seemed like an obvious answer for us if mutual interests and opportunity because the city needs and was looking for office space, so that was the genesis of that, Dave.June 8, 2014
a WebGL demo of glsl-lut, for efficient color transforms on the GPU. source code here
Contents
Intro
NPM and Node are brilliant tools for pushing JavaScript and web development forward. They have drastically changed the landscape; introducing the concept of small and composable modules, semantic versioning, and automatic dependency management. Gone are the days of “copy-pasting” snippets, fear of new versions, and manually maintaining vendor paths. Installing a dependency has never been easier:
npm install querystring --save
But now it’s starting to make some shifts in other areas; namely, game and graphics programming with GLSL. For the uninitiated, Browserify is a neat tool which statically analyzes your code for require() statements (Node’s take on import ), and bundles it together in a way that the browser can understand. It includes “transforms” which can run on your source before the bundle step, such as inlining the contents of a readFileSync as a UTF-8 string in your source.
glslify
So, where am I going with this? Well, Chris Dickinson, Hugh Kennedy and some other creative minds have been working on glslify and a related collection of modules. With these tools, we can statically analyze GLSL programs, transform their source code, use require() and export() to modularize shaders, and much more.
Typically you might use glslify as a Browserify or Webpack source transform, but the modules can also be composed to create a build step for a non-JavaScript projects (e.g. iOS and desktop OpenGL apps). The tool also includes a generic command-line interface for transpiling shaders.
To demonstrate:
uniform vec2 texCoord0; //"import" our random function #pragma glslify: random = require('glsl-random') void main() { //quick pseudo-random 2D noise float n = random(texCoord0); gl_FragColor = vec4(vec3(n), 1.0); }
The above code will inline the function from glsl-random. No more copy-pasting from a random blog or StackOverflow answer.
Installing Dependencies
For non-JavaScript devs, you first will need to install Node (which comes with NPM). Then install glslify globally, as below. If you are running into sudo issues, see here.
npm install glslify -g
Now, cd to the directory where you’re going to store all your shaders, and start installing some snippets:
npm install glsl-random --save
This will download the glsl-random function and store it in a folder called node_modules. You should add this folder to your.gitignore to avoid it being versioned. We then use the --save option to mark that snippet as a dependency, since our code won’t work without it.
The next step is to initialize the folder as a package; this will add a package.json to keep track of our dependencies and their version numbers. Enter the following, it will prompt for details which you can optionally fill in:
npm init
Now, when somebody checks out your code, they can just run npm install on the package and it will grab all the GLSL snippets you’ve saved as dependencies.
Compiling The Shader
Let’s make a new directory called build, then compile the shaders:
glslify frag.glsl > build/frag.glsl
And if you check the built file, you’ll see it’s inlined the necessary functions. Awesome!
#define GLSLIFY 1 uniform vec2 texCoord0; highp float a_x_random(vec2 co) { highp float a = 12.9898; highp float b = 78.233; highp float c = 43758.5453; highp float dt = dot(co.xy, vec2(a, b)); highp float sn = mod(dt, 3.14); return fract(sin(sn) * c); } void main() { float n = a_x_random(texCoord0); gl_FragColor = vec4(vec3(n), 1.0); }
Relative Requires
Sometimes you need a project-specific function, but you might want to use it across multiple shaders. This isn’t something worth publishing on NPM, so instead you can require it using relative paths. Say you’ve got lib/foo.glsl |
separatists seized Nagorny Karabakh from Azerbaijan in a 1990s war that claimed 30,000 lives.
...Looks like the Toronto Raptors will continue the trend of being represented in the Slam Dunk contest. About the only exposure Toronto gets in the All-Star weekend. Unfortunately Ross was snubbed from the Rookie vs Sophomore game which means the league doesn’t think he’s good enough to make the rookie team, but he’s a good enough dunker.
It will be interesting this season as they have made some changes and it will now feature an East vs West format. I wonder if this will help the contest/all-star weekend but regardless it’s always fun and full of highlights.
Terrence Ross Dunk Highlights
Here’s the break down:
2013 Eastern Conference Sprite Slam Dunk Competitors
Gerald Green (Indiana)
Terrence Ross (Toronto)
James White (New York)
2013 Western Conference Sprite Slam Dunk Competitors
Eric Bledsoe (L.A. Clippers)
Jeremy Evans (Utah)
Kenneth Faried (Denver)
The rules and format has changed a bit also. Here is the info regarding how the dunk contest will go down.
2013 Sprite Slam Dunk
SIX COMPETITORS
Three players representing the Eastern Conference and three players representing the Western Conference will compete in the two-round competition.
COMPETITION RULES
• TIME LIMIT — Upon receiving the ball from the referee, players will have a 1:30 to complete their dunk. Attempts resulting in missed dunks are unlimited during the 1:30 time period. However, once a made dunk is ruled by the referee, that dunk will be scored. There is no replacing a made dunk, even if time remains.
• FINAL ATTEMPT — If a player has not begun an attempt that results in a made dunk when the 1:30 clock expires, he will have one final attempt. An attempt is defined as the ball leaving the player’s (or an assistant’s) hand in an effort to finish the dunk (in any motion other than dribbling). The referee is the final judge and will advise the dunker when they have used their attempt.
• OFFICIATING — A referee will judge whether a dunk is considered a made dunk or a missed dunk.
• PROPS — Use of any props or people to assist in any way during the slam dunk competition must be approved in advance of the competition by the NBA Basketball Operations department.
• INSTANT REPLAY — At the discretion of the referee, television instant replay may be consulted for rules compliance.
TEAM ROUND
• Each competitor will complete two dunks which will be scored on a scale of 6 to 10 by a panel of 5 judges.
• Each dunk has a maximum score of 50 and a minimum score of 30.
• FIRST DUNK – All three Eastern Conference players will complete their first dunk, followed by the three West players.
• SECOND DUNK – All three Eastern Conference players will complete their second dunk, followed by the three West players. The second dunk order WITHIN each conference will be determined by first dunk scores (lowest to highest).
• The three Eastern Conference players will have their scores (all six dunks) added to get a TOTAL score.
• The three Western Conference players will have their scores (all six dunks) added to get a TOTAL score.
• 50 POINTS will be awarded to the conference that has the highest TOTAL score after the Team Round.
• Each time a player scores a perfect 50 for a dunk during the Team Round, his conference will have 10 BONUS POINTS added to its overall All-Star Saturday Night score.
• The East player with the highest combined score for his two dunks advances to the Championship Round.
• The West player with the highest combined score for his two dunks advances to the Championship Round.
CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND
• The highest scoring East competitor and the highest scoring West competitor from the Team Round will compete head-to-head to determine the competition champion.
• The competitor with the lower combined score for his two Team Round dunks will go first.
• The players will alternate, each completing two dunks in the Championship Round.
• At the beginning of the Championship Round, fan voting polls will open with four voting options:
1) SMS Text Message* – Text the player’s last name to 38657(DUNKS)
2) Twitter** – Tweet #SpriteSlam with the player’s last name
3) Vote via the NBA All-Star App
4) Log on to NBA.com from any computer or mobile device
• The player who has the highest percentage of combined votes from all platforms will be crowned champion.
• 55 POINTS will be awarded to the conference of the competition champion.
TIEBREAKERS
• TEAM ROUND — In the event both conferences achieve the same TOTAL score, the 50 points for the Team Round will be split evenly (25 points awarded to each conference).
• To Advance from Team Round — A tie amongst conference players after the Team Round will result in a one dunk “dunk-off” to determine the Championship Round participant.
• To Determine Champion — If each dunker receives 50.00% of the votes, a one-dunk “dunk-off” will take place to determine the champion. All “dunk-offs” will be judged by the panel of judges and the time limit rule will apply.
*SMS Text Message Voting — Number of votes per user is unlimited. Voting is available to users on all major wireless carriers in the United States, plus most 2nd tier carriers. Voting is also available to wireless users in Canada. Message and data rates may apply.
**Twitter Voting – Number of votes is limited to 100 votes per user. Voting is available to users with a valid Twitter account. If accessed from a mobile device, message and data rates may apply."Never Trump" Republicans have finally — finally! — found a presidential candidate to mount an independent run. Evan McMullin, who was until recently a House Republican staffer, will file papers to enter the race Monday, according to ABC News’s Shushannah Walshe.
"In a year where Americans have lost faith in the candidates of both major parties, it’s time for a generation of new leadership to step up," McMullin told ABC in a statement. "It’s never too late to do the right thing, and America deserves much better than either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton can offer us. I humbly offer myself as a leader who can give millions of disaffected Americans a conservative choice for President."
If you haven’t heard of him, you’re not alone. McMullin is a complete unknown nationally. And though he’s backed by some Republican consultants and at least one outside group organizing on his behalf, he’s already missed filing deadlines for half of the states. Indeed, according to Roll Call's Randy Leonard and Ryan Kelly, he's already missed so many state deadlines that he literally can't win an electoral college majority. In other words, he's not winning.
Yet his candidacy could still conceivably affect the race in one potentially important way — by swinging the outcome in Utah away from Donald Trump.
Who is Evan McMullin?
Until word leaked of McMullin’s planned candidacy Monday morning, even many of the most intense political junkies hadn’t heard of him.
Since 2015, McMullin has had a staff post in the House of Representatives, as the chief policy director of that chamber’s Republican Conference, working first for Speaker John Boehner and then for his successor, Paul Ryan. It’s a job that sounds big, but anonymous Republican aides are telling Politico’s Jake Sherman that he's no longer working there and that, when he was, he wasn’t all that influential.
Emails to senior house GOP aides paint this picture: @Evan_McMullin is a nice guy, but not a player in leadership in any way — Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) August 8, 2016
McMullin’s résumé is also heavy on foreign policy experience. He spent 10 years in the CIA’s national clandestine service as an operations officer. And from 2013 to 2015, he was a senior adviser to Republican staff on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Between the CIA job and the Congress jobs, he got an MBA from Wharton and worked as an investment banking associate at Goldman Sachs.
So he's been busy. What he hasn’t done, however, is ever held elected office.
Why is Evan McMullin running for president?
We don’t know a ton about McMullin’s policy views yet, but the past year of his public Facebook activity indicates that he believes Trump is a real danger to American democracy and views Trump’s "Muslim ban" proposal as both a moral and strategic disaster.
McMullin argues that, based on his experience working abroad, Trump’s rise and style are dangerously reminiscent of "authoritarians" in other states. Check out his commentary about Trump’s Republican National Convention speech last month:
Beyond that, McMullin has denounced Trump’s proposed ban on Muslim immigration as "cowardly" and "ignorant," a threat to "our nation’s fundamental values." He’s consistently posted in support of welcoming Muslim refugees, arguing that this is the moral thing to do, it’s not too much of a practical problem, and that the US must in fact work with many Muslims to wage the war on terror.
Why should we care that this guy is running for president?
That thing where Evan McMullin could cost Trump the presidency by helping flip Utah. pic.twitter.com/B1aftnZINz — Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) August 8, 2016
Though McMullin is obscure and won’t be on the ballot everywhere unless he files and wins a ton of lawsuits, it’s at least possible that he could do real damage to Trump in at least one state: Utah.
Utah is usually a state that Republican presidential candidates can take for granted. But Trump is already so unpopular with Utah’s heavily Mormon electorate that his lead over Clinton in polls is surprisingly narrow.
McMullin is Mormon and has ties to the state (he attended Brigham Young University). And while not all of his issue positions are yet clear, it seems plausible that for some Republican voters, he could be a more palatable alternative to Trump than Clinton or Gary Johnson (both of whom might be too far to the left on social issues for conservatives’ liking).
Since Trump is already facing punishing Electoral College math, the loss of Utah’s six electoral votes could well be a grievous blow to his candidacy in a close race.
It’s unclear how many Utah Republicans will so strongly dislike Trump that they’d prefer to effectively cast a protest vote to a favorite son candidate who can’t win. It’s also not unthinkable that McMullin could end up drawing away support from Clinton rather than Trump.
Still, at least NeverTrump conservatives will now have a candidate in at least some states, rather than no one anywhere.
This election is about normal vs. abnormalNew Delhi: BJP will kick-start its campaign to capture power in Delhi at a mega rally here on 10 January to be addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Ministers of Haryana, Jharkhand and Maharashtra where the party formed government after winning the polls recently.
The 'Abhinandan Rally', to be held at Ramlila Maidan, will also be addressed by BJP president Amit Shah and a number of other senior party leaders.
BJP Vice President in-charge of Delhi Prabhat Jha said the party's slogan for Delhi polls will be "Ab Delhi ki bari hai (Now, it's Delhi's turn)" after its electoral victories in Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand.
"Besides Modi ji, Haryana CM ML Khattar, Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis and Jharkhand CM Raghubar Das will also seek people's support for BJP. We will put up a strong fight in the polls," Jha said.
The announcement of the rally came a day after Shah held detailed deliberations with senior leaders of BJP's Delhi unit where he asked them to go "all out" to ensure a clear victory for the party in the Assembly election which is likely to be held in February.
Jha said if a BJP leader becomes Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, then he will also address the rally at the Ramlila Ground.
"In the rally, all senior leaders will appeal to the people of Delhi to support BJP in the upcoming Assembly elections," Jha told reporters. Exuding confidence about party's victory, Delhi BJP chief Satish Upadhyay said people of the city will give a clear mandate and reject AAP.
Asked about AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal likening his 49-day rule to 'Ram Rajya', Upadhyay said "people of Delhi will tell whether it was 'Ram Rajya' or 'Bhogada Rajya'".
"We all know very well what type of 'Ram Rajya' it was. The campaign which they (AAP) are now running was also the same during Lok Sabha elections," he said.
Meanwhile, former Congress MLA SC Vats joined BJP along with a number of his supporters. According to BJP, DPCC secretary Sandeep Yadav, Congress leaders Ashok Kumar Gupta, Rekha Vohra, former IAS officer S P Singh and educationist BN Sharma also joined the party.
"I was very impressed by Narendra Modiji following which I am today joining the BJP unconditionally," Vats told reporters.
PTI
Firstpost is now on WhatsApp. For the latest analysis, commentary and news updates, sign up for our WhatsApp services. Just go to Firstpost.com/Whatsapp and hit the Subscribe button.Roger Federer will compete for his 18th grand slam singles title after defeating countryman Stan Wawrinka in a gripping five-set Australian Open semi-final at Rod Laver Arena.
The world No17 triumphed 7-5, 6-3, 1-6, 4-6, 6-3 across three hours and five minutes in Melbourne, keeping alive the dream he might meet arch-rival Rafael Nadal in a retro-flavoured final.
Once these two players shared a quite convivial master-apprentice relationship, but not for some time. “The day came where he didn’t call me so much any more,” Federer noted in the lead-up to this encounter. He also figured nobody in the world bar Nadal knew his game better.
Roger Federer: in numbers 1 – the last time he was ranked world No1 was 29 October 2012, with the first time being in February 2004
4 – the number of times he has lifted the trophy in Australia; the years were 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2010 17 – his number of grand slam titles, which is also the all-time record 28 – his number of grand slam final appearances 63 – his first-serve percentage in this year's tournament before the final
$98,830,825 – prize money he has earned during his career, singles and doubles combined
Knowing is one thing, delivering is another. Two sets down and limping, Wawrinka looked done. But his minor genius is to look flushed and mildly flustered at all times, like a man struggling through his first gym session in months, when he’s actually as strong as an ox and resilient beyond expectation.
“It was an awkward match. Always against Stan, it was always never going to be easy,” Federer said afterwards. “[I’m] super happy I was able to win another five-setter in a grand slam. I don’t know how many times I won two five-setters in a grand slam. Maybe never before. So this is big.”
The first set provided 50 minutes of utterly compelling tennis, Wawrinka looking the dominant force whenever a rally built but Federer defending with such light-footed brilliance it was always going to be hard to split them.
In football the cliche is that the best defensive team will always beat the best attacking one, and Federer’s efforts to stay in points that looked doomed proved crucial in the first set. Typical was a defensive, half-volley backhand slice from mid-court early in proceedings, which had seemed a metre past him when he made contact.
At 5-5 Wawrinka mustered a break point but was expertly manoeuvred from wing to wing and couldn’t retrieve a running forehand, so Federer held. It seemed inconceivable a tie-break would be avoided, but serving at 5-6 Wawrinka blinked, losing his barings for all of a minute and letting his opponent slip through the back door. On set point Federer pushed him wide on the forehand and the world No4 cannoned it into the net to concede.
The second set hinged on Wawrinka’s third service game. Federer caressed a forehand winner to make it 30-0 and then found himself with two break points. Wawrinka saved one, then had Federer out-positioned in a rally, but advancing to mid-court he clattered a regulation backhand into the net and drew a mass intake of breath.
Unable to break the offending racket by throwing it to the ground, Wawrinka calmly snapped it over his knee, as if to rid himself of its suddenly dark aura. It sat courtside as a reminder of the split-second errors that would define the result. With a clinical love service game Federer closed out the set in 31 minutes.
His head covered in a towel and wearing a pained expression, Wawrinka promptly left the arena for a medical time-out. Later he revealed his right knee had in fact troubled him for the past fortnight. “It’s been for sure an issue since the beginning of the tournament,” Wawrinka said. “Then again, it’s not an excuse at all.”
The world No4 returned with his right knee bandaged at the start of the third set, his shoulders slouched and his spirit sagging, but far bigger trouble was brewing for Federer. The inexplicable happened in Federer’s second service game when he faded completely to cough up three break points. Wawrinka struck with the second, and made it a double break soon after. He took the set 6-1 in 26 minutes as Melburnians sat in stunned silence. It was like a perfectly executed burglary in a sleepy town.
Wawrinka became far more obtrusive from there, breaking immediately in the fourth set by unfurling a wondrous cross-court backhand winner. Earlier in the match he’d been given the runaround. Now it was time to stand and deliver. But nor was the four-time champion done, breaking straight back from a heart-stopping rally.
Roger Federer beats Stan Wawrinka in five sets to reach Australian Open final – as it happened Read more
The heightened stakes and rising din elevated the contest. Even on one good leg Wawrinka was a menace. It had looked destined for a tie-break but in the ninth game, with a deft forehand passing shot, Wawrinka broke and ensured a fifth set – still ruddy-faced and downbeat in his manner but playing with genuine swagger as he sealed it in 38 minutes.
Now it was Federer’s turn for medical treatment. Eight minutes on, wrapped in towels and trying to loosen fatigued limbs, Wawrinka looked none too pleased about the prospect of his body seizing up on him and burying his chances.
Federer returned calm but the match went a little haywire. Wawrinka had a chance to break him in the fifth game of the decider but Federer dug in his heels, then broke serve himself after Wawrinka sent down an untimely double fault. The buffer proved insurmountable, and Federer triumphed with a polite pump of the fist and a quarter-smile suggesting a job half-done.
“I know I will have a chance to win on Sunday now,” Federer said. “That’s a great position to be in. Regardless of who it’s going to be against, I think it’s going to be special either way. One is going to go for his first slam or it’s the epic battle with Rafa.”
Wawrinka paid tribute to his compatriot’s late-career resurgence. “He’s (an) amazing player to watch and to see on the court,” he said. “He’s flying on the court. He’s playing amazing tennis. He’s the best player ever. He can do anything he wants on the court.”
A confluence of events have aided this remarkable situation in which three players aged 35 or over have now qualified for their respective singles final, chief among them a spell of mild weather in Melbourne, and in the case of the men’s draw the early exit of the two most fancied contenders.
But you don’t stumble into a grand slam final. Federer forced his way in with brilliant tennis at the right time, just as sure as the Williams sisters did earlier in the day. That he’s hovered near the top echelon for so long after his absolute prime is a statistical marvel of course, but that is nothing on the thrill of it in the flesh.If you’re looking for a short-term loan like a payday loan, you might consider using a credit broker to find one. Credit brokers are people who can help you to avoid paying unnecessary fees when you want to borrow money from any manner of different lending providers.
Credit brokers are simply firms that provide people with a service that focuses on finding the best possible loan for you in the market by seeing what might be available. A lot of credit brokers conduct their businesses using the internet, and they will charge a fee for the service that they provide.
The Problems with Credit Brokers
Many of the problems that have arisen with credit brokers in the past have emerged because firms have neglected to inform their customers that they’re credit brokers, and they continue to charge unauthorized fees for services that have not been provided. These fees are usually charged after people gave their bank details to the broker because they believed that they were using that information to confirm their identity or give the info for a credit check.
In these cases, the people involved were unaware that they were signing up to use a credit brokerage service. However, once someone had given out their personal details, credit brokers would be able to pass those details onto other brokers without the consent or knowledge of the customer. Those people would then find that they had been charged fees from other brokers for services that hadn’t been provided.
Another of the biggest issues with credit brokers today is that some have been working without registration under the financial conduct authority. Alternatively, they might have been trading under a different name, which made it hard for customers to get their money back or make a complaint to the financial services.
The truth is that you don’t need to use a credit broker to find a loan for a short term, or a payday loan. These days, it’s easier than you might think to compare the available options in the market. It’s important to remember also that the interest rates on payday loans can be very high and lead to debts that frequently spiral out of control. If you aren’t able to pay the loan back within the agreed time period, you could end up being deeply in debt.
How to Stop Unauthorized Payments Being Taken by Brokers
If you’re concerned that your credit broker is taking payments from your account without your authorization, or you are being charged for services that weren’t provided, then you will need to take steps to protect your finances. For instance, you might cancel the credit brokerage service. Under the financial services regulations that were laid out in 2004, you have fourteen days to cancel your services if you no longer want them. You will not have to give a reason why you’re cancelling the services, and you should be refunded any fees that you paid within thirty days.
If, for any reason, the credit broker in question has already begun to take regular payments out of your account, then you might have agreed to a CPA or continuous payment authority. The payment that is taken through these methods won’t show as a standing order or direct debit in your bank account, and the first thing you will need to do is ask the broker to cancel the order. If your broker will not do this, you should be able to ask your building society or bank to stop the payments.
Your bank will usually comply with your request. If you encounter a refusal, you will be able to insist that the CPA is cancelled because it’s your right to cancel instructions through your bank. However, if you do have any problems with cancelling a CPA through your bank or building society, you can file a complaint formally.
The Law Protects You from Credit Brokers
As of 2015, the law now protects people in the UK from being charged any unauthorized fees, and will require the credit broker to make it completely clear that they are offering a specific service for a specific payment. Additionally, credit brokers will not be able to charge fees or take payments from a client unless they follow the rules of the FCA. If you visit the website of a credit broker that content should show you how much their fees will be, and what the legal name of the firm is as well as their trading name. You will also be able to find out whether the firm is acting as a broker and not a lender.
Before a credit broker charges you any fees, they will have to send you information in writing confirming the details available to you, and ask you to acknowledge that you have received the information awarded to you.Rose-Hulman names Russell Warley Dean of Faculty.
Rose-Hulman has announced the selection of a new dean of faculty and professor of chemical engineering from the Penn State University system who has been recognized for excellence in teaching and innovative leadership in engineering education.
Russell Warley, interim director of the School of Engineering at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, will assume his new duties at Rose-Hulman July 1, where he will be responsible for execution of academic goals and working with academic department heads to maintain the smooth and efficient operation of those areas.
“Dr. Warley brings a wealth of experience in both engineering education and industry, and is equally remarkable for his innovation and his student-centered approach,” says Anne Houtman, vice president for academic affairs. “I am thrilled to welcome him to the Rose-Hulman community.”
Warley joined the mechanical engineering faculty at Behrend in 2004, became chair of that department in 2009, and managed the department through a period of significant growth. He launched an industrial engineering program in 2013 and chaired the combined mechanical and industrial engineering department until 2015. He was named interim director of the School of Engineering in 2015.
Under his leadership, School of Engineering enrollment has grown to nearly 1,700 students, with 69 full-time faculty offering 13 undergraduate and graduate degree programs.
Warley also has two decades of industry experience. Prior to joining the Penn State Behrend faculty, he worked for 17 years for LORD Corporation, where he served in the aerospace materials and process engineering group, and for three years at Cabot Corporation, a leading global specialty chemicals and performance materials company.
He received an award for technical excellence at LORD Corporation, team awards for product commercialization at Cabot, the Council of Fellows Excellence in Teaching Award at Behrend and the Penn State University Atherton Award for Teaching Excellence.
A native of Akron, Ohio, and first-generation college graduate, Warley received his bachelor of science degree in chemical engineering from the University of Akron and his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Case Western Reserve University. He and his wife, Deb, have two adult daughters.Nora Theatre Company artistic director Lee Mikeska Gardner has put together a dazzling production that matches Tom Stoppard’s dazzling script.
Arcadia by Tom Stoppard. Directed by Lee Mikeska Gardner. Presented by The Nora Theatre Company at Central Square Theater, Cambridge, MA., through May 15.
By Ian Thal
Arcadia is one of the most acclaimed works of Tom Stoppard’s career and a seminal work in the genre of science plays. Through the script eschews the absurdism that marked the dramatist’s earlier work for a more naturalistic style, there is plenty of formal experimentation here: Two parallel stories occurring in different eras – the most recent involves scholars and family members attempting to reconstruct the events of an earlier period (Stoppard’s less-often produced India Ink makes use of a similar time juggling structure.)
In the opening scene, set in 1809, on the estate of Sidley Park, a holding of the Coverly family, the two-months-short-of fourteen-year-old Thomasina (a charismatic Kira Patterson, making her professional debut) looks up from her algebra work to ask her tutor, Septimus (Will Madden) about a euphemism she had overheard earlier that morning – “carnal embrace.” A rumor is circulating around the staff that one of the guests, a Mrs. Chater, had been observed in erotic hugging in the gazebo late that night. Given this opening, audience members less familiar with Stoppard’s work might think that Arcadia is going to be a witty sex-farce or comedy of manners after Septimus answers with obfuscatory erudition and then snark and double entendres before Mr. Ezra Chater (a flamboyantly foppish Alexander Platt), a less-than-mediocre poet whose work, Septimus has reviewed, challenges him to a duel — especially when Chater is tempted to overlook the infidelity if it might mean getting a favorable critique, especially given that his last book was panned in an anonymous review.
But this is a Stoppard play and neither he nor his characters limit their captious thoughts to sex and manners. Thomasina has concluded that neither the algebra nor the Newtonian mechanics that Septimus has been teaching her adequately describes the world of nature. “…Why do your equations only describe the shapes of manufacture?” she asks, adding, “Armed thus, God could only make a cabinet.” Meanwhile, her mother, the Lady Croom (Sarah Oaks Muirhead), is in discussions with Mr. Noakes (Harsh J. Gagoomal), the landscape designer, about reshaping the bucolically ordered grounds of Sidley Park into a scattered picturesque vision, with ersatz ruins evoking even more ersatz mysteries.
Jump to 1993, where literary scholar, Bernard Nightingale (Ross MacDonald) is pursuing a different mystery. A review copy of Ezra Chater’s Couch of Eros, which Lord Byron had borrowed from Septimus Hodge, has recently come into his hands. In it, there is a signed dedication to Septimus from Chater, as well as correspondence from both Chaters regarding the aforementioned carnal embrace, and the challenge to a duel. Already at work at Sidley Park is another ambitious historian, Hannah Jarvis (a no-nonsense performance from Celeste Oliva), who is researching a history of the gardens. She is pursuing her own thesis about how the landscape reflected a changed in cultural perception. To her, Noakes’ redesign epitomizes the transition between the rationalism of the Enlightenment and emotionalism of the Romantic era. Significantly, Noakes’ design included a hermitage – one inhabited by a genuine hermit who inhabited the park “like a garden gnome.” Who was this hermit, and what is one to make of his eccentric life’s work? Meanwhile, one of the Coverly family – an eccentric mathematician named Valentine (Matthew Zahnzinger) – is engaged in an analysis of the hunting records left by his ancestor, the Lord Croom of the early nineteenth-century.
As the three scholars share their findings, Valentine realizes that Thomasina, had she only had access to digital computing, rather than just pen and paper, would have been on the verge of discovering fractal mathematics and chaos theory, Hannah comes closer to discovering the identity of the Sidley Park Hermit, and Bernard, realizing that Lord Byron had, at least once, visited his Eton college chum, Septimus Hodge, thinks he’s on the verge of making an academic killing and a name for himself.
Bernard convinces himself that both the love notes and the challenges stuffed between the pages of The Couch of Eros were penned for Byron – never once considering that Septimus might have been the true addressee – and, since there were no further volumes of poetry by Ezra Chater, concludes that he must have been killed in a duel with Lord Byron. So it was with blood on his hands that Byron absconded to the continent later that year – a true biographical detail. So convinced, he bypasses traditional peer review and goes straight to the press. It doesn’t matter that his colleagues warn him that the dates don’t line up, or that he is cherry-picking evidence that conforms to his hypothesis. (One can’t help but wonder if Stoppard was sending up critics who insisted his 1982 play The Real Thing was about his relationship with actress Felicity Kendall, even though he hadn’t begun their romantic partnership until 1991.)
MacDonald’s Nightingale is trapped between his flamboyant self-presentation, and his crippling insecurities. He is a dandy desperate to ingratiate himself with the aristocratic Coverly family – indeed, MacDonald, as a British actor, seems acutely aware that his character would be intimidated by the class differences in a way that an American actor (even with a good accent) might not be. But his half-baked hypothesis about Lord Byron isn’t just impatient opportunism meant to impress the higher-ups – he’s doing what writers of pop-biography have long done: disregarding the facts in order to concoct the most exciting story imaginable. He is the fan who cannot stand the notion that the extraordinary Byron did anything that was ordinary. And this mindless hero worship ties in with the larger themes that Stoppard is playing with. Yes, the reiterated algorithms of fractal mathematics allow one to extrapolate the whole from a tiny detail, or a tiny detail from the whole. Still, hypotheses must be tested against the real world: whether through replicable experimentation, naturalistic observation, or careful research of the historical evidence. The phenomenon of entropy proves that structures eventually break down into undifferentiated chaos. Chaos theory teaches that even small, unaccounted for instances can have great, unforeseen consequences. Tea becomes cold; mechanisms malfunction; documents are misplaced; meanings are forgotten; data is erased. And the warm feet of idols inevitably cool off.
Nora Theatre Company artistic director Lee Mikeska Gardner has put together a dazzling production that matches Stoppard’s dazzling script. Her virtuosity in particular evidence in the seventh and final scene when the audience experiences the characters of 1812 and of 1993 sharing the stage for the one and only time; the intermixing without interaction — their dialogue overlapping, waltzing together — is handled with impressive ease. A good dramaturg’s work is usually invisible to audiences –unless something has gone terribly wrong. But in this case the research team, led by Joe Stallone, is in deft command of every detail, from props to the actors’ understanding of the script.
Kira Patterson is a joy as the precociously free-spirited Thomasina, clambering over furniture, dancing and play acting as if every brilliant idea about number and nature must be articulated or acted out immediately. Will Madden strikes a perfect balance with his Septimus; he is the ironic wit who knows his place as an employee of the Coverly household, yet he is ready to test the traditional boundaries by pushing his sex appeal and verbal dexterity. Matthew Zahnzinger also finds ways to make the abstract life of Valentine’s mind concrete, with movements that are both precise yet awkwardly off-putting. There are also notable performances in the supporting roles: Max Jackson as Gus Coverly, the mute embodiment of chaos (Jackson also doubles as his ancestor and namesake Augustus in the final scene), and Elbert Joseph as the Coverly family’s butler, his highly stylized strides, bows, and whimsical vocabulary of ‘secret’ gestures reflecting the various upstairs/downstairs languages of the house.
Choreographer Judith Chafee deserves considerable credit for crafting the powerful use of movement in this production, and she also achieves subtle effects in the final scene, where waltzing couples, dancing one-hundred-and-eighty-one years apart, suggest reiterated algorithms shifting into a melancholic sync.
All of these complex movements of people, objects, and ideas takes place on the fine set designed by Janie E. Howland. She hews closely to the room described in Stoppard’s script but has added just beyond the French windows a gigantic rough sketch of Sidley Park as it was in 1809 – as if to remind us of Hannah’s contention that the quintessential English landscape was the creation of gardeners imitating painters who were reflecting literary ideals.
Of course, Stoppard’s Arcadia is structured like a fractal, with its own nimbly reiterated themes, but its jagged shape, like the fractured obelisk stuck in Noakes’ reimagined Sidley Park, suggests the ‘snake’ of entropy in the plush paradise of order. For Stoppard, the world winds up and then it winds down — and both actions are brought to vibrant life in this production.
Ian Thal is a playwright, performer, and theater educator specializing in mime, commedia dell’arte, and puppetry, and has been known to act on Boston area stages from time to time, sometimes with Teatro delle Maschere. He has performed his one-man show, Arlecchino Am Ravenous, in numerous venues in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. One of his as-of-yet unproduced full-length plays was picketed by a Hamas supporter during a staged reading. He is looking for a home for his latest play, The Conversos of Venice, which is a thematic deconstruction of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. Formerly the community editor at The Jewish Advocate, he blogs irregularly at the unimaginatively entitled The Journals of Ian Thal, and writes the “Nothing But Trouble” column for The Clyde Fitch Report.Germany will defeat Argentina and claim the trophy at the World Cup final on Sunday, according to the latest prediction by Microsoft's artificially intelligent digital assistant, Cortana.
Cortana, named after the AI character that appears in the Halo video games, has accurately predicted the outcome of every match of this year's World Cup elimination round so far, surpassing even Paul the 'psychic' octopus in her prophetic abilities.
When asked "who will win the Germany Argentina match", Cortana responds: "It's too early to say for sure, but I'd give Germany the edge over Argentina".
Other responses include: "Germany seems to have a slight edge. But don't card me if I'm wrong", and "Probably Germany. But you never known what can happen in the beautiful game..."
Cortana also predicts that Brazil will beat the Netherlands to claim third place.
The predictions come from Microsoft's Bing search engine, which was updated at the beginning of the tournament to support World Cup predictions.
Microsoft's predictive models evaluate the strength of each team through a variety of factors such as previous win/loss/tie record in qualification matches and other international competitions, and margin of victory in these contests.
Further adjustments are made related to other factors which give |
Carlos Hyde would certainly be welcome.Member of suspended Pi Kappa Alpha chapter said photos were not intended to be public.
Various websites, including BroBible.com, have published the image showing members of the Pi Kappa Alpha at the University of Michigan lined up behind a folded American flag held at their waists. (Photo: BroBible.com/Detroit Free Press) Story Highlights Fraternity headquarters suspended the University of Michigan chapter
Picture, e-mail about an upcoming party were reportedly intended for sorority
Pi Kappa Alpha member said photos were meant to be satirical
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Images of the stars and stripes strategically draped over the bodies of some University of Michigan fraternity members who otherwise appear to be nude have generated controversy -- and gotten a chapter of the fraternity, Pi Kappa Alpha, in hot water.
On Tuesday, the headquarters of Pi Kappa Alpha announced it had placed the university's Beta Tau chapter on interim suspension. The university's Office of Greek Life, as well as the Interfraternity Council, are investigating, UM spokesman Rick Fitzgerald said.
The picture and an accompanying e-mail message about an upcoming party were reportedly intended for members of a sorority. But various websites, including BroBible.com and BuzzFeed.com, have picked up the story and published the image showing men lined up behind a folded American flag held at their waists. There are also pictures online of individual men wrapped in smaller flags.
Ryan Lee, 19, president of the Beta Tau chapter of Pi Kappa Alpha, said the image and e-mail were supposed to be satirical. He said the fraternity meant no disrespect and apologizes if anyone took offense.
"The photo and e-mail are satirical in nature, and Pi Kappa Alpha did not plan for the e-mail to be sent outside of the intended sorority," Lee said Monday.
"Additionally, we mentioned in the e-mail we wished to keep the message and its contents private. We did not mean to disrespect the sorority, veterans, America or the flag at all in the picture, and we apologize if anyone was offended.
Justin A. Buck, executive vice president of Pi Kappa Alpha, said in a statement posted on the fraternity's website that the chapter was immediately being placed on interim suspension, "due to members displaying inappropriate and offensive photos as well as making claims which are in violation of Fraternity Standards."
Fitzgerald said the Office of Greek Life and the Interfraternity Council, a self-governing body made up of fraternity members, launched inquiries and will determine, separately or jointly, whether discipline is appropriate. They have not yet reached any conclusions, he said.
It was not immediately clear when the image was first made public. Fitzgerald said university officials learned of the matter Monday.
"Most of the discipline with fraternities and sororities comes with Interfraternity Council or the national organization itself," Fitzgerald said. "Every situation is different."
Lee told the Free Press Monday night the fraternity did not plan for the picture to be widely circulated.
"...We are currently doing everything we can to resolve the issue internally and repair the damage that has been done to various groups within our community."
Lee declined to make further statements Tuesday, referring questions to Justin True, director of communications and marketing for Pi Kappa Alpha. True did not immediately respond to an e-mail inquiry.
In his statement, Buck said he was disappointed by the decisions of the chapter's members.
"Countless undergraduate and alumni members throughout our organization have contacted the office voicing their displeasure and the Fraternity is taking this situation very seriously. Pi Kappa Alpha does not condone this behavior, the image it portrays, or the claims which have been made by the Chapter.
"Clearly, these actions are neither in line with Pi Kappa Alpha's values nor those of the University of Michigan. The Fraternity's staff is committed to working with the university and the Interfraternity Council to implement appropriate punitive and educational conditions for the chapter. Failure to comply with this indefinite suspension or the subsequent conditions may result in additional action, including charter suspension."
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/154SbuCThis is In Real Terms, a column analyzing the week in economic news. Comments? Criticisms? Ideas for future columns? Email me, or drop a note in the comments.
Last week, I pointed to skyrocketing rents as one reason that so many Americans are living with their parents into their 20s and 30s. But relief may be on the way for millennials and their beleaguered parents: Rents may, at last, be cooling off, especially in the most expensive cities.
Don’t break out the champagne — or the moving boxes — just yet. So far the biggest slowdown in rents is confined to the most expensive apartments in the most expensive cities. But there’s reason to think the trend will eventually reach the broader market.
On Wednesday, Equity Residential, a big apartment landlord with buildings in more than a dozen U.S. cities, warned investors that revenues would be lower than expected because of softening rents in New York and San Francisco. It was the second time this year that the company had to cut its forecasts — and it isn’t alone. Appraisal firm Miller Samuel Inc. reports that to lure tenants, a growing share of Manhattan landlords are being forced to cut prices or to offer concessions such as a free month’s rent. Median rents in Manhattan (for all unit sizes) fell in March for the first time in two years before rebounding somewhat in April.
Rents are still rising faster than inflation in most of the country, and they are accelerating in cheaper markets such as Las Vegas, Dallas and Jacksonville, Florida. But the slowdown in many of the most expensive markets has been striking. A year ago in New York, rents were rising at an annual rate of 9 percent, according to an index compiled by the real estate site Zillow; in April, they were up 3.8 percent. In Los Angeles, rental growth slowed from 9.2 percent last year to 5.7 percent this year. Even in San Francisco, home to the country’s highest rents (and fiercest rental battles), the growth rate has slowed to 7.4 percent from more than 17 percent a year ago.
CHANGE* RANK CITY MEDIAN 2016 RENT* 2014-2015 2015-2016 1 San Francisco $4,535 +17.4% +7.4% 2 San Jose 3,347 +16.8 +9.8 3 Los Angeles 2,631 +9.2 +5.7 4 Boston 2,499 +3.1 +1.8 5 Seattle 2,429 +8.0 +12.1 6 San Diego 2,410 +7.0 +4.8 7 New York 2,335 +9.0 +3.8 8 Denver 1,961 +10.4 +8.2 9 Austin 1,789 +8.3 +2.7 10 Chicago 1,682 +3.4 +0.9 11 Houston 1,444 +7.8 +3.5 12 Fort Worth 1,345 +5.0 +3.7 13 Baltimore 1,343 +3.6 +3.5 14 Dallas 1,335 +4.1 +5.5 15 Charlotte 1,274 +5.1 +4.1 16 San Antonio 1,244 +5.8 +4.1 17 Phoenix 1,227 +5.9 +5.5 18 Las Vegas 1,221 +1.6 +3.9 19 Philadelphia 1,204 +6.3 +2.3 20 Jacksonville 1,157 +2.1 +2.2 21 Columbus 1,126 +10.4 +3.0 22 Indianapolis 1,066 +1.4 +0.9 23 El Paso 1,026 +1.2 -1.8 24 Memphis 849 +0.4 -0.7 25 Detroit 754 +0.1 +0.1 Median rent in the 25 biggest U.S. cities *As of April Source: Zillow
What’s behind the slowdown? Supply and demand. Developers have been on an apartment-building spree in recent years, and those buildings are now coming online, flooding the market with new units. In its press release Wednesday, Equity blamed “new rental apartment supply” for its lowered expectations. Miller Samuel estimates that apartment inventory is up 23 percent in Manhattan and 16 percent in Brooklyn in the past year. Meanwhile, demand may be hitting its limits: Miller Samuel President Jonathan Miller said some New Yorkers are buying in the suburbs rather than continuing to struggle to pay rent in the city.
“Consumers, after a number of years of rising rents, are going through some sort of affordability threshold where they start considering alternatives,” Miller said.
Affordability is unlikely to improve quickly. Most of the buildings coming online are at the top end of the market. As a result, rents for luxury buildings are leveling off or even falling, while rents continue to rise in the lower and middle tiers of the market. Eventually, the high-end slowdown should filter through to the rest of the market, as wealthier renters move into expensive new buildings, reducing competition for older apartments. (In time, the new units will also become less desirable and therefore more affordable.) But market forces work slowly. Miller said he expects “more of a slow bleed than some sort of overnight correction.”
The process could move faster if developers were building more apartments targeted at lower- and middle-income renters. But as Daniel Hertz has written, U.S. cities are building mostly single-family homes and high-rise apartments — leaving a “missing middle” of small apartment buildings that were once a key source of affordable housing. That’s at least partly the result of zoning codes that discourage such building.
Still, even without major policy changes, the runaway rents of the past few years look like they have come to an end. Zillow expects 3.3 percent growth in rents nationwide over the next year — modest compared with the 5-plus percent seen much of last year — and many expensive cities, including New York, should see milder increases. That won’t by itself reverse the affordability crisis that now plagues many U.S. cities, but at least it might give renters some much-needed relief.
Mandatory minimums
The surprisingly successful battle for a $15 minimum wage has been waged, to a large degree, at the city level. Seattle, Los Angeles and other cities around the country have adopted minimum wages higher than their states require. But now states are pushing back against such moves.
The Wall Street Journal reported this week that states including Alabama, Arizona and North Carolina have passed laws barring local jurisdictions from adopting higher minimum wages. Other states — mostly conservative states with more liberal cities — are considering doing the same. Minimum wages aren’t the only target; state legislatures are also trying to prevent cities from requiring companies to offer paid sick leave and other benefits.
Backers of these so-call pre-emption laws argue that businesses shouldn’t have to navigate different rules every time they expand into a new city or town. That argument makes sense when it comes to safety rules, environmental regulations or occupational licensing requirements — construction isn’t any more dangerous in Phoenix than in Tempe, after all. But the minimum wage is a different story; the cost of living can vary widely from one city to another, even within a state, so it makes sense for the minimum wage to vary, too.
Stay in (the right) school
For all the recent debate over whether college is “worth it,” higher education remains the best path to the middle class for most Americans. But new reports this week highlighted two important caveats: College is only worth it for those who finish their degrees and who choose the right program in the first place.
I’ve written before about the importance of ensuring that students who start college go on to graduate — students who drop out often struggle to pay back student loans, leaving them worse off financially than if they’d never gone. A new report from Third Way, a Washington think tank, found that many private colleges are failing to help students — and especially low-income students — finish their degrees. According to the report, at the average private, non-profit school (a small minority of all institutions), only 55 percent of full-time students graduate within six years. As Quoctrung Bui of The New York Times illustrated, the schools that enroll the most low-income students also tend to have the lowest graduation rates.
Meanwhile, separate research released this week found that students who attended for-profit colleges ended up worse off on average than if they had never enrolled at all. Using data from the Internal Revenue Service, the researchers found that students who went to for-profit schools are less likely to have a job and earn less money than they did before they started. They also, of course, have significantly more debt. By contrast, associate degree programs at public colleges substantially boosted students earnings.
Number of the week
Consumer spending rose at a 1 percent annual rate in April, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Tuesday. That’s the fastest growth in more than six years.
Economists cautioned against reading too much into the report, which likely reflected one-time seasonal fluctuations. (For example: Unusually warm weather earlier this spring led to lower utility spending in March, which made April’s more normal spending look stronger by comparison.) But even if April’s jump was a fluke, the underlying trend in consumer spending remains strong. That’s good news given that the manufacturing sector is struggling amid weak global growth.
We’ll get a more up-to-date glimpse of how both the consumer and manufacturing economies are doing in the May jobs report, which will be released this morning. We’ll have our usual coverage later today.
Elsewhere
Eduardo Porter says a universal basic income (a favorite topic around these parts) won’t fight poverty.
“Welfare,” 20 years post-reform, means a lot more than cash payments — and no longer goes only to the poor, writes Krissy Clark. (Meanwhile, Jordan Weissmann argues that welfare reform has failed.)
Economist James Sherk of The Heritage Foundation pushes back against claims from liberal groups that workers’ wages aren’t keeping up with their productivity gains.
Bloomberg Businessweek goes deep into the deadly failures at air bag maker Takata.eVolo Magazine created this award in 2006 to celebrate outstanding ideas for vertical living. Architects and designers submit their designs, using innovations in technology, aesthetics, and materials to challenge current views about vertical architecture, and give us a glimpse as to the future of highrise living. They’ve received thousands of submissions, and last July, the jury–comprised of leaders in design and architecture–chose three winners, which were announced today:
Ewa Odyjas, Agnieszka Morga, Konrad Basan, and Jakub Pudo are the creative minds at BOMP in Poland. Their conceptual design, “Essence Skyscraper“, is a massive urban structure that blends architecture with the idea of a “secret garden”. The building is divided into 11 natural landscapes that integrate visual, acoustic, thermal, and olfactory experiences ranging from jungles and caves to arctic areas and waterfalls to create a sky-high, living adventure tower.
India’s slum population is expected to reach 104 million within the next two years, and the “Shanty-Scraper“, designed by Suraksha Bhatla and Sharan Sundar, is a vertical tower proposal that can combat the slum’s urban sprawl by sheltering its residents vertically. Using post-construction debris and other recycled, reclaimed materials such as timber and thatch, the tower can house many people at minimal cost, providing vital shelter for the families in the low-income fishing community.
Egor Orlov imagined the city of the future as one that morphs and evolves according to the needs of its inhabitants. Blending digital and physical worlds, his “Cybertopia” tower would have elements created by 3D printing or construction by drones, aspects that are comprised of light and graphics, and high-speed trains that move citizens across the city in record time. Homes could grow or reduce organically according to the residents’ needs, and online worlds (like computer game landscapes) would meld into the “real” world.
Congratulations again to these three winners, and also to the 15 honorable mentions!Say goodbye to an “Open Internet.” Say hello to “slow and fast lanes” where the quality and responsiveness of websites you click on will be subject to the whims of your warm-hearted Internet Service provider. And if they don’t agree that the sites you like to visit are “worthy,” you’ll have to pay more to access them in any reasonable manner.
Trump has tapped net neutrality foe Ajit Pai to become Chairman of the FCC, the agency responsible for enforcing and promulgating rules that assure an open Internet. His appointment, like many Federal appointments, will not require initial Senate approval (although he will need to be reconfirmed by the Republican-dominated Senate in 2017).
Why is this important? Because as head of the FCC, that agency will now be dominated by officials opposed to the idea of an “open Internet:”
Net neutrality is the idea that your Internet provider must treat all Web traffic equally. A court decision in January struck down FCC rules meant to ensure that Internet providers do not discriminate by blocking or slowing certain content. That decision opened the door for Internet providers like Comcast and Verizon to cut deals with content providers, which would pay to stream their content in an Internet “fast lane.”
Under President Obama’s leadership, the FCC reacted to this Court decision by reclassifying broadband access as a telecommunications service and thus applying Title II (common carrier) of the Communications Act of 1934 as well as section 706 of the Telecommunications act of 1996. The new Rule took effect in June, 2015. This nullified the prior Court decision and effectively made “net neutrality” the law of the land, at least temporarily. In 2016, the FCC’s new Rules were upheld by the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. We have enjoyed an “open Internet” since that time.
That is all going to change, and not because of any Court decision, but because of Donald Trump.
His nominee, Ajit Pai, will, in position as Chairman, be empowered to revoke the old rules.
What does that mean, in English?
First off, the web could get more expensive. The impact on the average Internet user will likely not be felt right away. But over time, websites would probably pass on to consumers the costs of paying for high-speed access, according to Harold Feld, a senior vice president at the consumer group Public Knowledge. In addition, it could become difficult to view certain websites owned by companies that can’t afford to pay for access to an Internet fast lane, Feld said. On top of Internet users potentially paying more, they would also be more confused, Feld said. Under the proposed rules, people would need to make sense of a fragmented Internet landscape where the time it takes to load an online video would depend on whether that website paid extra to their Internet provider. Consumers may start choosing their Internet providers based on which websites they like to visit.
Why is Trump doing this, aside from his general penchant for doing as much harm as possible in the name of “deregulation?” Well it’s entirely possible—even likely--that Trump is too stupid to understand the implications of what he’s doing, but catering to the class of corporate Telecom CEO’s that have sucked up to the Republican Party in their efforts to impose more fees on the American people under the guise of “economic interests” and “encouraging investment.”
Among corporations, opponents include AT&T, Verizon, IBM, Intel, Cisco, Nokia, Qualcomm, Broadcom, Juniper, dLink, Wintel, Alcatel-Lucent, Corning, Panasonic, Ericsson, and others.
Pai claims that supporters of “net neutrality" are “hysterical,“ and that there is not a “shred of evidence” that Internet content would be compromised by rescinding the rules. His statement dissenting from the Rules imposed during the Obama Administration is summarized here. Boiled down, his position is that enforcement of net neutrality rules constitutes a “tax” on broadband providers that ultimately hurts consumers:
Pai's promotion won't come as a surprise, but his new role should worry any supporters of a fair and open internet. Last month Pai and the FCC's other Republican commissioner Michael O'Rielly sent a letter to telecoms and carrier lobbying groups promising to "revisit" the net neutrality rules laid out in 2015 that protect consumers from practices like pay-for-priority access, blocking and throttling. According to Pai and O'Rielly, these rules for carrier transparency and traffic fairness create "unjustified burdens" for service providers and the pair intend to "undo" them.
Before joining the FCC Pai worked as an attorney for Verizon.
There are arguments for and against net neutrality that are well summarized in this Wikipedia entry. But ultimately the only question you may need to ask yourself is this: When was the last time the Republican Party did anything in the interests of the American consumer?KIEV (Reuters) - The destruction of two ammunition depots this year have dealt the biggest blow to Ukraine’s combat capability since the start of its separatist conflict, security and military officials said on Thursday.
A destroyed house is seen near the warehouse storing ammunition for multiple rocket launcher systems at a military base in Kalynivka, Vinnytsia region, Ukraine September 27, 2017. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich
Massive explosions at a military depot in the Vynnytsya region, 270 km (170 miles) west of Kiev, forced the authorities to evacuate 24,000 people on Wednesday. Another large depot was destroyed in March.
It is not clear if the explosions were accidents or sabotage, either of which would underscore poor security at the bases, but officials traded blame for the resulting losses.
“The country has suffered the biggest blow to our fighting capacity since the start of the war,” the secretary of the Ukrainian Security and Defence Council, Oleksandr Turchynov, told journalists.
Earlier the defense ministry said the Vynnytsya depot contained 83,000 tonnes of ammunition.
“There are many violations of fire and air safety at our arsenals. And these are the consequences,” Turchynov said. “We’ve shown that we’re not capable of protecting our strategic arsenals.”
Prosecutors have launched an investigation into the Vynnytsya blaze, which the authorities have said may have been started deliberately, citing “external factors”.
Chief military prosecutor Anatoly Matios said the site’s alarm system was out of order and its security team lacked sufficient guards and up-to-date equipment.
“The main issue which must be addressed is the personnel problem of guards whose salaries are very low, and in general security is carried out by elderly people, who certainly don’t have hawk-eye vision,” Matios told journalists.
There have been four large fires at ammunition and weapons depots since late 2015 - an additional drain on Ukraine’s military, which has been fighting Russian-backed separatists in eastern regions for more than three years.
“It will be hard for the government to restore the military reserves that have destroyed by explosions over the past two years. This is hundreds of billions of hryvnias,” Matios said.
Both Matios and Turchynov said Ukraine’s General Staff, which is responsible for the military’s day-to-day operations, should be held accountable for security failings at the depots.
In a post on Facebook, Chief of the General Staff Viktor Muzhenko denied accusations his institution was incompetent.
The comments were intended to “sow doubt about the armed forces’ ability to protect its people, (and) undermine trust in the army,” he said.'My grandma shot me. I'm going to die': 74-year-old breaks down in tears as grandson's 911 call is played out in court
With her grandson's terrified screams filling a suburban Detroit courtroom, 74-year-old Sandra Layne sat in a jail jumpsuit with tears in her eyes Monday as she listened to the teen telling a 911 operator he'd been shot by his grandmother.
Tapes of the emergency call were played publicly for the first time at the hearing, during which Layne was ordered to stand trial on murder and weapons charges in the death of 17-year-old Jonathan Hoffman.
Layne, petite with graying red hair, was acting in self-defense, her attorney later told reporters.
Tears: Defendant Sandra Layne breaks down crying during the playing of the 911 call made by her grandson Jonathan Hoffman
'I've just been shot. My grandma shot me. I'm going to die. Help,' Jonathan yelled into a cellphone on May 18 from the condo he shared with his grandparents in West Bloomfield Township, an upscale suburb.
A few minutes later, he tells the operator: 'I got shot, shot again. Please help. Help,' before his voice trails off and a woman's shouts are heard in the background.
But it was what Layne told police when they arrived that convinced Judge Kimberly Small to order the frail grandmother to stand trial. Officer Derrick Kassab testified that Layne walked out of her home with her hands up and'screamed to me, "I murdered my grandson."'
Defendant: Sandra Layne cries as her attorney, Jerome Sabbota, left, comforts her
Arriving officers heard three shots inside the home and yelled for anyone inside to come out, Kassab said, adding that Layne was hysterical and kept asking officers how her grandson was doing.
Inside, police found blood on the floors and walls, and Hoffman lying on the floor on the second floor, Sgt. Joseph Spencer testified.
He said the teen appeared to be breathing when he first arrived but his body relaxed as the officer called out his name.
Victim and killer: Jonathan Hoffman, 17, called police after his grandmother shot him five times at their Detroit-area condo Kassab was among several officers called to the stand during Monday's hearing, and their testimony revealed a bloody crime scene in a community of manicured lawns, quiet neighborhoods and lush green golf courses. When Layne walked through the condo's front door,'she had blood on her hands, had some blood on her clothing,' Officer David Curry said. He testified that there was also blood on a Glock 9mm semiautomatic handgun that officers found just inside the door. Nine spent cartridge cases also were found in the house. Blood was found on walls and the floor throughout the home. Officers found Jonathan lying face down in an upstairs loft bedroom, his arms at his sides on the floor near a sofa. Charged: Sandra Layne, 74, will stand trial on murder and firearms charges, a judge ruled
'His legs moved just a little bit,' Sgt. Joseph Spencer testified.
An autopsy revealed that Jonathan was shot three times in the chest, once in the abdomen and once in his left arm. The teen also had traces of synthetic marijuana in his urine, tests showed.
Awaiting her fate: Layne, pictured in May, told officers who arrived at the family condo that she had shot her grandson
At one point, Small granted Layne's defense attorney a short break to allow his client to compose herself. Friends and relatives quietly sat behind her in the small courtroom, their eyes also red from crying.
Layne was being held without bond. If convicted, she could face up to life in prison.
After the hearing, defense attorney Jerome Sabbota indicated to reporters that Layne's actions were in self-defense.
'If you listen closely to the 911 tape, he's grabbing onto her and he's holding her. He's not letting her go,' her lawyer said.
The shooting was the second time this year that officers were called to the home.
In March 21, officers responded to complaints and found Jonathan outside. Layne told police she was having a hard time because her grandson was very upset and yelling. No arrests were made that day.
Four days earlier, Jonathan, who was a senior at a local alternative high school, was pulled over in nearby Farmington Hills and ticketed for possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia. He later received a 93-day suspended sentence and was placed on 12 months' probation.
Jonathan was living with Sandra Layne and her husband, Fred, while his mother and father were divorcing and living outside Michigan. Neither appeared to be in court Monday.
'This was a child who was dumped on her,' Sabbota said. 'She killed a person she loved that she tried to save.Last Friday, Australian Olympic team boss Kitty Chiller ignited a war of words with tennis firebrand Nick Kyrgios, claiming “maybe he doesn’t understand what it means to be an Australian Olympian.”
Behavioural issues where the basis of Chiller’s claim, but Tennis Australia has fully backed the talented youngster, after improved performances with racquet and mouth in recent months.
Since his wild sledge-slinging run towards the end of 2015, Kyrgios has been rather tame with his words, while rocketing up the men’s world rankings. More importantly, Kyrgios’ recent performances on clay have been in stark contrast to Bernard Tomic’s utterly embarrassing efforts in recent tournaments.
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Several matches in a row Tomic has performed with an air of indifference, even holding his racquet by the wrong end at match point. Does he really does want to become the top player he says he will be every January?
So far, Tomic has proven to be a fair-weather sailor, performing well at home and in tournaments strongly suited to his crafty, flat game. His habit of tanking has not sat well with an Australian public accustomed to seeing ‘guts’ and fighting attitude from yesterday’s heroes Lleyton Hewitt and Pat Rafter.
Kyrgios, meanwhile, is the clear successor to men’s tennis heavyweights Djokovic and Murray, and has been breathing down their necks in recent months with strong performances.
His efforts have been commendable and, except for a small spat with a chair umpire in Madrid, the prodigy has done nothing that would raise eyebrows if it weren’t for his track record and a media keen to jump on any controversy he may bring.
The kid is 20 years old. He’s made mistakes and he’s acknowledged that. He’s never going to be a PR team’s wet dream, but he’s the hottest property in tennis right now, and I can’t think of anyone more exciting to watch given his style and unpredictable nature.
He’s reined it in and deserves to go to Rio, if not because of his medal chances, but because his improved attitude signals that he does want to be a good representative for Australia.
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Kitty Chiller made her Olympic debut as a 36-year-old in Sydney, in the obscure modern pentathlete event. She hardly understands the difficulties of being a teenage global sensation, with social media to navigate and the world reporting your every move.
The kid is improving and has so much to offer. Chill out Kitty, and let Kyrgios go for gold.Many people, even fanatical advocates of solar power, are unaware quite how close we are to reaching a critical milestone in the industry. Within a fairly short space of time, solar generated electricity will be fully cost competitive with coal-powered electricity – at least if the governments of the world’s two largest energy consuming nations have their way.
Both the US and China have a stated goal of reducing the cost of solar generated electricity to that level, and quickly. How they are going about it says a lot about how each economic system works.
In the US, despite the complaints of some that a drift toward government control is taking place, private initiative and free markets still rule. The Department of Energy launched the SunShot initiative in 2011, with a stated goal of reducing the cost of solar power to be fully competitive with conventional energy sources by the end of this decade. The program funds grants, incentives and competitions to encourage private sector research that will improve the efficiency and lower the cost of solar energy.
The Chinese, faced with what is in many ways a more urgent need to achieve the same thing, have taken a different approach. In a manner more in keeping with their history and current economic system, they are beating the problem over the head with piles of cash until the desired outcome is achieved. It looks, if this excellent Michael Sankowski piece at Monetary Realism is to be believed, as if they are getting mighty close.
Sankowski maintains that, driven by high levels of pollution and national security concerns, the Chinese government asked a question back in the early 2000s: “How Much Will It Cost To Make Solar Cheaper Than Coal?” The answer was based on Swanson's Law that states that every doubling of photovoltaic (PV) solar capacity results in a 20 percent reduction in unit cost. Testing that theory, because of low levels of production at that time, would only have cost around $10 billion -- a small price to pay for the chance of cheap, clean energy that didn’t rely on importing coal from Australia.
When Swanson’s Law still worked after a couple of doublings of capacity the Chinese government stepped up their efforts. As a result, Suntech now expects the goal to be achieved by 2016, or 2017 at the latest. That’s right: 2016. A couple of years. Of course, Suntech has an interest in exaggerating somewhat, but even so, that is stunningly close.
According to the US Energy Information Administration, coal accounted for 69 percent of China’s energy production as recently as 2011. Cost comparative solar power and a centralized government committed to change will make that number laughable in a few years. (Related Article: Are We At The Dawn Of The Zero Energy City?)
It should be borne in mind that reducing the cost of solar electricity to parity with coal in China is not the same as it is in America, if for no other reason than that electricity in general, and coal-powered electricity in particular, is more expensive in China than in the US.
SunShot, however, has also been successful, and claims a 60 percent reduction in cost since its inception three years ago. Many believe that their stated goal of solar power at $0.06 per kilowatt hour (kWH) is achievable by 2018. Some of that cost reduction is no doubt down to China ramping up capacity at such a rate and flooding the market, but there have been technological advances over that time, as well.
You can argue all day about which approach is correct. History shows us that innovation from the private sector is the most effective, long lasting change agent there is, but the Chinese approach of heavily subsidizing a massive increase in PV production capacity has been effective. Unfair, short sighted and disruptive, maybe, but effective nonetheless.
Command economies may be terrible at some things but when the rapid marshalling of resources is needed to solve a problem they can be very good at doing whatever it takes.
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The simple fact is that with both innovation and increased capacity, the cost of solar energy has fallen considerably over the last few years and continues to do so. If, as looks likely, it does become truly cost comparative with coal in the next few years, then the days of cheap, clean, renewable energy dominating the world’s two biggest energy markets may be closer than you think.
Source: http://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Solar-Energy/China-Might-Be-Winning-The-Race-To-Reduce-Solar-Costs.htmlGoogle Earth The house where police recently found the remains of a man not seen in nearly a decade.
Authorities in New York are investigating a bizarre case, in which a Brooklyn man lay dead in his bedroom for as many as eight years, while his mother continued to live in the home.
The man, who has not yet been identified, probably died in 2008 at age 43, according to authorities. His skeletal remains were discovered Thursday, after his 80-year-old mother was hospitalized. A female relative, police said, was retrieving belongings for the woman when she made the gruesome find.
“She went to the second floor bedroom and that’s when she noticed a dead body ― completely decomposed skeletal remains ― on the floor,” a spokesperson for the New York City Police Department told The Huffington Post on Monday.
The woman notified police and the city medical examiner removed the skeletal remains from the premises.
The man was last seen alive in 2008, according to New York’s WPIX-TV. His family was reportedly estranged from him and had not seen him in roughly 20 years.
The man had been terminally ill, reports The New York Daily News, quoting a police source. Online records indicate the man was previously employed as a driver for a Brooklyn car service.
It remains unclear why his mother, who is also not being identified, didn’t notify authorities of her son’s death.
A neighbor described the woman as a loner who ignored their greetings.
“She never said hello,” the neighbor told New York Daily News. “She always walking down the street with a grocery bag [and] she would walk looking down. Something about her always seemed a little weird.”
The neighbor also said a tan Ford Explorer, possibly belonging the dead man, is parked in the driveway of the woman’s home and has not been moved in several years. Google Earth appears to show the vehicle has remained in the same spot since at least October 2007.Image: Anthony Freda
“Under CIA manipulation, direction and, usually, their payroll, were past and present presidents of Mexico, Colombia, Uruguay and Costa Rica, “our minister of labor”, “our vice-president”, “my police”, journalists, labor leaders, student leaders, diplomats, and many others. If the Agency wished to disseminate anti-communist propaganda, cause dissension in leftist ranks, or have Communist embassy personnel expelled, it need only prepare some phony documents, present them to the appropriate government ministers and journalists, and – presto! – instant scandal.” (William Blum, CIA Manipulation: The Painful Truths Told by Phil Agee, Anti-Empire Report 27 June 2013)
Independent media outlets are increasingly challenging the powers that be and, thanks to social media, the truth about what is really happening in our world can be shared at the click of a button.
Sadly, the imperial war machine continues to rear its violent head in exponential proportion under the guise of democracy and “War on Terrorism”.
This war machine is promoted by the mainstream media who cannot be trusted for many reasons. It is a well documented fact that the CIA has used journalism as a cover for its agents and has planted stories in the media.
According to CIA documents, “more than 400 American journalists … in the past twenty‑five years have secretly carried out assignments for the Central Intelligence Agency“, wrote Carl Bernstein in 1977.
In this episode of Alternative views, former CIA agent John Stockwell explains “how CIA ‘disinformation’ tactics manipulate public opinion by planting stories in the press and by financing and supporting right-wing newspapers“.
Planting stories in the media is a standard CIA technique:
A common Agency tactic was writing editorials and phony news stories to be knowingly published by Latin |
dealing the same physical damage to all enemies hit. [ranked_description] => Poppy smashes the ground in front of her, dealing {40/60/80/100/120} (+0.9 per bonus attack damage) (+8% of target's maximum Health) physical damage to all enemies hit. The impacted ground becomes unstable, slowing enemies that are standing on it by {20/25/30/35/40}% before erupting after 1 second, dealing the same physical damage to all enemies hit. [description] => [icon] => [cooldown_rank_1] => 8 [cooldown_rank_2] => 7 [cooldown_rank_3] => 6 [cooldown_rank_4] => 5 [cooldown_rank_5] => 4 [cooldown] => 0 [cost_rank_1] => 35 [cost_rank_2] => 40 [cost_rank_3] => 45 [cost_rank_4] => 50 [cost_rank_5] => 55 [cost_type] => mana [attack_range] => 0 [range_rank_1] => 430 [range_rank_2] => 430 [range_rank_3] => 430 [range_rank_4] => 430 [range_rank_5] => 430 [keybind] => Q [video_url] => [display_order] => 1 [range_type] => self [target_type] => passive [comment_count] => 0 [is_deleted] => 0 [is_deprecated] => 0 [last_comment_ts] => 0000-00-00 00:00:00 ) [2] => Array ( [ability_id] => 746 [champion_id] => 43 [display_name] => Steadfast Presence [unranked_description] => Passive: Poppy's total armor and magic resistance are increased by 10%. This effect is doubled to 20% while Poppy is below 40% of her maximum Health. Active: Poppy gains bonus movement speed for 2.5 seconds and generates a barrier around her for the duration, causing all enemies who dash within to be knocked down and take magic damage. This can only happen once per enemy champion. [ranked_description] => Passive: Poppy's total armor and magic resistance are increased by 10%. This effect is doubled to 20% while Poppy is below 40% of her maximum Health. Active: Poppy gains 30% bonus movement speed for 2.5 seconds and generates a barrier around her for the duration, causing all enemies who dash within to be knocked down and take {70/110/150/190/230} {0.7} magic damage. This can only happen once per enemy champion. [description] => [icon] => [cooldown_rank_1] => 24 [cooldown_rank_2] => 22 [cooldown_rank_3] => 20 [cooldown_rank_4] => 18 [cooldown_rank_5] => 16 [cooldown] => 0 [cost_rank_1] => 50 [cost_rank_2] => 50 [cost_rank_3] => 50 [cost_rank_4] => 50 [cost_rank_5] => 50 [cost_type] => mana [attack_range] => 0 [range_rank_1] => 400 [range_rank_2] => 400 [range_rank_3] => 400 [range_rank_4] => 400 [range_rank_5] => 400 [keybind] => W [video_url] => https://lolstatic-a.akamaihd.net/champion-abilities/videos/mp4/0078_03.mp4 [display_order] => 2 [range_type] => self [target_type] => passive [comment_count] => 0 [is_deleted] => 0 [is_deprecated] => 0 [last_comment_ts] => 0000-00-00 00:00:00 ) [3] => Array ( [ability_id] => 217 [champion_id] => 43 [display_name] => Heroic Charge [unranked_description] => Poppy dashes to the target enemy, dealing physical damage to them and carrying them along with her. If they collide with terrain, she deals the same amount of physical damage to them again and temporarily stuns them. [ranked_description] => Poppy dashes to the target enemy, dealing {60/80/100/120/140} (+0.5 per bonus attack damage) physical damage to them and carrying them along with her. If they collide with terrain, she deals the same amount of physical damage to them again and stuns them for {1.6/1.7/1.8/1.9/2} seconds. [description] => Poppy charges at an enemy and cripples them further. The initial impact deals a small amount of damage, and if they collide with terrain, her target will take a high amount of damage and be stunned. [icon] => /content/spell/312e302e302e37302d37382d3 [cooldown_rank_1] => 14 [cooldown_rank_2] => 13 [cooldown_rank_3] => 12 [cooldown_rank_4] => 11 [cooldown_rank_5] => 10 [cooldown] => 12 [cost_rank_1] => 70 [cost_rank_2] => 70 [cost_rank_3] => 70 [cost_rank_4] => 70 [cost_rank_5] => 70 [cost_type] => mana [attack_range] => 0 [range_rank_1] => 475 [range_rank_2] => 475 [range_rank_3] => 475 [range_rank_4] => 475 [range_rank_5] => 475 [keybind] => E [video_url] => https://lolstatic-a.akamaihd.net/champion-abilities/videos/mp4/0078_04.mp4 [display_order] => 3 [range_type] => self [target_type] => self [comment_count] => 1 [is_deleted] => 0 [is_deprecated] => 0 [last_comment_ts] => 2012-11-11 06:52:46 ) [4] => Array ( [ability_id] => 747 [champion_id] => 43 [display_name] => Keeper's Verdict [unranked_description] => First cast: Poppy channels for up to 4 seconds, retaining the ability to move but slowing herself by 15% for the duration. Keeper's Verdict's cooldown is reduced by 75% if its channel is canceled. Second cast: Poppy smashes the ground, sending out a shockwave. When it hits an enemy champion, a massive hammer erupts from the ground, dealing physical damage to all enemies around it and knocking them a large distance toward their Summoning Platform. Poppy has sight of airborne enemies and they are rendered untargetable for the duration, with the distance increasing based on how long Keeper's Verdict was channeled. Releasing the ability instantly cancels the channel and knocks up all enemies around Poppy instead. [ranked_description] => First cast: Poppy channels for up to 4 seconds, retaining the ability to move but slowing herself by 15% for the duration. Keeper's Verdict's cooldown is reduced by 75% if its channel is canceled. Second cast: Poppy smashes the ground, sending out a shockwave. When it hits an enemy champion, a massive hammer erupts from the ground, dealing {200/300/400} (+0.9 per bonus attack damage) physical damage to all enemies around it and knocking them a large distance toward their Summoning Platform. Poppy has sight of airborne enemies and they are rendered untargetable for the duration, with the distance increasing based on how long Keeper's Verdict was channeled. Releasing the ability instantly cancels the channel and knocks up all enemies around Poppy for 0.75 seconds instead, but only dealing 50% damage. The knockup does not make enemies untargetable. [description] => [icon] => [cooldown_rank_1] => 140 [cooldown_rank_2] => 120 [cooldown_rank_3] => 100 [cooldown_rank_4] => 100 [cooldown_rank_5] => 100 [cooldown] => 0 [cost_rank_1] => 100 [cost_rank_2] => 100 [cost_rank_3] => 100 [cost_rank_4] => 100 [cost_rank_5] => 100 [cost_type] => mana [attack_range] => 0 [range_rank_1] => 500 [range_rank_2] => 500 [range_rank_3] => 500 [range_rank_4] => 500 [range_rank_5] => 500 [keybind] => R [video_url] => https://lolstatic-a.akamaihd.net/champion-abilities/videos/mp4/0078_05.mp4 [display_order] => 4 [range_type] => self [target_type] => passive [comment_count] => 0 [is_deleted] => 0 [is_deprecated] => 0 [last_comment_ts] => 0000-00-00 00:00:00 ) ) [threat_counts] => Array ( [0] => 0 [1] => 0 [2] => 0 [3] => 0 [4] => 0 [5] => 0 ) [leaguespyStats] => Array ( [status] => 1 [data] => Array ( [champion] => Array ( [id] => 78 [mobafire_id] => 43 [name] => Poppy [url] => poppy [free_to_play] => 0 ) [lane] => Top [laneAlt] => Top Lane [rank] => 26 [rankings] => 55 [rankingsCount] => 58 [winRate] => 51 ) ) ) 1
INTRODUCTION
This is my very first attempt in creating a guide! Any comments and suggestions would be very much appreciated! Hi everyone! I'm Pulsefire Ezreal from SG/MY Garena server! Currently at Gold I, I was Platinum V last season. Ever since the rework of Poppy, I've enjoyed picking her up in top lane whenever I can. Poppy is a powerful champion if played well, especially since her ultimate is a real game changer; you could potentially use it to knock away the important enemy champions during a teamfight, or to ensure a smooth escape, or even to prevent enemies from doing Baron / Dragon. The common difference between a good Poppy and an excellent one is how he / she uses his Steadfast Presence (W). W prevents dashes from enemy champions, meaning that using it at the right time could potentially protect you from ganking champions such as Nidalee, Gragas, Lee Sin.This is my very first attempt in creating a guide! Any comments and suggestions would be very much appreciated! IMPORTANT NOTES FOR LANING
As Poppy, you have decent sustain against melee matchups with passive shield, thus, it is best to engage with your passive shield up.
Your typical laning combo goes like this: E > W > Q. Steadfast Presence (W), is crucial especially against dash (eg. Riven, Tryndamere, Yasuo, Gragas).
Keeper's Verdict (R) is an incredibly powerful spell and extremely crucial, be it using it to knock away enemies before the fight begins OR to ensure a safe exit after sieging. WHY GARGOYLE'S STONEPLATE?
IF YOU'RE RUNNING COURAGE OF THE COLOSSUS:
Courage of the Colossus mastery will also provide a decent shield per enemy nearby, giving Poppy A LOT of defensive stats during a fight. Poppy has been rising back into power after the introduction of Gargoyle Stoneplate in Patch 7.9. As she has to get close to her enemies with E > W > Q combo, she Gargoyle Stoneplate provides her with additional bonus 40 armor and magic resistance if 3+ enemies are nearby.IF YOU'RE RUNNING COURAGE OF THE COLOSSUS:Courage of the Colossus mastery will also provide a decent shield per enemy nearby, giving Poppy A LOT of defensive stats during a fight.Paul Scholes has questioned Manchester United's transfer policy this summer following their opening day Premier League defeat at home to Swansea.
United have made two signings in Ander Herrera and Luke Shaw but Scholes insists the club should have done better in recruiting more talent to Old Trafford.
Speaking as pundit on BT Sport, the Red Devils legend insisted Louis van Gaal's side lack of midfield quality was to blame for their 2-1 defeat to the Swans.
VIDEO Scroll down to watch Van Gaal: Our confidence will be smashed down with result
Shrewd business: Manchester United legend Paul Scholes has questioned their transfer policy this summer
Maestro: Club legend Scholes (second right) enjoyed a trophy-laden spell in the heart of United's midfield
Down and out: Scholes has insisted United boss Louis van Gaal to spend money on their midfield area
Cesc Fabregas, Toni Kroos and Arturo Vidal were all top class targets but United have watched the Spaniard join Chelsea for £30million, the German move to Champions League winners Real Madrid for £24m while the Chilean is still at Juventus.
Herrera started Saturday's encounter but Scholes is worried United may not attract the quality of players in the middle of the park who can supply captain Wayne Rooney and co up front before the transfer window closes on September 1.
Talent: Ander Herrera (left) made his Manchester United debut in their Premier League defeat to Swansea
'We need more players,' Scholes said. 'They miss the likes of [Patrice] Evra, [Nemanja] Vidic, Rio [Ferdinand] and you saw they were inexperienced and got caught.
'But the big thing for me was the quality just wasn’t there in the midfield.
'[Wayne] Rooney and [Juan] Mata couldn't feed off anything. They looked better in the first 20 minutes of the second half and when United got the goal you expected them to kick on and get the crowd going but you didnt see it coming.
'The big thing about Louis van Gaal spending big money now is – who comes in? Is the quality there? The two big players haven’t come – Toni Kross and Cesc Fabregas.'
On the ball: Toni Kroos left Bayern Munich to join Champions League winners Real Madrid
Blue is the colour: Cesc Fabregas (centre) swapped Barcelona for Chelsea in a £30million deal
Scholes also questioned Van Gaal's decision to employ a 3-5-2 formation at Old Trafford, where United's teams have traditionally played more orthodox 4-4-2 formations.
He said: 'When you look at United the last 20 years its been 4-4-2 or 4-4-1-1 and that where we had all our success. 3-5-2 may be some LVG is a little obsessed with because it worked in the World Cup for him – there’s no doubt about that.Former Bears coach and player Mike Ditka appeared on Westwood One’s Monday Night Football pregame radio show with host Jim Gray before Chicago's game against the Vikings. He was asked about the protests during the anthem and whether he would bench players if they did anything but stand during the song.
Here's what he said:
“Yes, I don’t care who you are, how much money you make. If you don’t respect our country, then you shouldn’t be in this country playing football. Go to another country and play football. If you had to go somewhere else and try to play the sport, you wouldn’t have a job. If you don’t respect this flag and this country, then you don’t know what this is all about. I would say, adios.”
Ditka was then asked about the issues that caused players to protest in the first place. According to the former football player, those issues are made up.
“I don’t know what social injustices [there] have been. Muhammad Ali rose to the top. Jesse Owens is one of the classiest individuals that ever lived. Is everything based on color? I don’t see it that way. You have to be color blind in this country. You have to look at a person for what he is and what he stands for and how he produces — not by the color of his skin. That has never had anything to do with anything. “But, all of a sudden, it has become a big deal now — about oppression. There has been no oppression in the last 100 years that I know of. Now maybe I’m not watching it as carefully as other people. I think the opportunity is there for everybody — race, religion, creed, color, nationality. If you want to work, if you want to try, if you want to put effort in, you can accomplish anything. And we have watched that throughout our history of our country. “People rise to the top and have become very influential people in our country by doing the right things. I don’t think burning the flag, I don’t think protesting the country, it’s not about the country. They are protesting maybe an individual, and that’s wrong too. You have a ballot box, you have an election. That’s where you protest. You elect the person you want to be in office. And if you don’t get that person in office, I think you respect the other one. Period.”
After his playing days, Ditka worked for ESPN on its primetime "NFL Countdown" show. He no longer appeared on that show in 2016 in favor of a more limited role, although he hasn't made many appearances on the network since then.
Read more from Yahoo Sports:
• Trump threatens NFL’s long-gone ‘massive tax break’
• Dana White to country music star: 'Stay out of Vegas'
• Eric Adelson: How anthem debate sparked coach's downfall
• NFL Power Rankings: Cowboys aren't the sameYour first name
There are so many levels of psychosis in the conversation between ex-Secret Service agent and congressional candidate Dan F-Bomb Bongino and Politico reporter Marc Caputo that even Carl Jung would be left scratching his head.
Caputo began asking Bongino, a GOP candidate vying for the seat representing Florida’s 19th district, about a story that appeared in the Naples Daily News that Bongino said was filled with “propaganda.” The premise of the story was that the candidate lacked financial support from the district. Caputo and Bongino began arguing on Twitter. The conversation eventually moved to a tape recorded phone call that appeared Monday in Politico.
It took awhile. But here is what happened when Bongino really lost his shit on Caputo:
“SHUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTH YOU FUCKING COWARD.”
“HEY, FUCK YOURSELF.”
“SHUT THE FUCK UP.”
“GO FUCK YOURSELF.”
“HEY, FUCK YOU, FUUUUCK YOU.”
“YOU’RE A PIECE OF SHIT.”
“YOU’RE A FUCKING SCUMBAG.”
“GO FUCK YOURSELF.”
And that was just the last 30 seconds of the phone call.
There’s so much more.
“I promise you, you will rue the day you lied about me.”
“You’re nothing but a liar hack journalist.”
“You were that kid who was beaten up in high school.”
“I know it hurts. I know. It hurts. I feel your pain. One of these days you’ll get a real job.”
The Mirror will analyze more of this later…
In the meantime, I’ve asked Caputo for a comment.
Specifically, I want to know whether the reporter takes Adderall, which Bongino accused him of in the course of his rantings, along with verbal diarrhea.
We can only hope and pray this guy gets elected.SAN DIEGO -- Bruce Arena's second stint as coach of the U.S. national team began with the same result as his first, a 0-0 draw.
The United States had few scoring chances in Sunday's match against a young Serbia roster, the first game for the Americans since Jurgen Klinsmann was fired and replaced by Arena after a pair of losses in World Cup qualifiers last November.
Arena led the team to a 71-30-29 record from 1998-2006, becoming the winningest coach in American national team history and earning election to the National Soccer Hall of Fame. He opened with a tie against Australia and was fired following the team's first-round elimination at the 2006 World Cup, returned to Major League Soccer and led the LA Galaxy to three league titles.
The U.S. plays Jamaica on Friday in another friendly at Chattanooga, Tennessee, then resumes qualifying. After losing its first two games in the final round of the CONCACAF region, the U.S. hosts Honduras on March 24 at San Jose, California, and plays four days later at Panama.
Jozy Altidore became the 17th American men's player to make 100 international appearances, at 27 years, 84 days the second-youngest behind Landon Donovan (26 years, 96 days).
Sebastian Lletget, a 24-year-old midfielder, entered at the start of the second half in his national team debut. Chris Pontius, a 29-year-old midfielder, made his debut in the 65th and Jorge Villafana, a 27-year-old defender, in the 69th.
Darlington Nagbe curls a shot around a Serbian defender in a friendly on Sunday in San Diego. USA Today
Benny Feilhaber, now 31, entered in the 77th in his first appearance since January 2014. A member of the 2010 U.S. World Cup roster under Bob Bradley, he played in just three games under Klinsmann.
The best scoring chances were just before the final whistle. U.S. goalkeeper Nick Rimando made a diving parry to his right on Lazar Jovanovic's angled 10-yard shot in 89th minute. The U.S. countered, and Pontius slid a shot just wide after Juan Agudelo failed to get an attempt off.
With Brad Guzan among the Europe-based players not available and Tim Howard recovering from leg surgery, the 37-year-old Rimando started in goal. Arena used a 4-2-3-1 formation that had Graham Zusi at right-back with Steve Birnbaum and Chad Marshall in the center, with Greg Garza at left-back.
Captain Michael Bradley and Jermaine Jones were in defensive midfield, with Sacha Kljestan in an advance midfield role, Alejandro Bedoya on the right flank and Darlington Nagbe on the left. Altidore was the lone forward.
Usually a midfielder, Zusi made his first international start at right-back. Marshall had not played for the U.S. since January 2010 against Honduras and Rimando since April 2015 versus Mexico. Nagbe had not started since June 25 last year at Colombia at the Copa America.
Serbia, missing stars such as defenders Branislav Ivanovic, Aleksandar Kolarov and Nemanja Matic, opened with a lineup that had totaled just five previous international appearances.A Missouri mom was arrested after a Snapchat photograph of her and her 14-year-old daughter — topless in a hot tub — were circulated around multiple area high schools.
The 50-year-old mom and her daughter posed for the photo, "covering their nipples," in an outdoor hot tub in November, according to the probable cause statement. The woman's other daughter, a 13-year-old, took the photo on her sister's phone.
It's not clear which girl sent it out over Snapchat, but at least one of the recipients took a screenshot.
The media has been withholding all names to protect the children involved. Multiple outlets reported that the woman's son, who goes to one of the high schools where the photos spread, was ridiculed by his classmates.
“The issue here is the fact the daughter was 14 and the mother was clearly present and involved when the photo was taken,” said St. Charles County Prosecutor Tim Lohmar. “It certainly appeared that the picture was posed and it certainly had some sexual overtones."
The mother has spoken out, calling the allegations ridiculous.
“I was aware the photo was taken, and I told her at that second, please delete that photo,” the mom said. “I wasn’t posing I was getting out of the tub.”
She's facing up to a year in prison for misdemeanor charges of endangering the welfare of a minor.We've got a great combat-centric update on the Test servers right now! Those of you who have been following our announcements at TwitchCon and more recent updates on social channels may be familiar with the list of features and changes. There are some new nuggets of information below worth reading about before you jump in to this newest Test update.
Last week we had a livestream that went into greater detail on the improvements listed below, so be sure to check that out as well:
Combat Zone
The Test server is going to be your first look at the new Combat Zone! It's your destination to get your hands on most of the weapons in the game so you can practice your skills against other players. This will be a great place to hone your aim or just warm up before you get serious for an evening (or morning) of H1Z1. At 2KM x 2km, it's a fairly small map, but it incorporates design elements from Z2 so you can practice fighting in the hills, neighborhoods, and city areas. When you select Combat Zone from the Play menu (all the way at the bottom), you'll spawn on the ground in a random location. You'll be equipped with a selection of weapons and some equipment including a backpack, helmet, medkits, and other items already on your person. There is no parachuting; you spawn directly onto the map in an area determined by the population in the zone. You can then keep looting up or seek out other players to fight immediately. If you die, you'll have the option to respawn, at which point you'll spawn back in at another random location, ready to go.
Combat Tuning
We've made some additional adjustments to the weapons based on feedback from you, the players.
AR-15 Recoil Reset Reduction – We've made a small reduction in the AR-15 recoil reset timing to improve the feel of the weapon in combat. Let us know if the AR-15 feels better with this new reset timing and how it may change your weapon preference.
– We've made a small reduction in the AR-15 recoil reset timing to improve the feel of the weapon in combat. Let us know if the AR-15 feels better with this new reset timing and how it may change your weapon preference. AK-47 Reduced Fire Rate – Based on game data and player feedback, we decreased the fire rate of the AK to address mid-range and close-quarters spammability.
– Based on game data and player feedback, we decreased the fire rate of the AK to address mid-range and close-quarters spammability. Shotgun Fixed Pattern – The shotgun now features a fixed, non-rotating pattern. We've also added a much-requested center pellet. Damage has been increased, but damage fall-off has also been increased to make it a more reliable close range weapon.
– The shotgun now features a fixed, non-rotating pattern. We've also added a much-requested center pellet. Damage has been increased, but damage fall-off has also been increased to make it a more reliable close range weapon. Bullet Drop – We've slightly decreased the bullet drop across pistols and rifles to be more in line with the pre-Combat Update bullet drop. Note - The AK-47's bullet drop pattern will now be more similar to the AR-15's.
Match Pacing
We're making some pretty interesting changes to the gas pacing early in the match to speed up the initial looting lull. We're also removing the toxicity system, and retuning the gas damage to compensate for this. In addition, the gas early in the match will now be more transparent, but will become much more difficult to see through as the match progresses to prevent camping.
Daily Challenges
We are instituting a Daily Challenge system to the game with this update. Basically, this system offers you 3 different Challenges to complete every day: one easy, one medium, and one hard. You will have the ability to dismiss one of these Challenges each day and get a replacement. The primary reward for challenges is Skulls. Challenges do not have to be completed in a single match and they won’t be replaced until you discard or complete them.
Here are a few example Challenges:
Halfway There – Place in the top 75 in a Solos match (easy)
– Place in the top 75 in a Solos match (easy) Domed – Destroy 10 helmets worn by other players (medium)
– Destroy 10 helmets worn by other players (medium) One Shot. One Kill. – Kill an opponent with the.308 Hunting Rifle (hard)
– Kill an opponent with the.308 Hunting Rifle (hard) Magnum Rampage – Kill 10 opponents with the Magnum (hard)
Below is a work-in-progress image of what the Daily Challenge system will look like in-game.
When we introduce Daily Challenges, we are also going to be removing the Bounty System and updating the Skull Store. Take a look at a few of the new items, including the first ever animated helmet!
Improved Visuals
We revamped the lighting and colors of The Arena to be more visually appealing while at the same time improving gameplay. This change came in part from direct player feedback during the Reverse AMA.
Other Items
Fall Damage - We've made some changes to the fall damage system to make it more consistent. You will take the same damage from the same height regardless of forward velocity. You will also no longer take 1-2 damage randomly when running and jumping over small objects.
Explosive Arrows are now super effective against vehicles.
It is now possible to loot while reloading.
The fifth passenger in a vehicle can now reload and shoot.
We've made improvements to our file system that significantly reduce the download size of the game. This change will require that previous files are downloaded again to receive the new format. However, future downloads will utilize the new format and will therefore require a smaller amount of space.
It's been great seeing all the initial feedback from players jumping onto the Test server and playing in Combat Practice. Please keep that feedback coming, as we'll be making small adjustments to the Test server frequently before getting all of this into the Live game.
As always, make sure you're following us on Twitter and Reddit for the most up-to-date information.
- Anthony CastoroOn August 9, 1977, the United States Patent Office approved an application from three researchers at NASA’s Lewis Research Center in Cleveland. The patent was for a “solar cell shingle,” and it’s one of the earliest — if not the earliest — designs for putting solar cells on people’s roofs to bring power to their homes. Exactly 40 years later, companies like Tesla and others are on the verge of making solar-powered roofs a reality.
It’s been a long road to that point, and NASA’s proto-shingle was one of the earliest signposts of what could be achieved in the years to come. While a New York Times article published in August 1977 mentions NASA had received several inquiries about licensing the patent for commercial development, the idea of a solar shingle was probably too far ahead of its time four decades ago.
“Well, it was far out,” Americo Forestieri — “Moe” to his friends — who is one of the three researchers listed on the patent, tells Inverse. “As a matter of fact, it probably didn’t fall into the realm of what NASA was doing at the time because we were a space organization, of course.”
But it had been NASA that first found a practical application for solar cells. Until the launch of the solar-powered satellite Vanguard 1 in 1958, the cells were so primitive and inefficient that they has been little more than a toy for researchers at places like Bell Labs. Even if solar power wasn’t yet practical on Earth, it was the ideal way to power satellites, making NASA a natural hub for solar research.
This little guy, Vanguard 1, was a solar pioneer.
Not that this necessarily meant the space agency was on the brink of discovering practical, inexpensive solar power, as that wasn’t the task before it. “If you’re putting up a billion-dollar satellite, the cost of the power system, while it may be millions of dollars, it’s not the most important thing,” Sheila Bailey, a solar energy researcher at what has since been renamed the Glenn Research Center, tells Inverse. “You want reliable, and you want something that’s durable, and you want something that’s efficient because the real estate on a satellite is limited. You want the most efficient cell you can possibly produce.”
But there were times when NASA’s space-focused research could dovetail with potential uses back on the Earth. “We knew about solar cells, we knew that they worked, we knew that they had some terrestrial applications,” says Forestieri. This was of growing interest in the 1970s, as a pair of oil embargoes sent gas prices skyrocketing in the United States and had researchers beginning to think seriously about alternative energy.
Forestieri credits colleague Anthony Ratajczak, one of the other researchers on the patent, with the original idea for the shingle. It stood out as an unusually Earth-centric idea. “We had the equipment to do that and we put one together and it worked,” he says. “We understood it was low-efficiency, we didn’t think it that it would have come to what it is today. But it certainly is all around the world right now.”
Figure 2 from Forestieri, Ratajczak, and Sidorak's design for a solar shingle
The design of their solar shingle is simple enough: The patent calls for an array of solar cells to be placed atop a material like fiberglass cloth and covered with a weatherproof, transparent material. They take advantage of the fact regular roof shingles are already designed to overlap one another, with connectors placed at the edges of the shingles to share and transmit the collected power between them.
“You have to make an electrical connection from one shingle to the next to build up the power level,” Leroy Sidorak, the third researcher on the patent, tells Inverse. Just as you do inside any solar module, each cell is attached to the other cell by some method. Then you add those up because each solar cell at that time only develops a little less than one half volt of power. You have to have a way of adding those up to get to a certain power level that you want.”
The patent stresses their solar shingle is meant to not only serve as an energy collector but also as an ordinary shingle in its own right. In that regard, this 40-year-old design is closer to what Tesla is doing now with its solar roofs than just putting a bunch of solar arrays on top of a roof.
The Raven Run solar house in Kentucky from the 1970s
“I think at that time solar collectors, which was just putting panels up on your roof… that was the extent of it,” Sidorak says. He was the materials scientist of the trio, meaning it was his job to translate Forestieri and Ratajczak’s design into reality.
This wasn’t the easiest task. Before he started working on the shingle, Sidorak had been able to put solar cells on a hard surface like aluminum to help protect them. The fiberglass material, however, was initially soft so that it could work as a shingle.
Figure 3 from Forestieri, Ratajczak, and Sidorak's design for a solar shingle
Finding the right material to protect the shingle was also a challenge. After all, roofs are expected to last as long as 30 years, all while standing up to rain, snow, heatwaves, and anything else the weather can throw at them. The Vanguard 1 satellite, by contrast, had the relatively easy time of being in the vacuum of space, and it only operated for six years before losing contact with Earth.
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The original solar shingle never got put on anybody’s roof, but the researchers did try it out in the field outside Lewis Research Center alongside the commercial solar arrays NASA tested. The experiment was necessarily limited — they didn’t have 30 years to prove the solar shingle could work atop someone’s house — but Forestieri says they came away satisfied.
Americo "Moe" Forestieri working at the Lewis Research Center in 1965, a decade before his work on the solar shingle.
“I think the thing that was guiding us was that we were wondering if something like that would work,” he says. “When we put it together, we did see that the way we put it together, it would last probably a long time depending upon the film that we used to put it on and to cover it. They were pretty much impervious to the weather. So we thought, yeah, that would be a pretty good idea.”
Their shingle was a long way from commercial viability. The initial cost of a Tesla solar roof is about $50,000, minus various tax incentives. That’s expensive but within the realm of affordability for affluent homeowners, especially when you factor in three decades of potential energy savings. Forestieri estimates it would have cost anywhere between $250,000 and $400,000 in 2017 dollars to install enough of their solar shingles to power a home.
“If you were not concerned about the cost, I’m sure that we felt it would work on a house,” he says. “But it was going to be pretty expensive for a house. It was five percent efficiency at the time I believe. You would have had to make plenty of those to get on a roof of a house.”
A Tesla solar roof, the spiritual descendant of NASA's solar shingle.
Questions of cost and practicality may have meant 1977 wasn’t ready for their solar shingle, but 2017 and onward could prove a very different story for the technology’s spiritual descendants. “I think it’s just a matter of time,” says Sidorak, pointing out that solar cells become a better and better idea as power consumption generally becomes more efficient. Forestieri is similarly optimistic.
“It’s tremendous actually,” says Forestieri. “I’m really awestruck at how fast it has moved. It doesn’t cause any pollution at all, it’s a great idea. I’m just surprised it came as fast as it did.”
Figures 4 and 5 from Forestieri, Ratajczak, and Sidorak's design for |
went something like this:
Him, angry: “WTF! Were you taking a picture of me?”
Me, smiling: “Well, I tried to, but you were too fast – I’ve never seen anybody try to light up inside their jacket before. Anyway, it’s cold out here – have a nice day!”
Him, somewhat mollified: “Uh, okay, you too.”
We then went our separate ways. I suspect he was expecting a denial or some aggression. I didn’t get the image I wanted, but I got a more interesting candid expression instead, and managed to get out of the situation.
Focus
The strange thing it that expectation also influences the outcome in planned/ conscious situations: people who are not used to being photographed (or not with serious setups involving lights and a large camera) tend to act very nervous, tense and generally not at all like their usual selves. You can almost feel the expectation is like that at a dentists’ surgery. Needless to say, this is not conducive for natural or good portraits. I’ve tried many ways of making portraits with various equipment, and find that there’s almost always the expectation that it has to be formal and stiff; I’ll make these images because the subject expects them, but then never use them. The really good images come together when everything is set up, I’m talking to the subject about something completely unrelated, and I just ‘happen’ to hit the shutter – I’ll do it a few times, and after a while, the subject ignores the flashes and camera and continues the conversation.
Weariness
I don’t subscribe to the theory that compacts or Hasselblads or rangefinders are better portrait cameras than DSLRs because the subject can see your face, though there’s definitely something intimidating about having a giant eye pointed at you. Rather, everything returns to the relationship hypothesis. A ‘better’ – or at least more transparent – portrait is made because there is no a relationship between the photographer and subject; the camera is merely witness to that interaction, recording it on command. After the rapport has been established, I can pick up the camera again and then continue shooting as normal without any change in the subject. The camera has been relegated to the position of a tool, or a device, rather than the focus of the relationship. It’s an interesting turning point on these assignments, and one I’ve consciously noticed all the time.
The invisible divide
In a candid/street/documentary situation, the same thing doesn’t quite happen because the photographer never has a relationship with the subject: it’s more a case of going unnoticed. We can take advantage of the fact that direct communications between individuals is signalled by the eyes to remain unnoticed. Similarly, if a subject is looking directly into the camera, there’s a lot more intensity and focus directed through the image at the viewer – even if what has actually happened has simply caught their heads or eyes in mid-pan. If eyes are visible, it is therefore important to have them in sharp focus simply because this is the number one point of contact for the observer, an instant homing beacon for those communicating in conversation, and painfully obvious if not well defined.
Looking for a fare
If you’re not looking directly at somebody or vice versa, there is no perceived two-way connection – it is observation in one direction only. People will tend to ignore you – which of course gives waist level finders an advantage. Here, the equipment plays a much bigger role in the outcome – which is not to say that you couldn’t do candid street photography with medium format; you can. Regardless of the hardware or the outcome though, it’s important to remember a couple of things: portraiture has and always been about preserving personality and emotion either as a product of a relationship; candid photography is an extension of that (or perhaps a purification) where ideally we see only the individual in question. What does that glimpse into another person’s life tell us about them? Certainly not the whole story, but perhaps enough that we might want to find out. MT
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Images and content copyright Ming Thein | mingthein.com 2012 onwards. All rights reservedBlack Benatar took the stage in all pink — pink dress, pink top and a big pink bow that swallowed her up from neck to waist. Of course, the shades varied, and so did the fabrics. Benatar is a drag queen who knows how to match but still mix it up.
It was Sunday afternoon at the Verdi Club in the Mission, and it was story time. But first, Benatar told the children sitting on the floor in front of her that she wanted to teach them how to say “hello” like a drag queen. “Repeat after me: ‘Haaaaaaaaaaaay,’” she said, dragging out the “a” and twisting it a bit.
“Haaaaay,” they murmured back. That was not going to do. “Haaaaaaaaaaaay,” she said again. “Haaaaaaaaaaaay,” they shouted back.
Ok, she said, there was another greeting, a shorter one: “Hiiiiiiiyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.”
“Hiiiiiiiyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee,” came the response.
Benatar had a picture book with her called “Worm Loves Worm.” But before she started reading, she looked around. The children had spent the morning at RADAR Productions’ first-ever “drag ball for kids.” They’d had their faces painted and their makeup done. They’d colored in big posters of RuPaul, possibly the most famous drag queen out there, and the late disco legend Sylvester James. They’d danced to music that talked about embracing difference and loving yourself. They’d played dress-up and taken selfies with drag queens in stilettos.
“It’s so important for us to be here together, making this world,” Benatar told the children and the parents behind them. “If only we would have all had this when we were younger.”
RADAR Productions, a queer literary nonprofit, put the drag ball together as a fundraiser for its “Drag Queen Story Hour” program, which is exactly what it sounds like. Drag queens go into schools and libraries and bookstores and read to kids. The idea behind it, when author Michelle Tea started it two years ago, was to get drag queens out of the clubs and into community spaces and to expose children to positive queer role models — to show them early on that there are a lot of different ways to exist in the world.
In the two years since, the program has expanded to Los Angeles and New York City and beyond.
“Now I see the impact that it has had. For these kids, it’s magic. … It just feels like it’s a really healthy place to be yourself,” said Juliana Delgado Lopera, the executive director of RADAR. She’s also seen the way it’s affected the queens who read the stories. “The queens themselves are very, very moved. A lot of us grew up in hostile places.... This is something that feels really healing.”
For the drag ball, three children were paired up with three drag queens in advance. They worked on looks together, and on Sunday, the six of them read a book onstage called “My Princess Boy,” a story about a little boy who likes to wear dresses and climb trees and doesn’t care much about gender norms.
Afterward, Yves Saint Croissant, a drag queen who goes by Sean Santos when she’s not in heels, was hanging out with the little girl she’d been paired with. The girl, 7, would only go by her drag name, which, admittedly, had changed a lot in recent days but was finally set as the Sneaky Leopard Kitten.
She’d dressed in all leopard print and had horns pinned to her head. Saint Croissant had helped paint leopard spots all over her face and hands. The Sneaky Leopard Kitten pulled a tail out from behind her with a sparkly bow on the end. That, she said, was her favorite part of the costume.
She and Saint Croissant had sketched out her look weeks earlier. “We drewed it out,” the Sneaky Leopard Kitten said. According to Saint Croissant, it was all the Sneaky Leopard Kitten’s own ideas. “She was so specific. She wanted the horns to curve inward,” Saint Croissant said. She looked at the Sneaky Leopard Kitten. “You were really inspired, wouldn’t you say?” The Sneaky Leopard Kitten nodded. Then she asked Saint Croissant to take the horns out. Slowly, one by one, Saint Croissant pulled the bobby pins out of her hair. “Let me know if you want to put ’em back on, but I feel like we should just get comfy as the day goes on.”
The Sneaky Leopard Kitten’s mom, Karin Watson-Steier, looked on as her daughter shook her hair loose.
“She’s always loved dress-up so much,” Watson-Steier said. “She’s very much Method. She gets inspired by a character and is very much that character. … She always takes it a few steps further.”
Watson-Steier, like most of the parents there, had learned of the event through Gender Spectrum, a group that supports transgender and gender-expansive children. “I think that having drag queens read to kids, it’s a perfect way to make stories come alive,” she said. “I think it’s also good for kids to be exposed to other identities.”
Samantha Rice and her daughter Meg Rice, 9, had come from the North Bay to the drag ball. They’d heard about it through Gender Spectrum, too. They’d been trying to find time to attend a Drag Queen Story Hour event for a while.
Meg, who said drag was “something I’ve been really into lately,” had just gotten her makeup done. She let the person who applied it surprise her, she said, “and it turned out amazing.” She had gold glitter dancing up her cheekbones.
The event, Samantha Rice said, had brought her to tears. “It makes me really excited about my kid’s future. It shows her what possibilities there are, and no matter how she chooses to express herself, there will be people who support her.”
Black Benatar, the queen with the bow, was getting near the end of the story. The two worms who loved each other were getting ready for a wedding. They’d both decided they could each be the bride and the groom. Another character, Cricket, wasn’t so sure.
“That isn’t how it’s always been done,” Benatar said, in a clipped, snobby cricket voice.
The worms, through Benatar, answered back, calmly and firmly: “Then we’ll just change how it’s done.”
Ryan Kost is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rkost@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @RyanKostFor years the tech world has pushed the idea that tablets could replace laptops one day, but if you’ve ever used one as your main machine you know we’re not quite there yet. The best of the best, like Microsoft’s underrated Surface, are still glorified laptops and while the latest iPad made great strides it still requires extra accessories to become your day to day machine. There’s hope on the horizon however, and the light that’s shining over is from Lenovo
Lenovo’s Yoga Book is the company’s latest tablet computer, a familiar idea that reimagines the tablet as a two-panel experience. Unlike a traditional laptop the Yoga Book doesn’t feature a keyboard, rather it has a screen and a second touch interface. The second touch interface doubles as a “keyboard” and a digital writing space. We put keyboard is quotation marks because the Yoga Book doesn’t feature physical keys.
Instead when you need to type a glowing touch keyboard and trackpad appear on the second touch interface, allowing you to type like you’re on a laptop without having to press any physical buttons. By utilizing haptic feedback the Yoga lets your fingers know when you’ve hit a key, all without physically having to press a button.
The secondary touch interface also allows you to digitally write or take notes digitally on the Yoga via a Wacom technology based pen stylus. If you’re a sucker for writing with pen and ink the Yoga still has you covered. You can put a piece of paper on the top of the touch interface and have your writing instantly digitized as you write.
The Yoga also has a reversible main screen, similar to what is currently available on Lenovo laptops, that allows the whole thing to be used as one-handed tablet. Closed, the machine is under 10mm thick, and features a 10.1-inch, 1080p touchscreen display, 8-megapixel camera, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, and a microSD card slot.Birgitte Caroline " Nena " von Schlebrügge (born January 8, 1941) is a Mexican -born American former fashion model of Swedish ancestry from the 1950s and 1960s. She is now the Managing Director of Menla Mountain Retreat.
Von Schlebrügge's maternal grandmother's parents were German and Danish. [ citation needed ] Her mother had served as sv:Axel Ebbe's model for Famntaget ("The Embrace"), a 1930s statue of a nude woman that overlooks the harbor of Smygehuk in Sweden. [2] On her father's side, she has an older half-sister, who was the paternal grandmother of German-Swedish football player Max von Schlebrügge.
Modeling Edit
In 1955 at the age of 14, Nena was discovered by Vogue photographer Norman Parkinson when he was on a tour in Stockholm, Sweden. In 1957, Nena moved to London, England, to pursue a career in high-fashion modeling. She found immediate success and was invited to come to New York City by Eileen Ford of the Ford Modeling Agency to continue her modelling career.[3]
In the snow storm of March 1958, at the age of 17, she arrived in New York City on the Queen Mary. In New York City, she continued her career as a top model, working at Vogue and Harper's Bazaar. She was photographed by many fashion photographers, including Gleb Derujinsky.[4]
Acting Edit
In 1967, she had a part in the Edie Sedgwick film Ciao! Manhattan. The film took four years to make; and drastic changes from the original story were made, causing the filmmakers to remove many scenes, including Nena's, shot in 1967. These deleted scenes can be found on the DVD version.[5]
Other activities Edit
From 1987 to 1989, Nena was the Program Director at the New York Open Center and, from 1991 to 2002, was the Managing Director of Tibet House U.S. located in New York City.[6] The Tibet House had been founded in 1986 by the Thurmans, Philip Glass, and Richard Gere, at the behest of the Dalai Lama.[7] Nena oversaw the construction of Tibet House, the educational programming, and, with Philip Glass, initiated the annual benefit concert at Carnegie Hall, as well as the annual benefit auction at Christie's.[7]
Since 2001, Nena has been the Managing Director of the Tibet House-owned Menla Mountain Retreat, where she has overseen the construction of a state-of-the-art Tibetan medicinal spa facility and business in the Catskill Mountains in Phoenicia, New York. She is also a psychotherapist.[6]Canonical has revealed Ubuntu for Android, a dual-OS concept that allows a smartphone to be used as a desktop when docked.
Ubuntu for Android features a full version of the open source desktop OS working alongside Google's mobile OS.
When the phone is being used as a smartphone, it runs Android. When it's docked into a laptop or a desktop setup, it automatically switches to Ubuntu, without user input or a restart.
"You've got your phone, you get to work, you just slip it in and you've got an Ubuntu desktop with the same contacts, same photos, same files and same network configurations," Canonical CEO Jane Silber told PC Pro.
It's not an application on Android - it's full Ubuntu, running alongside Android
"It's not an application on Android - it's full Ubuntu, running alongside Android," Silber said. "Which operating system takes over the phone is context sensitive."
Two OSes on one phone
Project manager Richard Collins demonstrated the system to PC Pro using a Motorola Atrix 2 - an Android smartphone that docks into a laptop body.
With Ubuntu for Android, files and applications are shared between the two OSes. For example, calls and text messages can be sent and received via Ubuntu in desktop mode.
When in docked mode, Ubuntu fully syncs email, displays Wi-Fi and other connectivity just as a phone would - including offering 3G access should you want it - and pulls in Android contacts, music and apps.
Android continues to run in the background, with everything kept synchronised. For example, if you're typing up an email in Ubuntu, but have to leave, picking up the phone from the dock will bring the message up in Android, allowing you to continue composing.
The demo handset was running Android 2.3, but Collins said it works with any subsequent version of Android. Because the OSes are held separately, updating one doesn't negatively affect the other. "We haven't customised Android at all, that's stock Android," Silber explained. "Updates to Android shouldn't affect it at all."
Because both OSes are Linux, integration is relatively easy. "It's a Linux solution for a Linux smartphone platform," said Collins. "Other than Android, we're interested in any smartphone platform that's Linux based as well, it's just that Android is the biggest one by a long-shot right now."
To work, handsets need to be dual-core, offer at least 1GHz CPU and 512MB of RAM, and support HDMI - fairly standard specs for higher-end modern smartphones.
Business focus
While Silber said the system could also support smart TVs - showing off the same phone running Ubuntu TV on a monitor - it's initially targeted at PCs and laptops.
"We think the main use case is for the converged device, of a laptop and smartphone converging, and in the enterprise for the mobile worker," she said.
The system integrates with Ubuntu One, Canonical's cloud storage and syncing tool, and also supports thin client solutions from VMware and Citrix, Collins added.
"In terms of a fully-fledged enterprise solution, if there's a thin-client environment that's something that works very, very well with this solution," Collins said.
However, the move is clearly part of Canonical's plans to move Ubuntu onto smartphones and tablets, following the release of Ubuntu TV earlier this year.
Silber said Ubuntu for Android would be released under an open source license, but that Canonical expects it to mostly be pre-installed on specific hardware.
"We'll want to optimise for certain hardware profiles and chips," she said. "It simply wouldn't be the same experience on a downloaded install."
Silber said the company was already in talks with some manufacturers, and Canonical will be showing off the system at Mobile World Congress in the hope of finding more handset makers to sign on. There's no launch date yet, but the software is ready to go, she said.- Advertisement -
The US food supply is being taken over at this moment through regulations most people have never heard of or know about. Click here.
For years, environmentalists have been struggling to stop pesticides that are deadly to everything, and food safety people have been trying to stop GMOs that are threaten to human health and all of nature, and farming groups have been trying to stop regulations that make farming literally impossible. The arguments for organic farming and freedom to farm go beyond argument - it is patently obvious that is the only thing that makes any sense whatsoever.
So, why is industrial agriculture - which is depleting and contaminating our water supply, filling animals with drug after drug that make us sick, using such disgusting practices it has created Mad Cow and Bird Flu, wiping out fish stocks in the ocean with poisonous run-off into the Mississippi, causing suicides by the 10s of thousands in India and our own farmers deaths in huge numbers in the 80s here, destroying farming communities and the democratic base they provide this country, killing bees, and giving us diabetes and heart disease and cancers - pre-eminent over an agriculture that is simply and by all common-sense, good?
Discrimination.
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Look hard at that word. It is unfamiliar within the paradigm of agriculture but it is the unseen bedrock reality and it is the source of all the insanity mentioned above.
The poisoning of the earth, the mutating of nature, the dying of bees and farmers, do not derive from an even remotely just system but from one as systematic and malign as racism, and with same infiltration of government and extra-governmental use of terror to prevail.
Monsanto is currently in the process of wiping out hundreds of farmers in southern Illinois and destroying previously close communities through fear and paranoia. Within a frame of "agriculture" or defending "patents," it somehow passes as "normal" to have hired thugs trespassing, harassing, threatening, tracking, and abusing farmers and then pushing them into bankruptcy through lawsuits against patent infringement. Click here. Pulled from an agricultural frame, though, one can see that those patents as similar to laws that defined slaves as 3/5 of a man legally, because they, too, contravene all equal and natural rights of each individual to what is inherently theirs - in the first case, freedom and a vote, and in the second case, ownership of nature itself. And Monsanto is also acting as did the KKK, striking fear into communities on purpose, to cow farming communities and even to eliminate them in what it calls "rural cleansing." Click here.
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A discriminatory group has intruded itself into a setting in which all people once had equal rights over nature, and it has managed to alter the entire system of rights which no one had noticed as "rights" before (access to nature being so unconsciously assumed). This immense overturning of justice did not happen accidentally but derived from extremely corrupt means - inserting a Monsanto employee, Clarence Thomas, onto the Supreme Court to make rulings that genetically altered organisms were no different from normal ones, and then on intellectual property law which allowed fro the take-over of nature through genetic engineering. People have recognized that this gave Monsanto a massive benefit - a lock on ownership of whatever it screwed with. But what has been missed is that those rulings by a black "Justice" destroyed previously taken for granted and thus undefined civil and human rights around nature.
The approach to pesticides has been similar. They have been seen merely as a product to be tested and approved or not approved, but something primary has been missing in that - a recognition that the corruption of the process is a civil rights issue. "Life," liberty and the pursuit of happiness. In those words, it becomes plain that health, and thus what is done to threaten nature, the source of all life, is a civil right. Lost within "agriculture" and "commodities" or "profit" or "studies" is the profound truth that this is about life or death and our civil rights to life. One group is using corrupt means to discriminate against a defined segment of the population - all of us who wish to live.
We are used to seeing discrimination personified - George Wallace in the school house door blocking little black children from getting an education, and Bull Connor setting fire hoses and dogs on peaceful black protesters. That template became the defining one for civil rights - white over blacks, good people being stopped by the government. But it does not fit civil rights abuses now.
Today, government is not the rescuer but itself is attacking a marginalized group and stands between it and something they need. This is even harder to recognize now that Obama is president - for he is a black man overseeing a government that is discriminating and abusing a marginalized group. Who is the marginalized group? It is hard to see as well because it is all of us. And what is that group being denied through discriminatory laws and practices (and armed raids)? What we all need to survive - nature in a healthy state and full freedoms to it. And who is being discriminated in favor of? Multinational corporations such as Monsanto.
It makes for a much harder to draw political cartoon because the discrimination is so total and the government, run by a black man, is part of it.
But let's look at only a couple of examples to see how it works precisely as discriminatory laws worked against the civil rights of blacks.
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Voting rights were the heart of civil rights because they defined the equal personhood of black people. To block them from this civil right, poll taxes were interposed between them and the vote. They "were allowed" to vote, only the cost made it prohibitive.
Today, farmers are allowed to farm but the FDA's seed contamination regulations (with Monsanto's hand in them easy to see) have just listed seed cleaning equipment as sources of seed contamination and farmers are no longer allowed to use the equipment they have to clean seed to sell to the public now. Click here. The seeds included? Those eaten raw (flax, poppy, sesame); those sprouted (wheat, alfalfa, beans, greens, broccoli, etc.); those pressed into oils (corn, soy, sunflower, canola, etc.); those used for animal feed. Oh, farmers can still clean those seeds but they would have to get equipment the FDA now requires as safe enough - a million to a million and half dollar building and equipment... for each line of seed. A farmer with hand made seed cleaning equipment he's used for 40 years to clean seeds which never made a single person sick, would now need to build 15 buildings if he wishes to raise and sell 15 kinds of seeds. This corporate influence is criminal and corrupt. But even putting that aside, the imposition of corporate standards on small farmers is discriminatory. And intentionally so. Just as with voting rights, it is meant to deny the civil rights of one group to the advantage of a more powerful one.
A second example. Once poll taxes were eliminated, racist white people found another means of blocking blacks from voting - literacy tests. Using the seemingly rational argument that people should be educated enough to vote, they inserted this bar between black people and their full Constitutional right to vote. Black people were slurred, deemed "too dumb to vote." No one, of course, was testing whether the racists were too undemocratic to vote, too cruel, too miseducated, too corrupt, or too... whatever. And no one asked whether common sense and decency and a history of being treated unjustly were actually ideal qualifications for voting and literacy was irrelevant and not included in the Constitution. What mattered was only that one group discriminated against another and denied them their Constitutional rights and using "false measures of value" to do so.
Next Page 1 | 2It’s fun to imagine the AI future of home service robots, Amazon Dots in every room, delivery drones and more accurate home medical diagnoses. But while it’s natural that flashy consumer applications are capturing the public’s imaginations, AI’s capacity to transform another area doesn’t get as much attention – the way software itself is developed.
Imagine what computers could do if they understood themselves. Well, they soon will. And I’m not talking about far in the future; I’m talking about the very near future, using off-the-shelf technology that already exists today.
Until now, machine learning experts have tended to focus on AI applications highly tailored to specific tasks – for example, facial recognition, self-driving cars, speech recognition, even Internet search results. But what if those same algorithms were able to understand their own code structure — without human assistance, interpretation or intervention — in the same way they can recognize and process human language and images?
If code started analyzing itself – fixing errors and making improvements faster than a human ever could — technological breakthroughs could happen faster and faster. The possibilities seem endless: medical advances, smoother robots, smarter phones, software with fewer bugs, banks with less fraud, on and on.
Artificial intelligence holds the potential to solve an age-old problem in software development. While the ability for code to write or manipulate other code – a concept known as metaprogramming – has existed for a long time (it actually originated in the late 1950s with Lisp), it can tackle only the problems a human can imagine.
But AI can change that.
Using AI, computers could understand all the code in a software project’s history, improving and debugging individual lines of code in an instant, in every conceivable programming language.
Even an inexperienced or mediocre programmer with an idea for an app could just start describing the idea and the computer could build the application itself. This could mean the difference between completing, say, a cancer research project in days or months rather than years. It’s that significant an advance.
The technologies that will eventually lead to these dramatic advances are in the embryonic stage today, but they’re starting to get out there. For example, Google’s TensorFlow machine learning software lets everyday developers build neural network features directly into apps, such as the ability to recognize people and objects in photos. You no longer need a Ph.D. to tinker with these ideas. The ability for amateurs to tinker might be the biggest breakthrough in AI ever.
Think this is far in the future? You might be surprised to learn that companies are already using AI concepts in its in-house project management system – like Google, which built a bug prediction program that uses machine learning and statistical analysis to guess whether a piece of code is potentially flawed or not. Ilya Grigorik, co-chair of the W3C, then created an open-source version of the tool called bugspots, which has been downloaded over 20,000 times.
Another example is with Siri’s successor, Viv. As outlined in a recent Wired article, Viv doesn’t just do speech recognition with a smattering of natural language processing. Viv builds complex adaptive computer programs based on English words. Code writing code. Because the written code is trained and specialized by Viv’s creators, this isn’t quite the generalized code writing ability that I’m talking about here, but it’s a step in that direction.
Yet another step in that direction can be found in the land of amateur tinkerers. Emil Schutte has a provocative statement: Tired of writing code? Me too! Let’s have Stack Overflow do it. He goes on to share a proof of concept, full working code, that pulls from Stack Overflow’s large database of programming knowledge to provide fully functioning chunks of code based only on the intentions of the code already written.
As more of this technology comes online and matures, machines will be able to outperform humans at just about any task: visual processing, image processing, games, and now even programming other computers.
So why can’t computers understand themselves yet? The answer is it’s just a matter of time before they do. And once they do, you can expect to see radical breakthroughs in all fields where software is important.
Lucas Carlson is VP of strategy at Automic Software.JG Jamison Green for World Professional Association for Transgender Health Inc SAN FRANCISCO, CA
The Project:
Help trans people get better and safer access to medical care by making expert recommendations available to providers.
Recently, members of the Electronic Medical Records (EMR) task force of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) were successful in publishing their recommendations on the use of EMRs in the care of transgender and gender nonconforming people in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. Currently the article is available to subscribers only; we need $2,500 to buy the distribution rights to the article so we can spread the word about the recommendations our committee members made.
The Impact
A team that includes some of the world's leading experts in trans medical care has published an article to better educate providers on how to incorporate electronic medical records (EMR) while treating trans patients. This article, when read and applied by providers, will help to transform the way trans people are treated in clinics across the country. Currently, individual providers each have to find the article on their own and then pay for it in order to read it, and most of the providers willing to do that work are already doing a great job with their trans patients. We need this article to reach a much wider audience, beyond those already familiar with trans health issues by making the article public and having the ability to send it for free to clinics and doctors nationwide. Your donation will help us reach the $2,500 we need to make that happen.
What We Need & What You Get
We need (at least!) $2,500 to pay the publisher to make the article public. If we can reach above that we'll be able to use those funds to further our reach and deepen our impact in creating better access to medical care for trans people. Additional funds that are raised will be applied to WPATH's Global Education Initiative to increase awareness about transgender health around the world.
You'll get the satisfaction of knowing that you're a pioneer in trans medical care and that you or someone you love will have safer, better, more competent services provided to them next time they see a doctor.
Your support, either through a donation or spreading the word (or both!), will make clinics across the country safer and more welcoming for everyone in our community. Thank you!AURORA, Colo.—A gun violence remembrance is planned on the anniversary of the mass shootings at an Aurora movie theater.
Mayors Against Illegal Guns says the event will start with a news conference at noon on July 19. Participants will read the names of gun violence victims until 12:38 a.m. on July 20, the time of the shootings began.
The group says a survivor of the 2012 shootings and family members of victims will participate.
The event will be at Cherry Creek State Park.
Twelve people were killed and 70 injured when a gunman opened fire in the theater. James Holmes pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to multiple counts of murder and attempted murder.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Holmes’ trial is scheduled to start in February."Life is about how you conduct yourself, especially when faced with the most difficult of circumstances."
Morty Kwestel
Brain Injury Patient
Morty Kwestel has a scientific mind – logical, analytical, exacting. He easily translates the complexities of computer science to his students at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.
Yet he couldn't make sense of how he lost more than seven weeks of his life. Morty felt achy and nauseous, and eventually went to Saint Barnabas Medical Center. He was diagnosed with shingles, but soon became disoriented and unable to communicate or stay awake. More evaluation showed the virus had caused encephalitis, a dangerous inflammation of the brain.
When he regained wakefulness, he thought he had been asleep overnight and couldn't grasp that almost two months had passed. He struggled with speech, mobility, vision and other medical complications. And he struggled to find a rational explanation for what had happened.
At Kessler's Center for Brain Injury Rehabilitation, Morty found answers, along with what he calls a "first-class" experience. "Everyone and everything is geared to help you recover. I was treated like family and because of their care and compassion, I was able to feel like a person again.
It was a slow, difficult process, but thanks to his specialized brain injury team, loving wife and strong faith, Morty made what his doctors call a miraculous recovery. He returned home, resumed teaching and remains grateful for the many blessings in life.
Learn more about Kessler's Brain Injury Rehabilitation Program.Just after the independence referendum was a momentous time to be in that exhausted Chamber of the Scottish Parliament. It marked the first debate not focussed on the constitution for as long as we could remember. And education was finally the centre of attention.
The attainment gap in Scottish state schools is something that the main parties in Scotland care about a lot. Oft-quoted statistics portraying state schools practically next to each other as performing at opposite ends of the attainment spectrum provide the impetus.
It is true - Scotland's 'educational apartheid’ has been described as a ‘national disgrace’. Now Scotland’s First Minister is behind a dangerously vague and impossible Education Bill (pdf) that proposes to outlaw inequality if it receives cross-party support in Holyrood this year.
So closing this ‘gulf' in performance, to most Scottish politicians, is a worthy goal. And perhaps this remains part of the appeal of the Finnish education system. Its schools are among the most uniform in the world.
Certainly in 2001, when Finland came to be regarded as an education superpower, its results in the OECD’s Programme for International Assessment (PISA) made it the most desirable model in the world.
Of the 41 nations that took part that year, Finland was impressively topping the tables in science, mathematics and reading and competing with the notoriously well-performing Asian nations. Ever since then we have been making the most myopic movements in education reform in order to emulate their achievements.
Indeed, Scotland’s controversial Curriculum for Excellence was largely inspired by the Finnish model. Created in 2004 and implemented in 2010, CfE has been one of these unimaginative, inside-the-box changes in the Scottish schooling sphere.
To counteract the case made that more school choice and competition between schools is the answer to spreading quality and innovation, the Finnish argument is still made. The correlation between the reforms in Finland and the time of its exemplary PISA results has led to the common conclusion that the reforms caused the success.
In this very debate following the referendum, Kezia Dugdale, the deputy leader of the Scottish Labour Party, once more spoke of her visit to Finland and lessons we should still be learning from the country’s example.
Remarkably, until now, nobody has actually scratched beneath the surface of this spiel. The Centre for Policy Studies has just published Real Finnish Lessons (pdf) by Gabriel Heller Sahlgren of CMRE. It is the first paper of its kind to take a reasoned and thorough look at the Finnish schooling sensation.
The first point of note is that performance began declining since those reforms were enacted.
What the new analysis tell us is that Finland’s rise accelerated primarily during the old system when the traditionalist, rote-learning pedagogy was at its core.
While results increased by approximately the equivalent of 23 TIMSS points between 1965 and 1980, they rose a further 32 points in |
Ali of Punjab showed good positional sense. He was commanding in aerial duels and a hard tackler. Defender Jitendra Singh of Bengal was quick, agile and a tenacious man marker.
However there are still discernible shortcomings. Finishing was poor and passing in the attacking third was either inaccurate or predictable. A team that has trained together for two and a half years and visited 18 countries for over 100 practice matches should have been more assertive and shown better understanding.
India’s senior team coach Stephen Constantine was quoted as saying, “This has got to be one of the best teams in Indian football, if not the best.” Do you agree?
Constantine has developed a settled squad (senior team) after giving chances to about 35 newcomers. It is unbeaten in 2017 having won six games on the trot, so some hyperbole is justified. It may be one of the fittest ever Indian teams but certainly not the best. The six victories have been against second tier Asian nations. For me the best Indian team played in the 1962 Asian Games and the 1960 Rome Olympics.
There is talk of teams such as Mohun Bagan and East Bengal joining the Indian Super League. What’s your view?
Ultimately one league has to prevail. Mohun Bagan and East Bengal are India’s legacy clubs, with a massive fan base and committed supporters. These two historic clubs have to be adjusted in any future league. Instead of starting a new franchise it would have been better if Tatas had been requested to sponsor either Mohun Bagan or East Bengal. Both would have benefitted. Also, franchise fees must be reduced from Rs 15 crore annually to Rs 5 crore. Management of these historic clubs must get modernised and learn to cope with market forces. All India Football Federation has to play the role of an honest broker and ensure legacy clubs and new franchises co-exist. Unless more clubs field teams, there will be no progress.
Manipur has emerged as a major footballing state but traditional nurseries have declined. Why?
Manipur had eight players in India’s U-17 squad mainly because football is an avenue for upward social mobility. Manipur Football Association organises some local youth leagues but not for a long duration. Players from this state emerge as they have role models to emulate. Also over the years players from Manipur have developed due to the efforts of Tata Football Academy and now Minerva Football Academy and Chandigarh Football Academy. The Air India team under Bimal Ghosh also regularly hired players from Manipur. So a series of factors has led to Manipur doing well.
The top football state is now Mizoram, which has a fully televised local league and proper youth development programmes. Aizawl FC won the 10th I-League with a budget of just Rs 2.5 crore, one fifth of Mohun Bagan, East Bengal and Bengaluru FC. Most Indian clubs now have players from Mizoram.
Closing down of Dempo, Salgaocar and Sporting Clube de Goa has led to a decline of interest in football in Goa. Similarly in Punjab, when JCT closed down in 2011 and earlier BSF, Punjab Police and PSEB stopped fielding competitive teams, opportunities for players declined and hence the lack of interest. Rising costs led to the decline of local clubs in Bengal, like Aryans and Kidderpore, which produced young players. The famous Kolkata clubs pay only lip service to youth development.
Is AIFF doing enough to promote grassroots football in the country?
AIFF has made several innovative plans but lacks the will to implement these. Only Mizoram, and to some extent Bengal and Goa, have a proper structured system to nurture and develop talent, providing organised leagues for youngsters. From quantity comes quality. The only way forward is to spread the game. If the game remains confined to a few states, Indian football will remain stagnant.What Are We Doing?
With our society focussed on the empowerment of youth we have decided to make a difference. We want to help end young homelessness by supporting the best homeless charity Brighton has to offer - The Clock Tower Sanctuary.
What Is Our Goal In Helping Homelessness In Brighton?
Our goal is to raise enough money to employ a new Case Worker for The Clock Tower Sanctuary. This would make an immense impact on the effectiveness of their activities, as they would have a dedicated employee for the advancement of their goals.
Staff are crucial to helping young homeless people get on their feet, find a job, somewhere to live and even to help deal with the council who provide little for young homeless people.
To achieve this goal we need to raise £10,000. You can help us to achieve this by giving whatever you can.
About The Clock Tower Sanctuary
The impact on young people from social, economic and political pressures is immense – and that’s where Clock Tower Sanctuary plays a vital role. The charity, as a proponent of youth action has helped to improve the livelihoods of countless young men and women.
Though their charity they provide;
· Crisis support
· One-to-one advice
· Creative and skills building workshops
Through these activities, The Clock Tower Sanctuary provides a beacon of hope that is of immense value to many young people.
About ThoughtShift Team Red
We've been tasked with raising funds for charity, and we chose homelessness because it is close to our hearts - with Brighton, the city where we work, having one of the highest rates of homelessness in the UK.
Keeping the ideals of the Clock Tower sanctuary in mind, we hope to generate valuable funds to enable excluded youths to have access to the same opportunities as others.
There are many causes in the world, but this one is particularly close to our home and is one we feel truly passionate about.
Regards,
ThoughtShift Team RedHope Solo Shocking Details from '14 Arrest... Called Cop a 'B*tch'
Hope Solo -- Shocking Details from '14 Arrest... Called Cop a 'B*tch'
Breaking News
U.S. soccer superstar Hope Solo WENT OFF on police during her 2014 domestic violence arrest... reportedly telling a cop, "You're such a bitch. You're scared of me because you know that if the handcuffs were off I'd kick your ass."
It's all part of new police documents unearthed by ESPN which stem from Solo's 2014 domestic violence arrest in Seattle... when she allegedly attacked family members at her half-sister's home.
According to the docs, Solo appeared to be wasted when she was taken into custody -- and was screaming profanities at the arresting officers.
Cops say Solo -- who demanded to be called Mrs. Stevens (she's married to ex-NFL star Jerramy Stevens) -- repeatedly insulted officers... and when one cop asked her to remove her necklace she told him "that the necklace was worth more than he makes in a year"
The report also says, "During the fingerprinting of Mrs. Stevens she made numerous statements that I was not worth anything and should be proud to have such authority."
According to ESPN's "Outside the Lines," Solo also suggested that two of the jailers were having sex... and called another officer a "14-year-old boy."
When asked for comment about Solo's behavior, Hope's lawyer told ESPN, "Any of us would be upset at being wrongly arrested." He also claims Solo was not drunk, she was concussed and her behavior was consistent with someone who suffered a "significant head injury."
As for the domestic violence allegations, the case was initially dismissed... but prosecutors filed an appeal... and are scheduled to file their argument by July 13th.
Solo has previously denied attacking her 17-year-old nephew -- and said she was the real victim during the 2014 incident.
But the 911 call from the night in question paints a different story, with the caller telling the operator that Solo was "f**king beating people up."Last Christmas, both Xbox Live and PlayStation Network faced lengthy outages in the wake of DDoS attacks. Now, one of the hackers who carried out the breach has been sentenced in his native Finland — but only for cybercrimes committed before the offence at Christmas.
Lizard Squad member Julius ‘zeekill’ Kivimaki was handed a two-year suspended sentence and ordered to help combat cybercrime rather than perpetrate it. Many have expressed disappointment at how lenient the Finnish courts seem to have been, but it’s important to stress that this ruling does not include the Christmas attack.
Instead, Kivimaki is being found guilty of some 50,700 other charges of cybercrime. These include data breaches, felony payment fraud and telecommunications harassment, according to a report by The Daily Dot. The seventeen-year-old is also thought to have engaged in ‘swatting’ activities.
With Kivimaki being given a comparable light sentence for this laundry list of offences, it will certainly be interesting to see what sort of punishment is doled out when the Christmas attacks are inspected in court. While 50,700 charges is certainly a large rap sheet in its own right, the 2014 outages affected millions of users worldwide.
The scale of the attacks is one reason that the offences might be handled differently, but there’s also the fact that major corporations like Microsoft and Sony were targeted. Companies with global interests typically have robust legal departments, and it seems likely that they will be called upon to bring Lizard Squad to justice.
Sony was forced to extend users subscriptions and offer discounts as an apology for the PSN outages last Christmas. The company took that financial hit to keep players happy in a difficult situation, but pursuing prosecution for the hackers who carried out the attack would seem like the most obvious way of deterring future copycats.
As gaming systems and their online services become more and more intertwined, this sort of crime is only going to become more of a talking point. We’re already seeing an increase in the number of releases that require an Internet connection to function, and those titles would obviously be useless in the event of a large-scale breach.
Cybercrime is a very real issue in the modern world, and it’s going to take some time for courts around the world to understand it well enough to prosecute appropriately. A two-year suspended sentence might seem like a light punishment for some 50,700 charges — but it’s difficult to say what’s right and wrong for a set of crimes that wouldn’t have been possible even a decade ago.
Source: The Daily DotLike all subjective things in life, opinions on “good” food vary greatly from individual to individual and culture to culture. It’s a real whatever-floats-your-boat kind of thing. Of course there are your fringe-eaters who enjoy things like liver and gizzards, but for the most part they’re real freaks who should be avoided at all costs. We set out to ask the normal guy on the street what’s the most disgusting thing they’ve ever stuffed into their mouth-holes.
Miguel: Lamb, man. Anything lamb. Especially with that cinnamon rice.
Is there someone who cooks that for you?
Nah, I went to a restaurant, so I paid twice. Once because I hate that stuff, and twice because it cost me money.
Frank: I can’t really think of anything.
You’ve never had bad food?
Well, there were a couple of restaurants in Brooklyn I liked and they got closed down because they were making people sick. But you can disguise anything with salt and pepper. Honestly, if you put pepper on it, I’ll eat it.
Jimmy: Army food. Any meal.
So rations are just awful?
Right. Well, they were then, 30 years ago.
Do you think they’ve gotten any better?
No.
What do they put in them?
God knows.
Mike: Spinach. And liver.
Is there someone who makes you eat that?
When you’re in your parents’ house, they like that kind of stuff. So they’ll make it, you gotta eat it. I eat a little bit of it though.
So you feed the rest to the dog?
Nah. They wanted me to take some home. And I said, nah, you keep it. It’s that good.
Do you try to have your parents come over to your place?
No, usually I go to their place because they’re too old to be traveling. So I eat with them, but sometimes I bring my own food, just in case.
Justin: Probably a couple days ago. We were in Boston and we had breakfast… I think it was called Mimi’s or Bibi’s, something like that. It was terrible.
What did you order?
I got a Mexican omelet and it was pretty terrible. The salsa was like ketchup with onions in it. There was hot avocado all smeary… it was just very, very poor.
Did you get sick from it?
I pretty much usually eat everything whether it’s bad or not and I couldn’t get through it. I had that feeling like I’d get sick from it.
So you gave up?
Yeah, I gave up and ate my friend’s food.
Was that any better?
A little bit. She had the French toast, which was like a fried egg on Texas toast.
Fuck Boston.
Hayden: I think a meal back when I lived in Atlanta. It was at the Varsity, and I had three hamburgers and three hotdogs.
In one go?
All in one sitting. I felt like it was delicious at the time, but I felt awful afterward. So, in terms of the result, it was the worst meal I ever had.
Was it one of those in-restaurant contests where you get a free meal or you get a sandwich named after you if you finish a huge amount of food?
I think it was the high-school pressure of eating more than everyone around me. So, an unofficial contest.
Did you win?
Yes.
John: A tongue sandwich. In Mexico, at a street stall.
Whoa dude, why’d you eat that?
I was drinking, profusely, right before that happened.
What did the sandwich taste like?
You know, I can’t even honestly remember. It just was really nasty. It seemed like a good idea at the time. But about 30 minutes later I decided to give it up.
You gave up on eating it?
No, I ate the sandwich, I just decided to return it to the street.
Previously - How Big Is the Internet?All Blacks centre Anton Lienert-Brown scores in his side's big win over the Wallabies at Eden Park.
Over 47,000 jammed into Eden Park on a balmy Auckland evening, the vast majority of whom anxiously expecting to witness history with another polished All Blacks performance. Half of that came true. The All Blacks were forced to work harder than they have all season by a tenacious Wallabies outfit. But it still wasn't enough to halt a tier one world record being knocked off.
This night will be remembered fondly, even more so over time when the pages of history are reflected upon. No team has ever won 18 tests in a row against top class opposition. Not before now, anyway. And you get the sense it will be bloody difficult to overhaul this record by the time the All Blacks are finished.
But, for the most part, this 37-10 victory was anything but A-grade All Blacks. Their defence was broken more times in 80 minutes than it has almost all season. Their passing wasn't as slick. They dropped pill. Option taking was poor at times. So, too, discipline.
PHOTOSPORT Israel Dagg slides in for the first try of the night.
Beauden Barrett also caught another bad case of the yips off the tee, missing all three conversion attempts, and he was hooked just after half time for Aaron Cruden.
READ MORE:
* All Blacks player ratings
* ABs show they can win gritty as well as pretty
* Opinion: These are the best All Blacks of the past 50 years
GETTY IMAGES Ryan Crotty charges forward during the Bledisloe Cup clash.
It all came from pressure. The Wallabies came for a scrap and deserve credit for fronting in a big way. But, like so many, they were eventually blown away. The All Blacks absorbed, absorbed, absorbed and then threw out their familiar knockout punch through a mixture of their bench and attacking brilliance.
In the end the difference between the two teams was finishing. The All Blacks enjoyed very little time inside the Wallabies 22 but what they did have they made count. Six tries to one told the story. Julian Savea stole the show with a typically bulldozing run to seal the victory 10 minutes from time.
Wallabies coach Michael Cheika is sure to go off about a controversial decision by TMO Shaun Veldsman to deny Henry Speight a second half try. After referee Nigel Owens awarded the try, Veldsman told him they needed to review the footage. Dane Haylett-Petty was ruled to have changed his line and deny Savea the chance to make a tackle - and the try was scrubbed out. Cheika could be seen spewing in the coaching box but, deep down, he will know it would not have altered the result.
www.photosport.nz All Blacks coach Steve Hansen congratulates captain Kieran Read on the win.
As fate would have it, two minutes later Savea scored the first of his brace and the Wallabies were appealing for a foot trip on prop Scott Sio. Owens was confident it was accidental.
Dane Coles was the everywhere man for the All Blacks. He made tackles galore. He chased through kicks. He offloaded. He almost had a fight with Michael Hooper. And he earned a standing ovation when he left the field. Brodie Retallick put in a similar effort. Jerome Kaino had a big contribution. And Anton Lienert-Brown had some nice early touches. Ben Smith and Matt Todd were also prominent. But, on the whole, this was a true collective showing.
It looked bleak early for the Wallabies. Bernard Foley missed what is, for him, a regulation penalty from 40m out, bang in-front. With slick ball movement the All Blacks struck twice through Israel Dagg and Lienert-Brown inside first 10 minutes - and another cakewalk seemed inevitable.
www.photosport.nz A resilient effort from Australia came up short as the All Blacks pulled away in the second half.
Savea, a wing, threw off Dean Mumm, a blindside flanker. And the All Blacks defensive line speed pressured the Wallabies into mistakes. It was, initially at least, all too easy for Kieran Read and co.
Cheika flashed up on the big screen belting out messages to his troops - and the local crowd stood to applaud in mocking fashion.
To their credit, the Wallabies showed character to regroup after that onslaught. They had to overcome losing centre Samu Kerevi, who limped off in the 24th minute. Sefa Naivalu came off the bench and wing Henry Speight was pushed into the unfamiliar midfield role.
The Wallabies controlled much of the first half possession and territory, depriving the All Blacks of attacking opportunities. They had ample time in the danger zone, and should have come away with more points than Rory Arnold's sole try.
Dropping Quade Cooper and moving Foley into his favoured first five role worked well. The Waratahs playmaker took the ball to the line and regularly made space for others, though his goal kicking under pressure was found wanting.
But unfortunately for Cheika his men now have the ignominy of being first Wallabies team in more than a century of test matches to suffer two 3-0 series losses in the same season, after being humbled by England in June.
And they're still yet to beat the All Blacks at Eden Park for 30 years.
All Blacks 37 (Israel Dagg, Anton Lienert-Brown, TJ Perenara, Julian Savea 2, Dane Coles tries; Aaron Cruden 2 con, pen) Wallabies 10 (Rory Arnold try; Bernard Foley con, pen). HT: 15-7
* Comments have now closed.Get information on the laws and penalties for possession of marijuana, as well as links to the law in your state.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, marijuana is the most commonly used illegal drug in America (marijuana is "illegal" in the sense that it is a controlled substance under federal law, with no recognized legitimate value). Despite the federal classification, some states have passed medical marijuana laws permitting possession under certain circumstances; and some state laws have decriminalized marijuana, making possession of small amounts punishable by fines or treated as infractions, rather than as crimes that carry potential jail sentences.
But in all states, it is still a violation of federal law to possess marijuana. This conflict may someday be resolved by federal legislation that allows for specified, legal uses, but for now, federal and state law are often at odds with each other, as discussed below.
To get information in your state regarding marijuana laws, jump ahead to the section on marijuana laws by state.
Primary Factors Affecting Punishment
If you have been arrested for possession of marijuana, the key factors that will affect the outcome of your case are as follows:
State or federal jurisdiction. Were you arrested by federal or state law enforcement officials? If you were arrested for possession by state law enforcement, you will need to review your state’s laws. If you were arrested by federal law enforcement, most likely you were targeted for arrest because your possession was in connection with other violations such as drug trafficking, large scale grow operations, ties to criminal enterprises, or violent activities or unlawful possession of firearms. Under federal law, possession by itself is a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in prison and up to $1,000 fine for a first offense. When possession is tied with sale or other criminal enterprises, federal penalties are much harsher and categorized as felonies. Federal prosecutors may also prosecute as marijuana crimes conduct that is legal under a state’s law. This is not common, but the rise in medical marijuana laws has prompted the federal government to periodically reevaluate its enforcement policies.
Legalization. In five states -- Alaska, Colorado, Washington D.C., Oregon, and Washington -- possession by adults of small amounts for personal use is completely legal under state law.
Decriminalization. Other states have classified possession of small amounts as an infraction, including California, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, and Ohio. An infraction is a minor violation akin to a traffic ticket; typically, violators are subject only to a small fine and first time offenders usually have no criminal record. In states that have decriminalized marijuana, offenders receive citations but they are not arrested unless they possess large amounts or are repeat offenders.
State laws on marijuana change frequently. For more information, see the decriminalization page on NORML, the organization that advocates for marijuana reform.
How much? Punishment for marijuana possession typically varies according to the quantity of marijuana possessed. Possession of marijuana almost always constitutes a felony rather than a misdemeanor when the quantity is large enough to indicate that it is held for sale rather than for personal use. In almost all states, possession of amounts greater than one kilogram can result in felony offenses, which carry a much more significant penalty. These felony charges can also include the growing, cultivation, manufacturing or sale of marijuana or marijuana drug paraphernalia.
Medical marijuana. A surprising number of states have allowed for possession and use of specified quantities of marijuana, or its derivatives. Some states' programs are not yet operational; other states (Texas and Louisiana) require a physician to prescribe marijuana, which is not legal under federal law. For a complete listing of medical marijuana states, see the chart on the NORML medical marijuana page.
Other Factors Enhancing Punishment
Certain additional factors may affect the punishment for possession. These include:
Do you have a previous criminal record or is this a second or third offense for possession?
Did you sell or give marijuana to minors, or were you arrested for possession near a school, public park or similar community locale? In some states, this may results in enhanced punishment.
Was the arrest made in connection with a driving infraction? Many states have DUID (driving under the influence of drugs) laws that include marijuana. See Driving Under the Influence of Marijuana for more information.
Was the possession for plants or harvested marijuana? State laws may differ as to punishment regarding possession of plants versus possession of cut marijuana.
Did you have drug paraphernalia? State laws differ as to the legality of drug paraphernalia such as pipes, scales, bongs, or other devices.
Marijuana Possession Penalties
For those charged with personal possession of marijuana (not for resale or distribution), where decriminalization does not apply, a misdemeanor possession charge will be lowest for first offenders. In situations where the charge is based on sales of drug paraphernalia, the penalties can be increased to a felony. Depending on the factors listed above, the penalties for possession can include:
a fine (typically up to $2,000)
jail time (typically less than one year in jail)
mandatory drug testing
drug awareness classes
probation, and
electronic monitoring.
Marijuana Possession Sentencing
Although possession of marijuana is typically not considered as serious as possessing other types of drugs or controlled substances, judges have sometimes imposed fairly stiff sentences even on first time offenders. As noted, the individual's age, prior convictions and overall standing in the community are typically taken into consideration. For those that have a driver's license, suspension of the license can also occur and may be ordered by judges. An attorney can assist in minimizing the sentence by working with the prosecuting attorney to plea bargain or agree to a treatment program rather than a conviction.
Marijuana Laws by State
Choose your state from the chart below to find information about your states laws regarding marijuana use.
State Laws At-a-Glance Alabama Marijuana possession, sale, and distribution is regulated by both state and federal law. In Alabama, marijuana is regulated as a “Schedule I” controlled substance. Alaska Under Ballot Measure 2, adults age 21 or older in Alaska may possess up to one ounce of marijuana. In addition, adults may grow up to six plants (with up to three flowering) for personal use. Arizona Possession of marijuana is a criminal offense. The penalties for possession depend on whether the marijuana was intended for personal use or for sale. In addition to the penalty of jail time, anyone convicted of possession will be required to pay a fine of up to $150,000, as determined by the court. Arkansas Possession of a relatively small amount of marijuana is a misdemeanor, but possessing marijuana in larger quantities is a felony. Also, penalties are increased for repeated offenses. California Possession of marijuana is a criminal offense. Penalties depend on the amount. Possessing marijuana for sale is treated as a separate offense. Colorado In Colorado, marijuana is regulated as a controlled substance. (Co. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 18-18-102.) But as of 2012, Amendment 64 made it legal under state law for adults (people 21 years old or older) to possess and cultivate certian amounts of marijuana for personal use. Connecticut Possession of marijuana is a criminal offense. Penalties depend on the amount. In July of 2011, the Connecticut legislature passed a bill decriminalizing possession and personal use of less than one half ounce of marijuana. Such possession is now considered a civil violation, subject to a fine of up to $150. Delaware Knowingly possessing, using, or consuming any amount of marijuana (even small amounts for personal use) is an unclassified misdemeanor, punishable with up to three months in jail and a fine of up to $575. D.C. Voters in Washington, D.C. resoundingly passed Initiative 71 in November 2014, legalizing the possession and personal, nonmedical use of marijuana by adults in the District. Florida Possessing 20 or fewer grams of marijuana is a first degree misdemeanor, punishable with up to one year in jail. Georgia It is a crime in Georgia to possess marijuana for personal use; or to buy, manufacture, or sell marijuana (or to possess it with the intent to do any of these things). Unlike most states, Georgia does not differentiate, for sentencing purposes, between possession for personal use and manufacture or sale. Hawaii A person who knowingly possesses marijuana (in any amount) is guilty of a petty misdemeanor, punishable with up to 30 days in jail, a fine of up to $1,000, or both. Idaho A violation is a misdemeanor, punishable with up to one year in jail, a fine of up to $1,000, or both. A violation is a felony, punishable with up to five years in prison, a fine of up to $10,000, or both. Illinois Up to two and a half grams: A violation is a class C misdemeanor, punishable with up to 30 days in jail, a fine of up to $1,500, or both. Between two and a half and ten grams: A violation is a class B misdemeanor, punishable with up to six months in jail, a fine of up to $1,500, or both. Indiana It is illegal to knowingly or intentionally posses marijuana in Indiana. Someone who cultivates marijuana plants (or fails to destroy marijuana plants that the person knows are growing on the person’s property) is also in violation of the possession law. Penalties vary according to the amount possessed. Iowa First offenders will face up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000. Penalties for a second offense include up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $1,500. Any subsequent offense is a felony, and carries up to two years' imprisonment and a fine of between $500 and $5,000. Kansas It is a crime to possess any amount marijuana (including small amounts for personal use) in Kansas. (Kan. Stat. Ann. § 21-5706(b)(3).) Violations are a class A misdemeanor, punishable with a fine of up to $2,500, up to one year in jail, or both. Second and subsequent convictions are level 4 felonies, punishable with up to 26 months in prison, and possible fines. Kentucky It is a crime to possess any amount marijuana (including small amounts for personal use) in Kentucky. Violations are a class B misdemeanor, punishable with a fine of up to $250, up to 45 days in jail, or both. (Ken. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 218A.1422.) Louisiana It is a crime to knowingly or intentionally possess any amount marijuana (including small amounts for personal use) in Louisiana. (La. Rev. Stat. § 966(E).) Penalties vary according to whether the violation is a first or subsequent offense. Maine It is a crime to knowingly or intentionally possess marijuana Maine. (Me. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 1102.) Penalties vary according to the amount possessed, and may be increased for aggravating factors. Additionally, someone who possesses more than two and a half ounces is presumed to be in possession with the intention of selling marijuana Maryland It is a crime to knowingly or intentionally possess any amount of marijuana Maryland (even small amounts for personal use). A violation is a misdemeanor, punishable with up to one year in jail, a fine of up to $1,000, or both. Massachusetts It is a crime to knowingly or intentionally possess marijuana in Massachusetts. Penalties vary according to the amount possessed, with additional penalties for minors in possession of marijuana. Michigan It is a crime to knowingly or intentionally possess any amount marijuana (including small amounts for personal use) in Michigan. Penalties include a fine of up to $2,000, up to one year in jail, or both. Minnesota It is a crime to knowingly or intentionally possess marijuana in Minnesota. Penalties vary according to the amount possessed, measured as the total amount possessed within a 90 day period before the date of arrest. Mississippi It is a crime to knowingly or intentionally possess any amount marijuana (including small amounts for personal use) in Mississippi. Penalties vary according to the amount possessed. Missouri It is a crime to knowingly or intentionally possess any amount marijuana (including small amounts for personal use) in Missouri. Penalties vary according to the amount possessed. Montana It is a crime to knowingly or intentionally possess up to 60 grams of marijuana or up to one gram of hashish (including small amounts for personal use) in Montana. Penalties vary according to whether the offense was a first or subsequent violation. Nebraska It is a crime to knowingly or intentionally possess marijuana (including small amounts for personal use) in Nebraska. Penalties vary according to the amount possessed, and whether the offense was a first or subsequent violation. Nevada Up to one ounce. Penalties for a first offense include a fine of up to $600, participation in a drug treatment program, or both. A second offense carries a fine of up to $1,000, drug treatment, or both. A third offense carries a fine of up to $2,000, up to one year in jail, or both. And a fourth or subsequent offense carries a fine of up to $5,000, between one and four years in prison, or both. New Hampshire It is a crime to knowingly or intentionally possess marijuana (including small amounts for personal use) in New Hampshire. Penalties include a fine of up to $2,000, up to one year in jail, or both. New Jersey It is a crime to knowingly or intentionally possess marijuana (including small amounts for personal use) in New Jersey. Penalties vary according to the amount possessed. Second and subsequent convictions may be punished with up to double the penalties. New Mexico It is a crime to knowingly or intentionally possess marijuana (including small amounts for personal use) in New Mexico. Penalties vary according to the amount possessed, and whether the offense was a first or subsequent violation. Penalties increase if the violation occurs within a posted drug-free school zone. New York Up to 25 grams: New York has decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana (at least as far as first and second violations are involved). Violations are considered civil citations (similar to a traffic violation), which incur a fine, but no jail time. There is a fine of up to $100 for a first offense, and up to $200 for a second offense. North Carolina Up to one half of an ounce: Penalties include a fine of up to $200, up to 30 days in jail, or both. Between one half ounce and one and a half ounces: Penalties include a fine of up to $500, between one and 120 days in jail, or both. The judge may order probation or community service in addition to, or in lieu of some or all of the jail time. North Dakota Up to one-half of an ounce: Penalties include a fine of up to $1,000, up to 30 days in jail, or both. Between one-half ounce and one ounce: Penalties include a fine of up to $1,000, up to one year in jail, or both. Ohio It is a crime to knowingly or intentionally possess marijuana in Ohio. Penalties vary according to the amount possessed, with increased fines and jail time for second and subsequent convictions, and for offenses committed within 1,000 feet of a school. For offenses involving more than 100 grams of marijuana, the judge will suspend the defendant’s driver’s license for at least six months (and up to five years). Oklahoma It is a crime to knowingly or intentionally possess marijuana (including small amounts for personal use) in Oklahoma. In addition to a possible fine, the judge will sentence a defendant to up to a year in jail for a first offense, and between two and ten years in prison for a second or subsequent offense. Oregon Up to one ounce: Oregon has decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana. Violations are considered misdemeanors that incur a fine between $500 and $1,000, but no jail time. However, if this offense occurs within 1,000 feet of a school, penalties increase, with a fine of up to $1,250, up to 30 days in jail, or both. Pennsylvania It is a crime to knowingly or intentionally possess marijuana in Pennsylvania. For amounts up to 30 grams, penalties include a fine of up to $500, up to 30 days in jail, or both. Convictions for possessing 30 grams or more are punishable with a fine of up to $5,000, up to one year in jail, or both. Rhode Island It is a crime to knowingly or intentionally possess marijuana in Rhode Island. Penalties include a fine of between $200 and $500, up to one year in jail, or both; and may increase for second and subsequent convictions. The judge may also order participation in a drug counseling or education program, and community service. South Carolina It is a crime to knowingly or intentionally possess up to one ounce of marijuana in South Carolina. Amounts exceeding one ounce are treated as trafficking crimes, explained below in "Manufacture, Distribution, and Trafficking." Penalties for possession vary according to whether the offense is a first or subsequent conviction. South Dakota Two ounces or less: Penalties include a fine of up to $1,000, up to one year in jail, or both. More than two ounces but less than one-half of a pound: Penalties include a fine of up to $2,000, up to two years in prison, or both. Tennessee It is a crime to possess marijuana in Tennessee. It is also illegal to causally exchange (that is, with no payment) up to and including one half of an ounce of marijuana. Penalties vary according to the conviction, and increased penalties apply to offenses involving a minor. Texas Two ounces or less: Penalties include a fine of up to $2,000, up to 180 days in jail, or both. More than two ounces, but less than four ounces: Penalties include a fine of up to $4,000, up to one year in jail, or both. Utah It is a crime to possess marijuana in Utah. It is also illegal to causally exchange (that is, with no payment) up to and including one half of an ounce of marijuana. Penalties vary according to the conviction, and increased penalties apply to offenses involving a minor. Vermont Less than two ounces; up to two plants (first offense): Penalties include a fine of up to $500, up to six months in jail, or both. Less than two ounces; up to two plants (second and subsequent offenses): Penalties include a fine of up to $2,000, up to two years in prison, or both. Virginia First conviction: Penalties include a fine of up to $500, up to 30 days in jail, or both. Second conviction: Penalties include a fine of up to $2,500, up to one year in jail, or both. Washington It used to be a crime to knowingly or intentionally possess marijuana in Washington. However, with the passage of Initiative 502 in 2012, adults are now free to possess up to one ounce of cannabis for their own private use. West Virginia It is a crime to possess any amount of marijuana in West Virginia. Penalties include a fine of up to $1,000, between 90 days and 6 months in jail, or both. Wisconsin It is a crime to possess any amount of marijuana in Wisconsin. |
added: "We will continue to fight the president's economy crushing domestic greenhouse gas regulations. U.S. economic competitiveness is hanging in the balance, and additional U.S. restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions will only hurt the United States as other nations like Australia either scrap or water down their unsuccessful green dream policies."We’ve learned that Un'Goro Crater is home to ancient elemental energies, primal dinosaurs, and lethal flora... but what else lurks within the thick jungle mists, waiting to be discovered? Tune in March 31 to find out!
Over the last several weeks we’ve revealed many of Un’Goro’s secrets, but more tantalizing mysteries await!
Join Professor Ben Brode and Junior Explorer Dan “Frodan” Chou as they band (and banter) together for the final Journey to Un’Goro card reveal. They will begin streaming their adventure live on March 31 at 10 a.m. PDT, so be sure to tune in to witness the unveiling of exciting new cards that have not yet been revealed.
This is the last livestream reveal before Journey to Un’Goro arrives, so you won’t want to miss it! You can follow the official Hearthstone Twitch channel or Facebook page to be updated when the stream begins.
Twitch Facebook
Visit Ungoro.com to learn more about Journey to Un’Goro and find out how to Pre-Purchase a discount bundle of card packs. Get the latest news regarding the Journey to Un’Goro on Twitter.
Unable to watch live? No worries! We’ll be posting “documentary footage*” of their expedition on the PlayHearthstone YouTube after the stream has completed.
We’ll see you there!
*It’s the whole livestream video! Sadly, we couldn’t get a distinguished British narrator.costume design from the Captain America movie
The last couple of days there has been a lot of rumor talk regarding the costume Chris Evans will be wearing in Marvel'smovie that will be filming later this summer I believe. For months the bloggers have gone back and forth on what should and would the uniform he wears look like with alot of it focused on what looks good on film might not be the same as the comic. I love the character of Captain America. But I'm more of a realist and not a purist. I realize that what we see in the comic books every month just won't work in a motion picture. Remember that low budget Matt Salinger movie?Well it seems that finally some of the concept art Marvel Studios is using to develop the uniform has been leaked. Check out Aintitcool.com for a look at all FOUR images. I have to say I approve. They look close to a combination of the designs Bryan Hitch did for 'The Ultimates' and 'Captain America Reborn'. They look realistic and purposeful and close to something that might be from WWII. And folks need to remember we will probably get another uniform for the Avengers movie too and that might be a little closer to his classic look.
Labels: blog, captain america, costume, marvel, marvel studios, matt spatola, movie, vengerThe Pentagon is highlighting a new U.S. Geological Survey estimate that Afghanistan may be sitting on a trillion dollars’ worth of mineral wealth, the New York Times reports.
“An internal Pentagon memo … states that Afghanistan could become the ‘Saudi Arabia of lithium,’ a key raw material in the manufacture of batteries for laptops and BlackBerrys,” the paper reports.
“The vast scale of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth was discovered by a small team of Pentagon officials and American geologists,” the article continues. “The Afghan government and President Hamid Karzai were recently briefed, American officials said.”
The paper goes on to quote Centcom commander Gen. David Petraeus: “There is stunning potential here. There are a lot of ifs, of course, but I think potentially it is hugely significant.”
But veteran Afghan hands say the “discovery” of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth is hardly new. And some detect an echo of Petraeus’ effort to “put a little more time on the Washington clock” for the Afghanistan surge as he once described his public relations strategy to buy time in the U.S. for the Iraq surge. The Times report itself notes the Pentagon agreed to discuss the minerals discovery as a rare good news story amid many more disturbing reports coming from Afghanistan.
“The ‘discovery’ of Afghanistan’s minerals will sound pretty silly to old timers,” one retired former senior U.S. official based in Afghanistan writes. “When I was living in Kabul in the early 1970’s the [U.S. government], the Russians, the World Bank, the UN and others were all highly focused on the wide range of Afghan mineral deposits. Cheap ways of moving the ore to ocean ports has always been the limiting factor.”
“In my day we did a joint USG/Iranian study of a potential rail line from Afghanistan to several of the Iranian rail hubs," he continued. "This was predicated on mineral exploitation.”
“In the early 70's the USG had an old FDR New-Deal planner/economist - Bob Nathan - working with the Afghan Ministry of Plans to work out a fifty year mineral exploitation program,” the former official said. “When the Russians came in they picked up Bob's plans and extended them. So this is anything but a ‘new discovery.’” (He provides this bibliography, circa 1980, on Afghan mineral assessments.)
Indeed, the Times report notes that the latest U.S. Geological Survey drew from those earlier Russian geological surveys. “Armed with the old Russian charts, the United States Geological Survey began a series of aerial surveys of Afghanistan’s mineral resources in 2006, using advanced gravity and magnetic measuring equipment attached to an old Navy Orion P-3 aircraft that flew over about 70 percent of the country.”
But other Washington Afghanistan watchers note that while the discovery may not be wholly new, it still presents an opportunity for Afghanistan's economic future, including how it might fund the Afghanistan security forces that NATO is currently trying to stand up and train. It is however an opportunity, they acknowledge, shadowed by the potential risks that have befallen other resource-rich countries as well as by all the logistical, economic and infrastructure complications of moving ore.
Yes, there's probably an effort to get some good news out, one observer who declined to be quoted said. Does that mean it's not important? No.
But another Washington Afghanistan hand, who said the U.S. Geological Survey findings were made known in Washington several months ago including by former Afghan finance minister Ashraf Ghani, said it could mean "Afghanistan looks more like Congo."
"It makes security much less likely," he said. "I am not at all the least bit optimistic that the Afghan people themselves will see the benefit of this."
"You can't strike a deal that makes everybody happy because the Chinese want their piece, the Russians want their piece, western companies too," he continued. "If there's something to get out of it, all the regional players will be coming in for a whole variety of reasons that can't all be squared."
He read the minerals story as "the administration really needs something to staunch the feeling that 'let's just get the hell out,'" including after an earlier New York Times report this weekend alleged that Afghan President Hamid Karzai doubts NATO forces can defeat the Taliban. The portrayal in the report was vigorously denied by UN Ambassador Susan Rice on the Sunday news shows.
Some including Ghani have been advocating the creation of a trust fund to distribute the income derived from Afghanistan's natural resources to benefit the population, the latter expert said.
UPDATE: Ghani, reached by POLITICO in Afghanistan Monday, said he had in fact commissioned the assessment of Afghanistan's mineral wealth when he served as Afghanistan's finance minister (and been criticized at the time for wasting money on the survey), and that he'd been expecting the report to come out for a couple months.
"As to why it came out today and not a week or before or week after, I cannot explain," Ghani said. "You have to ask" the New York Times reporter.
As to the implications of the findings, Ghani said Afghanistan has come to a critical juncture. "Either we become Congo, or we become Botswana or Chile. If we don’t get governance of the sectors right, [Afghanistan] will become a bastion of instability, corruption and criminality."
"On the other hand, it's a game changer: for the first time in our history we have the possibility of domestic resources... to to be able to afford both security... but more significantly to be able to provide substantial services to the population," he said.
He acknowledged that recent indicators are not hopeful that the Afghan population will benefit from its natural wealth.
"The question is very much valid and we will have to succeed against all odds," Ghani said.
He said technology and road and infrastructure improvements throughout Central Asia had made extracting and transporting Afghanistan's mineral worth more economically feasible than back in the 1970s and 80s. And he noted sadly that Afghanistan's very good former Minister of Mines Juma Mohammad Mohammadi, like himself a former World Bank official, was killed in a plane crash in 2003 off the coast of Karachi, Pakistan when he was attempting to survey one site.
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permalinkDaily I risk death or serious injury on the roads, simply because I ride a bicycle. I know the danger, but I’d rather face it than box myself in a car, writes Peter Hitchens (pictured)
Daily I risk death or serious injury on the roads, simply because I ride a bicycle. I know the danger, but I’d rather face it than box myself in a car.
I have many reasons for this. I think cars spoil our countryside and our towns, cloud the air with filth and noise, and make us horribly dependent on Middle Eastern despotisms for fuel.
I also think there’s no quicker way of transforming a decent person into a power-crazed selfish maniac than to put him behind the wheel of a car.
And I’ve found over time that cycling is good for me, at least for as long as it doesn’t actually kill me. In fact cars, like cigarettes, are one of the very few products which, used according the makers’ instructions, will damage the user’s health.
Heart disease, lower back pain and depression can all be traced to the lack of simple regular exercise which almost always accompanies car use. I’ve driven cars in the vicious madness of Moscow traffic and on the vast freeways of California, and I hate the responsibility. One small slip in concentration, and imagine how much damage you can do.
Now it seems I am to be punished for my rejection of the sacred car, by being ordered to wear body-armour while I bicycle.
A silly Minister, Jesse Norman, has launched a ‘review’ that will ‘consider’ the mandatory wearing of cycle helmets.
A bike helmet is not a device to make cyclists safer. It is a device for making drivers feel safer while driving selfishly. Pictured: Jeremy Corbyn
I’ve tried these things. Have you ever looked at one? A bowl of Styrofoam with a thin plastic coating, wildly expensive to buy, easy to leave behind on a train, which might conceivably save you from injury if you fell off at 4mph. Otherwise? Not much.
It’s quite useful in a hailstorm. But it won’t save you if a 45-ton lorry decides to turn across your path, or if a water-filled pothole deeper than it looks (there are more and more of these, and Mr Norman’s Transport Department seems unable to do anything about it) sends you sprawling in front of a bus.
More important, drivers think a rider in a helmet is invulnerable – so they treat him worse than they otherwise would. Research has shown that drivers steer dangerously closer to helmeted cyclists than to those without headgear.
A bike helmet is not a device to make cyclists safer. It is a device for making drivers feel safer while driving selfishly. Far too many motorists want cyclists to be wholly responsible for their own safety, so they don’t need to bother taking care. Many of their minds have been poisoned by Clarksonite rubbish about how we ‘don’t pay road tax’. Oh yes, we do.
Far too many motorists want cyclists to be wholly responsible for their own safety, so they don’t need to bother taking care. Pictured: Jeremy Vine and Jeremy Hunt
In the Netherlands, where everyone understands that bicycling is a sensible, clean, quiet, healthy way to travel, you hardly ever see a bike helmet at all. It’s not the cycling that’s dangerous, you see. It’s the other road users who won’t show consideration.
As for cyclists themselves, yes, I know that quite a few of them are very stupid. I hate what they do just as much as anyone. And I notice that it is those most kitted out in headgear and battledress who take the most risks. Donning the Styrofoam bowl makes far too many riders think they are immortal as well as righteous. Watch the red-light jumpers. Most of them will be wearing helmets.
If this idea becomes law, the only result will be that, as happened in Australia, even fewer people will ride bicycles, especially the hire bikes that are now becoming increasingly common. Once again, we are planning to pass the law of unintended consequences.
At last a menacing and sinister figure departs from the international stage and into retirement, not a moment too soon. No, not you, Mr Mugabe. I was referring to Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein. Goodbye and good riddance.
What good is a church without justice?
As Mrs Merton might have asked: ‘So, Archbishop Welby, why have you now sat for 50 whole days on a report which says the Church of England did a wrong and unjust thing?’
As Mrs Merton might have asked: ‘So, Archbishop Welby, why have you now sat for 50 whole days on a report which says the Church of England did a wrong and unjust thing?’
I am repeatedly disgusted by the way in which our country has forgotten the basic rules of English justice. And I have written before here about the case of George Bell, the saintly and brave Bishop of Chichester who repeatedly risked unpopularity rather than remain silent about wrongdoing. If only there were more like him. He died in 1958, much mourned. Yet two years ago, on the basis of a single uncorroborated accusation made many decades after the alleged crime, the Church of England publicly denounced him as a child abuser.
Somehow, the allegation became a conviction and was blazed abroad on the BBC and in several newspapers which should have known better. Despite huge publicity nationally and locally, no other accusation has been made in the years since.
I had long revered Bell’s memory, and, with several allies, sought to get justice for him. We found that he had been convicted by a slapdash and inconsiderate kangaroo court.
They made no serious effort to consult Bell’s huge archive (or his biographer, who knew his way around it) to check the claims against it. They never found or warned Bell’s living niece, Barbara Whitley, who was astonished and appalled to see her uncle suddenly smeared in public, and is still livid.
They never looked for or consulted Adrian Carey, Bell’s personal chaplain, who lived in the Bishop’s Palace at the time of the supposed crimes. We did. Until the day he died, Canon Carey rejected the charges as baseless and impossible.
The Church’s main response was to accuse us, quite falsely, of attacking the complainant, which we never did. Then, very grudgingly, it announced a review. Then, with glacial slowness, it appointed a QC, Lord Carlile, to undertake it. Lord Carlile delivered his report on October 7. You can imagine what it says. The C of E is still making excuses for not publishing it. How quick they were to condemn another. How slow they are to admit their own fault.
Publish it now.
Moving proof of what fame is really worth
How much are fame and glamour, now the golden currency of the modern world, really worth? One answer is to be found in the movie Film Stars Don’t Die In Liverpool, starring Annette Bening and Jamie Bell.
I was astonished by this account, based on the true story of the last weeks of the life of the once-famous Gloria Grahame. Millions have seen her play the beguilingfloozy, Violet Bick, rescued from a sordid future in It’s A Wonderful Life.
They couldn’t imagine the fairly grim slow-motion shipwreck which followed – broken marriages, shrinking fame, sickness and scandal – or guess that the siren who once shared the screen with Humphrey Bogart was a half- English girl who really longed to play Shakespeare. The end, in a very modest Liverpool terrace house, is a kind of redemption, and rather moving, but it wasn’t a wonderful life.
Those who now bloviate moralistically about Russian wickedness would be wise to listen (it’s still available) to an amazing BBC Radio 4 programme on MI6’s secret 1950s slush fund, worth nearly £40 million in today’s money, totally unaccountable and used for propaganda and, quite possibly, assassinations.
This was the era when we and the USA were hiring mobs, newspapers and generals to overthrow the Iranian government (one of those involved ended up as a Tory MP), which is why we’re still unpopular there. Of course, we never do that sort of thing now.
If you want to comment on Peter Hitchens click here.THE President can be the voice of the people, but there are things that he cannot say.
Yesterday, Law Minister K Shanmugam made it clear at an Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) forum that everything the President does in public, including what he says, can only be on the advice of the Cabinet.
And if he chooses to go against the Government, he can be booted out of office.
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Said Mr Shanmugam: "If the Head of State challenges the Government, he will be acting unconstitutionally. In the UK, the last time that was done was in 1642 by Charles I. The King lost both his life and his throne for his trouble...
"Nowadays of course, we deal with these issues through the courts."
Ms Thio Li-ann, a National University of Singapore law professor, and Professor Tommy Koh, special adviser to IPS, also spoke on the roles, responsibilities and powers of the Elected President (EP).
Over recent weeks, several presidential hopefuls have said that they want to be the voice of the people and act as a conduit to address the concerns of the people directly with the Government.
Some said they would do it privately while others said they would do so publicly.
Mr Shanmugam explained that the president cannot publicly debate with the Government because the president symbolises and represents the entire country.
As such, he has to be above the fray while the power to legislate must be with the Parliament.
Said the Minister: "This is also to protect the Presidency because if he speaks only on the advice of Cabinet, then his office is not burdened by responsibility, the outcome of specific policies."
The President also cannot choose to act on his own in any public aspect.
The only exception is when executing the powers specifically vested in the office of the president to do so.
The President cannot reject any advice given by the Cabinet. He also has to be impartial and must be seen to be impartial in political debates.
But this does not mean that the president cannot be highly influential.
The president receives all Cabinet papers and meets with the Prime Minister regularly to discuss a wide range of issues, including issues of the day.Hello everyone! Before I start with the gift guide and giveaway announcements, I wanted to take a moment to thank you guys for voting for me for the 2013 AVI Choice Awards. I won for Favorite Photographer and Favorite Model. It’s my first time winning any AVI Choice awards, I am not very familiar with them and wasn’t even aware I was nominated until someone told me I was and then the AVI people sent me a message inworld about it. I was pretty surprised when I received both of these awards because I’ve never really considered myself a model (even though a few friends insist that I am a print model) and also because the other photographers that were nominated are people that I look up to and strive to be like. It’s a wonderful feeling to get recognized and appreciated for something that you truly love to do. So thank you, for taking the time to nominate and vote for me and for putting a smile on my face. <3
Berry’s 2013 Holiday Gift Guide
This is the time of the year when everyone is always in a frenzy looking for the perfect gift for their loved ones. I thought I would go ahead and make a few suggestions on items that caught my eye. I found them to be different, interesting, fun and most importantly, transferable so easy to gift.
So that’s my list, I hope you guys find it useful. Don’t forget to also look to see if the person you need to buy a gift for already has a wish list. You can easily look that up on the E2V website by entering in the person’s full SL name.
Berry’s 2013 Holiday Giveaway!
It’s been such a wonderful year of blogging for me that I really wanted to give back to my readers somehow. You guys have been so good to me by not only voting for me for the AVI Choice Awards, but also participating in my Monday Memes and constanly reading, liking and sharing my posts on a daily basis. I really appreciate all the support and encouragement I receive from you guys.
So what I did was I went to 5 of my favorite stores and I purchased L$1000 gift cards from each store. I have placed them all in one folder along with one of my own Photography gift cards. Now, I am going to ask a series of questions and ask you guys to leave your answers in the comments. Everyone that leaves a comment answering all 3 questions, I will input your name into this website: http://www.random.org/lists and on Sunday, December 22nd at 7am SLT I will let the website choose the winner. I will announce the winner’s name in the comments after that time and then drop this folder on them:
The contents of the folder are as follows: Mutresse L$1000 gift card FATEdesign L$1000 gift card League L$1000 gift card What Next L$1000 gift card Truth L$1000 gift card Strawberry Singh Photography L$1500 gift card
To enter the giveaway, copy and paste the following questions and answers below into the comment box, delete my answers and enter your own:
What is your full SL Name: Strawberry Singh What do you love about Second Life the most? I love how it has enriched my life in so many ways, and I will always cherish the people that I have met and the memories I have created through it. Which of my blog posts from 2013 were your favorite and why? I want to know this so I get an idea of what you guys liked and what I should be aiming for in 2014. My favorite post from this past year was the Flat Rodvik Linden Meme. I thought you guys would think I was completely crazy, but you guys turned out to be just as crazy as I am!
I’m so excited about this giveaway! I hope you enter because I’d love to get your input. I already got some great ideas from the poll I did last week, which I’ll keep up in the sidebar until the new year.
Thank you again for all the support in 2013. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday with your real and Second Life families! Happy Holidays! <3
Credits:
Decor:
*Red Couch: Trompe Loeil – Holiday Couch PG by Cory Edo (@ FaMESHed)
*Tree: Trompe Loeil – Holiday 2013 Tree Natural – Scripted Lights by Cory Edo (@ FaMESHed)
*Ornaments: Sway’s [Rocking horse] Ornament – Gacha by Sway Dench (@ The Garden)
Gift Boxes: What Next Gift Boxes by Winter Thorn
*Bar: Erratic Hot Chocolate Bar by Erratic Rain (@ Arcade)
*Frame: Ghosty Kips’ Instagram Set – A Distand Manhattan by Ghosty Kips
Elephant Topiary: Save Elephant Foundation at PATRON Holiday Topiary (Details) (SLurl)
*Pet: ::Beetlebones:: Arctic Friends Polar Bear Pal (Snow) by suetabulous Yootz
*Merry Christmas sign: Diesel Works by Rogan Diesel
What I’m wearing:
*Skin: -Glam Affair – Mokatana skin – America 06 F by Aida Ewing (@ Collabor88)
*Hair: TRUTH HAIR Althea by Truth Hawks
Outfit: e! Mrs Claus Dress (Red) S by Eclectic Wingtips (@ FaMESHed)
*Boots: BAX Regency Boots White Suede STANDARD by Bax Coen
*Earrings: Sax Shepherd Designs ~ Holiday Snow Gift Set ~ Earrings by Sax Shepherd
*Necklaces: Maxi Gossamer Shangri La Heart & Truth Owl by Maxi Gossamer
*Mesh Hands: Slink Avatar Enhancement Hands – Relaxed by Siddean Munro
*Weapon: Tee*fy Fries Bow And Arrow RARE by Azure Electricteeth (@ Arcade)
Pose: *~*HopScotch*~* Zodiac – The Huntress 1 – 3 by Chandni Khondji
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Like this: Like Loading...Read Steve Yates’s rundown of the tracks that changed hip hop at our blog The latest album by the twin titans of hip hop has been a record-breaking success. On its release, Jay-Z and Kanye West’s Watch the Throne had the highest ever first week sales on iTunes of any new album. A total of 290,000 copies were downloaded that week, and when CDs are taken into account, the album’s sales approached the 450,000 mark. Hip hop is big business. Watch The Throne is symbolic of the status that hip hop, or rap, has now reached. Originating in the South Bronx in New York City in the late 1970s, when performers began rapping over looped beats taken from soul and funk records, hip hop has since journeyed right into the heart of mainstream culture. Jay-Z is married to Beyoncé Knowles, queen of R&B, and together they form the most influential power couple in global music. His wealth is estimated by Forbes at around $450m, and he has had 12 US number one albums (only the Beatles, with 19, have had more). Kanye West’s fortune is around $70m. Watch the Throne is thick with references to wealth—even the sleeve is designed by Givenchy’s Riccardo Tisci: “Luxury rap, the Hermès of verses,” raps Kanye, giving the brand its French pronunciation, lest anyone should think he was mistaking the high-end goods manufacturer for a mythic Greek messenger. But for its detractors, this materialism is one of rap’s three deadly sins, along with its violence and misogyny. Casual fans of hip hop often see its materialistic side as something either to be played down or embraced “ironically.” Some commentators judge it more harshly. When the riots broke out across Britain this summer, many saw hip hop’s celebration of materialism as one of the key causes. Paul Routledge, writing in the Mirror, summarised this view when he said, “I blame the pernicious culture of hatred around rap music, which glorifies violence and loathing of authority… [and] exalts trashy materialism.” Routledge is not entirely wrong. The story of hip hop’s journey into the cultural mainstream is the story of its love affair with materialism, or, more accurately, capitalism. Its lead exponents, like Jay-Z and Kanye West, are brilliant entrepreneurs with vast fortunes (even if their music advocates a profligacy that is anathema to the savvy business operator). Hip hop’s rise has been, at root, a straightforward process of free-market enterprise: an excellent product has been pushed with great skill and new markets opened up with real dynamism and flair. Unsurprisingly, corporate brands have been keen to get involved. Darren Wright, creative director of the Nike account at advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy explains the appeal: “With hip hop you’re buying more than music. It isn’t a genre—it’s a lifestyle, encompassing fashion, break dancing, the clothes or the jewels you wear… The lifestyle is worth its weight in gold because it’s not just about one rap song, it’s so much more.” The view of hip hop as a genre concerned only with the basest forms of materialism is a serious oversimplification. It misunderstands the way that rap’s relationship with capitalism has fed its creativity and led to both its commercial and artistic success. While modern hip hop is unashamedly materialistic, its ancestors were different. As far back as the 1960s, artists such as The Last Poets and Gil Scott-Heron combined African-American music with spoken word poetry. But Scott-Heron, like others of that generation, was critical of the passive materialism that he saw working its way into black culture. As he intoned on “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”: “The revolution will not go better with Coke / The revolution will not fight the germs that may cause bad breath / The revolution will put you in the driver’s seat.” This political consciousness was taken up in the 1980s by the extraordinary Public Enemy, a New York group that mixed incendiary politics with apocalyptic music, militaristic dress and cartoon humour. Gentler, but still political, takes on “Afrocentricity” were advanced by the brilliant Native Tongues collective including groups like De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest and the Jungle Brothers. But by the early 1990s, this “conscious” streak was being eclipsed by the giddy thrills of gangsta rap. Its motivation was pithily summarised by NWA (Niggaz With Attitude), the group who named and codified the subgenre, on their track “Gangsta Gangsta”—“life ain’t nothin’ but bitches and money.” Despite this apparent nihilism, NWA embraced the American dream with relish. They set down the unapologetic “money-is-all” credo of the low-level street hustler, in which drug dealing, guns and the police swirl about in a ferocious urban storm. Like other popular representations of American gangsterism—The Godfather, Scarface—it was a vision of unfettered free market enterprise. Slowly, the early political message was replaced by this focus on accumulation, both in the lyrics and also the business practice of those who were running the scene. One of hip hop’s key entrepreneurs was Percy “Master P” Miller, who grew his No Limit empire from an LA record shop into a record label and then into a conglomerate. Miller spearheaded a new wave of hip-hop business by entering into joint ventures with music companies. He chose Priority, which was independent of the major record labels, and which had made a packet out of NWA and other leading artists. His deal brought all the benefits of working for major labels, such as distribution and marketing muscle, without the drawbacks—Master P was able to retain copyright control over the music and release records to his own schedule. But not content with music, he diversified wildly: clothing, property, Master P dolls—even telephone sex lines. His debut film, the low-budget, straight-to-video I’m Bout It (1997) raked in sales that would have satisfied major studios. In 1998, Miller’s companies grossed $160m. In New York, the business interests of Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs developed along parallel lines: music, restaurants, a magazine, the inevitable clothing line, all name-stamped in a manner that led the consumer back to the man himself. Dan Charnas, in his masterful book The Big Payback: The History Of The Business Of Hip-Hop, describes Miller and Combs as “the embodiment of the superpowered artist, two one-man brands, the fulfilment of [the] vision of self-determination and ownership—not just for hip-hop artists, not just for black artists, but for all American artists.” Having turned their art into business, they turned their business back into art. According to Charnas, their success “would mark the beginning of an unprecedented spike in black American entrepreneurship.” So while hip hop started off as an underground, and often political movement, it has for many years pursued an increasingly intimate relationship with business. Hip hop now has a materialist, acquisitive streak hard-wired into its identity. It is this embrace of capitalism that has taken hip hop from outsider status right to America’s core. This ascent was neatly symbolised when Barack Obama, on the nomination campaign trail in 2008, dismissed criticisms from the Clinton camp by mimicking Jay-Z’s famous “dirt off my shoulder” gesture. Asked which rappers were on his iPod, there was only one candidate. *** British variants of rap music have been growing in success, too. Yet the contrast with America is marked. Maybe the conflicting attitudes are born of economic realism: the market is much smaller, and British hip hop has a limited international audience. That was perhaps why British rap’s flirtation with outlandish “bling” materialism was comparatively short-lived. In the early 2000s, the south London group So Solid Crew (far right) emerged at the forefront of the “garage” scene. Its members imitated the flow, though not the accents, of American rap superstars over electronic dance rhythms that successfully merged influences ranging from American house and hip hop, to Jamaican dancehall and British drum ‘n’ bass. Instantly, they became the sound of young black London. “Proper [rap] songs started with So Solid,” says Elijah Butterz, a 24-year-old DJ and label owner, over a pint of Guinness in a Walthamstow pub. “When they hit, eeeeveryone was into them. If you listened to garage you were cool. If you didn’t you weren’t.” So Solid, along with other British garage acts, brought American-style bling culture to Britain’s clubs. Smart dress, diamonds and champagne became dancefloor staples. But this quickly generated a backlash. Wretch 32 (right) is a 26-year-old from Tottenham who found fame this year with two number one singles and a top five album. He feels that the norms of American hip hop do not always translate well in Britain: “I think because of our culture, people don’t go for stuff like that—someone making them feel like they’re less of a person for having less money.” In response, east London rapidly developed its own sound, called grime—a rap-dominated genre with a harsh, electronic edge, and lyrics that sounded like a fight in a fried chicken shop. Chantelle Fiddy, 30, a journalist and label consultant, agrees: “Grime was the middle finger to [garage]. It was for those people who were either not old enough or didn’t have the money to go to the [garage] raves. Someone like me, who came up through jungle and just danced like a dick in trainers, I never felt comfortable with garage.” Grime has had its triumphs. Dizzee Rascal scored a significant success with his 2003 debut Boy In Da Corner. Others, such as Tinchy Stryder, Tinie Tempah and now Wretch 32 have followed in Dizzee’s wake, increasingly adapting the sound for the mainstream. But inflated claims of riches don’t really fly. “In grime you can’t really lie about it,” says Sian Anderson, a 20-year-old writer, label consultant, PR and DJ for the influential radio station Rinse FM. “If you’re talking about popping champagne and then you go out on [the] road and you haven’t got an amazing car and you don’t look that great, then everyone knows you’re a liar and your music’s not real, so you’re back to square one.” Road rap is south London’s counterpart to the east end’s grime. Slower and meaner than grime, and with a closer resemblance to US gangsta rap, it’s shown little interest in winning mainstream acceptability. Its biggest name, Giggs, has served time on weapons charges—he started in the music business when he got out. But his career has been dogged by police interference. His shows have frequently been cancelled and contract talks with a major record company were curtailed, reputedly after a call to the label from Operation Trident, the unit in the Metropolitan Police dealing with black-on-black gun crime. Then came Form 696, a risk-assessment form requiring London promoters to submit extensive details about themselves, their performers and even, in the original version, the probable ethnic make-up of the audience. After this, grime and road rap often struggled to get live bookings. Although the Met denied racial profiling, senior music industry figures complained to the Equality and Human Rights Commission about this stringent requirement. Denied a live platform, they’ve found a new one online, notably on SB.TV, now confidently billed as Britain’s biggest youth media channel. But not everyone cares about chasing the music mainstream anyway. “I don’t want to be part of it,” says Elijah Butterz. “Apart from Rinse, there’s nothing there doing what I want to do. Everyone expects you to dig into the music industry, but as long as I can make money from bookings and merchandising, I’ll continue doing what I’m doing.” For Elijah, that means running the eponymous Butterz label, one of very few to still release vinyl records, DJing (for free) on Rinse and living off his DJ club bookings. This quiet determination seems a long way from the hardheaded ambitions of American hip hop, whose outlook has always been more expansive. “There’s no protocol to the things I’m selling because I’m selling my culture,” Jay-Z’s partner Damon Dash, told me in 2003. Dash was the driving force behind the growth of Roc-A-Fella, their jointly-owned music business, whose name is an explicit reference to the capitalist heights they sought to scale. The relationship between American hip hop and leading brands has always been strong. Adidas sales spiked after Run-DMC’s 1986 track “My Adidas”; Tommy Hilfiger went from obscurity to being the highest-traded clothing company on Wall Street in 1996 after steady name-dropping by hip-hop artists from 1992. Courvoisier reportedly received a 30 per cent sales boost in the US after Busta Rhymes released “Pass The Courvoisier”—the largest single rise since Napoleon III named it the official cognac of the imperial court. Its rival, Hennessy, the most popular brandy |
, Norway, Sweden, Denmark
But it says Britain should pay the most because it was most heavily involved
Says slavery's legacy still lingers with range of issues from poverty to illness
Claim's being prepared by UK law firm who won millions for Mau Mau victims
More than 150 years after Europe abolished slavery, the Caribbean is preparing to sue Britain for its part in the wholesale trade of human beings.
A coalition of Caribbean leaders will meet today in St. Vincent to discuss a landmark legal claim for reparations - that could run into the hundreds of billions of pounds - for a legacy that many say still lingers across the palm-fringed archipelago.
Caricom, a group of 12 former British colonies together with the former French colony Haiti and the Dutch-held Suriname, believes Europe should pay for a range of issues spawned by slavery, from poverty and illiteracy to ill health.
But is says the UK in particular should pay the most even though it was the first to abolish slavery in 1833.
In the public mind: The landmark claim comes at a pertinent time for the issue of slavery - just a week after Steve McQueen's epic 12 Years A Slave, starring Michael Fassbender (left) and Chiwetel Ejiofor (right) won the Oscar for Best Picture in Los Angeles
Many Years a Slave: Caricom has not specified how much money they are seeking but senior officials have pointed out that Britain paid slave owners £20 million when it abolished slavery in 1833. That sum would be the equivalent of £200 billion today
The case has been prepared by a British law firm that recently won almost £20million compensation for hundreds of Kenyans tortured by the British colonial government during the Mau Mau rebellion of the 1950s.
Today's claim, which also targets Spain, Portugal, Norway, Sweden and Denmark, comes at a pertinent time for the issue of slavery - just a week after Steve McQueen's epic 12 Years A Slave won the Oscar for Best Picture in Los Angeles.
'Over ten million Africans were stolen from their homes and forcefully transported to the Caribbean as the enslaved chattels and property of Europeans,' the claim says. 'The transatlantic slave trade is the largest forced migration in human history and has no parallel in terms of man's inhumanity to man.'
It continues: 'This trade in enchained bodies was a highly successful commercial business for the nations of Europe.
'The lives of millions of men, women and children were destroyed in the search of profit. Over ten million Africans were imported into the Caribbean during the 400 years of slavery.
'At the end of slavery in the late 19th century, less than two million remained. The chronic health condition of Caribbean blacks constitutes the greatest financial risk to sustainability in the region.'
Caricom has not specified how much money they are seeking but senior officials have pointed out that Britain paid slave owners £20 million when it abolished slavery in 1834. That sum would be the equivalent of £200 billion today.
Big business: By the 1660s, British involvement had expanded so rapidly in response to the demand for labour to cultivate sugar in Barbados and other British West Indian islands that the number of slaves taken from Africa in British ships averaged 6,700 per year
Cruel trading: Slavery ended throughout the Caribbean in the 1800s in the wake of slave revolts, and left many of the region's plantation economies in tatters
Britain currently contributes about £15million a year in aid to the Caribbean through Department for International Development in a drive to further develop 'wealth creation'.
The subject of reparations has simmered in the Caribbean for many years and opinions are divided. Some see reparations as delayed justice, while others see it as an empty claim and a distraction from modern social problems in Caribbean societies.
Slavery ended throughout the Caribbean in the 1800s in the wake of slave revolts, and left many of the region's plantation economies in tatters.
If the leaders decide to go ahead, a legal complaint will be filed against European states, possibly opening the way for formal negotiations.
'Undoubtedly, Britain faces more claims than anyone else because it was the primary slave power and colonial power in the Caribbean,' Martyn Day, the British lawyer advising the Caribbean nations, said in an interview. 'Britain will be very much at the forefront.'
Shackled and chained: This undated photograph shows slaves in chains on the island of Zanzibar, Tanzania, in the 19th century shortly before slavery was abolished by Britain
Migration: A map shows the main transatlantic routes out of Africa during the slave trade from 1500-1900
Britain's government is aware of the proposed legal action, the Foreign Office said.
'Slavery was and is abhorrent. The United Kingdom unreservedly condemns slavery and is committed to eliminating it,' a spokesperson said, adding that reparations are not the answer. 'Instead, we should concentrate on identifying ways forward with a focus on the shared global challenges that face our countries in the 21st century.'
'The transatlantic slave trade is the largest forced migration in human history and has no parallel in terms of man's inhumanity to man.This trade in enchained bodies was a highly successful commercial business for the nations of Europe'
- As stated on Caricom's claim
Legal experts, however, say the lawsuit would be a long shot at best.
'There is no legal basis for a claim for reparations,' Robert A. Sedler, a professor at Wayne State University Law School, said.
'Slavery was legal at the time, and international law was not a part of the law of the European states. Moreover, a long period of time has passed, and all the victims of slavery are long dead,' he added.
Some reparations cases have popped up in the United States over the last decade, but no one has been awarded compensation.
However, if negotiations open 'the European nations might decide to apologize for slavery and to provide some financial assistance to the Caribbean nations,' Sedler said.
Embarrassing histories: It has been revealed that the ancestors of both David and Samantha Cameron were paid sums equal to millions in in modern currency in compensation by the British government for slaves they were forced to free following the abolition of slavery
Slave compensation: Others whose families benefitted from slavery include, Lord Sebastian Coe (right), actor Benedict Cumberbach (left)
For instance, Caricom could seek to work with the European states to set up museums for Caribbean culture and history, which would entail decisions on financing, Day said.
MARTYN DAY: THE BRITISH INJURY LAWYER BEHIND THE CLAIM
Martyn Day is one of Britain's leading personal injury lawyers and co-founder Leigh Day law firm. Specialising in international and environmental claims, he has successfully sued governments as well as multinational corporations for millions of pounds for his mostly poor clients. And in April 2008 the Yorkshire-born solicitor was named by The Times newspaper as one of the UK's most powerful and influential lawyers. He is best-known for securing a payout of almost £20million for hundreds of Kenyans tortured by the British colonial government during the Mau Mau rebellion of the 1950s. But he has been involved in a number of other high-profile, and sometimes controversial, lawsuits over the years. In 2006, his firm won several millions of pounds in compensation for 52 Colombian farmers in a claim against BP for damaging farms in the north of the country following the installation of an oil pipeline. That same year, he led a compensation suit against multinational oil trader Trafigura on behalf of 30,000 people in Ivory Coast affected by the dumping of toxic waste in the waters off Abidjan. That claim was one of the biggest group actions in legal history and was successfully settled out of court in September 2009. In 2008, Leigh Day won £2.8 million from the Ministry of Defence for the family of Baha Mousa, an Iraqi hotel receptionist who died after being beaten by British troops, and to nine other men who were detained and interrogated.
He has also won damages for thousands of former Japanese prisoners of war and is a director of Greenpeace Environmental Trust, having stepped down as chairman of Greenpeace UK in 2008.
The legal strategy rests on the fact that the European states targeted by Caricom have all signed the International Convention on the Elimination of All Racial Discrimination, which makes it 'a duty to do all in their power to eradicate racial discrimination,' said Day.
The Caribbean effort is being led by Ralph Gonsalves, prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, who has doggedly pursued the issue for the last four years.
When Gonsalves found out last year that London's High Court ordered the British government to pay compensation to survivors of Kenya's Mau Mau uprising, he contacted Day, whose law firm Leigh Day, represented the Mau Mau.
The British government paid £19.9 million ($33 million) to 5,228 survivors of torture during Kenya's 1950s Mau Mau uprising, and formally acknowledged that 'Kenyans were subject to torture and other forms of ill treatment and that these abuses took place and that they marred Kenya's progress towards independence.'
Gonsalves said slavery so traumatised society in Caribbean countries that they have still not fully recovered.
The reparations claim takes into account what its authors say are slavery-related chronic diseases such as hypertension and Type 2 diabetes, widespread illiteracy, the lack of museums and research centers for Caribbean history, the lack of respect for African culture and identity, continuing psychological effects of centuries of slavery, and the lack of scientific and technical know-how to compete in the global economy.
In December 2013, the Caricom Reparations Commission decided on six factors for the claim: public health, education, cultural institutions, cultural deprivation, psychological trauma, and scientific and technological backwardness.
Estimates vary as to how many were enslaved. According to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, the British Caribbean had 2.3 million slaves, the French Caribbean had 1.1 million, the Spanish Americas had 1.3 million and the Dutch Americas had about 445,000.
Slaves laboured mainly in sugar and coffee plantations and were forced to work around the clock in the fields during harvest, according to Kathleen Monteith, head of the History and Archeology Department at the University of the West Indies.
The international convention against discrimination says significant attempts should be made to solve matters amicably but if no resolution is reached the Caribbean nations can take their case to the International Court of Justice.
The scheme has been drawn up by British lawyer Martyn Day who pursued claims on behalf of Kenyan Mau Mau veterans, which resulted in payments to 5,228 survivors of £19.9¿million of British taxpayers' money for their alleged suffering during the Fifties uprising against British rule
Day hopes to present formal complaints to the European states at the end of June. If a European state were to refuse a Caribbean nation's request for talks on its particular claims, then a formal legal complaint would be made.
'The Western powers will at least give a sympathetic ear,' he said. 'The knee-jerk reaction will be to say no (but) Western powers will want to be seen as dealing sensitively with this.'Story highlights Donald Trump has a 10-point lead over the GOP field, a new Quinnipiac poll shows
Hillary Clinton has a 2-to-1 lead over Bernie Sanders, the poll shows
Washington (CNN) Donald Trump is now the undisputed leader of the Republican presidential pack, a new Quinnipiac University poll shows.
Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, now has a 2-to-1 lead over Bernie Sanders in the Democratic race.
Trump has 27% support from likely GOP primary voters nationwide in a survey released Wednesday. He's followed by a second tier that's bunched closely together: Florida Sen. Marco Rubio is at 17%, while Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and neurosurgeon Ben Carson are at 16% each.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has 5% support, and no other candidates top 3%.
It's a major drop from Carson, who a month ago was neck-and-neck with Trump, whose lead was then just 24% to Carson's 23%.
Read MoreCharlie Campbell of Walter Football says Jalen Ramsey is currently the favorite to be the #1 overall pick. He also says that the same source told him last year that Marcus Mariota was going to be the pick. Campbell uses that to prove it isn't a smokescreen.
I don't put a lot of stock in this for a couple of reasons:
1. It is entirely too early for the Titans to have their minds made up.
2. This is a new general manager. Does this person have the same relationship with Jon Robinson that he did with Ruston Webster?
Ramsey may end up being the pick, but I doubt that they already have their minds made up on that. They are also going to need to add a right tackle if they are going to pass on Laremy Tunsil. Robinson could still have something up his sleeve on that front, but the guys that could have plugged and played are already off the market.Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Christine Lagarde: "A turning point for Ukraine''
The IMF has agreed a $17.5bn (£11.5bn) loan to Ukraine as part of a new economic reform programme.
The Extended Fund Facility is designed to stabilise Ukraine's economy, restore growth and improve living standards.
On top of the IMF funding, the programme also agrees "other bilateral and multilateral funding" to a total value of about $40bn.
The World Bank will provide up to $2bn of that package and said it is "vital" that Ukraine pushes through reforms.
IMF managing director Christine Lagarde said the deal could prove a "turning point" for Ukraine.
But Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk said that the aid package included "very difficult" reforms.
Ms Lagarde said it was an ambitious programme and not without risk.
She said: "This new programme offers an important opportunity for Ukraine to move its economy forward at a critical moment in the country's history.''
It came as Russia's Vladimir Putin, Ukraine's Petro Poroshenko, and leaders of France and Germany announced that a ceasefire would begin in eastern Ukraine on 15 February,
Ms Lagarde said that the deal was "a realistic programme and its effective implementation, after consideration and approval by our executive board, can represent a turning point for Ukraine".
Mr Yatseniuk said the IMF was demanding reforms to fight corruption, overhaul the energy sector, cut state expenditure and reduce state bureaucracy.
He said he expected a total of $25bn financial support from the IMF as part of a four-year facility, including $17.5bn to stabilise the financial situation in the country.
He added that the Ukrainian economy could grow in 2016 if "Russian aggression" was halted and internal reforms were a success.Freedom of the press is out of fashion across the Western world. Yet it is as important as free speech to a free society.
In the UK, the first state-backed system of press regulation for more than 300 years is about to begin – via the Royal Charter agreed by all of the political parties in a deal with the tabloid-bashing lobby Hacked Off. A new law will impose potentially punitive costs on publications that refuse to bend the knee and sign up – which so far includes all of the national press. In the US, the First Amendment to the Constitution still prevents such legal regulation. Yet there, too, an influential lobby is pushing for greater state intervention to tame the press and media – for example, demanding that the Supreme Court afford less protection to ‘lower value’ forms of published speech, or government intervention to enforce a mandatory ‘right to reply’ on the press and even subsidise a more ‘serious’ (that is, sanitised) media.
Meanwhile, the creeping culture of You Can’t Say That seeks to impose more informal restrictions on the freedom of the press on both sides of the Atlantic. The strange thing is that many of those who show such disdain for press freedom today would identify themselves as liberal supporters of free speech. They try to make a distinction between free speech for individuals (seen as a Good Thing) and freedom of the press (Not Necessarily So).
Those who want to separate free speech from freedom of the press only demonstrate that they don’t really support either. These two liberties are and always have been inseparable. There are good historical reasons why the First Amendment to the US Constitution has, since 1791, coupled them together to be jointly and equally protected from state interference, declaring that ‘Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech or of the press’. From the beginning, the demand for free speech was focused on freedom of the press – which meant the printing press. The modern struggle began in earnest from the seventeenth century in Britain and then America. It was not about an abstract wish for freedom of expression, but a specific demand for an end to state control of the published word. The precursor to the fight for free speech — the demand for freedom of conscience — was about the liberty of the individual privately to believe what he thought true, not what he was told to believe by the political and religious authorities. The demand for freedom of speech went a step further, seeking the liberty to express those beliefs and opinions in public. And how was such public freedom of expression to be made effective? Primarily through the printing press, which made it possible to popularise ideas on a wide scale for the first time. That was why the struggle for free speech focused, first in Britain and then in the American colonies, on attempts to end the system of state licensing. These laws gave the Crown control over everything that was printed, and could send those convicted of publishing unlicensed ‘seditious libels’ that criticised the government to jail or the gallows. In the first wave of the free-speech wars in England, those demanding freedom of the press were religious heretics who wanted first a Bible printed in English rather than Latin, and then the liberty to express their Puritan and non-conformist creed. Their clash with the censorious power of central authority soon melded into a rising political clamour for freedom of the press. As the English Civil War broke out between the king and parliament in the 1640s, the demand for freedom of the press was at the forefront of the movement for political and social change, led by the ‘revolt of the pamphleteers’. John Lilburne of the radical Levellers demanded of parliament ‘that you will open the press, whereby all treacherous and tyrannical designs may be the easier discovered, and so prevented’. Crown licensing of the press formally ended in 1695. Yet in the late eighteenth century, English radicals such as John Wilkes were still fighting for the freedom to publish what they saw fit, criticise the king’s government and report the proceedings of parliament without the threat of being sent to the Tower. The ‘liberty of the press’, declared the front page of Wilkes’ notorious newspaper, was ‘the birthright of every Briton’.This week, a scale WWII airplane model took to the sky powered by fuel derived from seawater. It was a demonstration small in scale but large in import, as the combustion engine successfully ran on hydrocarbon chains built from Earth’s most abundant source of carbon.
The process which created this fuel is the culmination of several years of research in multiple areas, but the ultimate product is a mixture of liquid hydrocarbons ranging from 9 to 16 carbons in length. This means it could be a viable replacement for most petroleum-based jet fuels.
The process, developed at the US Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), begins by passing water into the first reaction chamber where it is subjected to an oxidation-reduction cycle that produces two useful gasses: hydrogen (H2), and carbon dioxide (CO2). This step represents a distinct breakthrough in the efficiency of hydrogen gas production, in particular. It’s one thing to create jet fuel from lab-quality samples of hydrogen and carbon dioxide, but quite another to do it in the real world with actual seawater. This Navy study proves that it is at least possible to derive the precursors to hydrocarbon fuels from the sea.
The second step involves assembling gaseous hydrogen and carbon dioxide into liquid hydrocarbons. The two small building block molecules are fed into a second cell, which uses a proprietary iron-based catalyst to slowly assemble chains of a certain length. These chains can be combined and recombined until the desired chain-length is reached. This step produces methane as an unwanted waste product, but the researchers have developed ways of decreasing methane production — and of using that conserved carbon to create more fuel. Once the desired chains have been created, treatment with a second metal-based catalyst does the final chemical modification.
Hydrocarbons of various lengths underlie just about every major fuel source today, from the gasoline you put in your car to the jet fuel that powers an SR-71 Blackbird. As a result, this technology has the enormous advantage of producing fuel that is usable by current engines, with no need for modification.
It also means that, while seawater is an abundant and strategically useful resource, it will not be any greener or more carbon-neutral than modern fuels — at least, not via this technology. Carbon capture from the air could be mostly carbon neutral, but the concentrations of carbon in water are up to five times higher than in air; currently the only technology that can take truly useful advantage of atmospheric CO2 is found in life itself, as created by biological evolution.
One commonly used military jet fuel can run as high as about $3 per gallon, but researchers predict their process will result in prices of up to $6 for the same amount. As a result, this technology will most likely end up working as an emergency fuel source for ships with long-term missions. As abundant as seawater is, it’s unlikely to replace fossil fuels as our primary source of hydrocarbons anytime soon.
Rather than setting out with the intention of using seawater to fill their main fuel tanks, ships will more likely maintain a treatment facility in case their time at sea is unexpectedly prolonged. A ship with such a facility could offer relief when the price or availability of oil is threatened, and could fundamentally change the strategic importance of several US military bases around the world.
These researchers have in hand a proof of concept for powering vehicles (albeit small ones) with fuel derived from seawater. The two-step process creates liquid hydrocarbon fuel — now the team needs to improve efficiency at every level. Though they have already pushed forward the production of hydrogen from water, they want an even more efficient capture of H2 gas and CO2.Organizations, contrary to the usual view, do not generally precipitate protest movements. In fact, it is more nearly correct to say that protest movements precipitate organizations, which in turn usually attempt to tame protest and turn it into institutional channels. So far as system-threatening protests are concerned, formal organizations are more an impediment than a facilitator. It is a great paradox of democratic change, though not so surprising from behind an anarchist squint, that the very institutions designed to avoid popular tumults and make peaceful, orderly legislative change possible have generally failed to deliver. This is in large part because existing state institutions are both sclerotic and at the service of dominant interests, as are the vast majority of formal organizations that represent established interests. The latter have a chokehold on state power and institutionalized access to it.
Episodes of structural change, therefore, tend to occur only when massive, noninstitutionalized disruption in the form of riots, attacks on property, unruly demonstrations, theft, arson, and open defiance threatens established institutions. Such disruption is virtually never encouraged, let alone initiated, even by left-wing organizations that are structurally inclined to favor orderly demands, demonstrations, and strikes that can usually be contained within the existing institutional framework. Opposition institutions with names, office bearers, constitutions, banners, and their own internal governmental routines favor, naturally enough, institutionalized conflict, at which they are specialists.[1]
As Frances Fox Piven and Richard A. Cloward have convincingly shown for the Great Depression in the United States, protests by unemployed and workers in the 1930s, the civil rights movement, the anti-Vietnam War movement, and the welfare rights movement, what success the movements enjoyed was at their most disruptive, most confrontational, least organized, and least hierarchical.[2] It was the effort to stem the contagion of a spreading, noninstitutionalized challenge to the existing order that prompted concessions. There were no leaders to negotiate a deal with, no one who could promise to get people off the streets in return for concessions. Mass defiance, precisely because it threatens the institutional order, gives rise to organizations that try to channel that defiance into the flow of normal politics, where it can be contained. In such circumstances, elites turn to organizations they would normally disdain, an example being Premier Georges Pompidou’s deal with the French Communist Party (an established “player”) promising huge wage concessions in 1968 in order to split the party loyalists off from students and wildcat strikers.
Disruption comes in many wondrous forms, and it seems useful to distinguish them by how articulate they are and whether or not they lay claim to the moral high ground of democratic politics. Thus, disruption aimed at realizing or expanding democratic freedoms — such as abolition, women’s suffrage, or desegregation — articulate a specific claim to occupy the high ground of democratic rights. What about massive disruptions aimed at achieving the eight-hour workday or the withdrawal of troops from Vietnam, or, more nebulous, opposition to neoliberal globalization? Here the objective is still reasonably articulated but the claim to the moral high ground is more sharply contested. Though one may deplore the strategy of the “black bloc” during the “Battle in Seattle” around the World Trade Organization meeting in 1999, smashing storefronts and skirmishing with the police, there is little doubt that without the media attention their quasi-calculated rampage drew, the wider anti-globalization, anti-WTO, anti-International Monetary Fund, anti-World Bank movement would have gone largely unnoticed.
The hardest case, but one increasingly common among marginalized communities, is the generalized riot, often with looting, that is more an inchoate cry of anger and alienation with no coherent demand or claim. Precisely because it is so inarticulate and arises among the least organized sectors of society, it appears more menacing ; there is no particular demand to address, nor are there any obvious leaders with whom to negotiate. [Editor’s note: However, recent rebellions in Baltimore, Ferguson, Oakland, and so on have very clearly articulated a demand to the state: stop murdering us.] Governing elites confront a spectrum of options. In the urban riots in Britain in the late summer of 2011, the Tory government’s first response was repression and summary justice. Another political response, urged by Labour figures, was a mixture of urban social reform, economic amelioration, and selective punishment. What the riots undeniably did, however, was get the attention of elites, without which most of the issues underlying the riots would not have been raised to public consciousness, no matter how they were disposed of.
Here again there is a dilemma. Massive disruption and defiance can, under some conditions, lead directly to authoritarianism or fascism rather than reform or revolution. That is always the danger, but it is nonetheless true that extra-institutional protest seems a necessary, though not sufficient, condition for major progressive structural change such as the New Deal or civil rights.
Just as much of the politics that has historically mattered has taken the form of unruly defiance, it is also the case that for subordinate classes, for most of their history, politics has taken a very different extra-institutional form. For the peasantry and much of the early working class historically, we may look in vain for formal organizations and public manifestations. There is a whole realm of what I have called “infrapolitics” because it is practiced outside the visible spectrum of what usually passes for political activity. The state has historically thwarted lower-class organization, let alone public defiance. For subordinate groups, such politics is dangerous. They have, by and large, understood, as have guerrillas, that divisibility, small numbers, and dispersion help them avoid reprisal.
By infrapolitics I have in mind such acts as foot-dragging, poaching, pilfering, dissimulation, sabotage, desertion, absenteeism, squatting, and flight. Why risk getting shot for a failed mutiny when desertion will do just as well? Why risk an open land invasion when squatting will secure de facto land rights? Why openly petition for rights to wood, fish, and game when poaching will accomplish the same purpose quietly? In many cases these forms of de facto self-help flourish and are sustained by deeply held collective opinions about conscription, unjust wars, and rights to land and nature that cannot safely be ventured openly. And yet the accumulation of thousands or even millions of such petty acts can have massive effects on warfare, land rights, taxes, and property relations. The large-mesh net political scientists and most historians use to troll for political activity utterly misses the fact that most subordinate classes have historically not had the luxury of open political organization. That has not prevented them from working microscopically, cooperatively, complicitly, and massively at political change from below. As Milovan Djilas noted long ago,
The slow, unproductive work of disinterested millions, together with the prevention of all work not considered “socialist”, is the incalculable, invisible, and gigantic waste which no communist regime has been able to avoid.[3]
Who can say precisely what role such expressions of disaffection (as captured in the popular slogan, “We pretend to work and they pretend to pay us”) played in the long-run viability of Soviet bloc economies?
Forms of informal cooperation, coordination, and action that embody mutuality without hierarchy are the quotidian experience of most people. Only occasionally do they embody implicit or explicit opposition to state law and institutions. Most villages and neighborhoods function precisely because of the informal, transient networks of coordination that do not require formal organization, let alone hierarchy. In other words, the experience of anarchistic mutuality is ubiquitous. As Colin Ward notes, “far from being a speculative vision of a future society, it is a description of a mode of human experience of everyday life, which operates side-by-side with, and in spite of, the dominant authoritarian trends of our society.”[4]
The big question, and one to which I do not have a definitive answer, is whether the existence, power, and reach of the state over the past several centuries have sapped the independent, self-organizing power of individuals and small communities. So many functions that were once accomplished by mutuality among equals and informal coordination are now state organized or state supervised. As Proudhon, anticipating Foucault, famously put it,
To be ruled is to be kept an eye on, inspected, spied on, regulated, indoctrinated, sermonized, listed and checked off, estimated, appraised, censured, ordered about by creatures without knowledge and without virtues. To be ruled is at every operation, transaction, movement, to be noted, registered, counted, priced, admonished, prevented, reformed, redressed, corrected.[5]
To what extent has the hegemony of the state and of formal, hierarchical organizations undermined the capacity for and the practice of mutuality and cooperation that have historically created order without the state? To what degree have the growing reach of the state and the assumptions behind action in a liberal economy actually produced the asocial egoists that Hobbes thought Leviathan was designed to tame? One could argue that the formal order of the liberal state depends fundamentally on a social capital of habits of mutuality and cooperation that antedate it, which it cannot create and which, in fact, it undermines. The state, arguably, destroys the natural initiative and responsibility that arise from voluntary cooperation. Further, the neoliberal celebration of the individual maximizer over society, of individual freehold property over common property, of the treatment of land (nature) and labor (human work life) as market commodities, and of monetary commensuration in, say, cost-benefit analysis (e.g., shadow pricing for the value of a sunset or an endangered view) all encourage habits of social calculation that smack of social Darwinism.
I am suggesting that two centuries of a strong state and liberal economies may have socialized us so that we have largely lost the habits of mutuality and are in danger now of becoming precisely the dangerous predators that Hobbes thought populated the state of nature. Leviathan may have given birth to its own justification.
1 Once in a great while one encounters an organization that combines some level of voluntary coordination while respecting and even encouraging local initiative. Solidarnosc in Poland under martial law and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee during the civil rights movement in the United States are rare examples. Both came into existence only in the course of protest and struggle.
2 Frances Fox Piven and Richard A. Cloward, Poor People’s Movements: Why They Succeed, How They Fail (New York: Vintage, 1978).
3 Milovan Djilas, The New Class (New York: Praeger, 1957).
4 Colin Ward, Anarchy in Action (London : Freedom Press, 1988), 14.
5 Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, General Idea of the Revolution in the Nineteenth Century, trans. John Beverly Robinson (London: Freedom Press, 1923), 293-94.The leader of one of Britain’s major trade unions has been banned from voting in the Labour Party’s leadership election.
Mark Serwotka, the general secretary of the PCS union, which represents civil servants, had his ballot retroactively revoked after having voted online earlier this month.
The trade unionist was a member of the Labour party until the 1980s; his union says he has not been a member of another political party since.
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Ruth Serwotka, Mr Serwoka’s partner, tweeted that the decision was “a total joke” and posted photos of him campaigning with leadership frontrunner Jeremy Corbyn.
Labour officials are working to "purge" the party electorate of people who they believe do not agree with its aims and values.
A source close to Mr Serwotka told the Independent: "Mark has spent his life arguing and campaigning for workers' rights, equality, a fairer distribution of wealth and an end to poverty and discrimination, and in recent years has been at the forefront of the fight against austerity. Which of these are not aims and values shared by the Labour party in 2015?"
Mr Serwotka sits on the general council of the Trades Union Congress (TUC). He has previously voted for other parties and expressed support for other left-wing groups.
His exclusion is likely to be controversial because trade unions have long been considered part of the core values of Labourism.
The PCS is not formally affiliated with the Labour party and Mr Serwotka has previously suggested supporting left-wing candidates from across parties on an individual basis.
But after Mr Corbyn announced his candidacy, Mr Serwoka said he would consider advocating affiliating Britain’s sixth biggest union to Labour.
“If Jeremy Corbyn wins, that would change everything… We wouldn't rush into affiliating but would want to work very closely to develop policy together – and if that goes well then let's see where we end up,” he told the Financial Times at the time.
The trade unionist in 2010 criticised the previous Labour government for being the “worst” employer he had dealt with, but said before the last election that Conservative and Liberal Democrat ministers had been even worse. He said at the time that he wanted Labour to win the election.
Labour on Tuesday said it had booted out 3,000 “cheats” who did not agree with the aims and values of the party.
“Those people who don’t support the aims and values of the Labour party are not entitled to vote. We will continue the process of verification right up until the last minute,” acting leader Harriet Harman told BBC News.
The party says the 3,138 people excluded for breaking its rules included 400 Conservatives, some of whom have said they would try to vote for candidates they consider weak in order to undermine the Labour party.
Shape Created with Sketch. Labour leadership: The Contenders Show all 4 left Created with Sketch. right Created with Sketch. Shape Created with Sketch. Labour leadership: The Contenders 1/4 Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Corbyn started off as the rank outsider in the race to replace Ed Miliband and admitted he was only standing to ensure the left of the party was given a voice in the contest. But the Islington North MP, who first entered Parliament in 1983, is now the firm favourite to be elected Labour leader on September 12 after a surge in left-wing supporters signing up for a vote. PA 2/4 Liz Kendall Liz Kendall has been labelled the Blairite candidate throughout the contest, which partly explains why she has failed to attract the support needed in a party that has drifted even further from the centre-ground of British politics since the election. She has faced criticism over her relative lack of experience, having only served as an MP since 2010 and having no experience of ministerial or shadow cabinet roles. But that very lack of experience allowed her to initially make a pitch as the only candidate offering real change and a real break from the Blair/Brown/Miliband years, until Jeremy Corbyn entered the race and shifted the whole debate to the left. She is set to finish a disappointing fourth. PA 3/4 Andy Burnham Andy Burnham started out as the front-runner in the leadership election, seen as the candidate of the left until Jeremy Corbyn entered the race. The former Cabinet minister has found himself squeezed between the growing populism of Corbyn’s radical agenda and the moderate, centre-left Yvette Cooper, not knowing which way to turn. It has attracted damaging labels such as ‘flip-flop Andy’, most notably over his response to the Government’s Welfare Bill. He remains hopeful he can win enough second preference votes to take him over the 50 per cent threshold ahead of Corbyn. PA 4/4 Yvette Cooper.jpg Yvette Cooper has put her experience and achievements in government at the heart of her offer to the Labour party. She played a key part in setting up Sure Start in Tony Blair’s government and has pledged to continue her record on delivering for young families by promising a “revolution in the way families are supported” by introducing universal free childcare. She has also championed her role as a full-time working mother, taking pride in telling audiences that she does the school run for the kids before her day starts as a politician. But she has been criticised for being too wooden and lacking in passion and her attacks on Liz Kendall for “swallowing the Tory manifesto” at the start of the leadership contest have been criticised for helping Jeremy Corbyn brand all three mainstream candidates as ‘Tory-lite’. PA |
I said, ‘They will ask for €5 million.’ Which is what they did.”
Brand had no intention of paying that much. By the museum’s estimate, the artwork, valued at around €1.3 million ($1.42 million) before the robbery, was now worth no more than about €500,000 because of the extensive damage caused when the robbers cut the paintings out of their frames and shipped them abroad. Brand would offer no more than €50,000 in the name of the museum.
“I understand now that they’re worth much less, but I will have a hard time convincing the people who assigned me to accept that,” Humeniuk told him. It was then Brand realized he was not dealing with the man in charge. Brand says that after using his extensive network the trail leads directly to two much more prominent Ukrainian figures: Oleg Tyahnybok, a former parliamentarian who is the leader of the anti-semitic Svoboda movement, and Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, former head of the SBU, the Ukrainian secret service.
A Ukrainian politician with ties to the militia of volunteers told Brand the museum wasn’t seen as the rightful proprietor but as just another interested party. That contact was also the one who told Brand the man behind the deal was Tyahnybok.
Brand knew the €50,000 would be unacceptable for whoever sent Humeniuk, and it was. “The next step for them would be to keep us dangling and bargain with other parties at the same time” Brand told The Daily Beast. “Via our network of informants we found they were trying to sell them in the Ukraine, to German criminals, and in Tadjikistan.”
Now that the deal has gone sour, the thieves are trying to sell the art on the black market, and the museum is going all out to publicize the case in the hopes that will make it more difficult for them.
Museum Director Ad Geerdink has made a public appeal, urging Ukrainians to help with the restitution of the paintings to their rightful place. “They’re not assets you trade for some lousy money,” he says in a YouTube clip addressing the Ukrainians. “These pieces of art are part of our cultural heritage, our history, and they belong here.”In the meantime, Brand says he’s received confirmation from the Ukrainian authorities that Oleh Tyahnybok is in fact involved. When asked about the case by the local press, Ukrainian minister of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov says he is in touch with the Dutch authorities, but declines to comment further.
Valentin Nalyvaichenko remains much more elusive. Brand says, “All the indications of his involvement are there; he’s the former head of intelligence, his name surfaced several times and he is close to Oleh Tyahnybok, but legally we need to be able to substantiate further.”
Being accused of taking part in a criminal deal over national treasure clearly hasn’t dampened Oleg Tyahnybok’s spirit one bit. On his Facebook page the extremist leader taunts: “Dear representatives of the West Frysian Museum,” it says in the comment with a photo in which he’s seen smiling and gesturing at a portrait of Stepan Bandera, one of the founders of the OUN: “Here, come and get your ‘found’ paintings and display them.”The National Security Agency says it doesn't target American citizens when searching through its vast quantities of data looking for threats, but that doesn't mean it won't look through your email. The New York Times has the latest revelation in the never-ending flood of leaks about how NSA conducts its business, and the newest one suggests that thousands and thousands of emails, including those sent and received by American citizens, are being combed over by intelligence agents without a warrant.
The description of the program is a little confusing, but (we think) it works like this: Say NSA the wants to find out information about a particular individual or "target." Since NSA is already authorized to intercept any electronic communication that crosses U.S. borders, their servers are already soaking up this data on an ongoing basis. (And that probably doesn't even include the "massive amounts" of data that countries like Germany give to the NSA everyday.)
To find out more about the target, NSA copies a large selection of the data and runs a keyword search for something very specific, like a name or an email address or a phone number. In "a small number of seconds," the program then take any communication that matches that search and sets it aside for actual humans to look at later. The rest is deleted.
Read more on The Atlantic Wire.
(Image via Pavel Ignatov/Shutterstock.com)Zachery Ty Bryan (born October 9, 1981) is an American actor and producer best known for his role as Brad Taylor on the American sitcom Home Improvement.
Personal life [ edit ]
Bryan was born in Aurora, Colorado, to Jenny and Dwight Bryan.[1] He has a younger sister named Ciri. He attended La Salle High School, graduating with the class of 2000.[citation needed]
In 2007, he married Carly Matros, whom he met while attending La Cañada Junior High School. He is the father of three daughters, including a set of twins born in 2014. He and his wife are expecting a baby boy in early 2019.[citation needed]
Career [ edit ]
Before he starred in Home Improvement, he appeared in local print and television advertising in Denver. He then appeared at a showcase in New York City, directed by Peter Sklar, where he was seen by a professional talent representative[2]. This, and his interest in acting soon brought him to California, where he received the role of Brad, the oldest Taylor child, in the show Home Improvement. His character was known for experimenting with different hair styles as well as being the child most often in trouble. He is one month younger than Jonathan Taylor Thomas, who played his younger brother Randy on the show.
In the middle of Home Improvement Bryan made an appearance as Gomer on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in 1995. After Home Improvement ended, Bryan made brief appearances in many other television shows including (2002) Buffy the Vampire Slayer as Peter Nicols, (2005) Veronica Mars as Caz Truman, and (2006) Shark as Scott Natterson, as well as a guest appearance on an episode of Reading Rainbow. Additionally, he made a cameo appearance on MTV's "I Bet You Will" in which he portrayed himself and competed in a challenge where he wrestled female convicted felons. In 2001, he portrayed an ice hockey player in an episode of Touched by an Angel.[3] He also appeared on Smallville in 2003 where he played Eric Marsh, a high school baseball player using steroids made from meteor rock. He was the second Home Improvement alum to make a guest appearance on the show after Jonathan Taylor Thomas. In 2005, Bryan appeared as Bryan Nolan in ESPN's TV movie Code Breakers. Bryan also guest starred in Cold Case (as the young murderer in the flashback scenes) and in 2008 as a young man hiring a hitman to kill his stepmother on the show Burn Notice.[4]
Bryan's film roles include the school bully in the 1996 Sinbad comedy First Kid. He starred in the 1995 movie Magic Island as Jack Carlisle, and the 1998 TV movie The Principal Takes A Holiday. He also starred as Eric in 1999's The Rage: Carrie 2. Later, he played defender Harry Keough alongside Gerard Butler in the 2005 movie The Game of Their Lives otherwise known as The Miracle Match about the 1950 US upset at the World Cup.[5] In 2006, he played as Clay in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, then in the 2009 TV mini-series Meteor, which aired on NBC. He also played Thor in the made-for-TV Syfy channel film Thor: Hammer of the Gods. The film originally aired on November 29, 2009.
Filmography [ edit ]
Producer Year Title Notes 2008 Trunk Co-producer 2010 Associate producer 2010 Prowl 2012 Rogue River 2012 The Grief Tourist
Awards [ edit ]
Wins [ edit ]
Nominations [ edit ]
1993 – Young Artist Awards for Best Young Actor Starring in a Television Series ( Home Improvement )
for Best Young Actor Starring in a Television Series ( ) 1998 – YoungStar Awards for Best Performance by a Young Actor in a Miniseries/Made-for-TV Movie (Principal Takes a Holiday)Hi guys, sorry to make you guys wait. I fell sick in Hong Kong and I just moved house. It was quite hectic. Anyway, thank you for your patience and enjoy.
Thanks
War Part 9
Translators: Skythewood, Frostfire10
The words danger perception ability existed.
It was an ability that allowed the theif-class adventurers to sense danger like reading a book, and it was extremely important.
This ability had two types. One was based on instinct (not deduction or investigation but sensing when something occurred) and the other on deduction and studies from experiences. If the former was noticing your heart beat when an insect got close, the latter would be seeing through any small change in the environment, small changes in smell or sound, to locate the enemy.
In the case of the latter, if one went to battlefields or on journeys, even if one did not train this ability, it would sharpen by itself. It goes without saying that it was born from experiences of walking the line between life and death. Even if one thought it was a safe place or failed in one’s evaluation of the situation, as long as one was dancing with death, this ability was forcefully trained.
In addition, creatures like the lizardmen were far more proficient in this than humans. This was an ability of living creatures, based on the sharpness of the sensing organs of the creature, and from a harsh living environment. Humans would probably sleep in a safe place far from monsters. However, lizardmen lived next to such monsters.
With such an environment, it is understandable their danger perception was much better than humans.
Those Lizardmen.
Especially Zaryusu, would not fail to notice the change in the atmosphere outside their houses.
Feeling tension filling the air, he opened his eyes.
Before him was a familiar room— although he had only stayed here for several days. Humans, even if they tried to, would not be able to make out details in this room which had no light source, but it was not that difficult for lizardmen.
There was nothing out of the ordinary in the room.
Zaryusu looked around, and after confirming that there were no strange objects, he gave a sigh of relief as he moved to sit upright.
He was an outstanding warrior, which was why even if he was sleeping moments ago, he was as awake as normal. There wasn’t an issue of drowsiness, as he was even energetic enough to immediately enter battle.
This was natural for warriors trained to a certain level. This was also related to the fact that lizardmen were habitually light sleepers.
However, Crusch who was sleeping beside Zaryusu showed no signs of waking up.
Having lost the body warmth of Zaryusu, Crush merely sleepily let out a dissatisfied soft murmur.
It was a truly deep sleep.
If it were under normal circumstances, Crusch would also sense the change in the air and wake up, however this time it seemed as if she had not noticed at all.
Zaryusu felt some regret, whether or not he had allowed Crusch to shoulder too much burden.
He recalled last night, and came to the opinion that the burden on Crusch was perhaps greater than his. During the operation of defeating the powerful opponent, the lich, the female Crusch seemed to have suffered a greater burden than the male Zaryusu.
He himself wished that he could allow her to continue sleeping, but after listening carefully, he could hear the frantic movements of many lizardmen beyond the house doors. At these times when various emergencies had already occurred, not waking her up would might be more dangerous.
“Crusch, Crusch.”
Zaryusu used a bit of force to shake Crusch several times.
“Mmm… Mmmm…”
Crusch curled her tail, then immediately revealed her red eyes.
“Mmm…?”
“It looks like something has happened.”
This phrase caused the drowsy Crusch to instantly widen her eyes. Zaryusu grabbed Frost Pain which was by his side and immediately stood up, and not long afterwards, Crusch was also out of bed.
For humans, they would have to wear clothes and do other things, but lizardmen had no need to do so.
Going outside, Zaryusu immediately understood the reason for the ruckus, and so did Crusch.
The reason was—-The sky.
They saw a large thick dark cloud covering the air above the village.
Looking to the distance, they could tell within a moment that the dark cloud was completely different to ordinary dark clouds. This was because it was a clear cloudless sky for miles around.
That also meant that this was—
“It’s… back?”
Yes.
It meant that the hand of the existence known as the Supreme One had once again come knocking—-
“Looks like it.”
Crusch agreed with this view. All of the lizardmen of the five tribes that had grouped together to fight could see the dark cloud in the middle of the sky, and were talking about it. However nobody had a look of fear on their faces.
That was because they were victorious under unfavourable circumstances in the previous battle, causing everyone to become more spirited.
“Let’s go.”
“Eh.”
Zaryusu and Crusch ran towards the main gate of the village.
The two of them ran towards the village, giving off a water splashing noise as they sprinted. They passed by several lizardmen who were commencing their battle preparations, and wasted no time in arriving at the main entrance.
Several warrior class lizardmen were looking outside from the gate. One of them was a deformed lizardman. One that had one huge arm—-Zenberu.
In response to the harsh splashing sounds of the two approaching, Zenberu raised his hand in greeting, and immediately focused outside.
Zaryusu and Crusch ran to his side and looked outside.
On the far shore 250 metres away. Where the wetlands met the forest.
There, Skeletons had formed into ranks. It was quite the number. About the same as the previous battle, not maybe slightly less. They outnumbered the lizardmen.
“So they have come again.”
“Huh…”
Zaryusu responded to Zenberu, then clicked his tongue.
They had expected this. They had known that it was not the end.
However it was too fast. It was unexpected that they would not have time to fully recover their wounds, bury their dead or strengthen their defenses.
Zaryusu made a wry smile. He had underestimated his opponents.
The enemy had the ability to again send such troops even though they had destroyed a large number of skeletons and zombies.
“… However, these skeletons should be weaker than those summoned by the lich.”
These words had a hidden meaning. What Zenberu meant was that he believed that the current skeleton army was in fact stronger than the one which invaded before.
Zaryusu also observed intently at the skeletons arranged on the shore of the other side. This was to size up the opponent’s strength, to then carry out the appropriate defensive actions.
Their appearance was certainly one of a skeleton.
A body of bone that had complete resistance to slashing attacks. That was dangerous but, the most dangerous was that since no muscles were visible, one could not tell how strong they were. For outward appearances, the biggest difference was their equipment. The skeletons from before were only equipped with rusty swords. However, the skeletons this time had sturdy breastplates, wielded a kite shield in one hand and one of various types of weapons in the other. Their backs had composite crossbows attached to them.
They were ready for any type of battle.
There was a wide gap between them and the earlier skeletons. In addition, it could be felt their their bodies were sturdier.
Zaryusu observed this much, and discovered a particular fact. He couldn’t help but doubt if he had seen incorrectly, and rubbed his eyes several times. However that remained a reality.
“Eh… that can’t be…”
“H-How is that possible…”
At the same time as Crusch’s exclamation, Zaryusu who had discovered the same fact involuntarily spoke out in a pained low voice. This time, Zenberu replied.
“… Oh, you realised it too.”
Zenberu’s voice made it sound like he wanted to spit out blood. This was as he saw something unbelievable.
“Mmm…” Zaryusu was done with speaking, and remained silent. He did not wish to speak, because once words came out, he would be terrified. Yet it was impossible to remain silent. “… Their weapons seemed to be magic equipment.”
Crusch by his side nodded solemnly.
—-Yes.
The skeletons were holding various weapons. They were all infused with magic. Some skeletons had a sword with fire, others had hammers of blue lightning. Green lights emanated from the spearheads of some, while the rest had purple liquids dripping from their scythes.
Zenberu next words deepened Zaryusu’s shock.
“Looks like that is not it. You two should also look closely at the armours and shields. Those… are also magic defensive equipment.”
Zaryusu doubted his eyes when he heard Zenberu’s words.
He then unconsciously moaned. He noticed that the shields and armour were not sparkling just from the sunlight, but also as they themselves were emitting light.
Just what type of existence could equip that number of skeletons with magic equipment. While if it was a temporary simple enhancement to the weapon, it would be possible for a large country. However, if they imbued magic equipment with various attributes, the situation changed.
Zaryusu learned a lot from the dwarfs he met in the mountains while on his travels.
Dwarves were a mountainous race which excelled in metalworking. During feasts, those dwarves would often talk about the legend of a particular hero— the King who established the great Kingdom of Dwarves, the hero who wore shining mithril armour and solo defeated a dragon, then becoming one of the thirteen heroes, ‘Magic Engineer’. Even within the legends told by the dwarves, there were no stories which told of this kind of magnitude of magic equipment preparation.
Then, what was the scene before Zaryusu?
“… Is that an army from the myths?”
If this was not a story from mankind, then it must be a scenario from a mythical story.
Zaryusu’s entire body was trembling. Because he realised that this exceeded his predictions, and they were facing an enemy which absolutely should not be provoked.
However.
Was this not something they had understood. The opponent was probably extremely strong. They had came prepared to be annihilated. As the one who proposed this plan, why was he trembling. The enemy was far beyond his imagination. He understood that. So if that was the problem, what should he do?
Did victory weaken his heart?
If he recalled their words, the lizardmen had shown their ability to repell their first wave. Then, they at least would have some sort of negotiations. If he showed fear, their evaluation of him would drop.
Deciding so, his heart felt more vigorous, and Zaryusu stared at the skeletons.
As he tried to see which was the enemy commander—-A cold wind blew. It swept around Zaryusu’s entire body.
“The wind….”
Crusch is cold too. While he hugged his body, he checked the situation of the sky.
Due to the thick clouds hanging in the sky, they blocked the sun and caused quite the chilling sensation. That was the normal expectation, and normally it would be entirely correct.
But that was not it.
The wind blew again, and a shivering cold attacked Crusch. Her body again trembled. Zaryusu with Frost Pain had some resistance to the cols and so would not feel it unless it was above a certain level. So Zaryusu hugged Crusch.
“Are you alright?”
“Eh….It’s warm.”
I’m cold too. Zenberu spoke in his heart, but he did not enter the view of Crusch or Zaryusu who was giving her his body heat. They looked like two good friends hugging if seen from the side. Zaryusu then asked Crusch.
“Crusch. Have you heard of such cold winds blowing at this time of year?”
“No, none. However if they activated magic to control the weather, this cold wind would not be strange.”
Crusch again, spoke in a small voice so that no one else but Zaryusu could hear. Zaryusu frowned at her response.
“This is bad….”
“Eh? What is?”
“Oi oi, this is a bad atmosphere.”
Just as Zenberu said, due to this strange cold wind, the lizardmen all had expressions of uncertainty. There was not much left of the confidence that once filled them. They felt like scared children.
Zaryusu felt it too.
A cold wind that was impossible for this season—-basically an impossible change in nature. This caused the morale of the lizardmen to drop.
The lizardmen did not know magic, and had the experience that nature was something that could not be changed by anyone. Basically they had associated being able to change nature with someone who was far more powerful than them.
Yes. Just how powerful was the enemy they were about to face? This blowing cold wind eloquently told them the answer.
“A good move.”
While clicking his ongue, Zaryusu accepted the effects of this magic. He could say nothing but that a move to instantly lower the enemy’s morale was good. If they were aiming to lower morale, to make sure of this—-
“Cheh, the opponent has begun to move.”
Yes. The skeletons began to move.
Zaryusu grit his teeth. His forced his unwilling tail to not make any large moves. So they were aiming for this timing to move.
The surrounding warriors began to waver. Some of them even raised cries, warning that they were coming to attack. Among them, Zaryusu knew that it was different.
That was not movement to attack. However, the panicking lizardmen thought only that they were attacking.
Just as Zaryusu and Zenberu were about to request aloud for the panicking lizardmen to calm down—
“—Calm down!”
A large piercing sound shook the air. That voice was not too loud. However, it was filled with confidence and dignity that no one could oppose.
All the lizardmen was entranced by the voice, stopped and looked at the direction it came from.
It was Shasuryu.
“I say again, calm down.”
In this silent space, only this voice filled with self-confidence and authority reverberated.
“Also, do not be afraid, warriors. Above all else, you must not disappoint the numerous ancestral spirits behind you.”
With calmness returning, he walked through the crowd of silent lizardmen to Zaryusu’s side.
“Younger brother, what action has the opponent taken?”
“Hmm, older brother, although they have begun to move… they do not appear to be preparing for battle.”
“Hmm…”
The five hundred skeletons which had begun to move formed into ten ranks.
“Just what are they planning to do?”
Zenberu’s whisper reflected the thoughts of everyone. They were not just reforming ranks. Then, as if waiting for that question, the skeletons moved again.
Under perfect and precise commands, the legion parted to either side from the centre. What appeared from the gap of approximately twenty skeletons in width was… a figure.
That figure was not very large. Even if it was about two hundred and fifty centimetres in height, it was possible to see that the figure was shorter than Zaryusu. That person wore a pitch-black robe, in its hand was a black misty staff-like object.
It was an appearance similar to that of the lich yesterday. It was probably a magic caster as well.
Seeing that figure, Zaryusu felt his back getting the shivers.
He felt that it was far more powerful than the lich yesterday.
[… Oh, oh!]
The lizardmen which were nervously watching this Magic Caster let out a panicked sound altogether. At this moment, an enormous hemisphere-shaped magic array approximately ten metres in diameter expanded outwards with the magic caster at the centre.
A blue and white radiance floated on the surface of the magic array, with semi-translucent markings which looked like it could be words or symbols. Those semi-translucent markings were rapidly changing, and at any given moment none of the words were the same.
Since the sunlight was blocked, the lizardmen could clearly see that scene.
If a non-hostile existence was doing this, the lizardmen felt that this could be an illusion. The blue clear light changed its figure, and illuminated the surroundings.
However, under these conditions they could not be entranced by it.
Being unable to understand what exactly it was, Zaryusu felt confused.
When a magic caster used magic, they would not make such a magic array in the air like this.What the other side was doing was something outside of Zaryusu’s knowledge. So, he asked the most well versed woman in magic in this place.
“What exactly is that?”
“I-I don’t know. I cannot figure out what that is either—”
Crusch’s reply was a bit terrified. It looked like she was even more frightened because she possessed knowledge about magic yet was unable to understand that behaviour.
Just at the moment that Zaryusu was planning to comfort her…
Not knowing if the magic had successfully activated, the magic array broke apart, becoming numerous light particles flying towards the sky. In the next instant— like there had been an explosion in the sky, the particles spread out—
◆
The lizardmen did not know
And the world did not know
This was the first time such a magic was used in this world.
This was on par with the highest magic from 500 and 200 years before.
One of the Overrank magic—-A magic that could that the world.
Immediately it—-
◆
And the lake—-
—-Completely froze.
There was no one there that understood what had just happened. Yes, all the lizardmen there.
Shasuryu who was a tribe leader with outstanding qualifications; Crusch who had extraordinary druid powers; even Zaryusu the traveller who had seen much and had a wide breadth of knowledge. Even these individuals, who within lizardmen history could be considered to possess miraculous abilities, could not immediately comprehend the current situation.
No way of understanding why their own feet were inside ice.
Before long— after enough time had passed for the brain to accept the situation before their eyes— a crying rang out—
Every lizardmen— indeed, everybody let out a lamenting cry.
Even Zaryusu was the same. Crusch and Shasuryu, and even the most courageous Zenberu, were no exception. As if terror crept out from the depths of their souls, everybody could not help but scream.
It was such terrifying truth. The lake will never freeze. It was a truth since they were born.
But, it was destroyed when the lake froze.
Ice was something within their knowledge. All the lizardmen thought that.
That fear was the equivalent of humans seeing the sun rising from the west.
The lizardmen frantically lifted their feet. Luckily the layer of ice was not thick, and broke immediately, but the broken areas immediately froze up again. A chilling cold vapour came from underneath, making it painfully obvious that this sight was not an illusion.
After Zaryusu agitatedly clambered up the mud wall, he immediately surveyed the surroundings, then was stunned into silence by what he saw from his widened point of view.
All of the lake within their vision was frozen—-That was the scene they saw.
The lake was about 20 kilometres in all four directions. All of it that they could see was frozen.
“That can’t be…”
Crusch, who had also climbed up, looked around and was lost for words just like Zaryusu. From her gaping mouth, she let out a despaired voice.
Like Zaryusu, she did not wish to believe that this scene she saw before her was real.
The lake that would never freeze. There was nothing that could make it freeze. Yes. They could not believe the scene they were seeing.
Just how much power did one have to have to make such a thing possible?
“Get up here, quick!”
Shasuryu’s roar rang in the air. Surprised at it, Zaryusu and Crusch looked down at the bottom of the wall.
Several lizardmen fell down powerlessly. There were not many, but they dotted the surroundings. The ones that were still fine, mostly the warriors, worked together to pull the fallen lizardmen from the frozen ground.
The lizardmen that were pulled up all had lost colour in their faces. Their bodies shivered.
From what Zaryusu could tell, this was a result of their body temperatures dropping. The freezing temperatures was seeping their life force away.
“Older brother, I’ll go check on the others!”
Zaryusu who wielded Frost Pain could not be affected by this degree of influence from the cold air.
“No… Do not go!”
“Why, older brother?!”
“The enemy will probably start moving in a short moment. You are not permitted to leave! Grasp the overall situation, do not let any information slip! This is something which can only be entrusted to you who have wandered across the world and acquired various kinds of knowledge.”
“But we should preserve our magic power….”
“Fool! Do not mess up our priorities!”
Moving his gaze from Zaryusu, Shasuryu talked to the surrounding warrior class lizardmen.
“Right now I will be casting some ice resistance magic upon you all, ‘Protection Energy Ice’. Quickly go and inform every single person in the village, and avoid coming into contact with the ice.”
“I will also assist with casting the magic.”
“Please do!”
“Then, Crusch, let us act separately. If any individual is discovered to be in an emergency situation, immediately cast healing magic!”
Crusch and Zaryusu cast six lizardmen with protection magic.
Zaryusu stayed on the wall, and stared at their formation. The thing he should be doing was just as Shasuryu said. He sent the enemy a sharp gaze, not letting any movement by him.
Unease passed by Zaryusu’s brain. Was it fine to grasp this magic caster who could freeze the lake with normal eyes. Or would he break them trying to.
However, was it fine to say that he was too scared, and could not see the enemy’s movements. Could he make such an excuse? It was imperative to carry out the task given to him by his brother with perfection.
“Hey ho.”
Zenberu who had climbed up to Zaryusu’s side gazed leisurely at the enemy’s position.
“You need to relax a bit. Your older brother is looking forward to your wisdom right? Even if you miss something, he won’t blame you. The more important thing is to not be too hooked up in it, and end up narrowing your vision.”
Zenberu in his carefree voice had given Zaryusu a sharp warning.
It was just as he said. Zaryusu was not alone. He was fighting with his comrades. Every did what he or she could do.
Zaryusu shifted his gaze.
All the warriors apart from Zenberu climbed on the mud wall, and looked at the enemy.
Yes, he was not fighting alone. It seems that he who had witnessed that overwhelming power — magic — had been shaken.
Zaryusu exhaled one giant breath, as if to get rid of his internal worries all in one go.
“Sorry.”
“There’s nothing to be sorry about.”
“… That’s right, because you, Zenberu, are also here.”
“Ha, don’t look to me for matters which concern thinking.”
The two of them laughed at each other, then continued to observe the enemy’s movement.
“However, that really is a true monster.”
“Yeah! It is basically on a completely different level…”
The magic caster had the insufferably arrogant posture of a king, and pompously gazed in the direction of Zaryusu and their village. That supposedly quite small body seemed expanded by ten times its size.
“… He should be the one referred to as the Supreme One.”
“That ought to be pretty spot on. Furthermore, I really hope there are no others powerful enough to cast magic that freezes the entire lake.”
“That’s right, and I hope so too. In the eyes of that monster who is even able to freeze the lake, we lizardmen are no more than ants. Ah~ what a shame! We’re no different than small insects.”
“….”
Zaryusu had no words. Because Zaryusu was thinking the same thing.
“The words ‘resist’ seem stupid now.”
“….If they do not allow us to surrender, what should we do?”
Zenberu looked at Zaryusu in surprise. Then he smiled.
“Then we shall all commit suicide in the name of an ‘attack’. Well, this will be a good experience. Being the opponent of an existence that can turn the world upside down.”
“….You did not waver.”
“….Are you…. Praising me?”
“I….maybe?”
“By the way….They’re moving.”
“Ah, yes.”
The magic caster who froze the lake raised the hand which was not holding onto a staff, and gave a wave in the direction of the village.
As if answering, a troop of fully armoured, knight-like warriors came out from the forest. There were not many of them. They numbered forty.
They were about 2.3 metres tall.
Their left hands held a large tower shield that covered ¾ of their body, and they wore a black full plate armour. Vein-like crimson patterns ran around their body. Different from practical items, spikes sprouted on their armour and expressed violence.
In their hands was a six metre long spear. On the spear that suited lanced calvary, a cloth was spread.
They were flags.
They were clothed in a pitch black mantle, they flawlessly stepped into the wetlands. With the ice breaking at their feet, they silently marched forward.
With perfect movements, they made space in between them and crossed flags with the opposite soldier.
As the flags overlapped, and the 40 different patterns of the cloth lowered down, a path was made.
“… Is that a path for the king?”
Zenberu was correct.
The magic caster slowly walked on the frozen lake.
Several shadows followed behind him.
At the front, was the magic caster who froze the lake, and the one with bottomless power. Anymore and it made one wonder what should he be called. It was shorter than the average lizardman, but hidden inside was a despairing power, a monster.
On his body he wore a pitch-black changpao, so dark that it looked as if it had been cut from a piece of the night, and in his hand he held a staff which radiated a black aura. That radiating aura seemed to form into agonised human expressions, which collapsed and disappeared.
Even under the hood was a skull, with vacant eye sockets which had a shining small red light in either of them.
The opponent wore innumerable magic accessories which were absolutely beyond Zaryusu’s comprehension, and walked forward at a commensurate pace with the authority of a king.
Just behind the magic caster at his left and right was a dark elf girl and a silver-haired girl.
The dark elf girl had golden silk-like hair cut to her shoulder. Her heterochromatic eyes were gold and purple.
Her ears were long and sharp, and her skin was a light brown. It was a skin colour held by the close relatives of elves, the dark elves.
On top of her skintight armour, she wore black and red dragon scales pasted on it, and on top of that she wore a white vest with golden lining. He chest had a symbol on it.
Her waist had a whip attached, and her back had a large bow, the handle, rim, and grip having decorations engraved on them.
The silver-haired girl was dressed in a soft pitch black ball gown.
The skirt portion was inflated, and had a large volume to it. The length of the skirt was quite long, and completely hid her legs. Her Bolero cardigan had frills and ribbons attached and it covered her shoulders and chest. Due to her wearing fingerless gloves, most of her body was hidden.
What was exposed was a beautiful face, to the extent that even a first class work of art would feel ashamed to be in front of her. She had white skin, a paleness that could be in no way healthy. Her long silver hair was bound to one side, and flowed down.
Even though lizardmen had no well established sense of beauty, the two of them were gorgeous.
And the last one was—-
“He can’t be… a Demon?”
Zenberu had a question look in response to Zaryusu’s whisper.
Demon.
Demons were those who used violence to bring about destruction, and Devils were those who used their intelligence to bring about depravity. These kinds of otherworldly existences grouped together were referred to as demons. It is said that they are atrocious monsters which existed solely for the extermination of all sentient and good living beings. They were also synonymous with the word ‘evil’.
While in human society, this was something well known, but the lizardman society was different. In this case, Zenberu not knowing anything was the norm. Lizardmen who lived together with nature, the existence of demons was something located far from their themselves. This was due to a simple difference in culture, and because they were isolated.
Zaryusu had once before heard about demons during his travels.
He had heard how terrifying demons were. It was said that two hundred years ago, a being known as the king of the demons — the Demon God — had led demons under his banner, and had almost exterminated the entire world.
The Demon God had met his end at the hands of the thirteen heroes which vanquished him, and in a certain place it was still possible to see traces of that battle.
If undead could be described as creatures which detested the living, then demons were creatures which tormented the living.
That demon was two metres tall, and his skin was a sparkling red. His clean cut pitch black hair had a glistening luster.
His red eyes sparkled with intelligence, and front facing goat-like horns sprung from his temples, and pitch black giant wings grew from his back.
His sharply clawed hands grasped a scepter, and a red beautiful robe adorned him, and he had a king’s dignity.
They walked in silence, under the forty flags. The distance they walked was 160 metres. It was 90 more metres to the village. Then, they stopped.
Just what were they doing.
Several |
, 3.5-litre naturally aspirated V10 and 3.5-litre naturally aspirated V12.Accompanist Needed
Well-established performer seeks piano accompanist for upcoming singing tour. The ideal candidate will be classically trained, able to sight-read, and capable of playing with his feet on demand.
Accompanist must supply his own grand piano and grand piano transportation. Accompanist should also be willing to have his grand piano modified and custom-fitted with pyrotechnics so that, when the ominous chord is struck that opens each show, my name will be spelled out in multi-colored flames.
To intimidate any potential hecklers, accompanist should be at least seven feet tall and weigh no less than two hundred sixty pounds. Mysterious facial scars are a HUGE plus, but not required.
When audience members are especially rude and ungracious, the accompanist may be required to remove and eat two to four piano keys without flinching or blinking in order to silence the unruly spectators. Depending on availability of tour funds, I may or may not be able to replace those keys, so the ideal candidate should show discretion when selecting which two to four keys he will consume.
To build intrigue, the accompanist may be billed as an android, caveman, confirmed serial killer who is shortening his prison sentence through a musical community-service program, or all of the above. Therefore, it is necessary for the accompanist to play from music sheets of binary code, create music by striking the keys with an oversized faux-wooden club, and play with ankles and wrists cuffed.
Some of my singing engagements take place late at night, in the homes of strangers, without audiences or music, and may appear to be elaborate art or jewel heists. For engagements like this, the accompanist may be called on to pick locks, crack safes, break windows silently and jump over large, sometimes barb-wire topped fences with me riding piggy-back at all times.
Accompanist must possess a thorough knowledge of the canine psyche in order to tame six to eight guard dogs simultaneously and then retrain them to attack their masters in under two minutes. Ideally, to keep everything music-themed, the taming/re-training would be done with a flute.
Unfortunately, due to an oversight on my part, several shows taking place on the beach will require the accompanist to somehow make a dramatic, death-defying entrance on a jet ski, while simultaneously playing the opening chords to the show. Therefore, the accompanist should be skilled in creative problem solving or supernatural multi-tasking.
For any event where I have advertised a jet ski entry but have spent funds originally allocated to renting said jet skis, the accompanist may be called upon to locate and hot-wire two nearby jet skis. Once again, for theme consistency, a flute, or any other musical instrument, should be used in some way.
If interested in this position, please email me at gr8singer.art.jewel.dealer@xmail.com. Please attach a picture of yourself and your grand piano, along with any other materials you feel are pertinent to the position, such as your transcripts from music school or proof of diplomatic immunity.Kick Your Face
Don Corleone
Posts: 1,659
Don Corleone Interesting Jumbo Tsuruta Discussion with Meltzer Select Post
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Member Back to Top Post by Kick Your Face on jdw
posted 11-29-2003 10:46 PM
Dave Meltzer wrote:
> If you were to talk with the wrestlers at
> that time (mid-80s) that worked with
> him, you would get a very different opinion.
I know, Dave.
But I've also been with you when one wrestler is putting over the greatness of another wrestler and the two of us rolled our eyes. Rey and Konnan putting over Sabu is one the comes quickly to mind. Sean Waltman doing the same does as well, but then again Sean was stoned out of his mind so everyone at the table rolled their eyes.
You recall Terry Funk telling us that Tanaka was better than Misawa, Kawada and Kobashi back in 1996 after Terry's match with Pogo? This is Terry, a guy you go a long ways back with and respect on a number of levels. But you and I were literally laughing at the one.
What about all the old timers who bagged on Ric Flair for "working the same match every night"?
There was a time when, with respect to judging work, you took the opinion of wrestlers only so far. You not only knew, but also would articulate, that wrestlers were often nutty in juding work. Even wrestlers you liked and respected.
> Everyone respected that when he wanted to go,
> he could go with anyone, but his reputation
> was that he was a lazy worker unless there
> were TV cameras.
It's a bit odd that you never wrote this in the WON back in the day, Dave. Whereas when Savage or Bret Hart or even Shawn Michaels took nights off when the cameras weren't rolling, you would hammer them. With Jumbo, it's only a recent explanation that you've rolled out.
> I got that from Brody (who always complained
> that I overrated him),
I find this rather hard to believe, since you didn't rate Jumbo very high during the time the WON existed _and_ Brody was alive. It really was only after Brody died that you started writing that Jumbo was "picking up his game".
> Terry Funk (an example of which I saw live
> when Jumbo wouldn't do squat on a night
> when Terry had decided he wanted to put on a
> great match, and Jumbo was the type of
> wrestler that even Terry couldn't overcome
> when he thought it was too cold to wrestle),
This simply isn't credible, Dave. When wrestlers took nights off at shows you saw live, you wrote about it in the WON. You've been consistent about this for 20 years, even with wrestlers that you personally like. Laziness on house shows, when the camera isn't rolling, is something you always use to hammer people on.
In the match in question, you wrote literally nothing about the match other than "*1/2". Even more poblematic is what you wrote in reviewing a later Funks match on the series:
"Although the Funks looked good in this match, they are not what they once were in Japan. Terry in particular was greatly bothered by a bad back suffered in Puerto Rico in September and couldn't take any bumps and was in pain every time he tried to move."
-Dave Meltzer, 12/21/87 match covering Budokan final night
It was Terry who couldn't do anything during the series, Dave. He had an excuse, no doubt, with the bad injure that at the time looked like it might end his career. Do you honest expect us to believe that a Terry Funk who couldn't bump on the biggest show of the series would have earlier in the series decided to have a "great match" on a non-TV spot show match in a "cold building"? It's not credible. If you had written something about it at the time, as you always did on things like that, one would them have to try to deterime if Terry was blowing smoke like he was nearly a decade later with Tanaka. But since it's not in there, and as far as I can recall in reading the WONs never was in there until the last year or two, it really comes across that your memory being off.
> Kroffat, Furnas, Zenk
I respect Kroffat and Furnas, but I take this with a grain of salt. I've seen things in the WON the were directly from one or the other of them (either spoken to you infront of me, or things you mentioned to me as being from them and then later ending up in the WON), and this is something that you never put in the WON. Considering you pretty consistently had Jumbo in the Top 10 while the careers of Kroffat, Furnas and Jumbo overlapped in the WON, I'd have to believe it would be something you'd mention.
Zenk has very little credibility when it comes to judging work, or speaking with candor. His track record on both is pretty horrendous.
> and Foley just off the top of my head and
> probably others, so it was not one bitter
> person.
More on Foley below.
As far as "more than one person", I'd again point to all the old-time wrestlers who over the year have rated Flair down for "wrestling the same match every night". Or even Bret Hart ripping Flair's abilities when the two worked together in 1992 in the WWF. You were able to look beyond that, Dave.
> It was his 80s reputation among people who
> worked with him day in and day out.
Then why is it absent from your writing in the era, Dave?
> Brody's take was that Jumbo made so much money
> early in his career and was guaranteed his
> position whether he worked for it or not, that
> he had nothing driving him.
I tend to take most everything Brody is on record as say with a grain of salt. Other than perhaps the stuff about flushing David Vion Erich's dope down the hotel toilet. But other than that, if one actually watch's Jumbo's work in the era, you see a guy who was working extremely well.
> I think when he got older, the fact the young
> guys in the company were so good that it drove
> him because his last four or so effective
> years, he was as good as anyone ever, in my
> opinion.
Agreed that he was pretty darn good from 1989-92. But one can go back to 1985 and 1986 and 1987 and 1988 and see him driven to have good matches, simply on his own desire. I'd again point to the match above, one that you when watching it thought "Jumbo didn't want a match this good". In reality, the match was exactly as good as Jumbo wanted it.
> However, wrestlers who saw him nightly during
> even that period disagreed with that viewpoint.
Except the are two problems with that.
One, as mentioned before, is that you never wrote that at a time when you would mention it about others. Choshu, for example, often got mentioned as taking matches off, but "firing up" for Big Matches. That tag never got applied to Jumbo by you.
The second is that when you were over there watching Jumbo during that "great era", he was pulling in high star ratings from you, even in matches that weren't shot for TV.
It doesn't add up.
> Basics on his rep. First off, if he didn't
> consider you at his level, he wouldn't do
> anything for you. I saw that on numerous
> occasions with good working but mid-level
> Americans so I think that's valid, and that
> was even in his hot period.
You'd have to cite the matches so that the rest of us can go back and watch the tapes.
> If he wasn't in the mood, you couldn't get
> a match out of him. It was more frustrating
> to people because he was so talented than if
> he was a slug. The New Japan guys in the
> early 80s used to laugh at Jumbo & Tenryu
> because they thought they were working an
> outdated style and felt them being on top was
> why New Japan was kicking All Japan's ass at
> the time.
Tenryu sucked. Everyone admits that.
The problem with Jumbo working an outdated style is that it was dictated by his opponents. Here's the guys he wrestled title matches against from 1981 (the dawn of Sayama) until Choshu & Co. came in:
* Abdullah the Butcher
* Dory Funk Jr. & Terry Funk
* Jack Brisco
* Jimmy Snuka
* Dick Slater
* Killer Tor Kamata & the Great Martialborg
* Billy Robinson & Genichiro Tenryu
* Gypsy Joe
* Bruiser Brody & Jimmy Snuka
* Ric Flair
* Tiger Jeet Singh & Umanosuke Ueda
* Alexis Smirnoff
* Tor Kamata
* Nick Bockwinkel & Nikolai Volkoff
* Nick Bockwinkel
* Tommy Rich
* Harley Race
* Bruiser Brody & Stan Hansen
* Bruiser Bordy
* Tiger Jeet Singh & Killer Tor Kamata
* Mil Mascaras
* Stan Hansen & Ron Bass
* Bruiser Brody & Nikolai Volkoff
* Ted DiBiase
* Stan Hansen & Alexis Smirnoff
* Terry Funk & Ted DiBiase
* Nikolai Volkoff
* Jose Lothario
* Stan Hansen & One Man Gang
* Steve Olsonoski
* Terry Gordy & Michael Hayes
* Rick Martel
* Greg Gagne
* Kerry Von Eric
* Billy Robinson
* Bruiser Brody & Crusher Blackwell
* Terry Gordy
Now perhaps we can objectively look at the list and ask which of the wrestler on it were able to transition from the "outdated" style to the "non-outdated style" that Choshu & Co. worked?
Hansen obviously, though your writings in 1986 were that Hansen had better matches feuding with Jumbo, and Choshu had better matches feuding with Jumbo, than Hansen and Choshu had feuding with each other. Ironically Hansen and Choshu got the credit for the quality of their matches with Jumbo, and Jumbo didn't. [Smile]
Gordy.
And that's really it. DiBiase was decent in Japan to limits. He worked the older style, and not the Choshu & Co. style. The Hansen & DiBiase matches against Choshu & Yatsu paled compared to Jumbo & Tenryu's.
Oh, and of course Jumbo was able to work the non-outdated working style. In the end, when one watches his matches with Choshu & Yatsu, and with Tenryu, and later with the kids, it's clear that Jumbo worked the "non-outdated style" better than any heavyweight of his generation - Choshu, Fujunami, Tenryu, Yatsu, and on and on.
So perhaps, if one wants to knock the quality of his work in that ear for being "out dated", one might want to look at the workers he was stuck with. We know that now of those smacktalking New Japan heavyweights ever had better matches with Hansen, Gordy and Tenryu than Jumbo did.
Again, this knock of Jumbo's work fails when one actually looks at it. Unless we want to blame Jumbo's regular opponents like Flair and Brody for dragging him down into the old, outdated working style. I suspect you don't want to go that far?
> In the early 90s, when I thought Jumbo was
> the best guy in the business, Foley came back
> from a tour and saw me at an Arezzi
> convention. He went up to me and was vehement
> about disagreeing after being there for
> a month. He said that when he worked singles
> with Jumbo, Jumbo only wanted to do three
> moves, didn't want to give him anything, and
> only wanted to work 5-6:00 (and that was a TV
> match). He couldn't see how I could rate a
> guy like that top three in the world.
There are several ironic things about reading that now.
The first is that it made no impacting on how you rated Jumbo that year (1991), since come the end of the year you rated Jumbo higher as a worker than you ever had, or ever would.
The second is that none of that made it into the WON.
The third is your review of the match:
"3/31[/91] - [...] 2. Tsuruta beat Cactus with a back suplex. Cactus took a few incredible bumps [description of the bumps...] but needs more hot offensive moves for Japan. ***"
-Dave Meltzer, 04/29/91 Wrestling Observer Newsletter
Granted, *** was the worst rated match by Jumbo in the series, even below a match he had with Taue who you pointed out for the 20th time wasn't as good as the rest of the main eventers. But the one negative thing you had to say about the match wasn't aimed at Jumbo not wanting to do anything, but rather at *Cactus* for not having any good offense for Japan.
The fourth is actually rewatching the match.
Jumbo does more than three moves - the Jumping Knee, the Abdominal Stretch, the Cobra Twist, a Jumbo Backdrop on the floor, the Jumbo Lariat, a second Jumping Knee, and the Jumbo Backdrop to win.
The problem, as you pointed out in your review, is that Mick doesn't have any good offense in return. It's ironic that Jumbo actually gives Mick most of the match, but all Mick has for offensive are elbows, punches, kicks, stomps, headbutts and clubbering arms, a hip toss counter, a running back elbow, posting Jumbo, a medicore backbreaker to set up the elbow off the apron. Oh, and several bumps - the elbow (which Jumbo lets him hit), one over the baricade, one off the Jumbo Lariat to the floor, and a nice one on the Jumbo Backdrop on the floor.
What's somewhat ironic watching it now is to notice that none of Mick's bumps really get much for pops. The biggest one is for his bump over the baricade, but if you listen closely (really, you don't have to listen closely since it's obvious), you'll notice that the pops are bigger for Mick tossing Jumbo to the floor (a noticable 'Booooo' pop because the fans want the match to stay in the ring), and for Jumbo in the ring calling Mick to come back in and wrestle (because the fans want the match in the ring and not garbagey). Mick's other bumps really don't get much pops for *the bump*:
* fans pop for Jumbo's lariat, and his signal for it, not for Mick's admittedly great sick bump.
* Fans pop for Jumbo hitting the backdrop on the floor, not for Mick trying to splat himself.
* they is very little pop for the elbow to the floor, which is Mick's one signature cool spot.
Really it's not Jumbo who treats Mick bad in the match - it's the fans who really couldn't care less about him. Jumbo let's Mick do his "show", which includes four of Mick's sick bumps for the era, and hit his one key move of offense (since even as you admitted, he didn't have an cool offense for Japan). And then took it home.
Lastly, it's worth noting that Mick was the designated jobber in the Carnival that year, even in a year they had split groups. Mick finished with _zero_ points, even jobbing to a mid-carder like Dan Kroffat and a prelim worker like Johnny Smith. Mick got to "look good" against prelimers like Inoue, Slinger, Teranishi, Ogawa and King in non-tourney singles matches. But it's enlightening to note that Catus went short with with most of them (6-7 minutes with everyone but King), *and also* went only 8 minutes when jobbing to guys like Taue and Kobashi (the Kobashi one being non-tourney).
In contrast, Jumbo went eight minutes with Kroffat, which is the same as Taue went with Kroffat and Kobashi went with Furnas in tourney matches. Kroffat and Furnas were mid-carders, and the booking was designed to make them look better against Jumbo than prelimers like Cactus.
This is why you didn't comment at all about the match being short at the time - you knew All Japan booking, and given the length of other matches, that's exactly as long as Baba would have wanted it to go.
Perhaps when complaining to you Mick thought he had a **** match in him against Jumbo. That's doubtful, since even the Jumbo vs. Kawada and Jumbo vs. Hansen matches you wrote well of in that tourney topped out a ***1/2. Mick wasn't the worker those two were at the time, and as you point out, didn't have the cool offense for Japan. He did have quite a few garbage spots that he could have used, but you know as well as anyone, All Japan wasn't about that at the time.
Rewatch the match, Dave. It's pretty much as good of a match as Jumbo could have had with Cactus in an *All Japan setting* in 1991.
> In late 1984 in Nagoya, they ran the big angle
> where Choshu and company arrived to set up
> Choshu vs. Jumbo as the big money program for
> 1985. The decision was made by Baba after the
> tour, and after seeing Choshu's Army work a
> few live matches, that there would be a
> working problem. Baba changed his mind on the
> original angle, feeling is that the new
> style they imported was much faster-paced,
> and Jumbo wasn't going to adapt. He also saw
> that the guys they imported working their
> asses off every night, and that would create
> problems on non-TV nights. He took Jumbo out
> of the key position in the program and put
> Tenryu in. Tenryu, while not as talented,
> would and did adapt. If there was nothing to
> his reputation of being lazy, then Baba
> himself, who knew Jumbo better than anyone,
> was also guilty of being fooled.
This is a myth. It's bit like claiming that Hansen was booked into a feud with Baba when he came in because Baba knew that Jumbo couldn't work with Hansen, while he could. What really happened is that Hasen was put into a feud with Baba while the story of Jumbo chasing the International Title was being told. Baba, with his usual long term outlook, knew he would get to Jumbo vs. Hansen down the road.
Jumbo, Choshu and Tenryu was no different. Jumbo was the established main event anchor of the promotion. The company had been trying to get Tenryu up to that level for more than a year, with the UN title and the Int'l Tag title with Tenryu essentially moving into Jumbo's old role as Jumbo moved into Baba's role of anchoring the company. None of it really worked, largely because Tenryu wasn't very good and didn't have much of a personality.
Baba knew he could always get to Jumbo vs. Choshu, whereas Tenryu needed to be elevated and get over to give the All Japan side someone *other than Jumbo* to carry the feud. Go back and watch those Choshu Invasion shows and see the garbage on the All Japan side that Jumbo was having to carry while on the other side Choshu, Yatsu, Animal, Saitoh and even Khan were wrestling circles around the likes of Okuma. That feud dies if they don't get a second person up there and over.
Which is what they did. And by the second half of the year, after Tenryu had been established, it was time for Baba to start putting focus back in Jumbo in it. Which is what he did, both with the singles match and with Jumbo being the one to heel it up to turn Choshu & Yatsu the "faces" in the feud on some level.
> As far as a guy who, on a big show, understood
> his role and usually went over on younger guys
> while giving them hope spots and having great
> matches, he was totally awesome.
That he was. Even on the non-big shows.
> His matches with a young Kobashi and Kawada
> were perfect,
Yep. What's kind of ironic is that the noted match with Kobashi (and the very good one they had the year prior) were not on big matches, and Kobashi was about the #10 sloted guy in the promotion (if that). They weren't "big matches".
> his matches with Tenryu rank with just about
> anything
The one I've seen from 1987 was mediocre, almost entirely due to Tenryu. I haven't seen the second one from 1987 yet as it's not easy to track down. The one from 1988 is probably as good as any mens match in 1988, due largely to Jumbo. Of their three in 1989, the first is okay, but abridged due to the injury. The third is nothing too special. The middle won was better than any of the Flair vs. Steamboat matches of 1989. Their 1990 final match was pretty so-so.
It's a good, important series to watch. But they really only hit home runs in 10/88 and 6/89. Tenryu just wasn't good enough at the time to hit great matches every time out.
> and his match with Misawa that I was at, in
> one night, created a legend and spurred the
> Budokan Hall sellout streak. Not to mention,
> I've seen people cry at wrestling, but never
> seen a match, where when it was over, more
> than half, and maybe three-quarters of a crowd
> of nearly 15,000 were in tears like the June
> Misawa-Jumbo match.
The 6/90 Jumbo vs. Jumbo was an all-time classic. Considering he wrestled an all-time classic as early as 6/76 against Terry, and had many in between including in the period where he was allegedly lazy, it is saying something about his longevity.
"Jumbo was lazy" is a bit like the "Brody and Flair did nothing but spots, didn't slow down, and didn't grab holds in their 1983 draw" - memories and "insider information" that's not supported by the tapes.
John
That was probably the most interesting discussion that I've ever read on a message board.Chicago White Sox signed free agent OF Lazaro Leal to a minor league contract.
Chicago White Sox signed free agent SS Wilber Sanchez to a minor league contract.
Chicago White Sox signed free agent OF Brandon Guyer to a minor league contract and invited him to spring training.
LHP Matt Tomshaw assigned to Chicago White Sox.
C Evan Skoug assigned to Chicago White Sox.
RF Jameson Fisher assigned to Chicago White Sox.
LHP Tanner Banks assigned to Chicago White Sox.
LHP Brian Clark assigned to Chicago White Sox.
RHP Danny Dopico assigned to Chicago White Sox.
3B Chris Johnson assigned to Chicago White Sox.
C Carlos Perez assigned to Chicago White Sox.
RF Tyler Frost assigned to Chicago White Sox.
SS Yeyson Yrizarri assigned to Chicago White Sox.
C Yermin Mercedes assigned to Chicago White Sox.
2B Mitch Roman assigned to Chicago White Sox.
3B Ti'Quan Forbes assigned to Chicago White Sox.
LHP Kyle Kubat assigned to Chicago White Sox.
RHP Connor Walsh assigned to Chicago White Sox.
2B Eddy Alvarez assigned to Chicago White Sox.
C Gunnar Troutwine assigned to Chicago White Sox.
2B Trey Michalczewski assigned to Chicago White Sox.
LF Joel Booker assigned to Chicago White Sox.
2B Jake Elmore assigned to Chicago White Sox.
1B Casey Gillaspie assigned to Chicago White Sox.
Chicago White Sox signed free agent RHP Ervin Santana to a minor league contract and invited him to spring training.
Chicago White Sox signed free agent LF Preston Tucker to a minor league contract and invited him to spring training.
RHP Zach Lewis assigned to Chicago White Sox.Nov. 26, 2016 - Information on services for Wayne State Police Officer Collin Rose
Nov. 25, 2016 - 1:30 p.m. EST - Donations being accepted in memory of fallen WSUPD Officer Collin Rose
Dear campus community,
I am saddened to report that a short time ago, Wayne State University officer Collin Rose died from the gunshot wound he suffered while working in the line of duty yesterday evening.
This is a tragedy felt by all of us -- Collin and his family and friends, his fiancée, and our campus and community.
Please keep Collin and his fiancée and family in your thoughts and prayers. Collin served Wayne State with distinction, and we owe those he left behind our deepest sympathies and our strong support.
Please keep all our police officers in your thoughts as well. Collin is the first and only Wayne State officer ever to fall in the line of duty. Our officers mourn with us, but these dedicated, professional men and women continue to serve us courageously, every day. We can honor Collin’s memory best with our ongoing gratitude and support for all of our officers.
Sincerely,
M. Roy Wilson
President
Nov. 23, 2016 - 6:00 p.m. EST
Nov. 23, 2016 - 8:30 a.m. EST - News conference scheduled to provide update on the shooting of Wayne State University officer
Nov. 23, 2016 - 8:26 a.m. EST - Message from the President - An important message concerning Officer Collin Rose
Nov. 22, 2016 - 11:24 p.m. EST - The officer involved in the off-campus shooting is 29-year-old Collin Rose. Please keep Officer Rose in your thoughts tonight.
Nov. 22, 2016 - 10:08 p.m. EST - Person of interest is in custody.
Nov. 22, 2016 - 9:44 p.m. EST - Police are looking a person of interest. If you have any information please call 313-577-2222.
Nov. 22, 2016 - 8:40 p.m. EST - Suspect description: Police are searching for a black man in his 40s with a full beard. He was wearing a white T-shirt with white and black lettering, a skull cap and a brown jacket.
Incident occurred off campus, but as a precaution WSUPD are heavily patrolling campus, and Detroit Police and Michigan State Police are patrolling surrounding area. Please be vigilant and report any suspicious activity to 313-577-2222.
Nov. 22, 2016 - 7:30 p.m. EST - WSU Police officer shot while on duty off campus. Injured, in Receiving Hospital. Be aware of your surroundings.A report published by the London School of Economics last month found extreme levels of bias in BBC reporting. The 'impartial' BBC's early evening news was almost five times more likely to depict Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in a negative light. In the time period studied (September 1 - November 1, 2015), no headlines on this key news programme presented Corbyn in a positive light.
But this is a mere drop in the ocean of the corporation's pro-establishment bias. It could hardly be more obvious that BBC news reports, comment pieces and discussions are overwhelmingly hostile to US-UK government enemies like Russia, Iran, Venezuela, North Korea and Syria, and overwhelmingly favourable to the United States and Israel. It has long been clear to us that BBC journalists perceive this, not as bias, but as an accurate depiction of a world that really is divided into well-intentioned Western 'good guys' and their enemies, the 'bad guys'.
On August 20, the BBC website featured a Radio 4 Today programme discussion hosted by former political editor Nick Robinson interviewing BBC World Affairs Editor John Cody Fidler-Simpson and Dr. Karin von Hippel, a former State Department official dealing with US strategy against Islamic State.
The discussion was introduced with the following written text, which was repeated in slightly altered form in Robinson's spoken introduction:
'Exactly five years ago President Obama called on the Syrian President Bashir-Al-Assad to step down but today he is still in power.'
The prominence and repetition of the observation of course conferred great significance. The implication: for the BBC, Obama is not just the leader of another country, he is a kind of World President with the authority to call on other leaders to'step down'. In reality, Obama made his demand, not in the name of the United Nations, or of the Syrian people, but because, as President George H.W. Bush once declared: 'what we say goes'.
In his introduction, Robinson described a disturbing image that 'has gone viral on social media' of a Syrian child allegedly injured by Russian or Syrian bombing. The child, five-year-old Omran Daqneesh, is depicted sitting between Obama and Putin. Robinson noted that one of these images carried the sarcastic caption: 'Thank you for keeping me safe.' We have found the image but not that caption.
One reasonable interpretation of Robinson's introduction, then: five years ago, Obama called on Assad to go, but 'failed' to follow through in making that happen – 'little Omran', and numerous other Syrian civilians, are continuing to suffer as a result. Adam Johnson writes that the viral picture of Daqneesh has 'amped up calls for direct US intervention against the Syrian government' made by numerous 'laptop bombardiers' 'jumping from one outrage in urgent need of US bombs to the next'. The BBC's Today programme discussion can be understood as a further example of this media herd behaviour.
John Simpson agreed with Robinson that Obama had been keen to avoid 'the kind of dreadful errors' - he meant crimes - that George W. Bush had committed in Iraq, and so had 'wanted to stay out of things'. According to Simpson, Obama's failure to intervene in Syria has been a 'disaster'. After all, Russia recently'managed to attack Syria with its planes from the airfields of Iran'. As investigative journalist Gareth Porter notes below, the Syrian government in fact invited Russian military support, so Russia can hardly be described as attacking Syria. Simpson, by contrast, argued that Russo-Iranian cooperation was 'a link up which would have caused absolute consternation in the United States, and worldwide, just a few years ago'. In other words, the world's sole superpower has proven powerless to stop the kind of military cooperation it practices the world over all the time – how awful!
Simpson's imperial sympathies have been aired before on the BBC, notably in October 2014:
'The world (well, most of it) wants an active, effective America to act as its policeman, sorting out the problems smaller countries can't face alone.'
Interfering In A Big Way
In a classic example of BBC imbalance, Dr. von Hippel then supported Robinson's and Simpson's interpretation of the cause of the Syria disaster, noting of Obama that, 'as John Simpson was saying, he didn't believe that America interfering in a big way would help... he was never convinced that force, or greater use of force, would make a difference. Now, I personally disagree with that...'.
Von Hippel went so far as to assert that 'there were many things you could do between sending 100,000 troops in and nothing'. The comment was ambiguous but, in the context of the discussion, invited listeners to conclude that Obama had indeed done next to nothing in Syria. And yet, von Hippel herself noted that US special forces are working with anti-Assad groups in Syria and Turkey, and that this and other support 'has made a difference'.
In fact this is only the tip of the iceberg. In June 2015, the Washington Post reported of the US:
'At $1 billion, Syria-related operations account for about $1 of every $15 in the CIA's overall budget... US officials said the CIA has trained and equipped nearly 10,000 fighters sent into Syria over the past several years — meaning that the agency is spending roughly $100,000 per year for every anti-Assad rebel who has gone through the program.'
The US media watch website, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, added some context:
'In addition to this, the Obama administration has engaged in crippling sanctions against the Assad government, provided air support for those looking to depose him, incidentally funneled arms to ISIS, and not incidentally aligned the CIA-backed Free Syrian Army with Al Qaeda. Regardless of one's position on Syria — or whether they think the US is somehow secretly in alliance with Assad, as some advance — one thing cannot be said: that the US has "done nothing in Syria." This is historically false.'
Ignoring these entirely uncontroversial facts, Robinson observed that, 'there were a series of occasions' in which David Cameron 'tried to persuade Obama - others were doing it, too - to take some form of military action, and at each stage he didn't want to do it.' 'Yes', Simpson replied, 'I think that David Cameron was really frustrated towards the end...'.
Obama, we are to believe, then, repeatedly refused 'to take some form of military action' and is even guilty of'silence, almost' on Syria. Robinson then affirmed the whole narrative:
'So, in other words... this is a disaster, not just for the people of Syria, but a strategic disaster for the United States – makes them look weak.'
If there was any doubt what'strong' means to Robinson, it was removed when he concluded the discussion by asking Simpson to respond to potential listener criticism:
'Just address those people who we know are listening at home who'll go: "Haven't they learned anything? We know that military intervention in the Middle East always produces a worse disaster than the one that we started with."'
In a tragicomic, Rumsfeldian reply, Simpson acknowledged that the conflict is 'fiendishly complicated, Nick, really, as you know', adding:
'Whatever you do is going to have tremendous downsides. But that doesn't mean to say that everything you do, or don't do, um, is, is, is... simply going to be the worst thing you can possibly do. There are some things that are worse than others.'
Perhaps it takes a World Affairs Editor to join the big picture dots with such insight. Simpson continued:
'And I think, sitting on your hands watching Putin running away with the whole thing is the worst possible thing that Obama could have done, and I think it's going to be a stain on his reputation permanently.'
This reminded |
Goodell suspended Detroit Lions President Tom Lewand for 30 days and fined him $100,000 after he pleaded guilty to driving while impaired.
An NFL spokesman declined to comment about Irsay's situation, but Goodell has said he will wait for "all the facts to emerge" before deciding what, if any, punishment Irsay might receive.
Goodell has upped the ante in league discipline.
Less than a year after taking the job in 2006, he introduced his Personal Conduct Policy, which gave him vastly expanded power to suspend players and NFL staff.
"It is not enough simply to avoid being found guilty of a crime," the policy says. "Instead, as an employee of the NFL or a member club, you are held to a higher standard."
In 2012, he stunned New Orleans coach Sean Payton by suspending him for an entire season because of the team's "bounty" program, where players earned money for injuring opponents.
The section of the NFL's drug policy that covers "drugs of abuse," which the league distinguishes from performance-enhancing drugs, says violations "may include substantially longer suspensions."
The league suspended at least 12 players last season for more than 40 games because of "substances of abuse." That included Colts receiver LaVon Brazill, who was suspended for the first four games of the season, losing about $125,000 in salary.
George Atallah, assistant executive director of the NFL Players Association, declined comment. But some players are wondering publicly whether Irsay will be treated differently.
Seattle cornerback Richard Sherman worries there could be a double standard. Writing on mmqb.com, Sherman contrasted the reaction to Irsay to the treatment star Philadelphia receiver DeSean Jackson received recently after being cut — reportedly for "gang ties," according a media report.
"Commit certain crimes in this league and be a certain color, and you get help, not scorn," Sherman wrote. "Nobody suggested the Colts owner had 'ties' to drug trafficking, even though he was caught driving with controlled substances … and $29,000 in cash to do who-knows-what with."
Former Colts defensive tackle Anthony "Booger" McFarland, who has a sports radio show in Tampa, Fla., tweeted that he'd suspend Irsay for a year with "no football contact whatsoever," adding that's the "only way you send a message to the players and the fans!!"
Star reporter Stephanie Wang and Star researcher Cathy Knapp contributed to this story.
Call Star reporter Tim Evans at (317) 444-6204. Call Star reporter Mark Alesia at (317) 444-6311 or email Mark.Alesia@indystar.com. Follow them on Twitter: @starwatchtim and @markalesia.
HOW IRSAY WAS INVOLVED IN A TANGLED REAL ESTATE WEB
From 2007 until her death March 1, Kimberly Wundrum lived in three different homes with ties to the Indianapolis Colts and owner Jim Irsay. Records show the properties all were owned by a private entity called the "2009 Blue Trust," which was administered by Colts officials. A Colts spokesman said the trust's activities pertained to Irsay's "personal life."
• 8315 Codesa Way
June 2013: The Blue Trust purchased the townhouse for $139,500.
August 2013: The trust gave the townhouse to Kimberly Wundrum at no cost.
Kimberly Wundrum was found dead in the townhouse March 2 of a suspected drug overdose.
• 7910 Mill Pond Lane
March 2010: Irsay friend Thomas Moses purchased the house for $575,750.
March 2010: Moses sold the home to the Blue Trust for $575,750.
Between 2009 and 2013, Kimberly Wundrum listed the house as her home address in court documents and as the corporate headquarters for a landscaping business in reports she filed with the Indiana Secretary of State.
February 2014: Blue Trust sold the home for $810,000.
• 8343 Codesa Way
February 2006: Indianapolis Colts purchased the townhouse from Pulte Homes of Indiana for $174,660.
July 2009: Indianapolis Colts transferred the property to the Blue Trust "for no consideration."
August 2012: Blue Trust sold the property for $122,500.
In 2007, Kimberly Wundrum listed the townhouse as her home address and corporate headquarters in incorporation papers filed with the Secretary of State for her landscaping business. She also listed the condo as her home address in police reports.
Sources: Marion County property records, Indiana Secretary of State, police reports and court records.
Read or Share this story: http://indy.st/1gyJU58The first big problem for Norman Lewis was that most of the Abstract Expressionist painters were drawing from their cultural capital as white, male and middle class to purportedly create art which was ‘universal’ to the human experience and which gainsaid the concept of gender, economic or racial difference. At that time the white, male, middle class perspective was dominant and taken for ‘universal’ – everybody was supposed to benefit from it and get on board that train (and some black and women artists apparently even tried to get on that train). It was Lewis’s goal, however, to draw upon his experiences as an African American in situations of oppression to create his pieces. His depth of insight coming from struggle and resistance was deeper and, ironically, more universal than that of his buddies in the Abstract Expressionist movement, but he was marginalized due to this orientation.
Drawing from the black experience in America allowed for a greater type of universalism than the type the white guys falsely asserted that they, themselves, owned, but it relegated Lewis to nearly complete irrelevance among the established and respected critics of the time. Indeed, he is still referred to as, basically, the black guy who was doing Abstract Expressionism when, in fact, the current retrospective show, ‘Procession: The Art of Norman Lewis’, at Chicago’s Cultural Center, would seem to show that he should never have even been characterized as an Abstract Expressionist in the first place. Indeed, that Lewis was not an Abstract Expressionist seemed to be the opinion shared by the curator of the show Ruth Fine in a comment she made at the National Gallery of Art this year.
The second big problem for Lewis was that wealthy white folks who bought art would often buy what they ‘liked’ and not what had universal or humane meaning. Once, after I wrote a review of an unrelated gallery show, the gallery owner emailed me and bluntly told me that the people who buy pieces from his gallery do so primarily because they like the colors in them. He prayed that potential buyers would not read my review because they definitely would not buy pieces if they realized there were controversial ideas in them. Some wealthy white guy wandering into the Willard Gallery on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in the 1950s was probably not going to buy a work that dealt with psychological responses to racial injustice or which referenced the struggle for human rights or racial equality.
Indeed, the range of content and themes in art has been severely limited, historically, due to first the patronage and then the market system. The anticipated taste of art buyers often determines what gets shown and then saved in museums. What the (white, male, affluent) art buyer does not like does not often go very far – this has been a limiting parameter throughout the history of art, especially since the market system took over, and it hurt Lewis severely.
The third big problem for Lewis was that in much of his work he made no pretensions to abstract art being a bifurcation from or radically divorced from representational art. Abstract art, to Lewis, seemed to be a continuation or further development of representational art just as, as an analogy, infrared radiation is a continuation of the overall light spectrum. On occasion his pieces seem to be completely non-representational, as in his overt imitations of Kandinsky (seen in his piece ‘Fantasy’), his overtly geometrical pieces of the late 40s which spoke through line and color, his attempts to mirror the rhythms of music in some of his pieces or in his ‘Sea Change’ pieces. (Yet, even in his ‘Sea Change’ paintings you see egg-like or placental images intimating, perhaps, re-birth on a social scale.) That you could often see figures and that the figures sometimes seemed to allude to Klan meetings or cross-burnings or lynchings, again, supposedly limited the universalism that the Abstract Expressionists falsely claimed as their accomplishment.
The most interesting experiment I came away with from ‘Procession’ was how Lewis uses the repetition of human figures to create geometrical or organic shapes against contrasting backgrounds. In ‘Double Cross’ we see an image that very well could have been inspired by the phenomenon of cross-burnings with a thick, blackened concentric grouping overlapping an intense fervid background. Figures seem to be running toward the two crosses, creating greater and greater density and overall darkness. The power of hatred to awaken the worse in us, and to link us to others as a greater and greater organic mass of blind emotion seems to be implied (and is clearly applicable to a political and social phenomenon which reared its head in the recent American presidential elections). ‘Alabama’ seems to work from the same principle of either a gathering or loosening of social density, in this case the color white possibly representing the color of Klan robes.
‘Journey to an End’ uses a similar technique as we seem to see one large Klan figure moving forward aggressively in a violent gesture (perhaps throwing something – his arm bent back like the common image of a baseball pitcher just before he brings the ball forward) who is comprised of numerous smaller white figures marching, carrying flags and walking with guns in lockstep.
‘Ritual’, on the other hand, presents a mass of smaller human figures in colorful, African-inspired clothing, forming a crescent image below three ambiguous lines against a background of rich and soothing blue. It is as if this group - formed like a bowl or cupped hands - has come together to receive a blessing or higher influence and the implication is that this must happen as a community – a gibe, perhaps, against the lonely, alienated Abstract Expressionists who felt they each spoke for and to humanity from their isolation and individuality. The show runs until January 8, 2017 and is one of the more significant shows in the country at this time.What is the USA Patriot Act
The USA Patriot Act is a law passed shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, giving law enforcement agencies broad powers to investigate, indict and bring terrorists to justice. It also led to increased penalties for committing and supporting terrorist crimes. An acronym for “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism,” this anti-terror measure was chiefly designed to lower the probable cause threshold for obtaining intelligence warrants against suspected spies, terrorists, and other enemies of the U.S.
BREAKING DOWN USA Patriot Act
The USA Patriot Act deters and punishes terrorist attacks in the United States and abroad through enhanced law enforcement and strengthened money laundering prevention. It also allows the use of investigative tools designed for organized crime and drug trafficking prevention for terrorist investigations. For example, federal agents can use court orders to obtain business records from hardware stores or chemical plants to determine who may be buying materials to make bombs, or bank records to determine who is sending money to terrorists or suspect organizations. Police officers, FBI agents, federal prosecutors and intelligence officials are better able to share information and evidence on individuals and plots, thus enhancing their protection of communities.
Patriot Act's Effect on Finance
While the Patriot Act initially conjures thoughts of expanded surveillance activity, it also impacts the broader U.S. community of financial professionals and financial institutions engaging in cross-border transactions with its Title III provision, entitled "International Money Laundering Abatement and Financial Anti-Terrorism Act of 2001.”
With a goal of thwarting the exploitation of the American financial system by parties suspected of terrorism, terrorist financing and money laundering, Title III cites International Monetary Fund data estimating that laundered money from drug trafficking and other smuggling activities accounts for 2-5% of the US’s gross domestic product. And by chipping away at these illegal sources of capital, which this law dubs “financial fuel of terrorist operations,” Title III aims to diminish their impact, through a variety of restrictions and controls. (For more, see: Terrorism's Effects On Wall Street.)
A Closer Look at the Books
The main Title III mandate imposes tighter bookkeeping requirements, forcing financial institutions to record aggregate amounts of transactions involving countries where laundering is a known problem for the United States. Such institutions must install methodologies of tracking and identifying beneficiaries of such accounts, as well as individuals authorized to route funds through payable-through accounts.
Title III also expands the authority of the Secretary of the U.S. Treasury to develop regulations that stimulate more robust communication between financial institutions, with an aim of stemming laundering activity and making it harder for launderers to conceal their identities. The Treasury is also empowered to halt the merger of two banking institutions, if both have historically failed to discourage laundering with their own internal safeguards.
In an effort to control suspicious activity abroad, Title III prevents business with offshore shell banks that are unaffiliated with a bank on U.S. soil. Banks must now also investigate accounts owned by political figures suspected of past corruption. And there are greater restrictions on the use of internal bank concentration accounts that fail to effectively maintain audit trails — a money laundering red flag, according to the law.
Expanded Money Laundering Definition
Nomenclature/definitions are also affected under Title III. For example, the definition of “money laundering” was broadened in scope to include computer crimes, the bribing of elected officials, and the fraudulent handling of public funds. And “money laundering” now encompasses the exportation or importation of controlled munitions not approved by the U.S. Attorney General. Finally, any offense where the U.S. is obligated to extradite a citizen under a mutual treaty with another country likewise falls under the broadened “laundering” banner.
The final subtitle under the Title III provision deals with an effort to rein in the illegal physical transport of bulk currency. This movement builds upon the Bank Secrecy Act of 1970 (BSA) — also known as The Currency and Foreign Transactions Reporting Act — which requires banks to record cash purchases of instruments that have daily aggregate values of $10,000 or more — an amount that triggers suspicion of tax evasion and other questionable practices. Because of the BSA’s success, sharp money launderers now know to bypass traditional banking institutions, and instead move cash into the country using suitcases and other containers. For this reason, Title III makes concealing more than $10,000 on anyone’s physical person an offense punishable by up to five years in prison. (For more, see: Compliance With The Patriot Act: Customer Accounts.)
Practical Implications
For banks, investors, financial advisors, intermediaries, broker/dealers, commodity merchants and the like, the practical result of the Patriot Act’s Title III provision effectively translates to a unprecedented levels of due diligence on any corresponding accounts that exist in money-laundering jurisdictions throughout the world. However, many believe that the actual methods of achieving this analysis tilt towards the nebulous. And the specific questions that must be asked seem to fluctuate, since there are no concrete levels of information required to satisfy potential inquiries, should a bank or an investor be suspected of violating Title III terms. For this reason, many are taking a “better-safe-than-sorry” approach to gathering as much information as possible.
On the banking side, applications for foreign accounts — either directly or indirectly owned by U.S. citizens, have become inordinately complex and onerous. Compliance officers are routinely augmenting applications, with an almost paranoid worry about satisfying broader Patriot Act mandates, and the enforcement agencies that oversee them.
Advantages of the USA Patriot Act
The Act has been a highly-polarizing national security initiative since President George W. Bush signed the bill into law, a month following the terrorist attacks of September 11. Advocates feel the Act has made anti-terrorism efforts more streamlined, efficient and effective. Federal agents use roving wiretaps while tracking international terrorists trained to avoid surveillance by rapidly changing locations and communication devices. A reasonable delay in notifying terrorist suspects of a search warrant gives law enforcement time to identify the criminal’s associates, eliminate immediate community threats and coordinate the arrests of individuals without tipping them off first.
Faster inquiries are made about suspicious activities, strengthening terrorism prevention. Surveillance is easier because companies have a clear definition of who investigates terrorist activities. Increased wiretapping lets investigators listen to conversations potentially threatening to national security. Because law enforcement has more unity through multiple communication channels, investigating officers can act quickly before a suspected attack is completed.
Disadvantages of the USA Patriot Act
Opponents of the Act argue it effectively lets the U.S. government investigates anyone it sees fit, colliding directly with one of the U.S.' most cherished values: citizens’ rights to privacy. Questions of misusing government funds arise when limited resources are used in tracking American citizens, especially those moving overseas. It is unclear what federal authorities plan to do with information discovered through tracking public records, raising concerns about the government’s autonomy and power.
Suspected terrorists have been imprisoned on Guantanamo Bay without always explaining why or allowing legal representation, violating their right to due process; some prisoners have been proven, subsequently, to not even have any ties to terrorism.
The business, finance and investment communities are more likely to be affected by heightened documentation requirements and due diligence responsibilities. Though the impact is more on institutions than individual investors, anyone who conducts international business is likely to experience added costs and greater hassles with something as mundane as opening a simple foreign checking account.Eighty-five years ago this week, Franklin Delano Roosevelt's "New Deal" speech changed American politics forever. Promising suffering Americans that he would spare neither tradition nor expense to restore hope, FDR's election ushered in a growth in government that had been previously unimaginable. Ever since, political leaders have divided themselves into left and right, battling over the size and expense of government.
Common wisdom holds that Ronald Reagan, a devoted FDR acolyte during Roosevelt's life, became the most powerful opponent of his legacy after Reagan's swing to the right. But the common wisdom is wrong. Reagan, in word and deed, was actually FDR's true heir.
Reagan never explicitly claimed this, but his speeches and writings suggest that's exactly what he thought. He readily admitted he had voted for FDR four times and in 1982 wrote in his diary that he was trying to "undo the Great Society," not the New Deal. He always said that he had not left the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party had left him. He even quoted FDR directly in the 1964 television speech on behalf of Barry Goldwater that made him a national figure.
Time and again, Reagan turned to FDR's words and made them his own. This extended far beyond repeating memorable phrases like "this generation has a rendezvous with destiny" or calling working Americans "the forgotten man."
His famous line in the closing arguments in his 1980 debate with President Carter -- "Are you better off than you were four years ago?" -- paraphrased a line from FDR's seventh fireside chat. A funny line from his Goldwater speech was nearly identical to a line from Roosevelt's fifth fireside chat. And when Reagan met Mikhail Gorbachev in Geneva for the first time, he took his measure of the Soviet leader in front of roaring blaze in the hearth of a cottage. He told Gorby this was their "fireside chat."
Reagan's debt to FDR was intellectual as well as rhetorical. Roosevelt's basic innovation was to place government squarely on the side of the average American in his or her quest for comfort, dignity, and respect. If private markets and charity did not afford these things to someone who worked to improve themselves (Roosevelt had no truck for slackers), then it was government's duty to provide or encourage their provision.
Conservatives then and forever since have often distinguished themselves by openly or tacitly rejecting this principle. Such open opposition forms the heart of Herbert Hoover's argument for his re-election and of Goldwater's best-selling book, “The Conscience of a Conservative.” Open opposition today is left to libertarians, but conservatives still tacitly deny it when they oppose virtually any extension of federal subsidies for any social program.
Reagan never embraced that view. He told audiences in his early speeches that he wouldn't repeal most post-New Deal programs "at any price. They represented forward thinking on our part." He supported federal grants to states in the early 1960s before Medicare was adopted so that needy seniors could afford care. And in 1961 he said "any person in the United States who requires medical attention and cannot provide for himself should have it provided for him."
These were not mere words for him. When he inherited a budget crisis upon his becoming California governor, he pushed through a then-record tax hike rather than slash state programs. His 1971 welfare reform increased monthly checks an average of 43 percent: He called it "giving them a raise." And as president he increased taxes three times rather than attack entitlement spending. In each case he overcame strong opposition from hard-line conservatives, but Reagan always quietly derided such folk as "ultras" who would rather "jump off the cliff with flags flying" rather than compromise.
Reagan owed his political success to his unique "New Deal conservatism." Unlike more ideological anti-government types before and since, Reagan attracted enthusiastic support from blue-collar whites, people who became known as "Reagan Democrats." Conservative leaders from Barry Goldwater to Newt Gingrich to Mitt Romney have seen their hopes dashed on the rocky shores of these voters who have never preferred low taxes and liberty to a government that has their backs. Ronald Reagan succeeded where they failed precisely because this former fan of Roosevelt was singing from the same hymnal as were Roosevelt's worshipers.
Roosevelt and Reagan are no longer with us in body, but their spirit still rules our land. Today's political polarization flows from the fact that left and right increasingly seek to reject the shared heritage of these great men, albeit from different directions. When running for governor in 1966, Reagan called talk "in America of left and right" to be "disruptive talk, dividing us down the center." That center was and is a moderate interpretation of New Deal principles that neither fetishizes nor rejects government action. Ronald Reagan changed our world by renewing FDR's vision. Pray that a new leader will soon arise who can carry their work into our new century.Table of Contents
1 Introduction (Page No. - 23)
1.1 Objectives of the Study
1.2 Market Definition
1.3 Market Scope
1.3.1 Years Considered for the Study
1.4 Currency
1.5 Package Size
1.6 Limitation
1.7 Stakeholders
2 Research Methodology (Page No. - 26)
2.1 Research Data
2.2 Secondary Data
2.2.1 Key Data From Secondary Sources
2.3 Primary Data
2.3.1 Key Data From Primary Sources
2.3.2 Key Industry Insights
2.3.3 Breakdown of Primary Interviews
2.4 Market Size Estimation
2.4.1 Bottom-Up Approach
2.4.2 Top-Down Approach
2.5 Market Breakdown and Data Triangulation
2.6 Assumptions and Limitations
2.6.1 Assumptions
2.6.2 Limitations
3 Executive Summary (Page No. - 34)
4 Premium Insights (Page No. - 39)
4.1 Attractive Opportunities for Players in the Powder Coatings Market
4.2 Powder Coatings Market Size, By Resin Type (2017-2022)
4.3 Powder Coatings Market Size, Developed vs Developing Nations
4.4 Powder Coatings Market, By End-Use Industry and Region
4.5 China and U.S. Dominated the Powder Coatings Market
5 Market Overview (Page No. - 43)
5.1 Introduction
5.1.1 Advantages and Disadvantages of Powder Coatings
5.1.2 Benefits of Powder Coatings Over Liquid Coatings
5.2 Market Segmentation
5.2.1 By Resin Type
5.2.2 By Coating Method
5.2.3 By End-Use Industry
5.2.4 By Region
5.3 Market Evolution
5.3.1 Powder Coatings Adoption in Product Markets, 1950-2000
5.4 Market Dynamics
5.4.1 Drivers
5.4.1.1 Stringent Government Regulations
5.4.1.2 Growth in Various End-Use Industries
5.4.1.3 Technological Advancements
5.4.2 Restraints
5.4.2.1 Difficulty in Obtaining Thin Films
5.4.3 Opportunities
5.4.3.1 Increasing Use of Powder Coating in Automotive Industry
5.4.3.2 Emerging Applications in Shipbuilding and Pipeline Industries
5.4.3.3 Fluorine Resin Powder Coating
5.4.3.4 Powder Coating Applied to Coil Coating
5.4.3.5 Emergence of New Application Methods
5.4.4 Challenges
5.4.4.1 Environmental Challenges
6 Industry Trends (Page No. - 55)
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Value Chain Analysis
6.3 Porter�s Five Forces Analysis
6.3.1 Threat of Substitutes
6.3.2 Bargaining Power of Buyers
6.3.3 Threat of New Entrants
6.3.4 Bargaining Power of Suppliers
6.3.5 Intensity of Competitive Rivalry
7 Patent Analysis (Page No. - 60)
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Patent Details
8 Powder Coatings Market, By Resin Type (Page No. - 62)
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Thermoset
8.2.1 Polyester
8.2.2 Epoxy Polyester Hybrid
8.2.3 Epoxy
8.2.4 Acrylic
8.2.5 Polyurethane
8.2.6 Others (Fluoropolymer)
8.3 Thermoplastic
8.3.1 Nylon
8.3.2 Polyolefin
8.3.3 Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC)
8.3.4 Polyvinyl Fluoride (PVF)
8.4 Comparison Between Thermoset and Thermoplastic Powder Coatings
9 Powder Coatings Market, By Coating Method (Page No. - 73)
9.1 Introduction
9.2 Electrostatic Spray Coating
9.3 Fluidized Bed Coating
9.4 Electrostatic Fluidized Bed Process
9.5 Flame Spraying
10 Powder Coatings Market, By End-Use Industry (Page No. - 77)
10.1 Introduction
10.2 Appliances
10.3 Automotive
10.4 General Industrial
10.5 Architectural
10.6 Furniture
10.7 Others
11 Powder Coatings Market, By Region (Page No. - 91)
11.1 Introduction
11.2 Asia-Pacific
11.2.1 China
11.2.1.1 China: Macroeconomic Indicators
11.2.2 India
11.2.2.1 India: Macroeconomic Indicators
11.2.3 Japan
11.2.3.1 Japan: Macroeconomic Indicators
11.2.4 Thailand
11.2.4.1 Thailand: Macroeconomic Indicators
11.2.5 South Korea
11.2.5.1 South Korea: Macroeconomic Indicators
11.2.6 Indonesia
11.2.6.1 Indonesia: Macroeconomic Indicators
11.2.7 Malaysia
11.2.7.1 Malaysia: Macroeconomic Indicators
11.2.8 Australia & New Zealand
11.2.9 Taiwan
11.2.10 Vietnam
11.2.10.1 Vietnam: Macroeconomic Indicators
11.2.11 Rest of Asia-Pacific
11.3 Europe
11.3.1 Russia
11.3.1.1 Russia: Macroeconomic Indicators
11.3.2 Germany
11.3.2.1 Germany: Macroeconomic Indicators
11.3.3 Italy
11.3.3.1 Italy: Macroeconomic Indicators
11.3.4 U.K.
11.3.4.1 U.K.: Macroeconomic Indicators
11.3.5 France
11.3.5.1 France: Macroeconomic Indicators
11.3.6 Spain
11.3.6.1 Spain: Macroeconomic Indicators
11.3.7 Netherlands
11.3.8 Sweden
11.3.9 Belgium
11.3.9.1 Belgium: Macroeconomic Indicators
11.3.10 Poland
11.3.10.1 Poland: Macroeconomic Indicators
11.3.11 Turkey
11.3.11.1 Turkey: Macroeconomic Indicators
11.3.12 Norway
11.3.13 Rest of Europe
11.4 North America
11.4.1 U.S.
11.4.1.1 U.S.: Macroeconomic Indicators
11.4.2 Canada
11.4.2.1 Canada: Macroeconomic Indicators
11.4.3 Mexico
11.4.3.1 Mexico: Macroeconomic Indicators
11.5 South America
11.5.1 Brazil
11.5.1.1 Brazil: Macroeconomic Indicators
11.5.2 Argentina
11.5.2.1 Argentina: Macroeconomic Indicators
11.5.3 Colombia
11.5.4 Chile
11.5.5 Rest of South America
11.6 The Middle East
11.6.1 Saudi Arabia
11.6.2 Iran
11.6.3 Iraq
11.6.4 UAE
11.6.5 Rest of Middle East
11.7 Africa
11.7.1 South Africa
11.7.1.1 South Africa: Macroeconomic Indicators
11.7.2 Algeria
11.7.3 Nigeria
11.7.4 Rest of Africa
12 Competitive Landscape (Page No. - 187)
12.1 Overview
12.2 Market Share Analysis
12.2.1 Global Powder Coatings Market Share
12.2.2 China Powder Coatings Market Share
12.3 Expansions
12.4 New Product Launches
12.5 Acquisitions
12.6 Partnerships
13 Company Profiles (Page No. - 197)
(Overview, Financial*, Products & Services, Strategy, and Developments)
13.1 Akzonobel N.V.
13.2 Asian Paints Limited
13.3 Axalta Coating Systems, LLC
13.5 Berger Paints India Limited
13.6 Jotun A/S
13.7 Kansai Paint Company Limited
13.8 PPG Industries, Inc.
13.9 The Sherwin-Williams Company
13.10 The Valspar Corporation
13.11 Somar Corporation
*Details Might Not Be Captured in Case of Unlisted Companies.
14 Appendix (Page No. - 224)
14.1 Insights of Industry Experts
14.2 Discussion Guide
14.3 Knowledge Store: Marketsandmarkets Subscription Portal
14.4 Introducing RT: Real-Time Market Intelligence
14.5 Available Customizations
14.6 Related Reports
14.7 Author Details
List of Tables (225 Tables)
Table 1 Powder Coatings Market Snapshot (2017 vs 2022)
Table 2 Government Regulatory Support is Propelling the Growth of the Powder Coatings Market
Table 3 Thin Films are Difficult to Obtain Using Powder Coating in Comparison to Other Wet Painting Systems
Table 4 Emerging Applications are Providing Growth Prospects for Powder Coatings Market
Table 5 Powder Coatings Market Size, By Resin Type, 2015�2022 (USD Million)
Table 6 Powder Coatings Market Size, By Resin Type, 2015�2022 (Kiloton)
Table 7 Thermoset Powder Coatings Market Size, By Resin Type, 2015�2022 (USD Million)
Table 8 Thermoset Powder Coatings Market Size, By Resin Type, 2015�2022 (Kiloton)
Table 9 Thermoset Powder Coatings Market Size, By Region, 2015-2022 (USD Million)
Table 10 Thermoset Powder Coatings Market Size, By Region, 2015-2022 (Kiloton)
Table 11 Thermoplastic Powder Coatings Market Size, By Region, 2015-2022 (USD Million)
Table 12 Thermoplastic Powder Coatings Market Size, By Region, 2015-2022 (Kiloton)
Table 13 Powder Coatings Market Size, By End-Use Industry, 2015�2022 (USD Million)
Table 14 Powder Coatings Market Size, By End-Use Industry, 2015�2022 (Kiloton)
Table 15 Powder Coatings Market Size in Appliances, By Region, 2015�2022 (USD Million)
Table 16 Powder Coatings Market Size in Appliances, By Region, 2015�2022 (Kiloton)
Table 17 Powder Coatings Market Size in Automotive, By Region, 2015�2022 (USD Million)
Table 18 Powder Coatings Market Size in Automotive, By Region, 2015�2022 (Kiloton)
Table 19 Powder Coatings Market Size in General Industrial, By Region, 2015�2022 (USD Million)
Table 20 Powder Coatings Market Size in General Industrial, By Region, 2015�2022 (Kiloton)
Table 21 Powder Coatings Market Size in Architectural, By Region, 2015�2022 (USD Million)
Table 22 Powder Coatings Market Size in Architectural, By Region, 2015�2022 (Kiloton)
Table 23 Powder Coatings Market Size in Furniture, By Region, 2015�2022 (USD Million)
Table 24 Powder Coatings Market Size in Furniture, By Region, 2015�2022 (Kiloton)
Table 25 Powder Coatings Market Size in Other Applications, By Region, 2015�2022 (USD Million)
Table 26 Powder Coatings Market Size in Other Applications, By Region, 2015�2022 (Kiloton)
Table 27 Powder Coatings Market Size, By Region, 2015�2022 (USD Million)
Table 28 Powder Coatings Market Size, By Region, 2015�2022 (Kiloton)
Table 29 Asia-Pacific: By Market Size, By Country, 2015�2022 (USD Million)
Table 30 Asia-Pacific: By Market Size, By Country, 2015�2022 (Kiloton)
Table 31 Asia-Pacific: By Market Size, By Resin Type, 2015�2022 (USD Million)
Table 32 Asia-Pacific: By Market Size, By Resin Type, 2015�2022 (Kiloton)
Table 33 Asia-Pacific: By Market Size, By End-Use Industry, 2015�2022 (USD Million)
Table 34 Asia-Pacific: By Market Size, By End-Use Industry, 2015�2022 (Kiloton)
Table 35 China: Macroeconomic Indicators
Table 36 China: By Market Size, By Resin Type, 2015�2022 (USD Million)
Table 37 China: By Market Size, By Resin Type, 2015�2022 (Kiloton)
Table 38 China: By Market Size, By End-Use Industry, 2015�2022 (USD Million)
Table 39 China: By Market Size, By End-Use Industry, 2015�2022 (Kiloton)
Table 40 India: Macroeconomic Indicators
Table 41 India: By Market Size, By Resin Type, 2015�2022 (USD Million)
Table 42 India: By Market Size, By Resin Type, 2015�2022 (Kiloton)
Table 43 India: By Market Size, By End-Use Industry, 2015�2022 (USD Million)
Table 44 India: By Market Size, By End-Use Industry, 2015�2022 (Kiloton)
Table 45 Japan: Macroeconomic Indicators
Table 46 Japan: By Market Size, By Resin Type, 2015�2022 (USD Million)
Table 47 Japan: By Market Size, By Resin Type, 2015�2022 (Kiloton)
Table 48 Japan: By Market Size, By End-Use Industry, 2015�2022 (USD Million)
Table 49 Japan: By Market Size, By End-Use Industry, 2015�2022 (Kiloton)
Table 50 Thailand: Macroeconomic Indicators
Table 51 Thailand: By Market Size, By Resin Type, 2015�2022 (USD Million)
Table 52 Thailand: By Market Size, By Resin Type, 2015�2022 (Kiloton)
Table 53 Thailand: By Market Size, By End-Use Industry, 2015�2022 (USD Million)
Table 54 Thailand: By Market Size, By End-Use Industry, 2015�2022 (USD Million)
Table 55 South Korea: Macroeconomic Indicators
Table 56 South Korea: By Market Size, By Resin Type, 2015�2022 (USD Million)
Table 57 South Korea: By Market Size, By Resin Type, 2015�2022 (Kiloton)
Table 58 South Korea: By Market Size, By End-Use Industry, 2015�2022 (USD Million)
Table 59 South Korea: By Market Size, By End-Use Industry, 2015�2022 (USD Million)
Table 60 Indonesia: Macroeconomic Indicators
Table 61 Indonesia: By Market Size, By Resin Type, 2015�2022 (USD Million)
Table 62 Indonesia: By Market Size, By Resin Type, 2015�2022 (Kiloton)
Table 63 Indonesia: By Market Size, By End-Use Industry, 2015�2022 (USD Million)
Table 64 Indonesia: By Market Size, By End-Use Industry, 2015� |
to 24 inches by 2050, and 16.5 inches to 65 inches by 2100.
The latter numbers — more than a 5-foot increase — would put large sections of coastal California underwater, including Bay Area airports, Treasure Island and Silicon Valley businesses, such as Oracle, particularly during major storms, requiring tens of billions of dollars in sea walls and other defenses.
The massive flooding of lower Manhattan and New Jersey’s shoreline from Hurricane Sandy earlier this year have illuminated the threat, scientists say.
“Sandy brought us to our senses,” Griggs said. “Because of the drought this year, because of the loss of arctic ice, people are finally understanding climate change.”
Along with the high tides this week — from a few inches to several feet higher than normal, depending on the location — there are also extremely low tides.
At Half Moon Bay on Thursday, for example, the high tide will be plus-6.8 feet at 9 a.m., or 6.8 feet above the historic average daily low tide. The ocean will then fall 8.5 feet by 5 p.m. that day to a minus-1.7 feet tide, which should make for some great tide pool exploring.
“It’s going to be extreme on both ends,” said Mark Sponsler, of Castro Valley, who serves as surf forecaster for the Mavericks Invitational Surf Contest. “Go down in the morning, check it out, then show up about 3 p.m. and see how low it goes. You’ll notice a distinct difference.”
The tides will be as high as plus-10.1 feet Thursday morning at the Dumbarton Bridge, plus-8.7 feet at San Leandro Marina and plus-6.7 feet in Santa Cruz. They’re higher in the bay, Griggs said, because the bay acts as a cul-de-sac, where water surges in and piles up.
Ironically, high tides often don’t mean big waves. Tides come from the gravitational pull of the moon, which causes the water in the ocean to bulge. Waves come from wind and storm events. This week, waves along the Northern California coast are fairly mild because there are no major storm systems.
“From a surfing perspective, the preference is lower tides,” Sponsler said. “You get too much water, and the waves either won’t break or they don’t have good shape.”
For some, the big tides are a chance to enlist the public in a giant science project.
As they have for the past two years, a coalition of government agencies and nonprofit groups is asking the public to take photographs Wednesday and Thursday around California to document the high water — preferably of the same place at high tide and low tide.
The project, called the California King Tides Initiative, posts the photos online. Since 2010, nearly 500 photos from 28 California cities have been posted to the site showing king tide events in California. They have been featured at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, California Academy of Sciences and other prominent places. Similar “citizen science” photo projects around king tides have been organized in Oregon, Washington, British Columbia and Australia.
“We are trying to create a living archive of images we can all use to communicate about sea level rise,” said the initiative’s coordinator, Heidi Nutters, of the San Francisco Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, based in Tiburon. “Climate change is not only about polar bears in the arctic. It’s about what’s happening on our coasts right now and today.”
For more information about the photo project, go to www.californiakingtides.org.
Paul Rogers covers resources and environmental issues. Contact him at 408-920-5045. Follow him at Twitter.com/PaulRogersSJMN.More Matrix? Bet on it.
It's still not clear what shape the project will take, but sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that Warner Bros. is in the early stages of developing a relaunch of The Matrix, the iconic 1999 sci-fi movie that is considered one of the most original films in cinematic history, with Zak Penn in talks to write a treatment.
Sources say there is potential interest in Michael B. Jordan to star, but much must be done before the project is ready to go.
At this point, the Wachowski siblings, who wrote and directed the original and its two sequels, are not involved and the nature of their potential engagement with a new version has not been determined. Certainly, Warners would want the two filmmakers to give at minimum a blessing to the nascent project. The studio had no comment.
Joel Silver, who produced the original trilogy, is said to have approached Warners about the idea of mining The Matrix for a potential new film. However, Silver sold his interest in all his movies to the studio in 2012 for about $30 million, according to sources. Warners is said to be leery of including him in any meaningful role, as he not only has a reputation for budget-control issues, but apparently has a strained relationship with the Wachowskis. The siblings hold much more meaning for fans than the producer. Silver's reps did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Written and directed by the Wachowskis, the original movie sees humanity living in a simulated reality, unaware that humans are in pods in which their bodies are being harvested for energy. A computer programmer named Neo (Keanu Reeves) slowly becomes aware of this suppressed existence, eventually becoming humanity's one true hope (Neo = One) to overthrow the oppressors. The pic also starred Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss and Hugo Weaving.
The Matrix was released in a quiet period of the 1999 release calendar — March 31 — and Warner Bros. didn't have outsized expectations for an action movie with obvious manga and comic-book influences. But the story and groundbreaking special effects (including the slow-motion "bullet time" effect, which launched dozens of imitators in the years that followed) became the highest-grossing R-rated film of 1999 in North America, and the fourth-highest-grossing film of the year worldwide. It also won four Academy Awards.
Two sequels, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, were not as well received, but Reeves' deal for those films made him one of the richest actors in Hollywood.
While promoting John Wick: Chapter 2, Reeves said he would be open to returning for another installment of the franchise if the Wachowskis were involved. "They would have to write it and direct it. And then we'd see what the story is, but yeah, I dunno, that'd be weird, but why not?" he told Yahoo Movies. However, it is likely that Warners will look elsewhere to attract an A-list director and star.
While some at Warners consider the title among the studio's sacrosanct properties, like Casablanca, others see a need to redevelop it in an environment where studios are desperately looking for ways to monetize their libraries and branded IP is hard to come by.
The idea of adapting The Matrix as a television series was nixed in recent months. But Warner Bros. sees a model in what Disney and Lucasfilm have done with Star Wars, exploring the hidden corners of the universe with movies such as Rogue One: A Star Wars Story or the in-production young Han Solo film. Perhaps a young Morpheus movie could come out of the exploration, as an example.
Penn is a writer with deep roots in the geeky genres in which Matrix travels. He created the Syfy network's superpowered show Alphas and has been involved in comic-book movies ranging from the X-Men franchise to The Avengers.
Penn is repped by UTA.After completing our Early 2017 First Base Projections this week, it was time to turn our attention towards Ray's 2017 Top 20 Second Base Rankings. Unlike the first base pool, which has a handful of star performers and plenty of steady contributors, the second base player pool contains exciting players up and down the list.
Using a combined statistic of home runs (HR) plus stolen bases (SB), there's were 5 keystone contributors who compiled 45 or more HR+SB in 2017. Just outside of our 45 or more HR+SB pool is the likes of Robinson Cano (39 HR / 0 SB) & Ian Kinsler (28 HR / 14 SB). The five second baseman in Ray's rankings who met our 45+ metric were Jose Altuve (24 HR / 30 SB), Brian Dozier (42 HR / 18 SB), Jean Segura (20 HR / 33 SB), Rougned Odor (33 HR / 14 SB) & Trea Turner (13 HR / 33 SB).
An impressive pool of players without a doubt. What's even more impressive is the amount of plate appearances it took the five to reach their statistics shown above.
Player PA Jose Altuve 717 Brian Dozier 691 Jean Segura 694 Rougned Odor 632 Trea Turner 324
With less than half of the plate appearances that Altuve, Dozier and Segura received in 2016, Turner was able to clear the 45 or more HR+SB bar. Think about that for a second.
Now that your brain has had the time needed to simply double Turner's statistics from 2016, you can grab a pen and jot down a.330 BA, 25 HR, 65 SB projection for next year and move on, right? We all know that isn't how it works and that teams will spend some time this off season looking for any weakness in Turner's game in advance of the 2017 season.
With our Early 2017 Second Base Projections set to be released shortly, let's use today's space to work through Turner's projection together.
The driver to any player projection is always playing time and for an offensive projection, that means plate appearances. RosterResource currently shows Turner as the Washington National's lead-off man for next year. Originally I had Turner receiving 700 PA's, a figure that 10 players reached in 2016. While that is certainly possible, we'll hedge just slightly and pencil him in at 685 for now.
Next we'll want to take a look at some per at-bat metrics to begin building the hit type ratio and a portion of the triple slash projections. This will include at-bats per double (AB/2B), at-bats per triple (AB/3B), plate appearances per hit by pitch (PA/HBP) and plate appearances per sacrifice fly (PA/SF). We will also want to determine Turner's projected walk rate (BB%), intentional walk rate (IBB%), strikeout rate (K%) and batting average on balls in play (BABIP).
Neither AB/2B or AB/3B are particularly "sticky" from year to year, but with a player such as Turner with a limited Major League track record, this shouldn't cause too much of an issue. Last season Turner hit a double once every 21.93 at-bats, while hitting a triple once every 38.38 at-bats (which is absurd by the way). We can also take a look back at Turner's minor league performance and see that his three year average for AB/2B and AB/3B were 18.91 and 64.73, respectively. For projection purposes, rates of 21.0 AB/2B and 60 AB/3B will be used in our initial run.
Next we'll look at hit by pitch and sacrifice flies. Exciting stuff, I know, but it's all a part of the process. Last season Turner was hit by a pitch once every 324 plate appearances during his time in the show. His three year minor league average was 265. Turner contributed a sacrifice fly once every 162 plate appearances last year in the majors, while his three year minor league average was 155 plate appearances. Therefore figures of 278 PA/HBP and 159 PA/SF will be used for our projection.
Lastly in this part of our process, we'll need to project Turner's 2017 BB, IBB%, K% and BABIP. Turner's limited Major League sample does not include a high walk rate - 4.3% in 2016, however, his three year minor league average of 8% gives us a reason to believe it could improve next season. A projected 6.8 BB% feels right. Turner has yet to receive an intentional pass in the big leagues and was not intentionally walked much in the minors. Assuming we're correct and Turner hits lead off next year, the odds of opposing teams wanting to put him on base with a strong middle of the order due up and his well above-average speed, seems slim. Therefore we'll project a measly 0.09 IBB%.
Strikeout rate is surprisingly stable year to year and also solidifies quickly. Turner's 2016 K% in the big leagues was 18.2%, while his three year minor league average was 20.2%. With a limited Major League sample I also like to view the Major League average for particular categories and Turner's figures are right in line with the 21.2% MLB average last season. A projected 20.0 K% for 2017 will be used in our model.
Turner's BABIP will most definitely be the topic of many fantasy baseball articles and podcasts this winter. A.388 BABIP will be called everything from unsustainable to lucky in the coming months and that's probably correct. Of course the counter argument will also be made that with his speed, Turner will be able to post significantly higher than average BABIP's in the future. This is also probably correct. Our job is to put a number to these statements that we can use for projection purposes. In order for BABIP to be considered semi-predictable for a given player, we'd need nearly double the plate appearances that Turner has provided in the big leagues. We can look at his minor league three year average (.379) and the Major League average (.300) and still be equally confused. Field conditions and the quality of talent in the minor leagues means we cannot simply say "well he's a.380 BABIP guy in both the minor leagues and major leagues it appears". We need to regress this figure towards the Major League average, while also considering Turner's speed and above-average ability to make hard contact. I'm going to be slightly aggressive here and project a.345 BABIP in 2017.
To wrap up our projection process we'll need to determine Turner's batted ball profile (GB%, LD% & FB%), as well as his HR/FB rate and also project Turner's stolen base number.
A Major League players batted ball profile becomes stable rather quickly. Therefore we can look at Turner 2016 numbers of 43.1% GB, 25.2% LD & 31.7% FB to begin with. Unfortunately I do not have minor league numbers. For the 2016 season the Major League averages were: 44.7% GB, 20.7% LD & 34.6% FB. Using the beautiful new data that Statcast provides, we see that Turner had an average 9.19 degree launch angle in 2016. The average launch angle last season was 9.97 degrees. For our projected 2017 batted ball profile we'll use 44% GB, 24% LD & 32% FB.
Besides from the BABIP discussion surrounding Turner this winter, I'd guess the second most argued part of his profile and ultimately his ranking, will surround the 13 home runs he hit. With 19 home runs total in the minor leagues (3 seasons) the power spike, at least this early in his career, was not expected. Turner's 2016 big league HR/FB rate was 16.7%, while the league average rate was 12.8%. It seems safe to say we'll need to regress Turner's HR/FB rate for our projection, the question is how much. Many scouts believe Turner will ultimately grow into 15-20 home runs and there's a chance we're just seeing it happen a year or two earlier than expected. The underlying power metrics show Turner was able to strike the ball hard quite often last year, which reinforces this idea. We'll use a slightly below league average rate of 11.0% for our projection model.
Finally we will project Turner's biggest asset - his stolen base ability. Mike Podhorzer has developed a metric that I believe is great in helping to project steals. He calls it SBA/TOB, meaning: Stolen Base Attempts per Times on Base. This metric coupled with a players success rate at stealing bags will give us our stolen base projection. Last season Turner had a SBA/TOB of 0.394, while his minor league three year average was a much lower 0.192. We know that Dusty Baker likes to run, but some regression is probably needed from last year's figure. We'll split the difference and use a.261 figure, which represents Turner's three year MLB & minor league combined average. This could prove to be too low, but as you'll see shortly with the final projected numbers, it'll still produce a valuable statistical line for Turner next year. It'll be a situation where you'll want to make a note on your draft cheat sheet that there's variability in the number. Turner has been quite successful stealing bases during his pro career, with a Major League 85% success rate in 2016 and a 84% minor league three year average success rate. We'll use a success rate of 83% for our 2017 projection model.
Of course if we were to stop now, we'd be lacking run and RBI figures for next year. While the projection below will include them, they're subject to some change as off season moves are made and rosters change shape as spring nears. Rather than go through the process I used to generate the numbers below, just know it's based on 2016 team run production and depending on how many changes the Nationals make this winter, it could look slightly different come draft season.
We've now spent many words and numbers showing how we're getting the underlying rates that will drive our projection. You've waited long enough. My early 2017 projection for Trea Turner, is as follow:
Name Team LG PA HR R RBI SB AVG OBP Trea Turner Nationals NL 685 18 97 64 44 0.291 0.340
With some flexibility in the stolen base department, there's no doubt in my mind that Turner is a top fantasy option (granted with some risk of volatility) next year.
Ray had the following to say when attempting to rank Turner for 2017:
What to do with Nationals second baseman Trea Turner? I rank him as my 8th ranked second baseman, but that could prove to be too low after he hit double digit home runs and stole 33 bases in 324 plate appearances. Is he a 20 home run, 60 stolen base hitter? I doubt it, but 12-15 home runs with 45-55 stolen bases appear to be a solid projection for the speedy second baseman. He has the speed to repeat as a.300 hitter once again in 2017 as well.
I have a feeling that Turner will be selected before the 8th second baseman off the board in 2017. There's a pretty good chance I might be the person making that selection.
Make sure to share your thoughts on the process and projection above in the comments below and also follow me on Twitter for more comments on players as I move through the projection process this winter.Green Party mayoral candidate Joshua Harris, who has already put forth a 23-page economic development plan that includes the creation of a public bank in Baltimore, plans this week to release proposals to address the city's transportation and housing problems.
In a 12-page plan, Harris calls for the creation of community land trusts made up of residents who would make decisions about "how to keep housing affordable and what kind of development they want to see happen." He also calls for addressing "racial segregation in housing" and creating affordable housing near transit centers.
“While this vacant housing is a blight for many neighborhoods, it could also become Baltimore’s greatest resource: homes for a wide variety of people, including affordable options for people at every end of the economic spectrum, and even housing for those who currently have none,” Harris writes in the plan.
In the transportation portion of the plan, Harris says he wants to advocate for an improved bus system, expand the city's bike share plan, and improve transit infrastructure.
“Mayor Harris’ Sustainable Baltimore will promote a variety of different ways of getting around, including walking, biking, and reliable public transit," the plan states.
Harris is running against Democratic nominee Catherine E. Pugh, Republican Alan Walden and write-in candidate Sheila Dixon, a former mayor.
The Harris campaign said he will release his latest plan publicly later this week.
lbroadwater@baltsun.com
twitter.com/lukebroadwaterCLOSE Here are five things you need to know about crime in Dutchess County. Video by Jordan Fenster/Poughkeepsie Journal Wochit
Jay D. Spock (Photo: State police)
A Dover man was charged with criminal possession of a weapon after state police responded to a domestic dispute Monday.
Jay D. Spock, 50, was charged with second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, a class C felony, and second-degree menacing, a misdemeanor.
Troopers responded to a call for a domestic dispute on Route 22 in Dover, where they discovered Spock had menaced the victim. Spock was also in possession of a sawed-off shotgun in violation of barrel length restrictions.
Spock was arraigned before the Town of Dover Justice Court and released. He is due to reappear before the court on Nov. 13.
Abbott Brant: abrant@poughkeepsiejournal.com; 845-437-4809; Twitter: @AbbottBrantPoJo
Read or Share this story: http://pojonews.co/2x1qVRfAs a filmmaker or videographer, you’ll need to understand why some frame rates are more common than others and why there are so many varying speeds. Frame rate, commonly referred to as frames per second (fps), is the rate at which a device, such as a motion picture camera, can produce unique, sequential images called frames.
Film / video is just a sequence of still images
In order to fully understand the reason for different frame rates, it’s important to understand the history of motion pictures. When watching film or video, we’re not actually witnessing true motion. What we’re really seeing is a sequence of still pictures, known as frames. In the mid-1800s, inventions like the zoetrope demonstrated that a sequence of drawings, showing different stages of action, would appear as movement if shown at a rapid rate. The human eye can register 10-12 frames per second as individual images. However, beyond 10-12 frames per second, we accept the sequence as motion and the “seams” begin to disappear.
Photo cameras were in existence during this period, but use of photographs for motion pictures was limited to experiments. Subjects could pose in various positions to suggest motion, but photographic emulsions weren’t sensitive enough for the short exposures needed to film something actually in motion. This is why subjects in the 1800s had to pose for so long to expose a single image; film just wasn’t sensitive enough yet.
The silent film era exhibited varying frame rates
Advancements in celluloid film and more sensitive emulsion lead to the invention of motion picture cameras in the late 1880s. The earliest cameras and projectors needed to be hand-cranked to advance the film through the gate. This lead to varying frame rates. Early silent films had frame rates from 14 – 26 frames per second, which was enough to provide a sense of motion, but the motion was often jerky or uneven. You can imagine how film cranked by hand when photographed, and then cranked by hand again when projected, would make it nearly impossible to portray true-to-life motion.
Late in this period, motion picture cameras and projectors developed mechanized cranks, which allowed for constant speeds of recording and projection. Even so, individual scenes were oftentimes filmed and projected at varying frame rates due to filmmakers favoring different speeds for different scenes (usually between 18 and 23 fps). Often film reels were delivered with instructions as to how fast or slow each scene should be shown. Additionally, exhibitors and projectionists favored certain frame rates as well, creating further inconsistency.
24 fps was an economical and technical decision
What changed everything was sound synchronization. Synchronizing sound with film was attempted as early as 1900, but the technology was too unreliable for major motion pictures. By the late 20s, it became possible to sync sound using a phonograph or similar device, interlocked mechanically with a projector. The first “talkie”, a film with recorded dialogue, used this method, set at 24 fps. It was 1927s The Jazz Singer.
Eventually, sound was synced to film by actually printing an optical track on the filmstrip alongside the image. This practice linked frame rate to the limitations of audio technology of the time. Given that film is an expensive medium, it was in Hollywood’s best interest to consume as little film as possible during a production. Although silent films ran at an average of 16 fps, it wasn’t possible to produce a quality soundtrack at that frame rate. Eventually, the studios decided on 24 fps because it was the slowest frame rate possible for producing intelligible sound; which means the decision was not an aesthetic decision, but a technical and economical decision.
Television gave birth to 60i and 50i
Now that we understand why film has been 24 fps for the past century, why are there so many other frame rates? In the 1950s, television changed everything. The first TV units (and most TV units up until the early 2000s) were CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) monitors. The limits of vacuum tube technology at the time required that CRT displays refresh at AC line frequency. AC (Alternating Current) is the flow of electric power running through our walls, and a TV unit must be plugged into a wall outlet. The AC line frequency is 60 Hertz in the U.S. and 50 Hz in Europe.
The AC frequency limited TV refresh rate to a multiple of 60 (U.S.) and 50 (Europe). Since 24 fps wasn’t applicable, the U.S. adopted NTSC format, which is 30 fps, interlaced (60i). And Europe adopted PAL format, which is 25 fps, interlaced (50i). The reason for interlacing was to double the perceived frame rate, which improves motion and reduces flicker, without needing to increase bandwidth. 30 fps, progressive (or 30p) at 60 Hz halves bandwidth because each frame flashes twice, but is transmitted only once. This is how film is projected. A 24 fps film is projected at a minimum of 48 Hz using a two-bladed shutter, which flashes each frame twice before advancing the film.
The difference: interlaced and progressive scanning
Interlaced scan means that two video fields make up one frame. There are odd fields and even fields (like venetian blinds), which flash one after the other. To simplify the concept, if you’re watching video filmed at 60i, you’re seeing a half-frame every 1/60th of a second and a full-frame every 1/30th of second. Because there are only 30 complete frames, 60i uses the same bandwidth as 30p, whilst portraying more fluid motion and reducing flicker when displayed.
Progressive scan, on the other hand, is when each frame is scanned sequentially in its entirety. Progressive scan is higher quality, but requires twice as much bandwidth; and was unable to be used in broadcast until the advent of digital TV and HDTV signals.
Interlaced video is quickly becoming obsolete as progressive scan displays, such as DLPs, LCDs, plasmas and OLEDs continue to replace CRT displays, which are interlaced-only. Likewise, HDTV (as previously mentioned), DVDs and Blu-ray discs are all progressive scan format. And in order to view interlaced video on a progressive scan display, the footage must be de-interlaced, which exhibits varying results in quality. As digital cinema, TV and camera technology continue to phase out interlaced formats, progressive frame rates, like 60p, 30p, and 24p, have increased in popularity in the U.S.
Frame rate “standards” are finally breaking down
60 fps and 30 fps have generally been the standard for broadcast production, while 24 fps has been the standard for film production. However, the latest cameras, projectors and televisions support multiple frame rates and formats, allowing filmmakers and videographers to break free from convention and film in whatever frame rate is most appropriate for their content or audience.
For many years, there have been advocates for high frame rates (HFR) in both film and broadcast. Frame rates like 48 fps, 72 fps and 120 fps are either too new or still in trial stages and haven’t acquired mainstream support. 48 fps is an alternative to film’s typical frame rate of 24 fps. As of 2012, 48 fps has only been used on a handful of major motion pictures, but is garnering support from more and more influential filmmakers. 120 fps is the chosen frame rate of UHDTV (Ultra-High-Definition Television), which hopes to one day replace current broadcast standards around the globe. This would eliminate the discrepancy between NTSC and PAL standards, as television technology is no longer limited by AC line frequency.
High frame rates (HFR) are clearer and more realistic
While there are many who find 24 fps the most aesthetically pleasing frame rate for films and television dramas, there are those who prefer HFR (High Frame Rates). As we’ve already learned, 24 fps was standardized due to the economic and technical limitations of the times; which was nearly 100 years ago. Since the 24 standard wasn’t an aesthetic choice, HFR advocates don’t see a reason to adhere to old tech. Instead, they advocate frame rates closer to 60 fps, because higher frame rates are more in line with human vision. HFR reduce motion blur and display a clearer image that’s a closer approximation to real life.
Audiences aren’t new to high frames, since we associate high frame rates with a video-look. As stated previously, most television, such as reality TV, soap operas and other broadcast programing, are produced with frame rates of 30 or 60 fps. Advocates of HFR admit that it takes time to adjust to a film with higher frame rates. In order for the motion picture industry to adopt HFR, audiences will have to disassociate it from cheap broadcast productions.
Advocates of higher frame rates (HFR):
Douglas Trumbull, a special effects artist on a variety of major films (most notably 2001: A Space Odyssey and Blade Runner), developed a cinematic process in the late 70s called Showscan. Trumbull wanted to increase the fidelity and definition of major motion pictures, so he conducted research to find the most optimal resolution and frame rate. He eventually chose 65 mm film projected at 60 fps. Trumbull did numerous test on audiences’ emotional reaction to frame rates and found that emotional response peaked at 72 fps. Trumbull’s directorial effort, Brainstorm (1983) was to be the first Showscan film, but MGM backed out, not wanting to release the film in an experimental format. The Showscan Film Corporation eventually went bankrupt in 2002.
Major studios were unwilling to invest in the higher costs associated with Showscan. And with celluloid film almost entirely obsolete, it’s unlikely Showscan will resurge. However, the advent of digital cinema cameras and digital projection has made higher resolution and faster frame rates more economically feasible. Peter Jackson and James Cameron are just a few of the filmmakers supporting the new technologies. Jackson filmed The Hobbit series in 48 fps and Cameron has revealed plans to potentially film his Avatar sequels in either 48 or 60 fps. While only a handful of theaters have projectors capable of showing 48 fps, support for the frame rate will continue to increase.
Higher frame rates still come at a higher cost
Although sensor technology in digital cinema, professional-grade, and consumer-grade cameras have made HFR more affordable, it will always be less expensive to film less frames per second. As discussed earlier, one of the major reasons Hollywood chose 24 fps was because it was the slowest frame rate possible to get intelligible sound from the optical track printed along the length of the film. Higher frame rates would have been equally as effective, but the cost of film and film developing could easily skyrocket a production budget. Obviously, it’s in the best interest of a studio to keep costs down.
Though not working with film, digital filmmakers and videographers must be conscious of data rate consumption. If their camera records at 24 mbps (megabits per second) and their frame rate is set to 24 fps, the camera is distributing approximately 1 megabit of data per frame. Increasing frame rate to 60 fps will distribute less than half a megabit of data per frame, which results in a reduction of overall picture quality. To increase picture quality, data rate must be increased, which leads to a faster rate of storage consumption. Although the cost of storing data continues to decrease over time, those costs must always be considered.
More frames per second can also become cumbersome in post-production work. Higher frame rates increases the cost of color-grading, motion graphics, chroma keying, CGI and other post-production manipulation. More frames per second requires more processing power, storage, and labor. Plain and simple, more frames per second costs more money. As technology advances, will these costs decrease? Of course, but there will always be a economic benefit to producing less frames.
Many reject HFR and advocate 24 fps as the “gold standard”
Whether 24 fps came about as a technical decision or not is besides the point for some filmmakers, videographers and film-lovers. They simply love the aesthetic. But it’s also more than that. 24 fps advocates say the idea that HFR is something you “just have to get used to” is ridiculous and the science seems to prove otherwise.
The fact that high frame rates are closer to what the eye actually sees creates an interesting problem. To some people, HFR for narrative work falls into the Uncanny Valley. The Uncanny Valley, usually applied to robotics, is a psychological hypothesis which states that when something is life-like, but not perfect, we reject it. For a documentary, event video or reality TV, we accept HFR, because we know what we’re watching is real. But movies and television dramas are full of conventions that we’ve come to accept in storytelling. In movies dialogue isn’t really the way people talk; sets, costumes and lighting aren’t the way reality looks; and acting isn’t necessarily the way real people behave.
Yet, we accept these conventions at 24 fps, even though we know it’s fake. But a high frame rate portrays motion that’s too real and highlights the artifice of the production. Because of this, we may always accept HFR as something that’s “not acted”, which makes it ideal for non-fiction work, but a poor choice for narrative. Unless we can suspend our disbelief, we can’t become invested in a story.
What this all means to filmmakers and videographers:
If there’s anything you should take a way from this post, it’s that frame rates are no longer bound to the limits of technology. The choice of frame rate is an aesthetic choice. It’s unlikely that any one frame rate will replace another. There are proponents on both sides of the argument. High frame rates are more realistic and have less motion blur, but come with a higher cost and an arguably negative connotation. Low frame rates, while the de-facto standard for many years, are old-tech and exhibit heavy motion blur. Whether it’s a low frame rate or a high frame rate, you have to choose what’s best for your project based on your budget, audience, and method of distribution.Telltale Games' episodic adventure The Walking Dead has sold 8.5 million episodes to date. The title, which has been predominantly sold digitally, has generated over $40 million in revenue since the release of Episode One: A New Day in April 2012, CEO Dan Connors told the Wall Street Journal.
Originally released on Xbox Live, PlayStation 3, and PC, the series later transitioned to iOS, with mobile sales contributing 25 per cent to the overall sales figure. Sales of the widely acclaimed adventure were boosted by festive promotional offers on Steam and Xbox Live, where the game saw a 50 per cent discount. Additionally, the first episode, titled A New Day, was offered for download free of charge.
A second season of the game is also in the works. "We also have The Walking Dead signed up for another season, so we're gonna use a lot of the revenue we're generating to continue to grow the company," said Telltale boss Dan Connors. Connors also said that each customer spent an average of $16, which works out at over $40m in total revenue. Details about the storyline and launch date of season 2 have not yet been announced.Attorney General Eric Holder says subtle, institutionalized racism has a more "pernicious'' effect than the occasional bigoted outburst.
Holder spoke about the different forms of racism during a commencement address Saturday at historically black Morgan State University in Baltimore.
Holder is in the final year of his tenure as attorney general and has addressed racism more strongly of late. His comments Saturday came on the 60th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that desegregated public schools.
Holder noted that in some schools districts, "significant divisions persist and segregation has reoccurred,'' including through discipline policies that affect black males more than whites.
He says the Justice Department is working to reduce racial disparities in sentencing. And he says some states have placed new restrictions on voting that disproportionately impact African-Americans.
Copyright Associated PressFrustrated With Campaign Rhetoric, Muslims Turn To Political Activism
Enlarge this image toggle caption Asma Khalid /NPR Asma Khalid /NPR
Enlarge this image toggle caption Asma Khalid/NPR Asma Khalid/NPR
For months, the two leading Republican candidates have tried to prove they're tough on Muslims. Donald Trump famously introduced the idea of a temporary ban on Muslim immigration, and then, last month, the businessman-turned-politician said he believes "Islam hates us." Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has often insisted President Obama should use the words "radical Islamic terrorism" and, last week, Cruz issued a statement that called for patrolling Muslim neighborhoods.
This political rhetoric is horrifying many Muslims, but it's also had unintended side effects — encouraging |
33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 < html > < head > < meta charset = "utf-8" > < meta http-equiv = "X-UA-Compatible" content = "IE=edge" > < meta name = "viewport" content = "width=device-width, initial-scale=1" > < title > Zerynth < / title > <! -- LOAD JQUERY AND BOOTSTRAP -- > <script src = "https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.12.4/jquery.min.js" > </script> < link rel = "stylesheet" href = "https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.7/css/bootstrap.min.css" integrity = "sha384-BVYiiSIFeK1dGmJRAkycuHAHRg32OmUcww7on3RYdg4Va+PmSTsz/K68vbdEjh4u" crossorigin = "anonymous" > < link rel = "stylesheet" href = "https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.7/css/bootstrap-theme.min.css" integrity = "sha384-rHyoN1iRsVXV4nD0JutlnGaslCJuC7uwjduW9SVrLvRYooPp2bWYgmgJQIXwl/Sp" crossorigin = "anonymous" > <script src = "https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.7/js/bootstrap.min.js" integrity = "sha384-Tc5IQib027qvyjSMfHjOMaLkfuWVxZxUPnCJA7l2mCWNIpG9mGCD8wGNIcPD7Txa" crossorigin = "anonymous" > </script> <! -- LOAD THE ZERYNTH ADM JS LIBRARY -- > <script src = "https://api.zerynth.com/zadm/latest/z.js" > </script> <! -- LOAD jqwidget. js -- > < link rel = "stylesheet" href = "https://jqwidgets.com/public/jqwidgets/styles/jqx.base.css" type = "text/css" / > <script src = "https://jqwidgets.com/public/jqwidgets/jqx-all.js" > </script> <script type = "text/javascript" src = "https://www.jqwidgets.com/public/jqwidgets/jqxcore.js" > </script> < / head > < body > < div style = "text-align:center" > < p id = "status" style = "background:#ddd;font-weight:bold" > < / p > < h1 > Set Degree < / h1 > < / div > < div id = 'jqxKnob' style = "width: 150px; height: 150px; position: relative; left: 30; top:30" > < / div > <script> $ ( document ). ready ( function ( ) { $ ( '#jqxKnob' ). jqxKnob ( { width : 300, value : 0, min : 0, max : 180, startAngle : 0, endAngle : 180, snapToStep : true, rotation : 'counterclockwise', style : { stroke : '#dfe3e9', strokeWidth : 3, fill : { color : '#fefefe', gradientType : "linear", gradientStops : [ [ 0, 1 ], [ 50, 0.9 ], [ 100, 1 ] ] } }, marks : { colorRemaining : { color : 'grey', border : 'grey' }, colorProgress : { color : '#00a4e1', border : '#00a4e1' }, type : 'line', offset : '71%', thickness : 3, size : '6%', majorSize : '9%', majorInterval : 10, minorInterval : 2 }, labels : { offset : '88%', step : 30, visible : true }, progressBar : { style : { fill : '#00a4e1', stroke : 'grey' }, size : '9%', offset : '60%', background : { fill : 'grey', stroke : 'grey' } }, pointer : { type : 'arrow', style : { fill : '#00a4e1', stroke : 'grey' }, size : '59%', offset : '49%', thickness : 20 } } ) ; $ ( '#jqxKnob' ). jqxKnob ( { allowValueChangeOnDrag : false } ) ; $ ( '#jqxKnob' ). jqxKnob ( { allowValueChangeOnMouseWheel : false } ) ; $ ( '#jqxKnob' ). on ( 'change', function ( event ) { Z. call ('set_degree', [ event. args. value ] ) ; } ) ; // initialize the Z object Z. init ( { on_connected : function ( ) { $ ( "#status" ). html ( "CONNECTED" ) }, on_error : function ( ) { $ ( "#status" ). html ( "ERROR" ) }, on_disconnected : function ( ) { $ ( "#status" ). html ( "DISCONNECTED" ) ; return true }, on_online : function ( evt ) { $ ( "#status" ). html ( "ONLINE" ) ; }, on_offline : function ( evt ) { $ ( "#status" ). html ( "OFFLINE" ) ; }, on_event : function ( evt ) { //display received event; } } ) } ) ; </script> < / body > < / html >
In this case, we’ve used the “jqxKnob” element of the JQWidgets collection. The main part of this code is
$('#jqxKnob').on('change', function (event) { Z.call('set_degree', [event.args.value]); }); 1 2 3 $ ( '#jqxKnob' ). on ( 'change', function ( event ) { Z. call ('set_degree', [ event. args. value ] ) ; } ) ;
The Z.call function is the channel from Javascript to Python. Every time you move the knob, the Z.call function sends the value to the device and it is used as argument of the corresponding Python function.
At this point, you can uplink the project to your device.
Finally, as you can read in this very brief tutorial, you just have to open the Zerynth App, log-in and select the specific device to see your GUI.
Enabling Firmware Over-the-Air (FOTA) updates with Zerynth Studio PRO
Once you’ve built your smart project, you wouldn’t want to disassemble everything to upgrade the firmware.
To meet this specification, Zerynth has included the “Firmware Over-the-Air” feature within the Zerynth Studio PRO version, that also includes industrial-grade features like:
Selectable RTOS
Power Saving
Hardware-driven Secured Firmware burned on the device at industrial volumes
…and much more
DISCOVER ZERYNTH STUDIO PRO AND UPGRADE NOWSgt. Bowe Bergdahl, right, seen in a December 2009 Taliban propaganda video, was released Saturday. His father Bob Bergdahl, left, actively campaigned for his release. AP Photos
Bowe Bergdahl, the U.S. Army sergeant released from Taliban custody Saturday in exchange for five of the fanatical Islamist group’s leaders held at Guantánamo Bay, may find himself in captivity again – this time in an American military prison.
Bergdahl, now 28, left or was taken from his base in Afghanistan in June 2009 after sending his parents an email saying “ life is way too short to care for the damnation of others, as well as to spend it helping fools with their ideas that are wrong. … I am ashamed to even be [A]merican,” Rolling Stone reported in 2012.
He was reportedly traumatized by seeing an Afghan child crushed by an MRAP armored vehicle and told his parents his battalion commander was a “conceited old fool” and his peers were “the army of liars, backstabbers, fools, and bullies.” He shipped a uniform and books to his parents.
Tales from Bergdahls’ compatriots suggest internal fury about his vanishing, which some believe was a deliberate act that led to the deaths of other soldiers. Fellow battalion member Nathan Bethea wrote in The Daily Beast as many as eight U.S. deaths may have been related to the ensuing search.
A former senior military official told The New York Times Monday he left behind a note explaining he was leaving. Former members of Bergdahl’s 30-member company told the Times and The Daily Mail he left his weapon and body armor, and had mailed home his laptop computer.
U.S. Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey told The Associated Press on Tuesday “it’s premature” to say whether or not Bergdahl would face charges.
Several military law experts tell U.S. News it’s possible, albeit not necessarily likely, that Bergdahl will face charges.
Lisa Schenck, a former military attorney and judge, says it’s likely an investigation was conducted after his disappearance and possible that a charge sheet listing alleged crimes may already be prepared.
The AP reports a 2010 Pentagon investigation found “incontrovertible” evidence Bergdahl voluntarily left base.
Schenck, now a professor at the George Washington University Law School, says the first step in military criminal cases comes when a relatively low-level company commander submits an investigative report to their battalion commander recommending charges.
As the severity of punishment associated with charges increases, higher-level officers must approve prosecution, Schenck says. The secretary of defense can raise the level at which charging decisions for certain offenses are made.
The penalty for desertion in times of war can be death, and such severe penalties already require pre-court martial approval from a relatively high-level officer.
“Death is still a lawful sentence for desertion in a time of war, I’m not suggesting that’s not in the realm of possibilities for a case like this … there could be significant punishment, significant confinement,” says Victor Hansen, a former military prosecutor and defense attorney who now teaches at the New England School of Law.
The last soldier to be killed for desertion, Eddie Slovik, was tied to a post and shot in 1945, 69 years ago and about 80 years after the second most recent desertion execution. The military hasn't executed one of its members for any other offense since the early 1960s.
Afghanistan Cartoons View All 46 Images
There are two kinds of desertion: intending to permanently remain away and quitting your unit to avoid hazardous duty. Schenck says based on media reports regarding his disappearance it’s possible Bergdahl could be charged with both, and she notes commanders often want to make an example of alleged deserters.
If charges are not prepared, the possible case would be in the hands of the unit Bergdahl is assigned to following his release – either the present-day commander of his former unit, who is likely different, or a separate unit’s commander.
Schenck says Bergdahl’s captivity and his limited time in the military before leaving lead her to believe he will probably avoid a court martial. “That doesn’t mean he’s going to get an honorable discharge,” she says.
Hansen says intent may be impossible to prove with fading memories and the fact that the Taliban presumably held Bergdahl against his will.
“The buzz everyone’s talking about is desertion, that he’s a deserter and can be charged with desertion,” he says, “which is potentially true. … It’s not impossible, it certainly could be a charge.”
Hansen says he has defended several alleged deserters and prosecuted several others – and notes there needs to be solid evidence for a conviction.
“Unless [a written confession] says something that direct, anything short of that is going to be circumstantial evidence,” he says. “I’m not saying it's impossible to prove desertion, it can be proved, but … let’s say he says, ‘Ya, I was disgusted for a while and was going to leave for the night, but then I was captured by the Taliban.’”
Hansen also doubts there’s an appetite for a trial.
“Since these pronouncements have been made, and the president has said he’s a prisoner of war and all that stuff, the subtle message here – or maybe not so subtle message – is that we don’t want anything to happen to this guy,” he says. “But Secretary Hagel cannot just reach down himself and take it.”
Richard Rosen, a former commandant of the U.S. Army’s Judge Advocate General's School, says there may be a consensus among officers that Bergdahl has been punished enough by the Taliban. “I don’t know that it’s supposed to [influence charging decisions], but I think it will,” he says.
“If he walked away with the intent not to return to his unit or to avoid some hazardous duty, that’s clearly desertion. If he was just a straggler or got lost accidentally, maybe it’s dereliction of duty, which isn’t that serious and I doubt he would be charged with that,” Rosen says.
“Of course, writing home and expressing disgruntlement about the army is not a crime,” adds Rosen, a professor at the Texas Tech University School of Law. “I think every service member gripes – at least that's what my father told me, I guess I did too – and that doesn’t violate the law, but if that goes to show he intentionally left his unit with the intent to stay away, that’s desertion.”
Parents of U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, Jani Bergdahl, left, and Bob Bergdahl, turn to President Barack Obama after he spoke in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Saturday, May 31, 2014, after the announcement that Bowe Bergdahl has been released from captivity in Afghanistan. Bergdahl, 28, had been held prisoner by the Taliban since June 30, 2009. He was handed over to U.S. special forces by the Taliban in exchange for the release of five Afghan detainees held by the United States. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) The Associated Press
Rosen believes prosecutors would not seek the death penalty if Bergdahl is charged with desertion.
“He most likely would be tried as noncapital and the maximum punishment is five years, a dishonorable discharge and forfeiture of pay,” he says.
President Barack Obama announced Bergdahl’s release Saturday in the Rose Garden, saying “our top priority is making sure that Bowe gets the care and support that he needs and that he can be reunited with his family as soon as possible.”
Addressing a question about whether he might be disciplined, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said, “This is a guy who probably went through hell for the last five years, and let’s focus on getting him well.”
White House National Security Advisor Susan Rice went a step further and declared Sunday, “He served the United States with honor and distinction.”
The Obama administration admittedly ignored a law that requires Congress be notified 30 days before Guantánamo Bay detainees are transferred.
Photos: Elections in Afghanistan View All 18 Images
Government officials are now at risk of exerting unlawful command influence over the Bergdahl case, according to a current military judge who asked not to be identified.
Unlawful command influence is “any attempt by a very senior government official or anyone senior to that officer who has to make the decision on whether or not to send the case to trial to try to influence that decision one way or another,“ the judge says. “The president of the United States could theoretically be guilty of unlawful command influence if in a public statement he said this man is clearly a deserter.”
Rosen disagrees that statements beneficial to Bergdahl would amount to unlawful influence, noting the term is mostly used to describe conduct that harms defendants. The president can also pardon Bergdahl at any time, he notes.
Corrected on June 3, 2014 : This story has been corrected to include the correct day of Bowe Bergdahl’s release from captivity.ABC Q&A panel 27/5/15, with Boswell second from the right (Image via @ClimateChangRR)
Managing editor David Donovan considers the appearance of former Senator Ron Boswell on ABC Q&A this week and what it says about the National Party.
IT HAS COME TO MY ATTENTION that many people were bemused by the appearance of former Queensland National Party Senator Ron Boswell on ABC Q&A on Monday night. Perusing social media, I see some have been left perplexed after seeng a former senior politician so utterly confused and seemingly bereft of any information inside of his head.
To briefly recap, Boswell spent much of the show with his grizzled grey head somewhere down around his chest, dolefully gazing off into the middle distance, constantly murmuring absurdities, such as:
“We take more refugees … than any other country.”
(Nowhere near!)
Or:
“India has a population of 300 million.”
(Add a billion, old sport.)
And
“Italy is not a wealthy country like Australia.”
(Italy is a member of the G7 grouping of the world's most advanced economies, unlike Australia.)
Not to forget this clanger:
“I don’t like the Pope’s encyclical on climate change that I never read.”*
And:
“Oil, coal and gas are great and renewables will add a million bazillion dollars on to people's power bills.”*
(Quite the contrary, Senator Gaswell.)
Even as the show was being broadcast, questions began circulating about Boswell’s idiosyncratic performance, such as:
“What the hell is that bloke on? Is he drunk?”
Things like:
“Has that bloke ever read a book? Does he actually know anything?”
Probing questions, like:
“Is Boswell the best the Nationals can offer? FFS!”
And even:
“How the hell did that imbecile ever get elected? What does it say about his electorate?”
As someone born and raised near Dingo in Central Queensland, who has mingled his blood and sweat with the desert lands west of the Great Divide and who has been actively involved in agriculture almost his entire life, I have a solid understanding of both the National Party and its primary constituency — country people. I have also met Ron Boswell in person. Therefore, I feel I am in a good position to provide some answers to these very reasonable questions.
As to the first question, I think it is extremely unfair to suggest that Boswell was drunk. On Valium, maybe, but certainly not drunk. If he was drunk, I would have expected a true conservative gentleman like him to be far more ebullient and even more opinionated, and to not allow the female panellists to talk at all, rather than simply talking over them half the time. In fact, Boswell was neither drunk nor drugged, but simply acting in the traditional fashion of the northern hairy-nosed wombat after it has emerged from its burrow — slow-moving, wary and blindly blinking at the light until it had becomes acclimatised to its new surroundings.
A northern hairy-nosed wombat (Image via Qld Government)
As to whether Boswell had ever read a book, I’d simply say you don’t become leader of the Nationals in the Senate by wasting your time reading books and learning so-called “facts”. Shoring up his numbers to ensure he had first place on the Senate ticket, along with those endless tedious lunches with coal miners ‒ both domestic and sub-continental ‒ would have ensured the former senator had little time to waste perusing the manifestos of dope-smoking, atheist, leftie academics.
He can read, though, as I can personally attest. I will get to whether Boswell knows anything at all shortly.
As to the question of “is that the best the Nationals have to offer”, the answer is a resounding “yes”. The truth of the matter is that although the Nationals have a reasonably large membership ‒ virtually all bushies support the “Country Party” ‒ their leadership stocks are rather barren. I mean, Warren Truss is their leader — a man who with less charisma than baling twine. Still don’t believe me? In that case, I offer you Bananaby Joyce.
You see, most people working on the land are simply too broke and too busy to find time for all the meetings, travel and flesh-pressing required to become a successful politician. The only people who have this amount of time on their hands are either wealthy landholders, who have other people to do all the farm work for them, or people who don’t work on the land at all but like country music and therefore see the Nationals as a legitimate vehicle for political advancement.
Ron Boswell would appear to fall into the latter category, however it is the former who are by far the more insidious curse upon the Nationals. You see, wealthy property owners ‒ many the remnants of the old squattocracy‒ don’t give a fig about ordinary National Party voters. In fact, they are very happy to see most of them go broke, as farmers almost always do, so they can acquire their land and expand their already extensive holdings. This explains many of the Nationals' strange policies and why vested interests like mining are always given preference by the Coalition over farming concerns.
Next, we come to how Boswell came to be elected and why people still vote for the Nationals. This is because country people are innately conservative and have a deep loathing of the only other party remotely interested in them — the Greens. Many, if not most, think of the Greens as hemp-wearing socialists who want to take away their land because it contains an endangered snail or something. This, clearly, is a slight exaggeration; not all Greens care for snails. In any case, most rural folk will always vote for the Nationals and never vote for any other party, even though they can see their Party selling them out every election.
And filling in for the Abbott Govt tonight the Qld LNP have offered up former Qld senator Ron Boswell. #QandA pic.twitter.com/YuV3VjG7Pb — David Marler (@Qldaah) July 27, 2015
It's remarkable to think Ron Boswell has made a career out of knowing nothing. #QandA — Kiera (@KieraGorden) July 27, 2015
I met Boswell late in 2004. At the time, I was helping run the family avocado business and, as we were major growers, we had been invited to the opening of an avocado oil processing plant. I drove down from Bundaberg with my brother, Lachlan, who was – and still is – a bit of a bigwig in the horticultural industry. After the Olivado company boss had spoken about the plant and what was planned, the local Labor State MP gave a short speech and then the guest of honour came up to speak on behalf of the Howard Government. Yes, big old Ron Boswell. (I say big, because Boswell was at that time roughly the size and shape of a mature walrus, though nowhere near as lean.)
Ron pulled a thick wad of crumpled A4 pages from his suit jacket and began to speak. And he continued to speak in his monotonous rustic drawl for well over an hour, dutifully reading every ill-conceived word.
There are only two things I remember clearly from this tedious address.
Firstly, that Boswell talked alot about something called “advocados”. On the drive back, I asked my brother later what these “advocados” might be, thinking maybe they were a new and improved form of the traditional avocado. He said he didn’t think so.
I still don’t know what an "advocado" is. Is it a tropical fruit used in marketing? A Spanish lawyer? Who knows?
Secondly, Boswell spent most of his address praising the wonders of the Free Trade Agreement his Government had recently signed with the United States. However, given this FTA provided no access for Australian avocados into the U.S. market whatsoever, you could say the avocado growers were somewhat less enthusiastic about the virtues of this pact than the buffoon droning away at the front.
To say the growers were stony faced at the eventual end of Boswell's speech would be a grave insult to stones.
Now, perhaps the agreement did provide great access for advocados and, in some sort of administrative SNAFU, Boswell had picked up the wrong speech? We’ll never know, because the great big hairy-nosed wombat snuffled off immediately at the end of formalities without stopping to speak to any of this convenient assembly of his core constituents.
Far too busy? A helicopter to catch? Or maybe just didn’t give a stuff about them? Whatever it was, he left with a beaming smile on his big vacant face, clearly very pleased with how it had all gone. Another job well done.
Just like he probably did on Monday night, the silly wombat.
* Paraphrased.
Here's what happened on #QandA: Ron Boswell got EVERY single statistic/fact wrong & he loves coal. A LOT. End #AusPol pic.twitter.com/6R3PIfOq4d — Kiera (@KieraGorden) July 27, 2015
You can follow David Donovan on Twitter @davrosz.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License
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As Ron Boswell taught us, sex appeal is OK, but it's not everything http://t.co/qkRALyTkiC — James Jeffrey (@James_Jeffrey) August 13, 2013
It's no joke. Subscribe to IA for just $5.Minneapolis Police Chief Janeé Harteau announced that she is resigning in the wake of the officer-involved shooting of an Australian bride-to-be.
"[L]ast Saturday’s tragedy, as well as some other recent incidents, have caused me to engage in deep reflection," Harteau said in part in a statement posted on the police department's Facebook page.
She continued: "The recent incidents do not reflect the training and procedures we’ve developed as a Department. Despite the MPD’s many accomplishments under my leadership over these years and my love for the City, I have to put the communities we serve first. I’ve decided I am willing to step aside to let a fresh set of leadership eyes see what more can be done for the MPD to be the very best it can be."
Justine Ruszczyk, 40, who went by her fiancé Don Damond's last name, was killed by a police officer on July 15 after she called 911 to report what she believed was a sexual assault occurring near her home.
Authorities said officers Matthew Harrity and Mohammed Noor responded to Ruszczyk's 911 call, but never found a suspect. They were startled by a loud noise and then Ruszczyk approached the driver's side of the car and Noor, who was on the passenger side, fired his gun through the open driver's side window, according to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety.
Harrity's attorney, Fred Bruno, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that it was "certainly reasonable" for the police officers to assume they could be the target of an ambush.
Noor has not made any statements to investigators and has declined to be interviewed, according to Minnesota Department of Public Safety.
Both officers have been placed on standard paid administrative leave pending the investigation. Ruszczyk's death has been ruled a homicide.
Police have launched an internal affairs review of the officers' use of force.
Harteau faced criticism for her notable absence in the days following Ruszczyk's death, but she told reporters Thursday that she was in a remote area, "backpacking in the mountains," which made it difficult for her to return. She was scheduled to return on Aug. 1, she said.
Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges said in a statement that she asked for Harteau's resignation.
"I've lost confidence in the Chief’s ability to lead us further — and from the many conversations I've had with people around our city, especially this week, it is clear that she has lost the confidence of the people of Minneapolis as well," Hodges said. “In conversation with the Chief today, she and I agreed that she would step aside to make way for new leadership. I asked Chief Harteau for her resignation, she tendered it, and I have accepted it.”
On Wednesday, the Minneapolis Police Department released transcripts from Ruszczyk’s Saturday’s 911 call, detailing what she believed was a sexual assault occurring near her home in Minneapolis' Fulton neighborhood.
"I can hear someone out the back and I -- I'm not sure if she's having sex or being raped," Ruszczyk tells the 911 operator, according to the transcript released by police.
Robert Bennett, the attorney representing both Damond and family of Ruszczyk, told ABC News this week "the family wants justice in its largest sense."
"I think Justine is the last person you’d expect to be killed by police," Bennett said.
Bennett said that the idea that Justine Damond could have been thought of as a threat is "patently, utterly, ridiculous."
"If that’s the excuse they want to use to shoot people, I guess they can use any excuse they want, we’re all in danger," the attorney said.
The Minnesota Department of Public Safety's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said Friday that a witness to the shooting has been identified and interviewed, though the agency did not disclose what the witness, a bicyclist, said.Bagration Profile Blog Joined October 2011 United States 17857 Posts #2 JYPvTerrorist Team Slayers, Axiom-Acer and Vile forever
a176 Profile Blog Joined August 2009 Canada 6685 Posts #3 oh wow winners league already? starleague forever
StarStruck Profile Joined April 2010 24047 Posts Last Edited: 2013-01-03 04:30:27 #4
Going to be fun!
All-Kill time! ^_^Going to be fun! On January 03 2013 13:29 a176 wrote:
oh wow winners league already?
2nd round man is the dillio. 2nd round man is the dillio.
NovemberstOrm Profile Blog Joined September 2011 Canada 15958 Posts #5 revival vs flash :D Moderator lickypiddy
Zenbrez Profile Joined June 2012 Canada 5957 Posts Last Edited: 2013-01-03 04:32:35 #6
First 2 days of matches they're all looking to get as many kills as possible through their first pick it looks like A lot less meat to these lists when it's allkillFirst 2 days of matches they're all looking to get as many kills as possible through their first pick it looks like Refer to my post.
Adreme Profile Joined June 2011 United States 5514 Posts #7 Poor revival, having Flash sent out as the starter is just cruel.
Arceus Profile Blog Joined February 2008 Vietnam 8280 Posts #8
Kaboom Babies! Kaboom Babies!
MooMooMugi Profile Blog Joined January 2011 United States 6313 Posts #9 How's Speed been doing compared to Reality? |LoL & SC2 IGN both my username| Just livin' the baylife| Hearthstone ID: MooMooMugi#1544| RIP EunB&RiSe|Dank Memer since 2011
Adreme Profile Joined June 2011 United States 5514 Posts #10 On January 03 2013 13:36 MooMooMugi wrote:
How's Speed been doing compared to Reality?
Speed went 4-2 and was part of my horrid anti-team and Reality was 2-5. Speed went 4-2 and was part of my horrid anti-team and Reality was 2-5.
vthree Profile Joined November 2011 Hong Kong 7879 Posts Last Edited: 2013-01-03 04:42:55 #11 On January 03 2013 13:32 Adreme wrote:
Poor revival, having Flash sent out as the starter is just cruel.
Heh, KT wants to save their Aces (Stats, Action, CH, etc) for later. Flash is going to get benched if he loses to Revival.
Heh, KT wants to save their Aces (Stats, Action, CH, etc) for later. Flash is going to get benched if he loses to Revival.
MCXD Profile Blog Joined February 2012 Australia 2732 Posts Last Edited: 2013-01-03 04:44:30 #12 What's with so many strong ace-level starting players? Traditionally in the GSTL/IPTL/etc you want to save your sick nerd baller players for the latter half.
StarStruck Profile Joined April 2010 24047 Posts Last Edited: 2013-01-03 04:45:23 #13 On January 03 2013 13:41 vthree wrote:
Show nested quote +
On January 03 2013 13:32 Adreme wrote:
Poor revival, having Flash sent out as the starter is just cruel.
Heh, KT wants to save their Aces (Stats, Action, CH, etc) for later.
Heh, KT wants to save their Aces (Stats, Action, CH, etc) for later.
-.^ Sometimes you want to send a strong message to the other teams.
-.^ Sometimes you want to send a strong message to the other teams. On January 03 2013 13:43 MCXD wrote:
What's with so many strong ace-level starting players? Traditionally in the GSTL you want to save your sick nerd baller players for the latter half.
Go strong. Don't mess around and have a few guys ready to snipe.
On January 03 2013 13:44 Dodgin wrote:
Show nested quote +
On January 03 2013 13:43 MCXD wrote:
What's with so many strong ace-level starting players? Traditionally in the GSTL you want to save your sick nerd baller players for the latter half.
Probably because if you win 4-0 It's much better than winning 4-3, mapscore breaks tiebreakers at the end of the season ( wins to losses ) Probably because if you win 4-0 It's much better than winning 4-3, mapscore breaks tiebreakers at the end of the season ( wins to losses )
Pretty much. There is no margin for errors. Go. Don't mess around and have a few guys ready to snipe.Pretty much. There is no margin for errors.
Dodgin Profile Blog Joined July 2011 Canada 38849 Posts #14 On January 03 2013 13:43 MCXD wrote:
What's with so many strong ace-level starting players? Traditionally in the GSTL you want to save your sick nerd baller players for the latter half.
Probably because if you win 4-0 It's much better than winning 4-3, mapscore breaks tiebreakers at the end of the season ( wins to losses ) Probably because if you win 4-0 It's much better than winning 4-3, mapscore breaks tiebreakers at the end of the season ( wins to losses )
Dosey Profile Joined September 2010 United States 4499 Posts #15 On January 03 2013 13:44 Dodgin wrote:
Show nested quote +
On January 03 2013 13:43 MCXD wrote:
What's with so many strong ace-level starting players? Traditionally in the GSTL you want to save your sick nerd baller players for the latter half.
Probably because if you win 4-0 It's much better than winning 4-3, mapscore breaks tiebreakers at the end of the season ( wins to losses ) Probably because if you win 4-0 It's much better than winning 4-3, mapscore breaks tiebreakers at the end of the season ( wins to losses )
Also probably because PL coaches haven't been taking lessons from the LG-IM coach. Also probably because PL coaches haven't been taking lessons from the LG-IM coach.
Shellshock Profile Blog Joined March 2011 United States 94972 Posts #16 On January 03 2013 13:35 Arceus wrote:
Kaboom Babies! Kaboom Babies!
Should I just use this as the banner? Should I just use this as the banner? Moderator http://i.imgur.com/U4xwqmD.png
Arceus Profile Blog Joined February 2008 Vietnam 8280 Posts Last Edited: 2013-01-03 04:49:36 #17
Im sad that they dont add/remove or make modifications to any maps though
On January 03 2013 13:47 Shellshock1122 wrote:
Show nested quote +
On January 03 2013 13:35 Arceus wrote:
Kaboom Babies! Kaboom Babies!
Should I just use this as the banner? Should I just use this as the banner?
sure. who doesnt love this old ass lovely AK god for the 1st time ever TDA features zero zerg, in two straight matches no lessIm sad that they dont add/remove or make modifications to any maps thoughsure. who doesnt love this old ass lovely AK
DMXD Profile Joined February 2008 United States 4064 Posts #18 man EGTL facing two powerhouses this early in round 2 =O
good luck!!
iKill[ShocK] Profile Blog Joined July 2008 Vietnam 2514 Posts #19 Rooting for EG-Taeja! (its that time of year). <3 Kim Taeyeon
juicyjames Profile Joined August 2011 United States 3812 Posts #20 I guess there will be no changes to the maps between Round 1 and 2? This Week in SC2 Find out what happened 'This Week in Starcraft 2': http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/view |
this season “just used the long ball.”
That of course was a subtle dig at Manchester United who City beat last weekend at Old Trafford. Ouch.
Still, it is now eight wins from eight in all competitions for Guardiola as City’s manager as they seem like the team to beat in the Premier League. Don’t forget they still have Aguero to come back from suspension, Vincent Kompany to come back from injury and the likes of Leroy Sane and Gundogan have only just got going.
I don’t think many would bet against City wining the PL this season after a scintillating first five games, all of them wins, under Guardiola.
He’s a top class manager and his smack talk isn’t too bad either…
Follow @JPW_NBCSportsIndependent TD Michael Lowry has said his constituency colleague Alan Kelly’s decision to “categorically” rule him out of the next government “smacks of his customary arrogance”.
Independent TD Michael Lowry has said his constituency colleague Alan Kelly’s decision to “categorically” rule him out of the next government “smacks of his customary arrogance”.
Michael Lowry: Minister Alan Kelly’s decision to categorically rule me out of coalition'smacks of his customary arrogance'
Mr Lowry launched a sting attack on the Labour Party deputy leader today, saying he has “jumped on the bandwagon”.
And he said that “threats and innuendo” from Alan Kelly will not decide the formation of the next government.
"In relation to Alan Kelly, I’d just say that his comments smack of his customary arrogance. Effectively what he’s trying to do is circumvent the will of the Tipperary people.”
"The bottom line is that thankfully we have a democracy, elections are due, and elections are about the people have their say and electing their representatives,” he said.
“It’s not the media, it’s not the political pundits. It’s not threats and innuendo from Alan Kelly that will make the decision, it’s the people who will make the decision known.”
“I haven’t at any stage spoken to any political party about any alliances or any pacts or any agreements after the election.”
Speaking on his local radio station, Tipp FM, Mr Lowry hit out at the speculation around his involvement in coalition talks after the election.
Since Saturday politicians from Fine Gael and the Labour Party have faced repeated questions as to whether they would rule seeking Mr Lowry’s support to prop up a minority government.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Tánaiste Joan Burton have continuously attempted to sidestep the question but Mr Kelly broke ranks, telling today’s Irish Independent: “Just to be categorical on it, the Labour Party would never work with or ask for the support of anyone like Michael Lowry.”
The Moriarty Report found that Mr Lowry conferred benefit on businessmen Denis O’Brien, who made or facilitated payments to the former Communications Minister.
There were no findings that Mr Lowry benefited from payments and Mr Lowry has rejected the findings.
Responding to Mr Kelly’s comments today, Mr Lowry said: “I’m not going to be presumptuous by thinking I’m going to be one of the five representatives for Tipperary.”
He said he hasn’t spoken to any political party about a deal, but said he does believe independents will hold the balance of power after the election.
“The people of Tipperary know me. They know my character. They know my personality. They know my background. They have been reading this for 20 years,” he said.
However, he added: “You don’t expect to be harangued in public by one of your constituency colleagues.”
He said Mr Kelly is suffering from “a bit of delusion”.
Online EditorsEl Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa says that unnamed Democrats in Colorado’s state Senate have threatened to withhold pay raises for the state’s sheriffs in retaliation for their opposition to a package of gun control measures that will get their final vote in the Senate on Monday.
Maketa, a Republican elected in 2002, made the allegation on a talk radio show Saturday. He told KVOR host Jeff Crank that he received an email from a member of the County Sheriffs of Colorado, a lobbying group, informing him that “the Senate Dem leadership is very upset with the sheriffs and their opposition to the gun control bills.”
Maketa did not say who sent him the email or who allegedly threatened to delay voting on a bill that would raise sheriffs’ salaries in Colorado. He also hasn’t released the email, and CSOC president Delta County Sheriff Fred McKee told the Denver Post he hadn’t heard about the allegation.
But Maketa discussed the alleged threat at length on the radio show and he was clear in his opinion that the pressure he said Democrats were applying amounted to “coercion” and “extortion.” He promised to ask Attorney General John Suthers to open an investigation.
“What they’re saying is ‘you have really upset us,'” he told KVOR host Jeff Crank, “and it’s almost a coercion, extortion, blackmail or influence of a public official through pay.”
Because sheriffs are elected in Colorado, their salaries are set by the state legislature, which follows the recommendations of a salary commission. Maketa said sheriffs haven’t seen a pay raise since 2006 and are due a 10 percent increase.
Maketa later expanded on his comments, taking to his Facebook page to clarify that he personally wasn’t “threatened or coerced,” but that the message was delivered verbally to a CSOC member by someone in the Democratic leadership in the Senate.
“This message insinuated that this could negatively affect the salary bill which has been delayed and put off by the Democrats with the excuse that they would expect bipartisan support,” he wrote. “I do believe the salary proposal is being held hostage and I believe that if they’re willing to send gun control measures without bipartisan support then they should be willing to take a stand as the majority leadership and follow a democrat-created [sic] commission’s recommendations.”
Senate president John Morse issued a statement Monday morning refuting the sheriff’s claims.
“These allegations are not only false, they are ridiculous,” he wrote. “Sheriff Maketa is referencing an email from a member of the sheriff’s trade association, CSOC — a lobbying and political organization. He has provided no evidence that anyone in leadership actually said or emailed they were withholding a pay increase to get support on the gun safety bills.”
County sheriffs have been among the most vocal and visible opponents of Democratic-sponsored gun control bills, with some vowing not to enforce legislation that they deem to be unconstitutional. During testimony on one of the bills last week, Maketa stood with a group of other sheriffs behind Weld County Sheriff John Cooke as he testified against it.
On the radio show, Maketa said sheriffs were particularly opposed to a bill that would require those accused of domestic violence to surrender their firearms and ammunition.
“Even prior to conviction for a crime, they are forcing citizens, before being proven guilty, to surrender their weapons,” he said.
Gun bills were debated throughout the day Friday, with the Senate advancing five of them for a final vote today. Three have already passed the House.
“I think it absolutely needs to be looked into,” Maketa said of the alleged threat. “A line needs to be drawn between right from wrong and a legal approach versus an unlawful act on behalf of the leadership.”
He said he hopes to hold accountable those “that are expressing in an indirect way, sheriffs obey or you will pay.”
In the Post, Morse said he declined a request by some county commissioners a month ago to introduce a bill to raise county officials’ salaries, but that it was because of the state of the economy and had nothing to do with gun legislation.
“For Democrats to carry a bill for pay raises while Colorado families are struggling isn’t something we’re committed to,” he said, adding that no Republican lawmakers are calling for pay raises either.
On the radio and on Facebook, Maketa emphasized that such a pay raise would not affect him personally since he is term-limited and would be out of office by the time it took effect.
He did not reply to a request for comment.
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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.
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.culture Historicist: An Invisible Giant
The Toronto Star's 11 years on the radio airwaves as CFCA.
On top of a table, in the centre of a stage decorated simply with palms and flowers, sat a small square box connected to a great horn like that of a gramophone beside it, with three large batteries on the ground beneath. A wire trailed from the device up a spiral staircase and through an open window to an antenna on the roof.
Over 1,100 spectators from all walks of life—including priest and rabbi—crowded the floor of the Masonic Temple at Yonge and Davenport at 8:30 p.m. on March 28, 1922, sitting as if attending the opera or a Sunday church service. The lucky ones, they’d waited outside in a downpour lined up around the block. Even after eager spectators had claimed every available chair that could be hauled out of storage, hundreds more had been turned away at the door.
The black box’s Audion tubes glowed to life as John R. Bone, managing editor of the Toronto Star, which had organized this public demonstration of new-fangled technology, concluded his opening remarks: “I have great pleasure in introducing you to Mr. Wireless Telephone.”
The rapt audience leaned forward, straining to hear a faint but familiar piano melody onstage amid crackling, as W.A. Fowler of the radio equipment supplier Canadian Independent Telephone Company (CITCO) adjusted knobs and instruments to sharpen and amplify the sound. As one, the spectators rose to their feet, recognizing the disembodied music as the royal anthem “God Save the King” being performed by Evelyn Chelew Kemp in a studio five kilometres away. “As the anthem ceased,” the Star reported (March 29, 1922), “the hall became a babel of voices as people turned to one another and unloosed their tongues at the wonder of it.”
The program continued with the music being performed live in the CITCO broadcast studio on the top floor of a factory on Wallace Avenue near Bloor and Lansdowne, under the direction of Dr. Charles A. Culver, the company’s chief engineer, who also acted as the evening’s announcer. Some of the city’s leading artists performed, including pianist Kemp, soprano R.J. Dilworth, Romanelli’s Orchestra, tenor Victor Edmunds, cellist Boris Hambourg, pianist Alberto Guerrero, and violinist Henri Czaplinski. Each came forward to play their contributions in front of a “little wooden funnel on a table,” the Star (March 29, 1922) recounted, which carried the notes instantly “into an intricate electric apparatus,” and then “with a speed immeasurable up a hundred feet of wire and leaped into the night sky—into empty space—”
(Right: Toronto Star [March 29, 1922].)
In addition to the listeners at the Masonic Temple, the broadcast was heard by another special audience at the Christie Street Military Hospital, and the estimated 1,000 Torontonians who owned earphones and crystal radios—mostly young male hobbyists who’d assembled their own sets. Despite the rainy weather, the wireless signal could be received as far afield as Napanee, Georgian Bay, and upstate New York.
Whatever genre or tempo of the number, the Star reported, “[t]he quality of the music had its effect on the people, for they sat strangely hushed.” One plaintive Scottish ballad, “Annie Laurie,” performed by soprano R.J. Dilworth, moved at least one listener at the Masonic Temple to tears. This was the first radio broadcast of live musical entertainment in Canada, as far as the Star could ascertain—predating a similar music broadcast in Britain by three months.
The head of the Star, Joseph E. Atkinson, had become aware of wireless technology from his son, an early amateur radio enthusiast. As his newspaper reported the establishment of the earliest commercial stations, like KDKA in Pittsburgh in 1920, the publishing magnate grew intrigued by the new technology’s promotional possibilities. The Star wanted, as Bone noted in his opening remarks that night, to not only report on radio technology, “but to give practical and public demonstrations of the invention.” Under Atkinson’s orders, the newspaper’s promotions manager William Main Johnson opened secret negotiations with CITCO—a radio parts supplier that operated an experimental station under the call sign Nine A.H.—to arrange the necessary equipment, facilities, and expertise for a public demonstration of the technology. News of the upcoming broadcast was kept quiet until announced with a 72-point headline on the front page of the Star the day before.
“Those who had means to receive [the radio signal] did; those who had not went about their business or their pleasure not heeding, not knowing, that the darkness around thrilled with music that was there to be captured and controlled,” said the Star. “It was if an invisible giant stood at the corner of Bloor and Lansdowne scattering handfuls of invisible silver that was picked up here and there, where people with magic ears heard it fall with a glistening tinkle.” At the concert’s end, Dr. Culver stated matter-of-factly: “This is Nine A.H. signing off. Good night!”—words heard by unseen thousands. At the Masonic Temple, an audience member stood and proclaimed loudly: “I think we should thank the Toronto Star for its enterprise in giving this novel entertainment. Three cheers for the Toronto Star,” and led the crowd in a hearty hurrah. Although music critic Augustus Bridle panned the notion that radio could ever fully capture the soprano voice, the rest of the coverage the next day praised the technical achievement.
(Left: Toronto Star [March 29, 1922].)
The Star continued to utilize CITCO’s facilities and call sign to broadcast live concerts as a regular series from April to mid-June. Then, beginning April 10, it was supplemented by the country’s first daily radio broadcasts with a 30-minute program each evening at 7 p.m. that featured popular music, lectures by prominent speakers, children’s stories read by a librarian, and financial and sports bulletins. Next, the Star became the first radio service in Canada to broadcast church services with Reverend W.A. Cameron’s Easter morning service at Yorkminster Baptist Church. Interestingly, it would still be months before the Star included newscasts as part of its regular programming.
On the newspaper page, the Star promoted its broadcasts and, more importantly, radio technology in general in daily columns on the topic offering advice on constructing your own unit, program schedules for the few American stations in reach of Toronto, and correspondence from listeners across the region. The column’s editor was a young reporter named Foster Hewitt who would transition to radio announcing and, in time, sportscasting.
(Right: Toronto Star [June 23, 1922].)
In fact, the newspaper had already secured its own broadcasting licence prior to the live concert experiment. It wasn’t long afterward that two 80-foot-tall, reinforced steel antennas were installed on the roof and a broadcast studio constructed at the Star‘s 18 King Street West headquarters, with some assistance from savvy radio enthusiast Ted Rogers Sr. On June 22, 1922, after weeks of testing, the new transmitting station went live as CFCA, broadcasting at a wavelength of 400 metres.
In 1922–1923, the federal Department of Marine and Fisheries, which had regulatory and legislative oversight over the radio waves, would grant 62 licences for commercial stations, with the majority going to either companies manufacturing or selling radio devices, and newspapers. Star rivals, the Globe and Telegram, were awarded licences but wouldn’t begin radio broadcasting for years. And CKCE (the former Nine A.H.) broadcasted only intermittently. So, until 1925, CFCA had the Toronto airwaves to itself with its only competition originating south of the border.
Sandra Gabriele and Paul S. Moore argue in a contribution to Cultural Industries.ca: Making Sense of Canadian Media in the Digital Age (Lorimer, 2012) that the Star was not operating the station purely from a profit-making perspective like other newspapers venturing into radio. Rather, the Star “understood radio as enabling a fulfillment of their mandate of public service.”
Although radio ownership was increasingly common by the end of the decade, there was a limited local audience able to listen on radio sets at home when CFCA took to the air. The Star therefore endeavoured to introduce the new technology to as broad an array of Torontonians as possible. To a large degree, therefore, the Star must be credited with the creation of a radio-listening public in the Toronto area.
With CITCO’s assistance, CFCA outfitted a truck with a coil aerial, receiving equipment, and an amplifier, transforming it into the Star‘s Radio Car. Beginning at Sunnyside Park in July 1922, the Radio Car travelled each night to parks across the Greater Toronto region, so that members of the public who didn’t own radio sets at home, or who were simply out of the house on a summer’s evening, could hear the CFCA’s live concerts and other programming. Each day, the mobile receiving station’s scheduled location was listed in the newspaper, ensuring that crowds in the hundreds regularly turned out, and the previous night’s Radio Car excursion was also recapped with eyewitness commentary. Live results on election nights were likewise relayed to public forums by utilizing the Radio Car. Later, for similar purposes, CFCA would temporarily erect loudspeakers in school auditoriums so that students might listen live to newsworthy broadcasts.
Declaring 1922 to be the “Radio Year” at the Canadian National Exhibition that August, the Star constructed a building were CFCA was broadcast over speakers and displays of radio equipment were featured, among other activities. “Beyond being an educational site demonstrating the production of radio,” Gabriele and Moore suggest, “the Radio building was characterized quite literally as producing radio listeners—enthusiastic, dedicated listeners.”
It was during the CNE in late August 1922 that CFCA finally initiated newscasts and weather bulletins as a regular, daily feature of the radio programming. Although the radio news coverage was largely complementary to material on its own newspaper page (since the Star was an afternoon paper and CFCA broadcast largely in the evenings), it could undercut the sales of its morning paper competition, like the Globe. CFCA’s ability to broadcast on Sundays and holidays, and the fact that radio waves carried far beyond the geographic limitations of the paper’s distribution, increased the reach of and audience for the Star‘s news content.
When a massive winter storm knocked out all other forms of communication in February 1924, CFCA cooperated with the Canadian Press to broadcast summaries of the CP wire service’s regular dispatches for pickup by newspapers around the province. Similarly, weekend CFCA news bulletins corrected distressing but false rumours in February 1925 that Prime Minister Mackenzie King had died when no newspaper would be printed until Monday morning.
The hours of daily broadcasting continued to increase and the station’s number of staff expanded through the 1920s. CFCA recruited the musical director at Hart House, Reginald Stewart, to form a 50-piece studio orchestra—the country’s first—for a dance program entitled the “Hour of Good Music.” Updates from Santa Claus (interspersed with advertisements of the Timothy Eaton Company) were heard at Christmastime. Reverend Cameron proved to be dynamic and engaging, and broadcasting each Sunday for almost 10 years made him the most famous preacher in the country. Composer Maurice Ravel appeared on air during a visit to Toronto.
CFCA participated in several firsts during the 1920s, including experimenting with remote broadcasting via long-distance telephone with the Champlain tercentenary celebration in Orillia in 1925; rebroadcasting programming picked up by short-wave from London and another from Australia in early 1928; and carrying a speech by the Prince of Wales a few weeks later.
The station’s programming focused on public service, covering such events as political meetings and City Hall affairs, until CFCA reporters were barred from City Hall in 1930 by Mayor Bert Wemp, the former city editor of the Telegram.
(Right: Toronto Star [June 23, 1922].)
CFCA had relocated its studio and broadcast facilities to the top floor of the new Procter & Gamble building at Yonge and St. Clair in 1924. When the Star erected a new Chapman and Oxley–designed headquarters on King Street West, which opened in 1929, Hewitt was tasked with designing a brand-new studio on the 17th floor. It was never built. Therefore, the pioneer radio station never really evolved to keep pace with developing radio technology. By the end of the decade, CFCA still only broadcast at 100 watts of power, while CKGW, owned by the Gooderham & Worts Distillery, had power of 10,000 watts.
The conservative Telegram, which utilized CKGW’s facilities for its programming, criticized CFCA’s antiquated equipment and facilities; the Star, in turn, charged that its rival merely imported American programs—a harbinger, the Star said, of the future of privately owned radio in Canada.
In the early days of radio, the rudimentary transmitting and receiving equipment made it all but impossible to avoid one signal from interfering with another. Additionally, international agreements had not initially provided an adequate number of wavelengths for the Toronto market. So when competition arrived in Toronto—such as CFRB, CKCL, CKGW, and CKNC by the end of the 1920s—the government required that only one station be broadcasting at a time.
By virtue of seniority, CFCA negotiated the preferred evening time slot for itself. This arrangement persisted until 1928 when new international agreements awarded additional wavelengths to Toronto, and word leaked that CFCA was to be granted its own wavelength. This would enable it to greatly expand its broadcasting schedule. The Telegram alleged political favouritism from the Liberal Party, and compared the Star receiving a unique wavelength over CKGW to “a hurdy-gurdy ordering a street piano off the block.” The controversy, along with bickering in the House over the federal government’s revoking licences from a series of stations operated by the International Bible Students Association (linked with Jehovah’s Witnesses), prompted the government to begin investigating a new national radio policy. In his report in 1929, banking executive Sir John Aird, who’d been tasked with investigating options, recommended the cancellation of all private radio licences in favour of a complete government monopoly of the airwaves through the creation of a national radio network. Atkinson and the Star endorsed the proposals unequivocally.
The Telegram dissented strongly, claiming that Atkinson’s support for public ownership was disingenuous because CFCA had just applied for an increase in the station’s wattage, and that the Star was in league with the federal Liberals to sell its facilities for an exorbitant fee for use as the local base of the new nationalized radio system. Atkinson responded by withdrawing the application and promising that, if CFCA received any money from government, it would be donated to hospital charities. The war of words signified little in the end. When R.B. Bennett’s Conservative government passed the Broadcasting Act in 1932, the policy created a national network, but allowed private broadcasters to operate stations of no more than 100 watts.
Just over a year after the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission (precursor of the CBC) began operations, CFCA ceased operations on September 1, 1933. Atkinson claimed he had always intended the station he’d initiated as a promotional tool to have a limited life, and that it had no place competing with a publicly owned alternative. But the cost of upgrading equipment to industry standards was likely to push $100,000, which would hardly have seemed a worthy investment for a 100-watt station. The Star would, however, continue to supply sponsored content (particularly newscasts) to CRCT, the local CBC affiliate until 1946.
Sources consulted: Sandra Gabriele and Paul S. Moore, “Old Media, New Media, Intermedia: The Toronto Star and CFCA, 1922-1933,” in Ira Wagman and Peter Urquhart, eds., Cultural Industries.ca: Making Sense of Canadian Media in the Digital Age (Lorimer, 2012); Ross Harkness, J.E. Atkinson of the Star (University Press, 1963); Bill McNeil and Morris Wolfe, Signing On: The Birth of Radio in Canada (Doubleday Canada Limited, 1982); Gil Murray, Nothing On But the Radio: A Look Back at Radio in Canada and How it Changed the World (Dundurn, 2003); Frank W. Peers, The Politics of Canadian Broadcasting 1920-1951 (University of Toronto Press, 1969); Randall White, Too Good To Be True: Toronto in the 1920s (Dundurn, 1993); and coverage in the Toronto Star (March 29 and June 23, 1922)..
Every Saturday, Historicist looks back at the events, places, and characters that have shaped Toronto into the city we know today.Google Fiber recently went live in apartments and condos in Atlanta, making it the fourth metro area to get Google's gigabit Internet service. Perhaps not coincidentally, Reddit user TheBen91 yesterday posted the above photo of a mailing from Comcast, in which the nation's largest cable company tries to convince customers that it offers a better deal than Google Fiber.
"So I got this in the mail today. I think someone is scared of Fiber coming to Atlanta," the user wrote.
Comcast's mailing touts "The fastest in-home Wi-Fi," "9X more FREE TV shows and movies On Demand," "DVR recordings to go," and the "X1 voice remote" as features that Google Fiber doesn't offer. Notably absent from the Comcast/Google Fiber comparison are prices and data caps. Google Fiber offers gigabit downloads and uploads for $70 a month, without any monthly data caps. "Basic Internet" of 100Mbps costs $50 for Google customers in Atlanta.
Atlanta, meanwhile, is one of the cities where Comcast is enforcing a monthly data cap on cable Internet with overage charges. The cap is 300GB a month with an option to pay $35 extra for unlimited data.
Comcast does provide a 2Gbps fiber service in Atlanta, but the standard price is $300 a month with $1,000 in startup fees (and no data cap). Atlanta is also slated to get Comcast's gigabit cable service, which would provide gigabit download speeds and slower uploads, with prices not yet announced. There's also no word yet on whether the standard data caps will apply to the gigabit cable service.
Reddit users mocked Comcast's mailing. While Comcast says the Wi-Fi router it provides is faster than Google's, Redditors pointed out that they can buy third-party routers with faster speeds. Google tells customers that full gigabit speeds are only available with a wired connection to the Google Network box.
Voice control isn't exclusive to Comcast, cadika_orade wrote, saying, "I don't have a voice remote with my Xfinity, but I already have voice control on my Android device. Unless you get really, really technical, it's all lies or at least intentionally deceptive advertising."
The URL on the Comcast mailing redirects to a page with a longer comparison of Xfinity and Google Fiber. This page says Comcast has the "fastest available Internet speeds" in reference to that $300-a-month 2Gbps service. Comcast even tries to make the argument that its customer service is better than Google's, pointing out that Comcast offers "guaranteed 2 hour appointment windows" while Google does not.
Comcast's customer service problems are well documented, though, with Comcast admitting it has a long way to go to fix its customer service. Even the two-hour appointment window boast may be misguided, as Google says it aims to "arrive promptly at the start of your appointment" and says its installers arrive on time 96 percent of the time.
Besides Atlanta, Google Fiber is live in Kansas City, Kansas and Missouri; Provo, Utah; and Austin, Texas, with tentative plans to build in an additional 16 metro areas.July 12, 2017 (GMT + 1) Time Activity Human vs. Computer Go #1
(19x19 Game, 45minutes/side, and Chinese Rule) 08:30
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09:30 #1-1: Chun-Hsun Chou (9P, White, Komi 7.5) @ Italy
vs.
CGI (Black) @ KGS #1-2: CGI (White, Komi 7.5) @ KGS
vs.
Chun-Hsun Chou (9P, Black) @ Italy 09:30
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10:00 Opening 10:00
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10:30 Coffee Break Human Prediction Game between Human and Darkforest Open Source #2
(19x19 Game)
10:30
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12:30 #2-1-1: Lu-An Lin (6D, Black) @ Taiwan
vs.
Darkforest Open Source (White, Komi 7.5) @ NCHC / Taiwan
Human Prediction Expert: Chun-Hsun Chou (9P / Taiwan) @ Italy #2-2-1: Shuji Takemura (1D, Black) @ Japan
vs.
Darkforest Open Source (White, Komi 7.5) @ OPU / Japan
Human Prediction Expert: Chun-Hsun Chou (9P / Taiwan) @ Italy #2-2-2: Darkforest Open Source (Black) @ OPU / Japan
vs.
Shuji Takemura (White, Komi 7.5) @ Japan
Human Prediction Expert: Chun-Hsun Chou (9P / Taiwan) @ Italy #2-2-3: Shuji Takemura (1D, Black) @ Japan
vs.
Darkforest Open Source (White, Komi 7.5) @ OPU / Japan
Human Prediction Expert: Chun-Hsun Chou (9P / Taiwan) @ Italy #2-2-4: Darkforest Open Source (Black) @ OPU / Japan
vs.
Shuji Takemura (White, Komi 7.5) @ Japan
Human Prediction Expert: Chun-Hsun Chou (9P / Taiwan) @ Italy #2-3-1: Minoru Ueda (5K, Black) @ Japan
vs.
Darkforest Open Source @ NUTN / Taiwan (White, Komi 7.5)
Human Prediction Expert: Chun-Hsun Chou (9P / Taiwan) @ Italy #2-3-2: Darkforest Open Source @ NUTN / Taiwan (Black)
vs.
Minoru Ueda (White, Komi 7.5) @ Japan
Human Prediction Expert: Chun-Hsun Chou (9P / Taiwan) @ Italy #2-3-3: Minoru Ueda (5K, Black) @ Japan
vs.
Darkforest Open Source @ NUTN / Taiwan (White, Komi 7.5)
Human Prediction Expert: Chun-Hsun Chou (9P / Taiwan) @ Italy #2-3-4: Darkforest Open Source @ NUTN / Taiwan (Black)
vs.
Minoru Ueda (White, Komi 7.5) @ Japan
Human Prediction Expert: Chun-Hsun Chou (9P / Taiwan) @ Italy 12:30
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13:30 Lunch Break Human vs. Computer Go #3
(19x19 Game, 45minutes/side, and Chinese Rule) 13:30
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15:30 #3-1: Chun-Hsun Chou (9P, Black) @ Italy
vs.
Zen (White, Komi 7.5) @ KGS #3-2: Zen (Black) @ KGS
vs.
Chun-Hsun Chou (9P, White, Komi 7.5) @ Italy 15:30
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16:00 Coffee Break Panel Discussion 16:00
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18:00 Title:
FML-based Machine Learning Competition for Human Prediction and Applications
Potential Panelists:
Chang-Shing Lee, Taiwan / Naoyuki Kubota, Japan
Giovanni Acampora, Italy / Yusuke Nojima, Japan
Marek Reformat, Canada / Francisco Herrera, Spain
Hani Hagras, UK / Autilia Vitiello, Italy
Chun-Hsun Chou, TaiwanHillary gets off again. Not enough evidence to show Hillary defamed them? Gee, I guess saying the families are lying on national TV isn’t enough.
Via NY Post:
WASHINGTON — A federal judge threw out a lawsuit against Hillary Clinton by the parents of two Americans killed in the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, ruling the former secretary of state didn’t defame them when disputing allegations that she had lied.
The lawsuit also alleged the former Democratic presidential candidate’s use of a private email server caused the death of their sons, Sean Smith and Tyrone Woods, because it exposed terrorists to sensitive information. They claimed Clinton lied when she allegedly told them it was a YouTube video that prompted the consulate attack.
“The untimely death of plaintiffs’ sons is tragic, and the Court does not mean to minimize the unspeakable loss that plaintiffs have suffered in any way,” U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington wrote in a 29-page opinion released Friday. But Berman said legal standards required the case to be dismissed.
Keep reading…Welcome to the 2017 season, where your new Prime Time Gods will be played by Alex Smith, Trevor Siemian and Sam Bradford.
There were a lot of strange happenings in Week 1, from the one-sided games to the defenses dominating to CBS analyst Tony Romo being almost too good at his new job. But there was nothing stranger than seeing the trio of middle-class quarterbacks above out-shine future Hall of Fame quarterbacks under the bright lights.
Bradford and Siemian's performances shouldn't be a shock to anyone who watched them closely last year. Bradford made huge strides in 2016 with his downfield passing and displayed incredible toughness throughout the season. Siemian makes an incredible amount of "wow" plays for someone routinely put in a box for a lack of talent. (Although juking Chargers pass rusher Joey Bosa in the open field might have been flying too close to the sun.)
The difference on Monday night was the support around Bradford and Siemian. Bradford showed he can still spin it like it's his pro day if he's afforded pass protection. Asked to carry the team as a first-time starter last season, Siemian was buoyed by a strong Broncos running game and defense.
It's too early to say these gains will stick all season; I've seen Alex Smith play clean games with a few deep shots mixed in before. But Bradford and Siemian are coming off campaigns which proved they have staying power -- and it only takes one big season to alter expectations forever. After all, at this time a year ago, Blake Bortles was seen as a potential future star and Matt Ryan was just another guy stuck in the middle.
This is the Quarterback Index. I grade every QB start throughout the season and will rank them after Week 3 based on 2017 play alone. Since there is only one game to evaluate thus far, this week's top 15 is based on answering one simple question: Who would I want as my quarterback for the 2017 campaign?
THE GREATS
1) Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay Packers (Last week: 1)
2) Tom Brady, New England Patriots (LW: 2)
Brady relies so much on his receivers understanding the Patriots' offense like he does. That's going to be a major challenge with his current group. The team was quite limited in its ability to change tempo and spread Kansas City out in Week 1 when the game situation called for it. The Chiefs forced Brady to beat them deep. And ultimately, New England's receivers didn't prove they could win enough one-on-one matchups on the outside. (Malcolm Mitchell's absence hurts here.) Kansas City's strategy was not so different than the one that worked in the first three quarters of the Super Bowl for Atlanta.
Rodgers made a lot of pretty throws last week for such a low-scoring game. Starting the season with a hard-fought bout against the Seahawks is like taking cuts in the on-deck circle with a supersized donut on your bat. The rest of the schedule should feel comparatively lightweight.
TOP SHELF
3) Ben Roethlisberger, Pittsburgh Steelers (LW: 3)
4) Russell Wilson, Seattle Seahawks (LW: 4)
5) Matt Ryan, Atlanta Falcons (LW: 7)
6) Derek Carr, Oakland Raiders (LW: 8)
7) Drew Brees, New Orleans Saints (LW: 5)
8) Dak Prescott, Dallas Cowboys (LW: 6)
9) Philip Rivers, Los Angeles Chargers (LW: 9)
10) Matthew Stafford, Detroit Lions (LW: 13)
11) Cam Newton, Carolina Panthers (LW: 10)
Watching Carr and Marcus Mariota face off in the opener, it was easy to forget the two men both suffered devastating injuries just hours apart last Christmas Eve. Carr played such a veteran game, knowing when to use his new toys, like tight end Jared Cook, and when a low-percentage outside throw to Amari Cooper isn't really that low-percentage. (Cooper looks more explosive this season, which spells trouble for defenses. Gotta cut down the drops, though.) Carr is a year ahead of Mariota in his development, but the maturation of Oakland's offense stands out more. The Raiders brought back all their key pieces and upgraded at positions of need.
The offseason overhauls to the offensive lines in Carolina and Detroit are off to fast starts. Newton had a few highly concerning throws before settling down in the second half of his first game back from shoulder surgery, but all the Panthers' offseason plans played out in Week 1. Cam wasn't hit much and got the ball out of his hand faster. Stafford also received solid protection and took advantage of a deeper skill-position group. The arrival of rookie Kenny Golladay, whose feet are quick enough to gain separation off the line of scrimmage despite his big size, could transform this offense. It upgrades two spots, with Golladay on the perimeter and Golden Tate back to bugging opposing defenses from his natural slot position.
Tate's old quarterback in Seattle is suffering from familiar problems. The Seahawks' |
in Houston, said via email that the key to being a successful commander is bringing all members of the team together, and working with each individual according to personality.
Keeping an eye on the big picture – something Chiao says Hadfield has always done — is important, too.
More than running the machines
Retired Canadian astronaut Bob Thirsk, the first Canadian to fly a long-duration mission on the space station, says the most important thing the ISS commander does is ensure the safety of the crew, followed closely by ensuring their well-being.
"Astronauts, we're typically Type A behaviour people. We'd work all 24 hours if it was totally up to us. But I think it's important for Chris to be aware of the well-being of each of his five crewmates and make sure that they do take time to attend to their own personal needs and also to their families' needs on the ground," Thirsk said in an interview before Hadfield's launch.
Being in charge, it seems, is much more than overseeing the mechanics of the space station or the science experiments running in the orbiting lab.
"In fact, the ground does a very good job of taking care of the station systems. The crew's job is just monitoring it. I think the soft skills are more important for Chris than … the operational skills," says Thirsk.
Where is the space station? Spot the Station, a free service offered by NASA, sends you an email or text message a few hours before the space station passes over your city. NASA monitors sighting opportunities for 4,600 locations worldwide. Space enthusiasts can sign up with an email account or a mobile phone number on NASA's website.
"One of the things that Chris wants to avoid at all costs is to make sure that the relationship between the crew and the ground doesn’t devolve into an us-versus-them kind of mentality. If that kind of mindset prevails, the situation is hopeless and their productivity will go way down."
And that has happened.
"Not in the ISS experience," says Thirsk, "but in other space stations in the past, crews have become territorial on board their station. They've also rebelled with mission control on the ground.
"In at least one case, crews had to be brought home early because the work just wasn't getting done due to behavioural problems on board."
A gentler style
If conflicts among astronauts emerge, then the commander has to step in, Bowersox says, but that doesn't happen very often.
"On the space station typically you'll see a bit of a gentler leadership style and that's kind of universal amongst all the different teams whether you end up with a Russian commander or a Canadian commander or a U.S. commander."
Bowersox knows first-hand how the ISS commander has to be ready for anything.
While he was on the station in 2002-2003, the space shuttle Columbia broke apart during re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere. Seven astronauts died.
The space shuttles were grounded, and along with dealing with the emotional impact of the disaster, the astronauts on the ISS no longer had access to their regular way home. (They ended up coming back in a Soyuz vehicle and landing in Kazakhstan.)
Bowersox says he's really proud of how the team on board the station handled several unexpected events, including the Columbia incident.
"We managed to keep working and stay productive despite the emotional effects of the accident," Bowersox says.
Avoiding mutiny
Bowersox looks back on his 5½ months as commander and sees one way he might have done things differently as leader.
"There were times when the space station and the environment can bring out emotions that in a team environment may not be productive," he says.
Sometimes, the on-board atmosphere of the space station has carbon dioxide levels that are a bit higher than on Earth, and that can make a person feel more irritated.
"I remember one day in particular I was ready to yell at somebody on the ground and … you'd like to avoid that if you can," says Bowersox.
"One of my crewmembers saw that I was feeling irritated and he wouldn't give me the microphone. So we had a little mutiny. I said give me the microphone. He goes, 'No, I'm not giving you the microphone,' and that was really a great support."
Chris Hadfield waves as he boards the Soyuz TMA-07M spacecraft at the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan ahead of his launch on Dec. 19, 2012, for the International Space Station. (Dmitry Lovetsky/Reuters)
Bowersox and Chiao have few words of wisdom for Hadfield — just that they wish him well.
"Enjoy every minute of it because as long as it may seem, the mission is going to come to an end and you're going to be back on the ground and you'll have those memories," says Bowersox.
"It's fun and... when you think about it, it is really a pretty rare opportunity. There aren't that many people who have had the privilege of doing that job and I think Canada should be really proud of Chris."City of Akron Warns Residents about Oak Wilt
Deadly fungal disease affecting local oak trees could spread
City of Akron Press Release
From the desk of Ellen Lander Nischt, Press Secretary
Published: 08-22-2017
Akron, Ohio, August 22, 2017- Mayor Horrigan is asking Akron homeowners to be on the look-out for Oak Wilt, a rare fungal disease detected in some Akron neighborhoods, in the North and West areas of the City. “We want to raise awareness, and inform residents about how to prevent the spread of this rare but deadly disease that can kill a healthy oak tree in a matter of days or weeks,” Mayor Horrigan said.
Oak Wilt is a fungal disease that clogs the vascular cells of the tree by cutting off the water supply from the roots to the leaves, resulting in the death of that tree. Trees become infected through open wounds or broken limbs. Oaks in the Red Oak group (Red, Scarlet, Black, and Pin) are the most susceptible to this disease. Oaks in the White Oak group (White, Bur, and Swamp White) are also vulnerable, but have some resistance.
According to the City’s arborist, Jon Malish, a warm, wet summer has contributed to the disease’s spread. The Oak Wilt spores can be transferred from tree to tree by insects, birds, squirrels or other creatures or underground through the root system.
Residents can help to eradicate Oak Wilt by following these simple guidelines:
Never voluntarily prune an oak between April 1 and October 1. If storm damage occurs or a limb breaks on a City-owned tree, contact 3-1-1 immediately.The City’s trained personnel will remove the branch and treat the wound to prevent infection. If storm damage occurs, a limb breaks, or pruning cannot be delayed on a privately-owned tree, contact an ISA Certified Arborist. The professional will treat the wound and may recommend fungicidal treatments as well.
A fact sheet with more detailed information about Oak Wilt, produced by The Ohio State University Extension, is available here. The City mailed informational letters to residents in neighborhoods where the Oak Wilt disease has resulted in the removal of City oak trees.
“The spread of Oak Wilt is preventable. By working together, we can avoid the loss of any more of our majestic, neighborhood oaks,” Mayor Horrigan urged.
Please contact the Mayor’s Action Center at 3-1-1 or (330) 375-2311 to report damage to a City tree or to request additional information about preventing Oak Wilt.
##
For further information, contact:
Ellen Lander Nischt
Press Secretary / Assistant Director of Law
166 South High Street
Suite 200
Akron, Ohio 44308
Phone: 330 375-2325
E-mail: [email protected]Vernon police are investigating an apparent case of road rage captured on dash camera video on Tuesday.A motorcyclist with his helmet in his hand is seen walking up to a Nissan Sentra stopped at a light and talking with the driver.The chat apparently does not go well.First the motorcyclist bangs the car door with his fist as he walks off. Then he smashes his helmet into the car's rear window, completely shattering the glass.But the Nissan driver doesn't just take the hit.He pops his trunk and grabs a hammer, taking a wild swing at the motorcyclist, but missing as he speeds by.The video was posted on YouTube, with footage time-stamped Tuesday 4:16 p.m. It happened at the intersection of Downey Road and Bandini Boulevard.Police say they have contacted the motorcyclist but would like to speak with the driver of the Nissan. If you have any information regarding this incident, please contact the Vernon Police Department.According to a AAA study, male drivers were three times more likely to get out of their car and confront another driver or ram another vehicle on purpose. The study also showed that 80 percent of Americans have experienced significant anger or aggression while driving.Note: By submitting this form, you agree to Third Door Media's terms. We respect your privacy.
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Bing has generally been great to SEOs and webmasters, and nowhere is this more apparent than with Bing Webmaster Tools.
In many ways, Bing Webmaster Tools is actually more advanced — and caters more to SEO professionals — than its Google counterpart, Google Search Console. For this, I give them a round of applause. I mean, would we have a Google Disavow Links Tool if Bing hadn’t released one first? Maybe; but I still applaud Bing for catering to SEOs.
Bing Webmaster Tools has a lot to offer, and in this post, I aim to profile all of its major features. This information comes from both Bing documentation and firsthand experience.
Adding & Verifying A Website
Adding a site to Bing Webmaster Tools is easy. After logging in, enter the URL for your site’s home page and click the “Add” button. From there, you’ll be directed to a screen to enter basic information and a sitemap URL.
Before you can begin maintaining your site and viewing data, the website must be verified. After adding a site, “Verify Now” will appear, giving you three options for verification. The first option involves XML File Verification, where the “BingSiteAuth.xml” file will need to be downloaded and placed in the root directory of the website.
The second option allows for meta tag verification by inserting the custom line of code provided by Bing into the homepage of your site.
Finally, there’s DNS verification, which involves a bit more technical skill than the previous two methods. You’ll need access to your hosting to edit the CNAME record to hold the verification code.
After verification, expect that it will take 1-2 days for Bing to collect and display data for newly added sites. This allows time for indexing and crawling.
My Sites
Bing Webmaster Tools offers a user-friendly interface to maintain multiple websites from a single account.
When you log in to Webmaster Tools, you’ll see a list of the websites you manage along with a snapshot of information about each, including clicks, impressions, pages indexed, and pages crawled.
To dig deeper into the data for a specific website, simply click on it to access the site dashboard. (Note: Your site must be verified in order to access this data.)
Site Dashboards
Once your website has been verified, you’ll be able to access its Site Dashboard from the My Sites page.
Site Dashboards offer an overview of your recent site activity in Bing, a list of sitemaps you’ve submitted, your top organic search keywords, your top inbound links, and a small drop-down menu of URL diagnostic tools. You can click through to see more comprehensive data on any of these sections or use the left navigation to explore additional reports and tools.
Configure My Site
This section will outline some of the most useful tools within the “Configure My Site” subnavigation.
Sitemaps
Your sitemap(s) will tell Bing about your website’s structure, making it easier for the search engine to crawl and index your site pages. Bing supports the following formats:
XML Sitemap
RSS 2.0
Atom 0.3 & 1.0
Yahoo and Bing mRSS
Text files
While there are many ways to submit a sitemap to Bing, doing so through Bing Webmaster Tools’ Sitemaps feature is arguably the easiest. Here, you can submit a sitemap for your website and view sitemap information (such as the date submitted, number of URLs, last crawl date, etc.). You can also resubmit, remove, or export your sitemaps here.
If you’re using XML sitemaps, double check your sitemap submission using the Sitemaps.org protocol. If your site is going to be fairly static, pay special attention to the site architecture as well.
Media RSS Video Feed Specifications
Bing will support video extensions with the XML Sitemap Protocol to allow for the discovery and indexing of videos. However, Bing prefers that you submit a separate file in the mRSS format so it can better recognize video-related content.
Bing currently supports full feed (which would include the back catalog), incremental feed (where it’s updated as new videos are added), and expired feed (a list solely of expired videos) sitemaps for videos. However, if you already know the expiration date when a video is originally published, Bing recommends using the <expireDate> tag in the original feed.
Submit URLs
You can request for Bing to recrawl, or conduct an initial crawl of, specific pages by using the Submit URLs feature. This is used to submit URLs that are not currently in Bing’s index or need to be reindexed due to changes. Add one URL per line and click “Submit” to have the URLs evaluated for search indexation to appear in search results.
As beneficial as this feature is, it is currently limited to 50 URL submissions per month (10 per day max), so save the requests for your most important pages. Note that this feature is also limited to root domains only.
Ignore URL Parameters
URL parameters are useful for tracking a variety of user behaviors, but the downside is that websites that utilize them can end up with multiple versions of the URL, each of which is serving the exact same content. This can lead to duplicate content issues, which can have a negative impact on your SEO efforts.
Luckily, Bing Webmaster Tools lets you indicate which URL parameters Bing crawlers should ignore. (You won’t need to use this feature if you have set up canonical tags, noindex, or a robots.txt file rule — each of these options can do the same thing as URL parameter settings, though all of them handle it a little differently.)
Similar to Google’s parameter handling, the URL normalization on Bing allows you to resolve parameter issues. You’ll specify which query patterns Bing’s crawlers should ignore to prevent duplicate content in the Bing index, avoid a page’s index value from being split between multiple URL variations, and avoid unnecessary bandwidth usage by the search crawler.
This feature should be used with caution so you don’t unintentionally exclude relevant URLs and content from the site. Make sure the parameters don’t cross over into other areas on your site that Bing will then ignore.
Crawl Control Settings
Search engines want to pull as much useful information as possible from your website; however, they don’t want to weigh your website down in doing so.
As a result, Bing allows you to create a customized crawling pattern with the Crawl Control feature. You can choose from one of several presets or create your own custom crawl rate based on when your site traffic is lightest.
Bing automatically selects the best rate for your site, but you can adjust this manually. You may want to select a custom crawl rate if you want Bingbot to visit during off-peak hours, especially if you’re running promotions that may impact your bandwidth, expecting a large amount of traffic, or doing heavy online content promotion.
Deep Links
Bing has a feature similar to Google’s sitelinks, known as Deep Links. These are the links that appear beneath top-ranked search results, linking directly to various landing pages within the site.
Essentially, Deep Links allow for more visibility in search results by offering more content options for users to select.
While you don’t have the ability to add Deep Links (they are automatically generated based on what content Bing deems most important), you can block specific URLs from being Deep Linked within search results.
You can block deep links by:
Entering the URL for the Deep Link Block. Entering the URL of the specific search result (optional). Selecting a country/region to block (optional). Click “Block.”
All specified Deep Links are blocked for 90 days, but the block can be extended manually. Any deep link block can be removed using the delete button, but that may change search results. Deep link information can be exported by downloading and saving a local CSV to keep records of the deep link blocks.
Block URLs
Bing allows you to remove a page or directory from the search engine’s index. After selecting a page or directory, enter the URL to select the block feature with the option to block completely or from cache.
Bing says the best way to block URLs that are currently published is with the NOINDEX meta tag in the HTML header of the page to tell Bing to never index that page as the robots.txt governs what the search engine visits. However, if you need to block a page quickly, you can use the Block URLs feature under the Configure My Site section. This allows you to temporarily block the page directory URLs and cache, buying you time to make the necessary changes to take the page down.
To block URLs:
Choose they type of URL, such as blocking an entire directory or page to block a single URL. Enter the full URL to block. Click “Block URL and Cache” or “Block Cache.” The URL will be blocked for 90 days, which can extended at the end of 90 days if you need more time.
There is an export option, which is helpful for doing site audits, although the ability to mass upload or input multiple URLs is still limited.
Page Preview
When indexing a web page, Bing generates a snapshot of the page to be used as a preview image within search results. The Page Preview feature in Bing Webmaster Tools allows you to view this snapshot.
While you can’t specify an image to be used as your page preview image, you can request to have your page preview image blocked from search results and/or request for the image to be refreshed. This is important if your page preview image contains content that was accidentally published and needs to be removed from view. However, it may take as long as 24 hours for the block to take effect.
Disavow Links
To help maintain a clean link profile, webmasters can use the Disavow feature to notify Bing about any untrustworthy links pointing to their websites.
To disavow these unnatural, low quality, or spammy links, do the following:
Use the drop-down to specify whether you’re disavowing links from a URL at the domain, directory, or individual page level. Enter the URL of the domain, directory, or page you want to disavow. Click “Disavow.”
This will signal to Bing that you’d like to distance yourself from inbound links from these sources, though you shouldn’t expect to see a significant change in rankings from using this tool. There is no limit to the number of links you can disavow, and the links will still appear and be counted in the Inbound Links tool.
Connected Pages
Bing allows brands to associate websites with their corresponding social media accounts using the Connect Pages feature. Simply add the URLs for the specified social media accounts and select “verify.” Once you’ve completed the verification process, you’ll then be able to view the impressions and click data from the dashboard of the connected pages.
App Linking
If your brand has an app for Windows 8.1 or Windows phones, you can help new users discover it (and encourage existing users re-engage with it) via App Linking. According to Bing:
App Linking makes connections in Windows and Windows Phone search between web sites and applications. When a user search brings up the main default page of a web site, such as http://www.adventureworks.com, and that web site is linked to an app, the search results include a link to open the app. If the app is not installed, the user receives a link to install it from the Windows Store or Windows Phone Store.
To make your app appear within website-level search results in Windows 8.1 and on Windows phones, add your app’s store URL as a Connected Page and go through the verification process. (You can integrate the app at the web page level, too, though that requires some extra steps.)
If need be, you can also use the App Linking page to remove the app.
Geo-Targeting
If your target audience is in a different country from your local TLD (e.g., you are targeting British searchers with a.com domain rather than a.co.uk), or if different sections of your website are targeting people from different countries, then you may want to make use of the Geo-Targeting feature in Bing Webmaster Tools. This feature allows you to specify the country audience for your content on multiple levels, including the domain, subdomain, directory, and page.
To set up Geo-Targeting:
Select the URL type (domain, subdomain, directory, or page) from the drop-down to specify geo-targeting. Enter the corresponding URL. Select the country you’re targeting from the drop-down. Click “Submit.”
Keep in mind that this doesn’t guarantee that your website will show up in search results for any particular country. It’s just one signal among many that Bing uses to evaluate and rank websites.
Using Reports & Data
Bing provides comprehensive reports and data to analyze the effectiveness of your site on the search engine. This data can be exported to be displayed on spreadsheets to help track, monitor, and identify opportunities to increase website traffic through the metrics reports. The Reports & Data tab shows site activity, page traffic, search keywords, SEO reports and crawl information all in one clean dashboard. Well done, Bing!
Page Traffic Reports
The Page Traffic report displays page-level search performance metrics for your top pages in organic search, including clicks from search, impressions, click-through rate, and more — all of which can be exported into an Excel file.
Additionally, there’s a “View” hyperlink at the end of each row that opens a pop-up window showing detailed information on which keywords drove organic search traffic to that page. When viewing the search keyword details, you can expand the data by clicking the + symbol to see how the URL has performed for the keyword phrase and the ranking position of each.
Index Explorer
The Index Explorer lets you see which pages Bing has crawled or attempted to crawl, providing data on the number of URLs that Bing has discovered, how many of those URLs appeared in search results, and the number of clicks received from search results. By scrolling through the folders, you can view data for a specific section of your website.
To help identify potential issues, you can filter the data to only show pages with 301 redirects, pages returning 404 errors, pages with identified malware infections, and pages that you’ve excluded via your robots.txt file.
To view additional HTTP status codes, simply click where it says “Show custom options” and select from the HTTP code drop-down. You’ll view the information for selected time frames and crawl range.
Search Keywords Report
The Search Keywords Report allows you to see which keywords from organic search are driving impressions and clicks to your website. This will show you how your site is performing in terms of click-through rates and the average ranking of your site when it’s clicked. By default, only the last 30 days are displayed but you can extend the range using the date selector.
SEO Reports
With the SEO reports, you’ll view recommendations to help your site abide by SEO best practices. Click on a specific SEO suggestion to view an explanation of the error and recommended course of action, and also get a list of pages that aren’t compliant.
Inbound Links
The Inbound Links section features the external links Bing has found that are pointing to your site. You’ll discover if you’re gaining or losing links over time with the chart provided.
To view the inbound links pointing to a specific page (up to 20,000), as well as the anchor text for each inbound link, you can select a URL from the list of Target Pages. This data can then be exported to a CSV.
According to Bing, “You can export up to one million inbound links in one go from the main page, or up to 20,000 for each individual page.”
Crawl Information Report
The Crawl Information tab provides a deeper view into the crawl errors occurring on your site. By clicking on the number under the error alert, you’ll see a list of URLs returning that particular status code or error. These alerts will help you understand why Bing is having difficulty accessing your content, which can alert you to potential issues.
Common issues Bing will report include:
HTTP Status Code Errors
Malware Infections
Excluded by Robots.txt
DNS failure
Connection Errors
Using Diagnostics & Tools
Bing Webmaster Tools provides a number of handy diagnostic tools to help you fix website issues and maximize search visibility.
Keyword Research Tool
Bing allows you to perform keyword research to help establish a successful SEO campaign. With access to Bing’s keyword research data, you’ll see the query volumes for keywords on Bing and related keywords to help you develop areas to target. The keyword volume data uses organic search to understand the relative popularity of keywords. There are multiple filters that can be applied for more specific results.
Link Explorer
The Link Explorer allows you to analyze any site’s backlink profile, which is handy when it comes to competitive analysis. You can filter this link data in a variety of ways, including by site, source (internal, external, or both) and anchor text; you can also decide whether you want to look at backlinks for an entire site or a specific URL.
Fetch As Bingbot
View your site through the eyes of Bing with the Fetch as Bingbot feature. It’s an important tool for troubleshooting errors that may be hurting your site. Just enter your URL and select “Fetch” to see how Bingbot sees your page source.
Verify Bingbot Tool
Research IPs that are in your log files to determine whether or not they belong to Bingbot. Simply, enter the IP address to confirm that traffic in your server logs with requests using “Bingbot” or “MSNBOT” are legitimate. If the IP addresses aren’t genuine, this indicates the server making the request isn’t legitimate.
Markup Validator
For those using structured markup — in this case, Schema.org, RDFa, Microformats, HTML Microdata, or Open Graph — the Markup Validator will indicate whether or not it was correctly implemented. If the markup has been applied correctly, the code from the scanned page will show in the markup report.
SEO Analyzer
Analyze individual pages to evaluate SEO performance! While the SEO Reports tab is focused more on site-wide SEO issues, the SEO Analyzer looks in-depth at a single page of your choosing. The analyzer scans any URL to report if the page is in compliance with the best SEO practices, then generates a report with recommendations.
Site Move
The Site Move feature allows you to notify Bing that your site has moved to a new domain (or that you’ve moved a section of your site elsewhere). While Bing will generally pick up the redirects and change the indexing regardless, the Site Move feature can speed up the process.
Malware
If malware has been detected on any of your pages — or if any of your pages is linking to malware — Bing Webmaster Tools will inform you of that on the Malware tab, under Security.
Types of malware issues reported by Bing Webmaster Tools include:
Malware network reference
Browser exploit
Malicious JavaScript
Malicious ActiveX
Malware found in adjacent pages
Malware reported by external source
After you’ve rid your site of the malware and addressed whatever security issues allowed it to enter your site in the first place, you can use the Malware tool to request a review for Bing to reevaluate your site.
Messages & Alerts
Bing will communicate with you through the Message Center to notify you about any issues, such as malware detection or crawl speed concerns. If you’re using Bing Webmaster Tools for multiple sites, you can filter the messages for specific sites, as well as message types (crawl errors, index issues, etc.).
Additional Features
Content Removal. The Content Removal Tool allows you to notify Bing of pages that contain broken links or outdated content. Simply submit a page removal request or outdated cache removal request.
The Content Removal Tool allows you to notify Bing of pages that contain broken links or outdated content. Simply submit a page removal request or outdated cache removal request. Webmaster API. Bing provides you with an API to pull your data from Bing Webmaster Tools to internal tools. The directions are simple to follow using the API key and documentation.
I hope you enjoyed this guide to Bing Webmaster Tools. A big thanks to @Alyssa_Ast who helped compile this some of this information.
Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.The video itself is viewable only through the Bohemian Rhapsody Experience, but it can be seen in a basic 360-degree mode, or in stereoscopic 3D using Google Cardboard. The app takes viewers on a tour of a surreal mindscape of shapes, sound and animation -- first leading them through a dreamlike mishmash of images that seems to represent Mercury's mind, then onto the stage of a Queen Concert, complete with an animated band and then, after a brief stop in the underworld, into outer space for a neon-light finale. It's gorgeous, and thanks to a spatial audio mix, fairly immersive.
It sounds like a project that came out of left field, but to folks familiar with the band's lead guitarist, it makes a lot of sense. In addition to being a world-class guitarist and holding a PHD in astronomy, Brian May is also the director of the London Stereoscopic Company, where he maintains resources on stereo photographs and helped create the OWL Virtual Reality Kit -- a collapsible VR viewer in the vein of Google Cardboard. You can find that over on his company's website. Just want the Bohemian Rhapsody app? The iOS version isn't ready quiet yet, but Android users can head on over to Google Play.Can digital literacy and Equal Rating solutions help connect the unconnected?
Today, 4 billion people live without the internet. There’s a global debate about how to connect the unconnected, but it’s often dominated by assumptions and not a lot of data or talking to actual users on the ground.
To better inform this issue, Mozilla recently supported a series of focus groups to investigate how and why people use subsidized services in India, Myanmar, Peru, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda and South Africa. Today, we’re releasing the results of this research carried out by Research ICT Africa, LIRNEasia and IEP.
Why do we care?
Many companies and organizations are working to connect the unconnected. For us at Mozilla, it is our mission to ensure the internet is a global public resource that’s open and accessible to all.
We’ve focused our work in this space on a concept we call Equal Rating. Building on Mozilla’s strong commitment to net neutrality, Equal Rating models are free of discrimination, gatekeepers, and pay-to-play schemes. Equal Rating stands in contrast to zero rating business models, which reduce the cost to zero only for some sites and services. We’ve pursued this through policy engagement with governments, an innovation challenge to catalyze new thinking in providing affordable access, and this research.
What did we ask?
What barriers are keeping people offline?
Is zero rating serving as an on-ramp to the internet?
Why and how do people use subsidized services?
Do people move beyond subsidized services, or do they just stay in the subsidized walled garden?
How does use of subsidized services affect future internet usage?
What did we find?
Zero rating is not serving as an on-ramp to the internet
In all countries surveyed — excluding India where zero rating has been banned by the regulator — focus groups revealed that users are not coming online through zero rated services. While more research is needed, if zero rating is not actually serving as an on-ramp to bring people online, the benefits seem low, while the resulting risk of these offerings creating an anti-competitive environment is extremely high.
People use zero rating as one of many cost saving strategies
This research revealed that people who use zero rated services usually also have full access to the internet, and make use of zero rated and subsidized data services as one of many money-saving strategies, including:
Use of multiple SIM cards to take advantage of promotions, better reception quality, or better prices for a given service.
Use of public Wi-Fi. For example, many buses in Kenya now provide Wi-Fi access, and participants reported being willing to wait for a bus that was Wi-Fi-enabled.
Tethering to mobile hotspots. In South Africa and India, users not only share data but also promotions and subsidized offers from one phone to another.
Earned reward applications (where users download, use, or share a promoted application in return for mobile data/credit). The research indicates that most users tend to play the system to get the most credit possible and then abandon the earned reward application.
While users, especially in the African studies, report skepticism about whether zero rated promotions are truly free, partially subsidized bundles are popular. Notably, many of these offerings are Equal Rating compliant.
Some, particularly rural and low income users, are trapped in walled gardens
While zero rated services tend to be only part of internet usage for most users studied, some users are getting trapped in the walled gardens of these subsidized offerings.
In particular, low income respondents in Peru and Rwanda use zero rated content for much of their browsing activity, as do rural respondents in Myanmar.
Awareness matters: in Myanmar, respondents who know they are in a zero rated walled garden (e.g., due to lack of photos and video) are more likely to access the full internet beyond the walled garden.
But, when Facebook is subsidized without impacting user experience, users tend to concentrate their usage on that single site, demonstrating concerns around the anti-competitive effects of zero rating.
Digital illiteracy limits access for connected and unconnected alike
Infrastructure and affordability are commonly cited barriers to internet access around the world; yet, this research also points to a third important barrier: digital literacy.
Users and non-users alike do not understand all that the internet can offer.
Users generally restrict their internet use to a few large websites and services.
A lack of understanding about the internet and internet-connected devices exacerbates misconceptions and spreads fear around privacy, security, and health, which in turn undermines use of the internet. One Kenyan respondent said of non-users: “there are some assumptions that they can get diseases transmitted to them like skin cancer through the use of the internet.”
Many companies and NGOs are already doing great work to advance digital literacy, but we need to scale up these efforts.
Competition, literacy, language, and gender are also barriers to internet access
This research highlighted a series of consistent and persistent barriers to access.
While 95% of the world has access to an internet signal, far too often, users have access to only one, low quality provider, usually the most expensive option in their country.
Without basic literacy, some respondents cannot access the internet. As one respondent in rural South Africa said, “if you cannot read or write you cannot use internet, many people in this community are not educated and I believe most of them want to be able to use internet because it makes life easier.”
Others in Myanmar, Peru, and Rwanda cite the lack of local language content and tools as keeping them from coming online.
Evidence of a gendered digital divide is seen throughout all of the countries studied, with some women afraid of “breaking the machine” while others say social stigma, domestic abuse, negative impressions, and housework obligations limit their use of the internet.
These are just some of the highlights and interesting findings. We have results from nearly 80 focus groups in these seven countries. For more detailed information, the country summaries and full reports are available here.
Next steps to bring the next 4 billion online
Mozilla supported this research to help better inform what we believe is a global imperative to bring the world’s 4 billion unconnected people online to access the full and open internet.
Based on these findings, we believe the internet needs:
The development of more Equal Rating compliant models, many of which seemed to be quite popular with research respondents and provide access to the full diversity of the open internet, not just some parts of it.
Further investment in digital literacy training, especially in schools, on devices, and in retail outlets. For more information about Mozilla’s digital literacy efforts, see our recent Digital Skills Observatory study.
Work on all barriers to access to address infrastructure investment especially in rural areas, affordability, local content and local language tools, and gender equality.
Bringing the full internet to all people is one of the great challenges of our time. While we know there is more research needed, this research better informs the global debate on how to connect the unconnected, and makes clear the challenges ahead. We are committed to tackling these challenges but we know it will take all of us — tech companies, telecom companies, governments, civil society groups and philanthropists — working together to get everyone online.
We’d like to thank the researchers at Research ICT Africa, LIRNEasia, and IEP, as well as Jochai Ben-Avie (who manages all our Equal Rating work) and Peter Cihon (our awesome summer intern) who helped analyze this research.Thank you, thank you, thank you,... all the comments and favorites have been so nice, puts a huge smile on my face!
I figure now that this recieved a daly deviantion I should talk about how this photo came about.
Burning Man 2008 was my first year and I was having allot of fun in a very strange world. I took my camera out but didn't find time to pull it out until Friday. My first evening out with the camera I stumble out to the Esplanade and see what looks like the most perfect picture, except I have to run to the right spot to capture the sunset. Well, I tore my achilles running!
The next day after a night of sole searching I decided to go out again. Except this time there was a dust storm, visibility was as low as a couple feet at times. I was on crutches and in loads of pain. But I wasn't going to miss the day of he burn for anything. As I was crutching allong I watched scene after scene come and then fade away into the dust. They were like little mirages passing.
At one point the dust parted and I saw the pirate ship sitting, waiting out the storm. I thought for a bit, wondered how much damage my camera would take in the storm (like it wasn't plastered in dust). Then I said, to hell with it, I don't own a camera to keep it pretty.
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changes
Teleblock changes
Other questions
Since the release of the Grand Exchange, it hasn't been possible to trade tier 1 Bounty Emblems despite them being tradeable.In order to help people get their hands on larger quantities of these emblems, we will be offering to make it possible to buy them through the G.E.: Should tier 1 Bounty Hunter emblems be tradeable on the Grand Exchange? It would also become possible to note emblems with this change.Currently, the chance of receiving a mysterious emblem from one of the Wilderness bosses on world 318 is very slim, sitting at 1 in 50. We want to make it much more common by making it a 1 in 5 chance.: Should the chance of receiving mysterious emblems from wilderness bosses be increased to 1 in 5 from 1 in 50? It would still only be possible to receive emblems as a drop on world 318.One of the most common frustrations Bounty Hunters face is getting targets who are located in deep wilderness. We will be offering the addition of a toggle allowing Bounty Hunters to only get targets who are located in level 1 - 5 Wilderness.: Should a toggle be added to Bounty Hunter which prevents you getting targets who are located beyond level 5 Wilderness?We'd like to display a couple more crucial bits of information about your Bounty Hunter target. This would include whether or not they're skulled, and what tier emblem they are holding (if they have one).: Should the Bounty Hunter overlay display whether or not your target is skulled, and the tier of emblem they are holding (if any)?The Teleport to Bounty Target spell is currently used very infrequently. In order to make it a bit more worth using, we'll be offering the removal of the rune cost.: Should the rune cost of the Teleport to Bounty Target spell be removed?Risk is something which comes hand-in-hand with the Wilderness. It is a dangerous, abandoned land where its inhabitants do as they please. The way that dropping items in the Wilderness currently works doesn't always play into this vision.Items can be dropped onto the ground before a death, and players can then quickly return where they died to pick them back up. Evading the risk of death in this way isn't really in the spirit of the Wilderness, so we would like toAlongside this change, we would also. The aim of this is to prevent teams providing their own with an unlimited flow of supplies in otherwise deadly situations.All of these changes would also be applied to dangerous areas in: Should tradeable items dropped within PvP areas appear instantly? This would not apply to food or potions, instead they would never appear to other players.Currently, both successfully landing and splashing a teleblock provide the same amount of experience. On this week's poll, we will be offering to reduce the amount of experience given for a teleblock which fails.This will make it a little easier to tell when your teleblock was successful.: Should splashing a teleblock provide less experience than casting one successfully?When under the effects of a teleblock, we would like to let you knowin the chat message when attempting to teleport.As the teleblock timer currently only runs, we'd need to rewrite the timer to run more frequently. This would allow us to give you the number of, rather than just the number of minutes.Rewriting the teleblock timer would have the addedof making the duration ofCurrently, the duration of teleblocks can vary by up to a minute. Rewriting the timer would put an end to this - meaning that a teleblock would last 5 minutes, instead of anywhere from 4 - 5 minutes.: Should we change the teleblock spell so that it can tell you how many seconds remain before you can teleport? This will make the duration of teleblocks more consistent.If you get teleblocked within the Wilderness and return to a safe area, your teleblock is removed. This isn't currently the case in PvP worlds. Should it be?: Should teleblocks be removed when you enter a safe zone on PvP worlds?: Should a Wine of Zamorak spawn be added to the temple found in level 35 wilderness? This wine would need to be telegrabbed, and players who have completed the hard wilderness diary would receive them in noted form.: Should the kill death ratio overlay track kills and deaths in the entire wilderness, rather than just those beyond level 20 wilderness?Discuss this blog on our forumsBlake Hounshell is the editor in chief of POLITICO Magazine.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates—Donald Trump was everywhere and nowhere.
His name came up almost constantly—in side conversations, in pointed questions to panelists, in broadsides from the main stage. And even when the new American president wasn’t invoked by name, his putative threat to world order was very much on people’s minds: Is trade dead? Is globalization over? What does “America First” mean for the rest of us?
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Here at the World Government Summit—a sort of Middle Eastern Davos-in-the-making put on by the United Arab Emirates, and the first major international confab since Trump took office—the mood among the 4,000 or so attendees was one of confusion mixed with concern.
After all, this was a gathering of precisely the kind of cosmopolitan elites Trump ran against on the campaign trail, and has vowed to disempower as president. His chief strategist, Steve Bannon, blasted these villains in a blunt post-election interview that previewed Trump’s inaugural address weeks later: “The globalists gutted the American working class and created a middle class in Asia. The issue now is about Americans looking to not get fucked over.”
If there’s anyone who embodies the idea of globalism, it’s Klaus Schwab, founder of the Switzerland-based World Economic Forum, who opened the conference with a grim assessment of the populist wave led by Trump. “People in some parts of the world are angry. Facts do not anymore count. Fake news may become more important than reality,” he said.
Schwab, whose organization has come to symbolize the idea of a borderless world that Trump rails against, also offered something of an apology. “We should not go back to neoliberalism, and say we want to fix the system by making it more inclusive,” he declared. “What we have seen is a revolution against the system, so fixing the system is not enough.”
“We should not look at globalism and nationalism as enemies. We are a global society with a shared future,” he said. “At the same time, we need a national identity.”
But like others struggling to understand Trumpism, Schwab offered more in the way of slogans than answers, and proceeded to plug his most recent book—The Fourth Industrial Revolution, a techno-optimist look at advances like artificial intelligence, genome editing and cryptography—when in all likelihood the acceleration of existing technological trends is only going to widen those divides and create more Trumps. (“We need to move out from this negativism,” Schwab said, “and move to a place where we again have trust in the future.”)
Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, faced a barrage of questions about Trump, and while she deflected them—the IMF is optimistic about his tax reform and infrastructure plans, she revealed—she also grappled with elites’ failure to anticipate the populist backlash that Trump represents.
“We’ve been saying internationalization is great, global trade is great,” Lagarde acknowledged. “But we haven’t been so focused on sharing the benefits.” Asked why she and others missed the Trump phenomenon, she said: “Because it was insidious. Because it happened over time.”
How might globalization’s defenders retool? “I know it’s not fashionable at the moment, but I think facts, figures,” she said, in another unmistakable shot at Trump and his penchant for misrepresenting reality. (“We are facing a real challenge,” the left-leaning economist Joseph Stiglitz added during a later session, “undermining the common agreement of what is truth.”)
The hits on Trump kept coming, as did the mea culpas from the globalists.
“Globalization has brought increasing wealth and improved welfare in general, but it also had its losses,” said U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres. “Many people feel that they have been left behind, and that the political establishments of their countries have not taken care of them.”
As for Trump, who has threatened to slash the U.N.’s funding and shown little appreciation for its value, Guterres said: “My position about the way the United Nations needs to deal with the U.S. administration is simple: Respect its principles.”
Guterres suffered his first black eye at the hands of the Trump administration this week when U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley blocked the appointment of former Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad as envoy to Libya, but he held his rhetorical ground, at least. “I deeply regret this opposition and I see no validity in it,” he said.
Using the kind of language usually applied to problems like terrorism, Jim Yong Kim, the World Bank chief appointed by Barack Obama, suggested that global institutions had a responsibility to address the anger that led to Trump. “It’s not enough to condemn xenophobia and populism; we need to engage with the root causes that make them fester.”
It was ironic to watch all this globalist soul-searching on display in Dubai, a city that has benefited from globalization perhaps more than any other—importing labor from all over the world and positioning itself as a symbol of openness in the closed-off Middle East, and a gateway between East and West.
Gulf Arab leaders openly cheered the departure of Obama, whose dealings with Iran and embrace of the Arab Spring both infuriated and alarmed them. Now, they’re trying to figure out what to make of Trump, whose promises to get tough on Tehran and attacks on Islamist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood have undeniable appeal here.
They may have to keep guessing for now. Last year, Obama gave the WGS keynote address via video, but the Trump administration sent nobody to this year’s conference to explain its positions—perhaps understandable given all the chaos back at the White House, but an unmistakable sign of its insularity nonetheless.
The UAE (which, through the U.N. Foundation, paid for my travel and lodging here) was the only Arab country to defend Trump’s executive order on immigration, rejecting the idea that it was a “Muslim ban,” and its ambassador in Washington has cozied up to top White House officials including Jared Kushner. But this is realpolitik, not love. When asked about dealing with Trump, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, Dubai’s absolute ruler and the UAE’s vice president, was characteristically unsentimental. “We have relationships with governments and states, not individuals,” he said. “Our relations are based on the interests of our country.”
Privately, some will admit to worrying that Trump will unleash a global trade war that will make everyone worse off. An Emirati close to the royal family told me that the official stiff upper lip masked real concern: “If globalization dries up, Dubai is finished.”
For now, the world goes on—and much of the conference had nothing to do with America or Trump whatsoever. There were booths on blockchain technology and the UAE’s plans to visit Mars, and a “Museum of the Future” showcasing sci-fi technologies like robotic gardens and a jellyfish-mangrove hybrid that could generate fresh water. The prime minister of Bhutan flitted from panel to panel, promoting the idea of “gross national happiness” as a better barometer of a country’s well-being than GDP.
Parag Khanna, a Singapore-based author and proud globalist who gave a talk here on “liquid borders,” laughed at the idea that Trump can roll back globalization, as many here fear. Pointing to reams of statistics showing the explosion of new trade ties with little or no involvement from the United States, he told me that Trump would merely act as an “accelerant” of existing trends. As for the U.S., “America First” or no, “people will care a lot less about what we do,” he predicted.
Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, the head of DP World, a UAE-based ports conglomerate that operates in 40 countries, also disputed the assumption that Trump threatens global trade, noting that some 75 percent of the world’s economic growth is in emerging markets. Sulayem has his business down to a science—he rattled off statistics, such as how 1 percent growth in a country means a 3 percent growth in shipping containers. His company is focused on cracking open markets in hard-to-reach places like the interior of Africa, and doesn’t much worry about what the United States is doing.
As for Trump and his populist allies in Europe and around the world, “I think this is a phase,” he said. “This is something that will pass.”A Treasury Department spokesman acknowledged on Saturday that on at least two occasions, the U.S. did make payments to the Iranian government via wire transfer. U.S. wire payments to Iran undercut Obama
The United States made at least two separate payments to the Iranian government via wire transfer within the last 14 months, a Treasury Department spokesman confirmed Saturday, contradicting explanations from President Barack Obama that such payments were impossible.
Responding to questions at an Aug. 4 press conference about a $400 million payment delivered in cash to the Iranian government, Obama said, “[T]he reason that we had to give them cash is precisely because we are so strict in maintaining sanctions and we do not have a banking relationship with Iran that we couldn't send them a check and we could not wire the money.”
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But a Treasury Department spokesman acknowledged on Saturday that on at least two occasions, the U.S. did make payments to the Iranian government via wire transfer.
In July 2015, the same month in which the U.S., Iran and other countries announced a landmark nuclear agreement, the U.S. government paid the Islamic republic approximately $848,000. That payment settled a claim over architectural drawings and fossils that are now housed in the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art and Iran’s Ministry of Environment, respectively. Then, in April 2016, the U.S. wired Iran approximately $9 million to remove 32 metric tons of its heavy water, which is used to produce plutonium and can aid in the making of nuclear weapons.
While some sanctions relating to Iran’s nuclear program were lifted with the implementation of the nuclear agreement, others imposed over the Islamic Republic’s human rights policies and support for terrorist organizations remain in effect. The July 2015 wire transfer was made while the full weight of sanctions against Iran were intact, while the April 2016 payment for heavy water was made after the lifting of nuclear-related sanctions.
The Treasury Department spokesman explained that the lifting of those sanctions allowed Iran “to gain incremental access to the international financial system, which opened up more options for executing transactions, such as the heavy water transaction” that occurred in April 2016. The spokesman declined to offer an explanation as to why the July 2015 payment was possible despite the full array of sanctions in place at the time.
That $400 million cash payment that Obama said could not have been delivered any other way was part of a larger $1.7 billion settlement with Iran, the remainder of which was also delivered in cash. The $400 million, paid in January to settle a decades-old dispute over military equipment order by the late shah of Iran, was sent through intermediary central banks in Europe, who then delivered pallets of euros, Swiss francs and other currencies to Tehran.
The Treasury Department spokesman said that the January settlement specified that payment be made in cash because Iran had previously had difficulty accessing wire-transferred funds and was “very aware of the difficulties it would face in accessing and using the funds from the January 2016 settlement payment if they were in any other form than cash.”
A senior Obama administration official contested that the Treasury Department’s confirmation of the twin wire transfers contradicted what the president said at his press conference early last month. The official repeated what the president said at the time, that “we do not have a direct banking relationship with Iran, which means that we cannot wire money directly to Iran,” but did not directly address either the July 2015 or April 2016 wire transfers.
“Sanctions had effectively cut off Iran from the international financial system and after several years of trying to gain limited access to its own money held in accounts outside of Iran, Iran was very aware of the difficulties it would face in accessing and using these funds if they were in any form other than cash,” the official said of negotiations surrounding the $1.7 billion settlement. “Therefore, effectuating the payment in foreign currency banknotes was the most reliable way to ensure that they would receive the funds in a timely manner.”
Republicans in Congress and on the campaign trail have alleged that Iran requested a cash payment specifically because it would make the money difficult to trace. GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump made an issue of the cash payment over the summer, suggesting that the cash delivery likely wound up funding terrorism or found its way into "some of the mullahs' bank accounts."
Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), who discovered the two wire transfer payments in briefings with Obama administration officials, echoed those concerns in an interview with POLITICO on Thursday.
“Oh, I don’t have any question that Iran wants the money in cash because they wanted it faster than what a wire transfer would be and it’s fungible,” Lankford said. “They announced pretty quickly afterward that they were expanding their defense and their military budget by $1.7 billion dollars, an exact amount that we had just sent over to them. So I don’t think that was accidental.”
“But when you give cash, we can’t track,” he continued. “Did that go to Hezbollah? Did that go to the Russians? Did that go to the coup in Yemen? There’s no way to be able to track that.”
Republicans, including Lankford, have also suggested that the $1.7 billion delivery constituted a “ransom” payment because it was delivered on the same day that U.S. prisoners were released by Iran. The president dismissed such claims during his Aug. 4 press conference as “the manufacturing of outrage” and said unequivocally, "we don’t pay ransom for hostages.”
But State Department spokesman John Kirby acknowledged two weeks later that the U.S. had refused to deliver the cash to Iran until its prisoners were wheels up from Tehran, a decision Kirby said the U.S. made to “retain maximum leverage” over the Iranians. Despite that admission, he maintained that the arrangement did not in any way constitute a ransom payment.Total outside spending for the 2016 election has already reached a record $660 million, more than twice the $289 million spent by outside groups by this point in the 2012 election.
Super PACs have led the charge, breaking the half-a-billion dollar mark in spending and making up about 80 percent of total outside spending. The nearly $530 million is almost three times the amount spent by super PACs in the 2012 election by the end of August. And by the end of the 2012 contest, that $177 million had skyrocketed to $609 million, so expect the groups to burn through much more cash by the time voters cast their ballots this November.
On the receiving end, super PACs are breaking another record, raising just short of $1 billion. For context, these groups pulled in about $828 million in the entire 2012 election cycle.
The two biggest spending super PACs? Conservative groups that supported candidates who dropped out several months ago, Right to Rise USA, which supported former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, and Conservative Solutions PAC, which propped up Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. The two groups still maintain a lead over Priorities USA Action, which backs Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton — though that will change.
Dark money
While super PACs have poured a record amount of cash into this election cycle, spending by dark money groups and politically active nonprofits overall has slowed compared to its volume in 2012.
By this time in 2012, 501(c) nonprofit groups had spent about $63 million, or about 22 percent of all $289 million in outside spending. But so far this cycle, these nonprofits reported outlays of $62 million — a mere 9 percent of the $660 million in total outside money spent.
Dark money groups, which include mainly 501(c)(4) social welfare organizations and 501(c)(6) business leagues, seem to have taken an even bigger cut, having spent about $75 million by the end of August four years ago, but only $52.9 million to date in this cycle.
(Not all 501(c)s are considered “dark money” groups. Some partially or fully disclose their donors. Also, some super PACs, though required to reveal their donors, disclose only contributions from dark money groups, and thus we classify them as dark money outfits themselves.)
By the end of 2012 election cycle, total 501(c) spending had skyrocketed to $308 million. We’ll likely see another jump this fall, though the slower pace of that spending in recent months makes any predictions tricky. Earlier this cycle, dark money spending was well ahead of 2012 levels.
Contrary to the 2,300 percent increase in overall 501(c) spending from January to August in 2012, that spending has increased only by 680 percent in the same period in 2016.
This slowdown comes unexpectedly; a recent study by the Wesleyan Media Project and the Center for Responsive Politics detailed the escalating role of dark money groups in outside spending since 2000.
Americans for Prosperity, a well-known 501(c)(4) nonprofit in the conservative Koch brothers network, has limited its involvement in the 2016 election cycle to $2 million so far, considerably less than the $36.6 million it spent four years ago.
Besides the drop in spending, there are considerably fewer nonprofit groups spending money in federal elections this time around, according to FEC reports filed. In the 2012 election cycle, 266 501(c) groups were active election spenders; in this election cycle, just 87 have been.
Craig Holman, government affairs lobbyist at Public Citizen, said this might look surprising at first glance.
“But it does make sense, because this is a very unique election with Donald Trump’s presence,” Holman said. “Donald Trump has alienated corporate interests,” who can be big players in the dark money world. Holman called the dwindling of dark money groups in this election, especially since the conventions, part of a “Trump phenomenon,” and said he does not expect it to be a continuing trend.
Still, the decline also could be simply part of the natural evolution of campaign finance as rules and donor interests change, said Brendan Glavin at the Campaign Finance Institute, a nonpartisan research and advocacy group.
“When soft money became legal in 2002, 527 groups thrived in 2004,” Glavin said. “In 2008, nonprofits started to be exploited more and since 2010, super PACs have started to take over all other spending. We don’t really know what will happen in the next election.”
Federal Election Commission rules allow 501(c) groups to spend millions without reporting any to the commission as long as the ads are run more than 30 days before a primary or 60 days before a general election. Some of the largest politically active nonprofits use these windows to avoid reporting millions of dollars in political spending.
The collaborative study by Wesleyan Media Project and CRP shows nonprofits have deliberately avoided spending during the FEC reporting window, making the reported numbers something of a fiction. One group, a 501(c)(4) called One Nation, has spent tens of millions of dollars in tight Senate races in 2016. The scale of its spending this cycle alone is high enough to put it in the top 50 all-time ad buyers, but it hasn’t reported any of its spending to the FEC.
Over the years, Americans for Prosperity has run more than 90 percent of its ads outside the FEC reporting windows.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a 501(c)(6) trade association, has held its place as the biggest-spending dark money nonprofit, laying out about $20 million by Aug. 31, 2016.
2012 2014 2016 (as of Aug. 31) Super PAC spending $609,417,654 $345,163,595 $529,622,999 501(c) spending $336,516,934 $163,259,319 $62,069,989 Number of active super PACs 255 238 230 Number of active 501(c)s 266 157 87
Megadonors
Unlike the 2012 cycle, in which four of the 10 top-spending groups were liberal, only two are liberal in this election cycle.
But despite the fact that there are more conservative outside spending groups, the single biggest individual donor, Thomas Steyer, is a liberal. As of August, 2016, Steyer has given a total of $38 million to a number of liberal super PACs such as NextGen Climate Action, America Votes Action Fund and CE Action Committee.
He was runner-up last time OpenSecrets Blog checked in on megadonors, when hedge funder Robert Mercer topped the list. But between June 28 and July 20, Steyer gave $14 million to NextGen Climate Action, doubling his total contributions and vaulting him into the lead among megadonors.
In the meantime, NextGen Climate Action raised the fifth largest amount of money for the 2016 election cycle to date, but has spent only $700,000 of its $38 million raised, all to advertise against Republicans, according to CRP data.
Trend or Anomaly?
While the level of outside spending, especially by super PACs, may seem astronomical to some, it doesn’t to others who have been watching the trend lines since the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision. Total outside spending from August 2008 to August 2012 tripled, from $96.8 million to $289.3 million.
Holman is surprised the total from in the last four years has only doubled.
“I fully expect the numbers to soar three or even four times by the end of November,” Holman said.
For permission to reprint for commercial uses, such as textbooks, contact the Center: Feel free to distribute or cite this material, but please credit the Center for Responsive Politics.For permission to reprint for commercial uses, such as textbooks, contact the Center: [email protected]rIn an escape room, the door locks and you and your team must solve clues to find a way out. The interactive race-against-the-clock game in cities around the world is gaining momentum as "the new karaoke" for groups looking for an immersive outing that has nothing to do with iPhones or Facebook. The best escape rooms combine brain-twisting puzzles with inventive room design and a touch of theatricality from the resident game masters. Here are the best escape rooms in Los Angeles by category. Think of this as the First Annual Escapees.
Best Overall
Fox in a Box
8255 Sunset Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90046
310-869-7167
Located on the Sunset Strip, Fox in a Box (formerly Room Escape Live) has it all: five distinct adventure rooms, sets worthy of a Hollywood thriller, exceptional use of locks, maps, codes, secret cabinets, projected light and audio. Above all, the Fox brings the drama. The Bunker room, for example, has you racing to defuse a nuclear bomb that's about to destroy the world. (As a bonus, the venue has two identical Bunkers so large groups can split up or compete.). Central Bank is a diamond heist that begins in darkness and includes perhaps the most dazzling finish of any escape room in town. Excellent for ages 12 and up. Medium to high challenge.
Best Gamemasters
Enigma Escape Rooms
7805 Sunset Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90046
323-770-3101
Don't let the humdrum building or lobby fool you: Enigma Escape is a major find. You can tell that the people who run the place love what they do. The hosts tend to stay in character and at least one room features a participating guide within the game who hilariously moves the action along with dramatic clues. The Secret Temple has a must-see prop near the end that proves to be a portal onto an ancient world. The Will room ditches the standard key-and-code routine common at many rooms for highly creative and entertaining clues made from everyday objects. Good for teens and up. Medium challenge. Super fun.
Best Set Design
60Out (formerly Escape Key Entertainment)
Four locations around Los Angeles (Hollywood, West Hollywood, West Los Angeles, Marina del Rey)
310-478-4444
I had the good fortune of visiting 60Out (it was called Escape Key then) with Kevin Hart for a magazine profile I was writing. That raised the bar in terms of expectations. How could I bring an A-list movie star someplace that felt second-rate? 60Out delivered with a professional staff and the best-looking sets in LA. The Mystery of Senator Payne room puts players in an office that might as well be in the U.S. Capitol Building. Instead of predictable key codes and chintzy lock boxes, the emphasis here is on big moving pieces and stunning light-up effects (no, I'm not going to spoil any clues). November 2016 update: After a name change and rebranding, 60Out now has four outstanding locations in Los Angeles. We recently did the Titanic and Wizards Workshop rooms in the Marina location. The production values are the best I've seen in L.A., the technology is at the forefront of the industry, and the staff is friendly, energetic and passionate about escapes. Medium to high challenge. Fantastic for all ages and incomes.
Most Challenging
Escape Room LA
120 E. 8th Street
Los Angeles CA 90014
213-689-3229
This one is really difficult. We only did the Theatre, which has your team working to free a ghost from backstage, but there are so many puzzles within puzzles within Shakespearean puzzles that a vale of years would scarcely had been enough. The challenge is worthwhile: heavy on word play, fast thinking and cool-headed logic. The gamemaster is excellent and you'll be kicking yourself when time runs out and the series of secrets are revealed. Good for 12 and up. Highly challenging.
Best Use of Oculus Rift
Maze Rooms
1182 S. La Brea
Los Angeles, CA 90019
310-595-2881
Next to a marijuana dispensary on a forlorn stretch of La Brea, Maze Room has more of an adult vibe but it's also the most tech forward. The Castle room and others are fairly traditional. The standout is Cosmos VR, an Oculus-Rift based virtual reality escape that sends you and your co-players into outer space. It's not for everyone. Wearing goggles for an hour can mess with your senses (is there Dramamine for VR?) and "flying" requires a bit of arm strength, as you'll notice the next morning from your aching muscles. Still, it's a thrill to see your teammates virtually decked out in spacesuits as you look around. On the whole, Cosmos is as immersive as any escape game you can imagine. Best for 18 and up. Medium challenge.
Best Outlier
Escape Room Palm Springs
2500 N. Palm Canyon Dr #B3
Palm Springs, Can 92262
760-779-8888
Updated 11/2017: Escape Room Palm Springs, once located on a lonely street near Bob Hope Airport, has moved to a 6,000 square foot location on North Palm Canyon. The six rooms include Merlin's Magic School and the Bank Heist. The original facility was for experienced players only but the new venue is open to players of all ages and experience levels.We’re huge fans of The Thing round these parts, so we’re pretty damn excited to play the upcoming board game Who Goes There?, which is directly based on John W. Campbell’s novella and is not connected to Mondo’s The Thing: Infection at Outpost 31.
The Kickstarter campaign for the game ends in a few hours and has already reached an incredible $566,793 (as of this writing) against a goal of $54,097!
The cooperative multiplayer board game can be played by a maximum of six players, with an average playthrough lasting between 90 to 120 minutes.
If you’re still not sold on the idea of a Thing board game, you can also watch a full 87 minutes of people playing the game below. They at least appear to be having fun.Banning gay marriage infringes religious freedom, UUs argue
Banning gay marriage infringes religious freedom, UUs argue
UU World Magazine, published by the Unitarian Universalist Association
Social Justice
In what may become a groundbreaking case in the fight for marriage equality, the General Synod of the United Church of Christ—along with two Unitarian Universalist ministers, other progressive clergy, and same-sex couples seeking to be married—has filed a federal lawsuit arguing that North Carolina’s ban on same-sex marriage violates their constitutionally guaranteed religious freedom.
Filed April 28 in federal court in North Carolina, General Synod of the United Church of Christ et al. v. Cooper et al. (pdf) is the first suit to make a religious freedom argument on behalf of marriage equality. Although 65 other marriage equality cases are pending around the nation, they rely on other grounds, such as equal protection and due process. The UCC case also marks the first time a national denomination has filed suit against a state’s marriage laws. Roy Cooper, the North Carolina attorney general who is the named defendant along with several district attorneys and registers of deeds, has not yet responded to the suit.
Plaintiffs in other lawsuits have invoked a defense of religious freedom to support conservative political positions, including business owners who don’t want to serve same-sex couples and employers who resist offering contraceptives to employees through their healthcare plans. In an irony that many commentators have noted, the North Carolina case “takes an issue the religious right has been using a lot and turns it around and says that applies to us as well,” says the Rev. Mark Peters Ward, lead minister of the UU Congregation of Asheville, N.C., and one of the plaintiffs in the suit.
In large part because of its innovative argument, the lawsuit has garnered widespread media attention. (The UCC has launched a sophisticated social media campaign tied to the lawsuit, “I Do Support Religious Freedom.”) The Campaign for Southern Equality, an Asheville-based LGBT rights organization, was the creative force behind the lawsuit, and reached out to local progressive clergy and lawyers for help in seeking to overturn certain laws, particularly Amendment One, passed by voters in 2012, which makes it illegal for the state to recognize or perform same-sex marriages. The Rev. Robin N. Tanner, minister of the Piedmont UU Church in Charlotte, N.C., is the other UU minister named as a plaintiff; other clergy include UCC ministers, a Lutheran minister, a Baptist minister, and a rabbi, along with members of their congregations who hope to marry.
Carol Taylor and her partner of 41 years, Betty Mack (in photo, above), are members of the Asheville UU congregation. They joined the lawsuit as plaintiffs because they hope to be married by Ward in their home congregation. The lawsuit, Taylor said, “should help recast the conversation because, nationwide, it’s seen as religion versus same-sex marriage, and of course, it isn’t. It’s one particular view of religion versus same-sex marriage.”
Under North Carolina law, it is a misdemeanor for clergy to marry couples who don’t have a state-issued marriage license, and same-sex couples cannot legally obtain a marriage license. If clergy violate the law, they can be criminally prosecuted and fined, although none have been, to date. The provision for criminal sanctions “shocked me to my core,” said Taylor. “For the state of North Carolina to say you can’t perform this religious ceremony is so blatantly a First Amendment infringement.”
Under the First Amendment, “Churches and faith groups have the right to associate to express their beliefs,” said S. Luke Largess of Tin Fulton Walker & Owen in Charlotte, N.C., which represents the plaintiffs along with Arnold & Porter. “If they believe that same-sex couples should be able to marry, and if a minister believes a couple is ready for marriage,” then a wedding should be able to proceed without criminal sanctions for the clergy performing them, Largess said.
Since the suit challenges peculiarities of the North Carolina law, including the criminal penalties, its applicability to other states may be limited even if the plaintiffs prevail, said Largess. Nonetheless, he added, “It’s important, in part, because it shows that there isn’t one religious viewpoint” around the issue of same-sex marriage.
With its argument for religious freedom, the suit has gained support from some unexpected sources, including the Rev. Dr. Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. While he remains strongly opposed to same-sex marriage, Mohler said he was concerned about laws that might deny religious liberty to any group, and called the lawsuit “very convincing.”
And the plaintiffs are excited to be part of a novel legal approach. “I love the fact that progressive religion is standing up here,” said Ward, the UU minister from Asheville. “We’re not hiding, we are saying this is the foundation of our argument, and we think it’s great.”
Taylor chuckled, and added, “I’m so delighted to have the Synod of the United Church of Christ as the leading complainant because some folks say UUs aren’t a religion. But it’s hard to argue that a synod with the word ‘Christ’ in it is not a recognizable religion.”
Tanner, the UU minister from Charlotte who is one the plaintiffs, said, “I’m eager to challenge the hypocrisy and the state that Amendment One forces us to live in as religious liberals, which is a state of oppression.” She has made a commitment to same-sex couples in her congregation to travel with them and officiate at their weddings in states that allow same-sex marriage. It’s a financial and logistical burden on the congregation, Tanner said, “but it’s not the same as if they were married within our community, and our community could celebrate with them.”
The Unitarian Universalist Association has partnered with the United Church of Christ, a Protestant denomination with more than 5,100 congregations and 1.1 million members, on a variety of social justice and public witness initiatives in recent years. Together they developed and published the Our Whole Lives sexuality curriculum, and leaders of both denominations have appeared together at rallies for immigration reform, marriage equality, and civil rights.
Photograph (above): Plaintiffs Carol Taylor and Betty Mack are members of the UU Congregation of Asheville, N.C., and plaintiffs in the United Church of Christ’s lawsuit against the state’s same-sex marriage ban (courtesy Campaign for Southern Equality).
From the ArchivesSurreal adventure game Anamorphine coming to PS4, PC with VR support this winter
Play it at IndieCade 201 |
in charge of the White House grounds, told The Post in 1977.
[Where did D.C.’s black squirrels come from? Blame Canada.]
Heirloom trees — many planted by visiting dignitaries — were stunted and deformed by squirrels. The rodents were also digging up bulbs and chowing down on flowers.
A park service employee removes a nest box from a tree at Lafayette Square. (JK/John Hadidian)
“They ate over $2,200 worth of geraniums in two days,” Ruback said.
Why so many squirrels? There were a couple of reasons, said John Hadidian, who met me at Lafayette Square not long ago to reminisce. John just retired from the Humane Society of the United States, but in the 1980s, he worked for the National Park Service’s Center for Urban Ecology. As he and his co-authors put it in a scientific paper published in 1987: “Intensive provisioning by the public was implicated as one of the main factors responsible for this.”
[What’s the deal with white squirrels?]
Intensive provisioning: People were feeding the squirrels.
Over-feeding them, in the estimation of the Park Service, which found that 75 pounds of peanuts were being distributed in Lafayette Square each week. (One of the intensive provisioners was Concepcion Pioccotto, who lived in the park while protesting nuclear weapons.)
There were also dozens of nest boxes in the park’s trees. No one could remember who first put them there, but the Park Service grudgingly maintained them even though the artificial habitats boosted the squirrel population.
How to bring the numbers down? The obvious solution was euthanasia, but officials feared a public backlash.
John Hadidian, who in the 1980s worked for the National Park Service and was involved in relocating close to 100 squirrels from Lafayette Square. The squirrels were damaging trees and plantings in the historic park. (John Kelly /The Washington Post)
“We talked about contraception,” said John, a veteran of the operation. “We had a good deal of inquiry with people who were knowledgeable about it.”
Someone suggested a compound that was used on cattle, but it turned out to be carcinogenic.
“That was out,” John said. “Then in 1985, we had dropped in our laps one of the most abundant acorn crops that we’ve ever seen here.”
Suddenly, Washington was awash in nuts — real ones, not politicians. It seemed to be a message from on high. If some of the squirrels could be moved from Lafayette Square, it was likely they wouldn’t starve in their new location.
A team was assembled, and an action plan formulated. Zero Hour was 10:30 p.m. on Oct. 17, 1985, a time when the squirrels would be asleep — and so would most curious tourists and pesky reporters.
The biologists removed the saw blades from long pruning poles and replaced them with pantyhose stuffed with newspaper. These were used to plug the holes in the nest boxes — “so they didn’t all come pouring out,” John said.
A ladder was used to remove each nest box, which was brought to a kiosk in the center of the park. The main squirrel handler was Vagn Flyger, a famed squirrel whisperer from the University of Maryland. (Flyger was known for smearing Valium-laced peanut butter on the trees behind his Silver Spring home, then tattooing the squirrels’ anesthetized bodies so he could later distinguish them from one another.)
“He’d grab them, and he’d stick their heads in a mayonnaise jar in which there was cotton soaked in anesthesia,” John said.
Once asleep, the squirrels were inspected, then put in cages.
“There were millions of fleas, unbelievable,” John said. “They were jumping on everyone.”
Surely you wore gloves, I said. Not Flyger, said John.
“At one point during the night, a squirrel got him, put his incisors right through the fleshy part of his middle finger,” John said. “I remember him raising his hand, blood’s running down and the squirrel’s hanging on. He just detached it and went on. He was a real old-time biologist.”
Forty squirrels were captured that night, an additional 38 the following week and a further 17 in January 1987, for a total of 95, more than half of Lafayette Square’s population. They were taken in a convoy of vehicles to Park Service land across the Anacostia, mainly Fort Dupont Park, where they were released.
Today, biologists believe that relocation isn’t a good idea. Relocated squirrels are unfamiliar with their new habitat and are not welcomed by resident squirrels. But it seemed to work at Lafayette Square. The nest boxes were removed, and signs prohibiting feeding were put up. Today, there is equilibrium. But the issue of carrying capacity — how many wild animals “belong” in a certain area — is still controversial, whether it’s squirrels in Lafayette Square or elk in Yosemite.
As John and I sat on a bench opposite the White House, watching tourists take snapshots of squirrels, I asked whether he and his fellow commandos had given their nighttime raids a name. Operation Flying Fur? Operation Noble Incisor?
No, John said. “We should have, but we didn’t.”
Tomorrow: Finding deeper meaning in a water-skiing squirrel.
Twitter: @johnkelly
For previous columns, visit washingtonpost.com/johnkelly.EDIT: Fixed the link to download the 2001 US Letter PDF.
I took all the pages from 1992 through 2005 and added a blank commemorative and definitive page to each supplement and created A4 versions of all the supplements. Here are all the files:
1992
US Letter PDF: Ukraine-1992-US Letter
A4 PDF: Ukraine-1992-A4
ZIP File with editable Scirbus File: Ukraine-1992
1993
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US Letter PDF: Ukraine-1994-US Letter
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1995
US Letter PDF: Ukraine-1995-US Letter
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US Letter PDF: Ukraine-1996-US Letter
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US Letter PDF: Ukraine-1997-US Letter
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1998
US Letter PDF: Ukraine-1998-US Letter
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1999
US Letter PDF: Ukraine-1999-US Letter
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2000
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2001
US Letter PDF: Ukraine-2001-US Letter
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2002
US Letter PDF: Ukraine-2002-US Letter
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2003
US Letter PDF: Ukraine-2003-US Letter
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US Letter PDF: Ukraine-2004-US Letter
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US Letter PDF: Ukraine-2005-US Letter
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ZIP File with editable Scribus File: Ukraine-2005We encourage those who seek the truth about the events of September 11, 2001, to ask the elementary question: "Who had the means, the opportunity, and the motive?" Or, in two simple Latin words, "Qui bono?" That is, "Who benefited?" from this crime of the century.
The architects, engineers, and scientists who make up AE911Truth provide forensic evidence, video documentation, and eyewitness testimony that offer clues to the identity of the perpetrators. But it is the job of serious journalists, trained criminal investigators, and officials in the legislative and judicial branches of government to uncover the "who" and "why" of 9/11. In particular, attorneys and judges have both the subpoena power and the legal authority to offer immunity that will bring forth witnesses and suspects, leading to the conviction of those responsible for planning and carrying out the attacks of 9/11.
Read MorePenn State trustee Albert L. Lord had harsh words for the sexual abuse victims of former Nittany Lions assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, according to an email to The Chronicle of Higher Education.
In the email, Lord said he is "running out of sympathy" for the "so-called" abuse victims. The statement comes days after former Penn State president Graham Spanier was convicted of child endangerment related to the Sandusky abuse scandal.
Lord, a former chief executive of Sallie Mae, was elected by alumni to serve on the Penn State Board of Trustees. He has been a vocal supporter of Spanier.
"Running out of sympathy for 35 yr old, so-called victims with 7 digit net worth," Lord said in an email on Saturday. "Do not understand why they were so prominent in trial. As you learned, Graham Spanier never knew Sandusky abused anyone."
Juror Victoria Navazio said Monday that an email from Spanier to former co-defendants Gary Schultz and Tim Curley showed that he knew children were at risk.
In an interview, Lord said the horrors of Sandusky's crimes have made it impossible for a fair-minded assessment of whether Spanier and others acted inappropriately based on the facts.
"I am tired of victims' getting in the way of clearer thinking and a reasoned approach to who knew what and who did what," Lord said in the interview.
Jury foreman voices regret over Spanier verdict
Prosecutors had argued that Spanier broke the law when, after receiving a 2001 report that graduate assistant Mike McQueary had seen Sandusky naked with a young boy in the showers at Penn State's Lasch Building, he did not demand that it be reported immediately to child protection authorities.
Spanier faces a minimum sentence later this spring that, for most first-time offenders, falls between probation and 9 months in prison, but could range higher.
Prosecutors revel in conviction, but Graham Spanier vows a fightPresident Trump spoke at a news conference in Paris on July 13 and defended Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting with a Russian lawyer. (The Washington Post)
President Trump offered a novel defense of his embattled son Donald Trump Jr. in Paris on Thursday. It basically boiled down to this: Trump Jr. is a “young man” who was taken advantage of by a Russian lawyer who wouldn't even have been in this country if it weren't for the Obama administration.
That's an oversimplification of what Trump said, yes, but it's certainly what he was getting at. Let's break down the quote.
“My son is a wonderful young man.”
Donald Trump Jr., it bears noting, is 39. He is the same age, in fact, as the man who was standing next to Trump at that moment and happens to be the president of France, Emmanuel Macron. But this seems to be a talking point. Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), one of Trump Jr.'s top defenders, has called him “a very nice young man.” And a close Trump ally told The Washington Post this week that Trump Jr. was “an honest kid” who just wanted to hunt, fish and run the family business.
At the end of his answer, Trump again referred to Trump Jr.'s age: “So, again, I have a son who's a great young man.” The message seems to be that Trump Jr. is inexperienced and was taken advantage of.
Update: Trump just did it two more times, telling reporters aboard Air Force One, "He's a good boy. He's a good kid."
“He took a meeting with a Russian lawyer — not a government lawyer but a Russian lawyer.”
The lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, does not hold an official government title, but she has ties to the Kremlin. And she was presented to Trump Jr. as a “Russian government attorney” peddling information from the Russian government in those emails that were released this week. The emails said this multiple times. Put plainly: There was no way Trump Jr. didn't think he was working with the Russian government, based on those emails.
The president then returned to some familiar comments from recent days — about the brevity of the meeting and how prevalent opposition research is — before getting to the Obama part. Here's what he said:
“Now the lawyer that went to the meeting, I see that she was in the halls of Congress also. Somebody said that her visa or her passport to come into the country was approved by Attorney General [Loretta] Lynch. Now, maybe that's wrong, because I just heard about that a little while ago, but I was a little surprised to hear that: She's here because of Lynch.”
Trump seems to be referring to a report in the Hill that says Lynch granted Veselnitskaya entry to this country despite her visa application having been turned down. The report states that Veselnitskaya was granted access “for the limited purpose of helping a company owned by Russian businessman Denis Katsyv, her client, defend itself against a Justice Department asset forfeiture case in federal court in New York City.”
French President Emmanuel Macron, left, and President Trump after a joint news conference in Paris. (Stephane Mahe/Reuters)
So why is Trump bringing this up? Apparently because he wants to argue that this whole situation is, at its root, partially the fault of the Obama administration. There is really no other reason to bring that up. The implication sure seems to be that President Barack Obama and Lynch let this bad person into the country, and look what happened!
And it follows a pattern of Trump and the White House muddying the waters. They have said repeatedly that anybody would take opposition research like this, leaving out the fact that it's objectionable only because it was supposedly coming from the Russian government. They've pointed to the length of the meeting and the claim that no valuable information was obtained, ignoring the fact that Trump Jr. still attempted to get such information. And now they are trying to pin this, at least partially, on the Obama administration.
Update No. 2: The Post's Matt Zapotosky got this response from Lynch's spokesman, Robert Raben: "Attorney General Lynch, as the former head of the Justice Department, does not have any personal knowledge of Ms. Veselnitskaya's travel. The State Department issues visas, and the Department of Homeland Security oversees entry to the United States at airports."The original Crazy Taxi from Sega's internal team Hitmaker was released in arcades in 1999, and it was subsequently ported to Sega's Dreamcast video game console in 2000. Both versions of the game were simple, fun racing games that let you play as a cabbie in search of fares to transport to their destinations as quickly as possible, performing as many dangerous stunts (like narrowly scraping past oncoming cars) as possible to earn extra tips from your impatient, thrill-seeking passengers. Hitmaker went on to create two console follow-ups, the most recent of which is Crazy Taxi 3 for the Xbox. Yet, for some reason, the very first Crazy Taxi game has just now been ported to the PC, but considering how the port turned out, it probably shouldn't have been.
The introduction looks surprisingly good, but the game itself has frame rate problems.
Hitmaker put the "crazy" in the original Crazy Taxi by keeping the game's general graphical detail low so the game could run at blazing speeds. Your simple-looking yellow cab flew through plain-looking cities and picked up colorful but blocky and low-polygon passengers. And the PC version of Crazy Taxi is just as colorful, and at the highest graphical settings--1280x960 resolution at 32-bit color--the game's introduction movie, which features in-game scenes, looks even better than the Dreamcast version. Unfortunately, when you actually try to play the game at those settings, the game chugs along even on a fast computer.
Actually, the game's frame rate chugs along at the minimum settings of 640x480 resolution, 16-bit color, and the shortest draw distance, often slowing down or missing frames of animation entirely, which completely breaks up the game's flow. Apparently, the PC version just wasn't optimized well, which not only makes the game look worse, but it also severely compromises the gameplay. Like the Dreamcast version, the PC version has both an arcade city map and an "original" city map to drive through, and while the PC version has a brand-new "crazy box" minigame mode that wasn't in the original game, you'll probably spend most of your time on the arcade and original courses. Both the arcade and Dreamcast versions of Crazy Taxi had extremely smooth frame rates that really helped convey the sense of tearing around a city at breakneck speeds. Though you'll occasionally be able to play through some relatively smooth spots, you'll find that the frame rate will often take a hit just as you're starting to enjoy yourself, especially if you happen to run into an oncoming car and knock it over.
The minigames might occupy you for a while, but they're not all that great.
However, the PC version does offer a few surprising new features, including a new soundtrack and the aforementioned minigame mode. The minigames are generally rather shallow tasks that require you to complete a simple puzzle using your taxi, such as knocking over a lane of bowling pins or crashing into a number of oversized balloons to pop them. They're generally rather short, and they're not especially fun on their own, though they generally don't suffer from the same frame rate problems as the rest of the game. Otherwise, the PC version has a new rock and roll soundtrack that seems fitting for the game, though it reuses the same voice samples for the game's four drivers, Axel, Gena, Gus, and B.D. Joe, as well as the pushy, sometimes foul-mouthed passengers they pick up.
Releasing the original Crazy Taxi on the PC at this point doesn't seem to make much sense. Considering that the game itself includes only the arcade and original tracks and the limited crazy box mode, it's not certain you'll get much out of the game before you get fed up with its problematic frame rate. Besides, the original game is over three years old, the series is now up to its third game, and you can enjoy much of what made the original Crazy Taxi fun by stealing a taxi cab and picking up passengers in a game of Grand Theft Auto III, Rockstar's multifaceted free-form action game, which was released earlier this year for the PC. Alternately, if you can find them, you'd be better off just buying a Dreamcast console and a copy of the original Crazy Taxi, since the 2000 Dreamcast version looks better and plays better than the 2002 PC port.The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by one of their biggest rivals, Jim Cornette.
The tennis racket-wielding manager may have spent the better part of three decades trying to put an end to Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson, but even he can’t doubt the influence they’ve had on sports-entertainment.
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“By any standard, Ricky and Robert belong in the Hall of Fame,” Cornette told WWE.com in an exclusive interview. “And that’s whether its longevity as a team, the attendance records they set, or the great matches that they had, which fans can still see on WWE Network.”
Cornette was a consistent thorn in the Express’ side since they first hit the ring as a team in the early 1980s. He managed against Ricky & Robert during their first week as a team, with the enmity intensifying when Cornette brought The Midnight Express into the squared circle. The team, which consisted of “Loverboy” Dennis Condrey, “Beautiful” Bobby Eaton, and later, “Sweet” Stan Lane, were the perfect dastardly villains for the fresh-faced Rock ‘n’ Roll Express. It didn’t hurt that they had Cornette on the microphone, hurling insults at Ricky & Robert at every opportunity.
“Superman needs Lex Luthor, Batman needs The Joker, and we were the antithesis of everything The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express stood for and their wrestling style. It just clicked,” Cornette said.
“I said these horrible, degrading things about these two, fine, young, upstanding examples of American boyhood,” Cornette continued, “and people, on numerous occasions, tried to kill us.”
Jim Cornette was excited to celebrate the Midnight Express success as of late. Unfortunately the party turned into a giant mess!
Cornette survived the rivalry with The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express and turned toward the role of promoter in the 1990s. While on Smoky Mountain Wrestling television, he had the familiar role of manager to Ricky & Robert’s new enemies, The Heavenly Bodies. Cornette was also running the show for SMW, and realized how important The Express was to the company and its fans.
“Fans literally gave them pictures and gifts at the matches,” Cornette said. “They considered them members of the family. I’ve seen inside fans’ houses, and they would have pictures of Jesus on the wall, and next to it would be a picture of The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express. That’s no lie.”
When it comes to inducting The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express into the WWE Hall of Fame, there is probably no one better than Cornette. After all, their careers have been intertwined for 34 years.
“Between the ’80s with The Midnight Express and the ’90s with The Heavenly Bodies, and then in the 2000s on the reunions with The Midnights, I think only Bobo Brazil and The Sheik had a longer-running rivalry,” Cornette said.
“And I still haven’t put an end to Rock ‘n’ Roll! I haven’t been able to do it, so I guess I have to roll over and induct them.”
Cornette’s induction speech will surely be one for the ages, as the motormouth has a career’s worth of memories to recall as he enters his biggest rivals into history.
“There’s one story I’ll probably tell at the Hall of Fame,” he said, “where The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express saved my life one night in Louisiana from an angry mob of fans.”
To hear that story — and a lot more — watch Jim Cornette induct The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express into the WWE Hall of Fame when the 2017 WWE Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony airs live on WWE Network on Friday, March 31 at 8 ET/5 PT!A Chinese navy ship will start mapping the Indian Ocean seabed this week under the "new phase" in the hunt for the crashed Flight MH370, even as the damaged mini-submarine searching for the plane reached an Australian port for repairs, officials said today.
Malaysian, Australian and Chinese authorities over the weekend in Fremantle, Western Australia, to discuss the bathymetric survey and agreed on the deployment of ship Zhu Kezhen for the purpose.
"It was agreed that the Chinese survey ship Zhu Kezhen will conduct the bathymetric survey of the areas provided by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau. Zhu Kezhen is scheduled to sail for the survey area on Wednesday, weather permitting," the Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) said.
Bathymetric survey, involving an extensive mapping of the seabed, is one of the main priorities given in the search for the ill-fated Airlines plane which is now in its transition phase that prioritised ocean floor search.
Other priorities include re-analysing the data to verify a more accurate search area as well as identifying and deploying relevant towed and autonomous underwater vehicles required for the terrain.
Meanwhile, Australia's Ocean Shield arrived at Geraldton, Western Australia, yesterday to begin preparations to receive spare parts related to the transponder mounted on it and the transponder mounted on the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle, Bluefin-21.
"The repairs are necessary to correct a hardware issue affecting the ability of the transponders to communicate with each other during a dive. The problem became apparent during Bluefin-21's last mission on Tuesday," the JACC said.
The Ocean Shield was originally going to Dampier to await the transponder parts, however, it was determined that the parts could be delivered to the ship more quickly via the port of Geraldton.
Once the replacement parts are installed, testing will be conducted at Geraldton prior to Ocean Shield transiting back to the search area, the JACC said.
The Beijing-bound Airlines flight MH370 - carrying 239 people, including five Indians, an Indo-Canadian and 154 Chinese nationals - had mysteriously vanished on March 8 after taking off from Kuala Lumpur on March 8.
believes the Beijing-bound Boeing 777-200 plane was deliberately diverted by someone on board and that satellite data indicates it crashed in the Indian Ocean.
has been leading the hunt for the plane which is believed to have crashed into the southern Indian Ocean but despite a massive air and sea search, including underwater using a US navy submersible, no sign of any wreckage has yet been found.Emergency personnel rescue residents from submerged houses in New Orleans, after Hurricane Katrina made landfall, August 29, 2005 (AFP Photo/James Nielsen)
New Orleans (AFP) - Ten years ago, Hurricane Katrina swept buildings off their foundations and deluged nearly all of New Orleans with floodwaters which rose so fast some people drowned in their homes.
Those who made it to their rooftops or the relative safety of dry land waited days to be rescued as the Big Easy descended into chaos.
Today, colorful homes on stilts have replaced many of the rotting hulks left behind after the low-lying coastal city in the southern United States was finally drained.
Brass bands are once again marching through the bustling French Quarter, pulling dancing locals and tourists in their wake. And the gastronomical paradise boasts 600 more restaurants than it had before the storm.
"Our city has stood back up and this comeback is one of the world's most remarkable stories of tragedy and triumph, resurrection and redemption," Mayor Mitch Landrieu said Tuesday.
"In one word: resilience," he said.
More than 1,800 people were killed across the US Gulf Coast -- the vast majority in New Orleans -- and more than a million people were displaced when the Category 5 hurricane struck on August 29, 2005. The financial toll topped $150 billion.
Some of the deadliest damage was caused by the failure of poorly-built and badly maintained levees, which burst under the pressure of a massive storm surge. Around 80 percent of New Orleans was flooded with water that rose as high as 20 feet (six meters).
The botched government response exposed the nation's failure to improve emergency preparedness despite billions spent on homeland security after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
It took four days for supply trucks to arrive with food and water for tens of thousands of stranded people.
Eventually, the entire city was evacuated. It took weeks to drain the floodwaters and conduct a house-by-house search for bodies. It was months before most people could return to their homes.
- Booming economy -
Once the largest slave market in the United States, New Orleans before the storm was a racially stratified city struggling with high crime rates, underfunded schools, crumbling infrastructure and a lack of economic opportunity.
It faced a fundamental question as it rebuilt after Katrina: would it go back to the way it was, or was this an opportunity to transform for the better?
Sean Cummings, a high-end developer who has reshaped much of downtown, said the city needed to change.
"In the aftermath of the Katrina catastrophe, I think that a city looks at itself almost like an individual in a time of trauma," he told AFP. "Am I leading the life I'm supposed to lead?"
Ten years later, the city's economy is booming.
Hotel occupancy rates are higher than pre-storm, 14,000 jobs have been added since 2010, and business startup rates are 64 percent higher than the national rate.
Crime is down, with the murder rate hitting a 43-year low in 2014 and the population in city jails down by two-thirds. Schools have also improved, with graduation rates and test scores up sharply.
City council president Jason Williams said that while the city has bounced back in many ways, it still has a long way to go.
"New Orleans is a particularly poor town, and we suffer from generational poverty," he told AFP.
Plus, the work of repairing Katrina's damage to the city's basic infrastructure -- power lines, grocery stores, hospitals, homes and levees –- continues even to this day.
New Orleans has the second highest rate of income inequality in the US, and in poorer neighborhoods, the life expectancy is just 54 years, 25 less than in wealthier zip codes just a couple miles away.
Rosana Cruz, of the racial justice organization Race Forward, accuses the mayor of prioritizing spending for tourists and new arrivals, rather than long-term residents.
"It really is a historic, for lack of a better term, banana republic approach," she said. "We are giving it away for the benefit of those who will come here."
- Mourning lost friends, community -
Some residents say the flavor of a city that was once more Afro-Caribbean and Creole than American has been altered.
A huge swath of the population never came back. New Orleans now has 100,000 fewer residents than it did before Katrina and many are newcomers.
The black population has fallen by about 115,000 people, dropping from 68 percent of residents in 2000 to 60 percent in 2013, the latest census figures show.
Asia Rainey, a poet and small business owner, grew up in the hard-hit Lower Ninth Ward neighborhood. She still mourns for her friends, family and a community that has not returned.
"We're struggling to hang on," she said. "It can't be New Orleans without the people that built it."Big changes are headed for Snapchat — again.
The company is set to roll out a major redesign of its app in the coming days, Snapchat confirmed Thursday. The new look, which is being previewed to the company's beta testers on Android now, adds a search bar, new navigation and a global live story that will feature snaps from all over the world.
The new look is much more polished than previous versions of the app and the search bar makes content much easier to find. It sits at the top of the chat, camera and Stories sections of the app.
There, you can search for friends and get shortcuts to other parts of the app. Finding a friend's name brings up a one-on-one chat.
The search function also show shortcuts for your recent contacts, "quick add" where you can see friend requests, and contacts who you haven't yet added on Snapchat.
You can also search for publishers from Discover and live stories.
The app's navigation has also changed slightly. You no longer access your profile and settings only by swiping down from the camera. Now, you can also tap on the Bitmoji in the upper left corner from any section of the app.
Additionally, Snapchat is adding a new global live story called "Our Story" that any user can contribute to at any time. Previously, live stories were highly curated and limited to location-specific events like sports games, breaking news and other planned events.
But the most notable part of the latest update is how much easier to navigate the app is, which had been a longtime point of contention among the app's critics. With the addition of search, Snapchat users can now find just about anything they are looking for with just a tap, rather than rooting around the app's menus.
The new look is already rolling out to Android users who are part of the app's beta and will be coming soon to everyone else.The price of a hectare of land has risen by 54 percent between 2009 and 2012 in the eastern state of Brandenburg state and by 79 percent in neighbouring Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
The rural east of Germany has vast swathes of arable land inherited from communist times, when farming was in the hands of huge collectives, known as LPGs.
But today the land is increasingly being snapped up by foreign investors, often with no background or interest in farming, pushing prices up and forcing out locals.
For Axel Vogel, head of the environmentalist Green Party in the regional parliament of Brandenburg, the phenomenon in eastern Germany amounts to "farm grabbing".
Agricultural land is perhaps one of the few natural resources of the region encircling Berlin.
Following the collapse of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) in 1989, a state-run agency, the BVVG, was set up to privatize the land.
But critics complain that the land was sold to the highest bidder rather than the families of the local farmers who had owned it prior to communism.
Indeed, in the privatization rush following unification in 1990, the GDR's massive farming collectives were frequently snapped up by their managers.
And as those managers now reach retirement age, it is only wealthy investors who can afford to pay the high prices, even if there are plenty of small farmers eager to step in.
But these "have neither enough experience or money" to buy that quantity of land, said Willi Lehnert, who represents a group of young farmers campaigning against "land grabbing".
Brandenburg "is being transformed from a village-based agriculture into one that is nothing more than a financial investment," complained Reinhard Jung head of the regional arm of the Bauernbund farmers' association.
The problem is that the practice is completely legal, he said.
The investors include names such as KTG Agrar, a publicly listed agricultural group based in Hamburg, which owns 32,000 hectares in Germany, essentially in the east.
Bauernbund also points the finger at the family-owned Lindhorst group, which specialises in care of the elderly, furniture manufacturer Steinhoff and the food-canning group Stollenberg, all based in western Germany.
None of the groups responded to enquiries from AFP.
With interest rates at all-time lows, and other investment instruments also in the doldrums, investing in land is attractive.
Whether the land is used for production of food crops or feed stock for biofuels, its value is rising. And EU farming subsidies -- allotted per hectare -- are another contributing factor.
"European subsidies encourage 'land grabbing', because they're currently guaranteed for a period of seven years," complained Bernd Voss, head of the association of small farmers, recently at the Green Week fair in Berlin.
Large-scale investors can indeed pocket several million euros in subsidies each year.
Calls to limit the aid were not heeded in the recent negotiations on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for the period from 2014-2020.
A report published last year by La Via Campesina, the international peasant movement, said that the EU's CAP "contributes directly to growing land inequality as it explicitly favours large landholdings, thus marginalizing small farms and blocking the entry of prospective young farmers."
And in eastern Europe, with its structures inherited from communism, the phenomenon is particularly pronounced, it said.
In Hungary, the low cost of land has attracted investors from wealthy EU member states with the prospect of capturing lucrative agricultural subsidies following Hungary's accession to the EU, La Via Campesina said.
It is a problem in Bulgaria and Romania too.
In Romania, foreign investors hold around 800,000 hectares or eight percent of all arable land, with Italians leading the race followed by Germans, Austrians, Danes and Dutch investors.
Another criticism of farm grabbing is that large-scale landowners buying up the plots do not keep cattle, but instead grow cash crops of corn, sugar beets and rapeseed, destroying bio-diversity and leading to the development of a monoculture.
Willi Lehnert insists there is an interest and market for small-scale farming and produce.
In hip and trendy Berlin, people clamour to buy locally-produced foodstuffs.
"Why not produce it in Brandenburg?" Lehnert asked.
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RELATED LINKS Box Score Season Stats Highlights Abreu, Collins Reaction: Morris LINESCORE Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E NSU 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 3 7 2 MIA 0 1 0 0 0 6 1 0 X 8 12 2 PITCHING IP H R ER BB SO W - D. Garcia (5-2) 4.0 4 1 0 1 1 L - J. Ortiz (4-2) 5.2 7 5 4 0 2 INDIVIDUAL LEADERS AB R H RBI BB HR MIA - Z. Collins 4 2 3 0 0 0 MIA - W. Abreu 3 1 1 2 0 0
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – It didn't take long for the “we're number one!” chants to break out at Mark Light Field.
One day after sweeping the top spot in every college baseball poll, No. 1 Miami was serenaded by 2,395 appreciative fans in attendance Tuesday in an 8-3 win over Nova Southeastern.
The Hurricanes (26-4) turned an uneasy one-run lead into a more comfortable 7-0 advantage with a six-run sixth inning to the delight of the crowd, and won for the 21st time in their last 23 games.
The big hit came from junior Willie Abreu, who connected on a two-run triple that chased Sharks starter Jonny Ortiz in the decisive sixth. Abreu added a highlight reel-worthy catch in the next half-inning before being replaced in the eighth with his team ahead 8-0.
“It |
, satisfying sex, free of anxieties about unwanted pregnancies.
When state legislatures like New York and California began to debate legal abortion in the late 1960s, evangelical leaders were caught off guard. Already anxious about the sexual revolution, they were concerned that the contraceptive pill—which was just becoming available to single women as well as married couples—would further encourage promiscuity. Abortion, meanwhile, hadn’t been a relevant public policy issue for nearly a century.
Faced with growing confusion about how evangelicals should approach abortion and reproductive technology, the editors of Billy Graham’s flagship magazine, Christianity Today, convened the Protestant Symposium on the Control of Human Reproduction in 1968. The attendees, 25 scholars—mostly with evangelical pedigrees—overwhelmingly sanctioned birth control for married couples. They were more hesitant about abortion, but agreed that it should be legal, although it was rarely morally acceptable. Catholic notions of fetal personhood were dismissed out of hand. A professor at a conservative seminary in Texas summed up the consensus: “God does not regard the fetus as a soul, no matter how far gestation has progressed.”
In 1971, the Southern Baptist Convention adopted a resolution calling on its followers to work for legal abortion in a broad range of circumstances that included not just rape and incest, but “damage to the emotional, mental, and physical health of the mother.” Two years later, when the Supreme Court legalized abortion outright, there was little backlash from evangelical Christians. A reporter for the Southern Baptist Convention’s newspaper concluded that because the decision to terminate a pregnancy was now left to an individual woman’s conscience, “religious liberty, human equality and justice are advanced by the Supreme Court abortion decision.”
Despite the Southern Baptist Convention’s blasé response to Roe, other evangelical scholars saw the decision as a moral catastrophe. Distressed by the immediate uptick in the number of abortions that followed the Supreme Court decision, Harold O.J. Brown, an editor at Christianity Today, exhorted evangelicals to see Catholics as their allies in the pro-life fight. Francis Schaeffer, a philosopher who spent many of his adult years presiding over a Christian commune in Switzerland, had returned to the U.S. in 1960s, convinced that because of the sexual revolution, the country was rejecting its Judeo-Christian values. There was, for Schaeffer, no clearer evidence of this decline than the legalization of abortion, which he saw as the final secular devaluation of human life.
In 1976, Schaeffer enlisted C. Everett Koop, a doctor who later served as surgeon general under President Reagan, to create a documentary series called Whatever Happened to the Human Race? In the films, Schaeffer and Koop warned that a society that tolerated abortion would soon make infanticide and euthanasia routine. One scene showed Koop standing along the shores of the Dead Sea, surrounded by thousands of abandoned baby dolls. The film’s message, says Molly Worthen, a professor of history at the University of North Carolina, was that abortion represented the beginning of a tumble into cultural depravity, much like the Roman Empire’s. “Schaeffer and Koop preached to evangelicals that they should picket abortions clinics not just to save the unborn, but to save Western civilization.”
Under pressure from its membership, the Southern Baptist Convention reversed its position on abortion in 1979, throwing its institutional weight behind a constitutional amendment to prohibit abortion unless it was necessary to save the mother’s life. The following year, abortion was at the center of the Moral Majority’s campaign to sweep conservative politicians into statehouses, Congress, and the White House. “It’s hard to underestimate how big this shift was,” says Dan Williams, a professor of history at the University of West Georgia. “At the time of the Roe decision, no one saw it as a watershed moment. By the late 1970s, many evangelicals would say 1973 was a time when the government sanctioned legalized killing. It was the ultimate sign that the government had rejected God.”
Two competing narratives explain why evangelicals’ shift on abortion was so sudden and spectacular. The Christian Right’s critics allege that Schaeffer and others calculated that abortion could be the issue that capture evangelical Christians’ diffuse anxieties about the sexual revolution, the beginnings of the gay rights movement, and the Equal Rights Amendment—and catapult them into political power. Its defenders argue that evangelicals’ acceptance of abortion was conditional even before it was widely available. After a few years of legal abortion, evangelicals had seen enough to recognize it as a moral abomination. “Once the horrors of slavery became known and the humanity of African-Americans became evident, northern Christians increasingly become single-minded in their opposition to slavery,” wrote Mark Galli, the editor of Christianity Today, in a blog post in 2012. “That has more or less been the history of contemporary evangelicalism regarding abortion.”
Both explanations are, to a certain extent, true. Evangelicals were wary about abortion from the beginning; it didn’t take much to convince them that legalizing the procedure was the harbinger of broader moral decay.
But in the 1970s, Republican strategists were also searching for ways to harness evangelicals’ anger and fear about cultural change, from incursions on school prayer to the rise of feminism. Abortion was the issue that could both galvanize evangelicals and peel Catholic voters away from the Democrats. In the 1980 election, the Moral Majority helped topple pro-choice Democratic incumbents in the House and the Senate, and brought the first pro-life president into the White House. Although the face of Christian conservatism, which quickly formed the core of the Republican Party, was Jerry Falwell, a Southern Baptist pastor, the movement was ecumenical from the beginning. It was Paul Weyrich—an Eastern Orthodox deacon who was born Roman Catholic—who coined the phrase “moral majority.”
The battle over the contraception mandate has only intensified the decades-long partnership between conservative Catholic leaders and evangelical Protestants. Support from evangelicals helps bolster the Catholic case that the secular supporters of the Affordable Care Act are bent on dismantling the treasured American ideal of religious liberty. “We recognize we have common cause with Catholic University of America and other Catholic institutions in defending religious liberty,” said Wheaton College’s president, Philip Ryken, when the lawsuit against the Obama administration was announced. “We're, in effect, co-belligerents in this fight against government action.”
Just as they adopted the Catholic notion of fetal personhood, evangelicals are now using Catholic rhetoric to argue that birth control is incompatible with a pro-life philosophy. Catholic doctrine teaches that sex can’t be separated from procreation through artificial means. Although the Catholic Church sanctions natural family planning, a form of birth control that works by tracking a woman’s fertility, pious couples must always be ready to accept an unplanned pregnancy.
Until recently, few evangelicals shared this view. The Quiverfull movement, where couples eschew family planning, leaving God to fill their “quiver” with children, is the best-known example of a group of evangelicals who openly embraced “be fruitful and multiply” as a scriptural imperative. The Duggar family, the stars of the TLC show 19 Kids and Counting, gave the movement some cultural currency. But Quiverfull’s goal is not just Biblical loyalty; they hope to use their large broods to overwhelm secular American culture.
Now, qualms about contraception—not just alleged abortifacients like Plan B and the IUD, but the pill as well—are filtering into the mainstream. More and more evangelicals, especially women, are beginning to advocate for natural family planning. Artificial birth control methods, they argue, violate the openness to life that’s central to a Christian existence. “Being pro-life isn't only about opposing surgical abortion,” wrote Agnieska Tennant, an editor at Christianity Today. “It's about opening ourselves to the risk and mess and uncertainty that accompany any God-sent guest we allow into our lives. The least we can do is leave our doors unlocked.”
Is this shift organic, or merely politically expedient? Randall Balmer, a professor of religious studies at Dartmouth University and the author of Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America, says that just as abortion served as a convenient symbol for evangelical anxiety with the cultural and political changes of the 1970s, the new opposition to contraception is a calculated move to strengthen evangelical arguments against the Affordable Care Act. Whether individual women use contraception is irrelevant; the goal is to convince evangelicals that a Democratic president is infringing on their religious liberty. “This is naked politics,” he says. “It’s jumping on the Catholic bandwagon to score points against Obama.”
Allan Carlson sees things a little different. According to him, evangelicals are spontaneously embracing a holistic approach to the “culture of life” that makes contraception less appealing. “We’re seeing reconsideration of what birth control means,” he says. “It’s about an openness to human life, and a new suspicion of why we would want to restrict human fertility in the first place.”
Even if more evangelical leaders and writers are publicly rethinking birth control, it seems unlikely that a radical shift is happening in individual couples’ bedrooms. Surveys show that only two percent of Catholic women rely on natural family planning; 68 percent of Catholic women and 74 percent of evangelical Protestant women use an IUD or a hormonal form of birth control like the pill. Protestants are also more likely than members other religious denominations to opt for male or female sterilization.
Given its pervasive use, it will be much more difficult to convince evangelicals that contraception carries as much of a moral stain as abortion. But if more evangelical leaders begin to conclude that birth control does, indeed, violate the “culture of life,” they may have a more receptive audience than their Catholic counterparts. American Catholics routinely ignore doctrinal commands; majorities favor abortion and gay marriage. But right-leaning evangelicals are primed, after years of anti-abortion activism, to reconsider the uncertain boundaries about where life begins. A small but vocal minority of evangelicals could turn contraception from a foregone conclusion into a potent political force.The Plague Is Back, This Time In New Mexico
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Three people in New Mexico caught the plague, according to health officials there, who reported the two most recent cases this week.
Yes, this is the same illness that killed an estimated 50 million people across three continents in the 1300s, though these days common antibiotics will get rid of it.
Once known as the Black Death, possibly for dark patches caused by bleeding under the skin, the plague swept Europe 700 years ago, killing a third of the population — an estimated 25 million. It wiped out millions in China and Hong Kong in the late 1800s before people put two and two together and started targeting rat populations.
Centuries later, the plague periodically pops up in countries across the globe — though at minor levels compared to its medieval heyday. In 2015, the World Health Organization recorded 320 cases across the globe, including 77 deaths.
A flea-dwelling bacterium, Yersinia pestis, causes the scourge.
The U.S. tends to see between one and 17 human cases a year. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the disease likely hitched a ride to the U.S. in 1900 on flea-infested rats, which had boarded steamships in Asia. Since then, infected fleas have taken up residence on rodents including chipmunks, squirrels and prairie dogs across the southwest.
New Mexico and neighboring states are nearly plague-perfect settings, with their buffet of possible rodent hosts.
Last year, New Mexico state had four cases. The year before that, there were another four, including one death. This year, all three were hospitalized but are now recovering at home.
The plague can persist in rodent populations, especially wild ones, for a long time without affecting humans. But it can re-emerge.
As we've reported in previous posts, the bacteria will hook onto the lining of a flea's gut and stomach, growing into a film that can clog the insect's digestive passage. The next time the flea goes for a blood meal, it pukes into whatever animal it's feeding on (usually a rodent), spreading the bacteria.
Once a rodent is infected, the illness can spread to wild carnivores that eat it, or to cats, dogs and people that come within flea-jump range.
Paul Ettestad, a public health veterinarian for the New Mexico state health department, says prairie dogs are particularly vulnerable to plague. If a whole colony gets the illness, the bacterium amplifies.
"It's like putting a match to a grass prairie," he says. "Whoosh."
As their rodent hosts die off, fleas will seek a new one — typically the next animal to peer down the burrow hole, whether it's a coyote or a house cat.
"What we see in the West here is the fleas will crawl up to the entrance of the burrow and wait for a host to come by," says Ken Gage, who studies vector-borne diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "If they get on another rodent that they can live on, then they've been successful. But they can also jump on humans, or on dogs or coyotes or cats."
Sometimes, that new host can transport the fleas a few miles away and spread them to other animals.
Cats and dogs can catch fleas while exploring outdoors, or they can drag infected rodents directly into the home. Sick cats, which are more susceptible to the disease than dogs, can also pass the infection to humans directly.
The plague comes in three forms. If a person gets bitten by an infected flea, they'd most likely develop bubonic plague, named for the painful lumps, or "buboes," where the bacteria multiply. It can also get into the bloodstream, causing septicemic plague. If left untreated, the bacterium can eventually spread to the lungs, causing pneumonic plague, which the World Health Organization considers to be among the deadliest infectious diseases.
Two of this year's New Mexico cases were bubonic, and one was pneumonic, says Paul Ettestad. The patient with the pneumonic case is currently recovering from organ damage due to the illness. Because pneumonic plague can spread between people, health officials traced dozens of the patient's contacts and gave them prophylactic antibiotics.
That case likely started out as bubonic or septicemic, Ettestad says, but because the person didn't seek medical care quickly enough, the bacterium was able to spread to the lungs.
"Sometimes people think they can tough it out at home and they're gonna get better," he says. "What happens with plague is you kinda hang on, hang on, hang on and then suddenly the bacteria can spread into your bloodstream extremely quickly and it can overwhelm a person."
In 2015, a patient in New Mexico died after waiting too long to seek medical treatment.
In places with poor access to health care, the illness can be deadly on a larger scale. Last fall, an outbreak started in a remote part of Madagascar that hadn't seen the infection since 1950. According to WHO, more than 60 people were infected, and 26 died. Most cases were bubonic, though a few were pneumonic. Partially due to inaccessibility and security issues "due to local banditry," a WHO spokesman says that "the real magnitude of the outbreak is still to be defined."Despise those daily injections of essential medication? Well folks, relief could be on the way. Over a decade ago, two MIT professors, Robert Langer and Michael Cima, first considered developing a drug-delivery microchip that could be wirelessly controlled. This past week, researchers in Cambridge -- alongside scientists from MicroCHIPS, Inc. -- announced that they have successfully used the aforementioned chip to give osteoporosis patients their daily allotment of teriparatide. "You can do remote control delivery, you can do pulsatile drug delivery, and you can deliver multiple drugs," Langer noted. Chips used in this particular study housed 20 doses each and results indicated that the delivery showed less variation than administered injections. In theory, microchips like these could be used alongside sensors that monitor glucose levels -- creating tech that could adapt to changes in a patient's condition. More info on the trial awaits in the source link below.Polly Trout is the director of Patacara Community Services. The The Blog Quixotic makes no assertions regarding the truth of any of the allegations contained in Rev. Trout’s letter. The letter is part of the public record and I am repeating it here verbatim, with the permission of the author. –David Preston
February 15, 2016
Subject: Camp Dearborn
Dear Mayor Murray:
I am writing to you on behalf of the residents of Camp Dearborn. I am asking for two things:
1. That you take their current grievances seriously and hire an external, objective researcher to investigate them.
2. That the campers who have raised the grievances be allowed to continue to reside either at the current location or a new legal encampment, with an interim supervisor they feel safe with, while the situation is being investigated.
These grievances are substantial and serious, and punishing the residents for bringing them to light would be wrong.
Legal encampments are a very good thing and I support them wholeheartedly. They give residents access to water, portable toilets, and garbage collection. They have a perimeter fence and volunteer security personnel. Drugs, alcohol, guns, and illegal activity are not allowed in legal camps. Some of them have tiny houses; others have raised platforms for their tents. Living conditions in the legal encampments are better than they are for illegal homeless campers. Legal encampments save lives and it is wonderful that the city is expanding these services.
Unfortunately, because all the legal encampments are under a monopoly with poor management and no accountability or oversight, they are not being managed as well as they should be, and human rights violations are unnecessarily occurring within the camps.
I first became involved in the situation 1/29/16 when my friend David Delgado called me to say that he had been fired from Nickelsville. He had filed a grievance against his supervisor, Scott Morrow, and believes he was fired for being a whistleblower. Mr. Morrow functions as the director of Nickelsville, although he does not appear to have a job title or job description. He is also the director of SHARE/WHEEL. SHARE/WHEEL and Nickelsville are the only nonprofits in Seattle authorized to run sanctioned, city funded encampments for homeless people. Nickelsville operates in partnership with LIHI.
David Delgado tried to file a grievance stating that Scott was ignoring safety concerns in the camps, but that instead of investigating his concerns, he was fired. Scott says that David was fired for not doing his job. Personally I believe that David was doing a heroic job of earning his $11/hour as a front line social worker, and that it was a mistake to fire him. However, my larger concern is that the original grievance was never addressed, because there is no reliable system of accountability at Nickelsville. On 2/1/2016 Scott issued a letter to campers saying that grievances against him could be presented to SHARE/WHEEL staff, or the Nickelsville Board of Directors, and then gave an email and PO Box for reaching the Board. However, Scott himself was the one checking that email and PO Box, not the Board. A Board member emailed me on 2/13/16 saying that he had changed the password to the email so that a Board member would start checking it instead of Scott, but acknowledged that Scott was still the only person checking the PO Box.
This lack of oversight is particularly painful because in February of 2015, campers had filed grievances against Scott and tried to get him fired. At that time the Board promised them that changes would be made and a system of accountability would be put in place. Clearly, this did not happen.
When the three Nickelsville camps (at Dearborn, 22nd and Union, and Ballard) heard that David was fired, all three camps voted to hold Scott in no confidence. The Dearborn site went a step farther and barred him from the camp. In response, the campers were told by Scott that if they did not reverse their decisions and fall into line, then they would be evicted. Two of the three sites were frightened into submission; only the Dearborn site refused to back down. Because the Dearborn site is directly across the street from the Jungle, it was the site most affected by the mismanagement that led to the safety concerns that David originally raised, and which are yet to be addressed by Nickelsville’s leadership.
In the past two weeks, I have attended three camp meetings and spent about 20 hours interviewing Nickelsville residents and former residents. I’ve also spoken with current and former staff and board members, and had confidential conversations with service providers at other agencies working in homeless services in Seattle. I myself have been working in homeless services and nonprofit management in Seattle for the past 15 years. I have expressed my concerns about the situation to both the Nickelsville Board, LIHI, and the Church of the Good Shepherd. The Church of the Good Shepherd is the organization currently evicting Camp Dearborn from their present location.
In collecting oral testimony from the campers, I’ve been shocked by the stories I’ve heard about Scott’s ongoing patterns of mismanagement and unethical behavior. While the situation needs more thorough research, I speak up now in order to halt the impending eviction of the residents of Camp Dearborn, which is slated for 2/20/16.
I do not expect you to take my word for it. What I’m begging you to do is to halt the eviction proceedings while the situation is adequately researched by a respected external observer, and conduct a capacity study which examines Nickelsville’s leadership, governance, and management, and makes recommendations to the city on ensuring city funding is used wisely and ethically in these camps. For my part, I am committed to continuing to collect oral testimony and to document camp conditions until positive changes are made. I recuse myself from consideration for any paid work arising from the investigation.
In a camp meeting on 1/31/16, Scott stated, “Sure, I haven’t always been nice, but I get the job done.” I would like to question that. First, it is not clear to me that the camps are being well managed. Second, it is my belief that treating people like human beings is foundational to working ethically with oppressed and marginalized populations. It is not an optional frill. The worst part of homelessness is not the physical deprivation but the social and emotional deprivation. Homeless people are frequently dehumanized and treated as “less than.” They need a safe place to sleep at night, but they ALSO need to be treated like human beings that deserve a safe place to sleep at night.
Scott habitually shames and punishes camp residents who stand up to him and disagree with him. Often, he does so in nonverbally or with passive aggressive voice inflection that makes it difficult to document on papers. Here are some examples:
• In a public meeting, Scott distributed a 38-page photocopied handout. Later in the meeting, a camp resident raised his hand and asked a question. Scott replied, “you could have read it in the handout…. if you could read.”
• A resident told me, “When I spoke up about the drugs in camp, Scott told people I was a drug dealing scumbag and not to listen to me. I don’t even do drugs. I don’t deal drugs. I don’t like being around drugs.” The informant then paused, teared up, looked at the ground, and said in a much quieter voice: “Also, I’m not scum.”
• At a camp meeting, a resident said “Scott said I had to come to the meeting or be evicted, and then when I was there, screamed at me in front of everyone, calling me names. He screamed and screamed and screamed.”
• A camp leader, in a meeting: “Scott needs to stop treating us like idiots and garbage…. We just want accountability. Sometimes people get burned out, or overly aggressive. Not everyone notices when they are being an a**hat. When I’m being an a**hat, I get held accountable. Everyone needs that.”
• An elderly resident told me: “I wish I could talk to you but I can’t because Scott will take away my Porta Potty and I really need it.”
One by one, these incidents seem small, but as a persistent pattern of behavior, they contribute to a dysfunctional system that does not empower people for success. He routinely discredits people who speak up against him by making up untrue and unkind stories about them.
I know that this is an ugly situation that few really want to deal with. It would be much easier to shove it under the rug again. Helping homeless people is complex and difficult and painful, and it is easy to get overwhelmed and throw up our hands. But we need to help anyway, because it is the right thing to do, and once you are doing something you might as well do it right. It is not actually that hard to be both competent AND kind in nonprofit management; it is not as if we have to choose one over the other. This is a fixable situation, and we should fix it now before it spreads to the new camps.
I wish you could have been with me at Camp Dearborn last Thursday, 2/11/16, when they voted to uphold their stand and occupy the site rather than give into the ultimatum of accepting Scott back into the camp. They shared with each other their stories and fears, talked about how much they had to lose, and in the end voted 13-2 to stand up to Scott. The clear message was: our survival needs are important, but our dignity as human beings is important too, and we are tired of being asked to trade our dignity for our survival.
I hope you will join me in listening to the campers themselves, and bear witness to their testimony. Please do not punish the residents of Camp Dearborn for speaking truth to power, and halt the eviction proceedings. We need an external nonprofit management consultant to research these allegations and make recommendations for positive change. I believe that if a capacity study is done on Nickelsville, the researchers will recommend new leadership and accountability procedures.
Best wishes,
Reverend Polly Trout, Ph.D.
Founder and Executive Director
Patacara Community ServicesThe Adopt-a-Block Program is putting together a two-day cleanup event called HalloClean to counter the Halloween events in Isla Vista.
Hundreds of volunteers are expected to help clean up Isla Vista this Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Local restaurants like the Isla Vista Food Co-Op, Silvergreen’s, Pita Pit, Woodstock’s Pizza and Pizza my Heart have generously agreed to donate food, and Monster Energy Drinks will be giving away cold beverages to the volunteers. UCSB campus organizations, the Coastal Fund and the Isla Vista Community Relations Committee are co-sponsoring the event.
The cleanup on Saturday will encompass a costume contest with cool prizes being awarded to the best costumes. The first 50 people to show up to the Sunday cleanup will receive a free Adopt-a-Block tank-top.
“I just want people to have fun with their friends while they are helping to improve the quality of life in their community and helping to fight against pollution in our local marine environment at the same time," Adam Porte, an Adopt-a-Block supervisor. "It’s a win-win-win!”
Isla Vista is a unique bluff-top ocean community that does not have assigned street sweeping days where all of the cars have to be off of the street on a certain day so the street sweeper can clean it. Therefore, the geographic area of Isla Vista relies solely on volunteers to remove all of the trash that accumulates between the cars and the curb year-round.
Volunteers are needed all year to help clean the streets of Isla Vista.
— Adam Porte is a supervisor for Adopt-a-Block.The much-anticipated behemoth Patch 1.2 is finally here!
The Good
The UI customization is excellent Game performance seems significantly improved The addition of Recruit PVP gear provides a viable option for fresh 50s to get decently geared quickly
Since SWTOR launched back in December, the UI has been the main source of criticism across the playerbase. The new Interface Editor provides a high degree of customization, is usable and intuitive, and allows for sharing of the UI settings across characters. My only nitpick is that it lacks “snap-to” functionality for aligning interface elements. But overall, big thumbs up.
Tip: make sure to turn on your Target of Target frame in the Interface Editor. You can do this by clicking on the Target of Target frame and checking the Enabled box.
The other sticking point for many players pre-1.2 has been the poor or inconsistent game performance. Players suffered from low / inconsistent FPS, lag in populated areas, and issues related to animations and their timing. In 1.2, the game performance is significantly better – the game plays faster.
I’m glad the Recruit PVP gear was added to the game, as fresh 50s were cannon fodder pre-1.2. Of course, not all fresh 50s will have or be willing to fork out the ~320k credits to buy the whole set. But the option is there at least for those who can afford it and want to help their team.
The Bad
Ranked Warzones were delayed The PVP commendation rewards are out-of-whack with the cost of PVP consumables 9 of the 14 War Hero gear slots require the corresponding Battlemaster piece
PVP fans have been eagerly waiting for Ranked Warzones (RWZs), so it was disappointing to hear just 2 days before the Patch went live that RWZs were being delayed. That being said, as I wrote earlier, the planned temporary “flexible” and “mixed” matchmaking systems were unattractive, as they respectively paired solo-queued players against premades and RWZ-queued players against non-RWZ-queued players. In addition, these matchmaking systems did not address the real underlying issue: some servers have low populations and there is no cross-server queueing functionality. I am relieved that BioWare pulled the plug on RWZs instead of going live with those matchmaking systems and risk having them flop out of the gate – especially after the failure with World PVP in Ilum.
The PVP commendations rewarded from warzones no longer cover the cost of actively using warzone medpacs and warzone adrenals because of 3 synergistic factors:
The amount of warzone commendations earned from matches (particularly losses) has been reduced, and
The cost of the warzone medpacs and adrenals has doubled (10->20), and
The cooldown for these consumables has been cut in half (180->90 seconds)
Some of my guildees are getting around this by relying on their re-usable Biochem medpac, which is great if you went Biochem. While some folks stockpiled PVP consumables pre-1.2, many players will experience a commendations deficit per warzone if they use 4+ consumables per match.
Most of the War Hero gear pieces require the corresponding Battlemaster piece to trade-in. This is fine for players who only play 1 spec, play classes where there aren’t multiple viable sets to choose from, or already have all the Battlemaster pieces from various sets that they might use. And keep in mind that Battlemaster pieces are competing for the same commendations that are used to purchase the overpriced PVP consumables.
The Ugly
The quality of the PVP experience experience has suffered due to much lower Time-to-Kill (TTK) Class balance is heading in the wrong direction
I hadn’t played on the 1.2 PTS due to the lack of character copy (there’s no way I’m going to re-level a character on a test server, that’s rubbish), but my guess was that TTK in 1.2 was going to be roughly the same or higher (due to the number of nerfs to burst damage and talents across classes, and Expertise scaling). For whatever reason (lower Endurance on gear, gap between damage and mitigation provided by Expertise, etc), the opposite is the case. TTK is down dramatically, and this has taken away SWTOR’s best attribute in PVP: drawn-out fights that allow for tactical gameplay. Fully-geared Battlemaster players melt under any kind of focus fire. PVP is now a gibfest.
Since November and up through 1.1.5, I have stated that SWTOR had the best class balance of the major MMORPGs. Of course, the balance was not perfect, but I thought BioWare was taking the wise approach from 1.0->1.1.5 of incrementally making class changes to improve balance. However, in 1.2 BioWare decided to make multiple, significant changes to 7 of the 8 Advanced Classes. In my gaming experience, so many class changes at once has rarely produced a positive overall outcome (with the exception of WoW’s Cataclysm expansion, which streamlined talent trees and added new class mechanics).
In 1.1.5, here is what I thought was overpowered in PVP and needed to be looked at in future patches:
31-pt Shadow / Assassin tanks had it all: high survivability (Resilience, Deflection, plus self-healing), high mobility, very good damage, good debuffs, and Guard
Sentinels / Marauders had too much on-demand survivability and the best group buffs in the game
The friendly pull and sprint for Sages / Sorcs gave them a significant tactical advantage in group PVP, especially compared to the other 2 healing ACs
Assault Spec Vanguards / Pyrotech Powertechs had too much burst capability due to Ionic Accelerator / Particle Prototype Accelerator proc’ing multiple times in a short window
Scrapper Scoundrels / Concealment Operatives could easily gib people in smaller-scale fights (although they faced the same issue that other Rogue classes have faced in longer-scale combat)
Commando / Bounty Hunter healers were too mana efficient
Of the above issues, the latter 3 were changed in 1.2 but the first 3 were not. Sentinel / Marauder was buffed and Shadow / Assassin tanks were untouched. Simply put, the class balance in 1.2 is the worst I’ve seen since the game was launched, and I no longer believe SWTOR’s class balance is positively differentiated from other games on the market.
Closing Thoughts
I’m getting a sense of déjà vu: the sweeping changes in SWTOR 1.2 remind me of the sweeping changes in RIFT 1.5 and 1.6, in terms of having a negative impact on the quality of PVP. Yes, I know 1.2 went live yesterday, but I’ve been fairly accurate in projecting the impacts of live changes in the past.
I greatly enjoyed PVP in SWTOR from Beta through 1.1.5, even with the bugs and issues, because those are par-for-the-course with any new game. I am, simply put, bummed and disappointed with the PVP in 1.2. Things that were “broken” in terms of class balance were not addressed, and many things that were fine are now “broken” – and I mean in terms of how they work not bugs. I’m also concerned with the shift from careful, pinpoint class tweaking to across-the-board class changes. Is this going to happen again post-1.2, like it did with RIFT in 1.6?
P.S.:
If you play a Vanguard / Powertech, give me some time to sort out the changes
I haven’t had a chance to try my Gunslinger in PVP yet
I’m not planning on re-rolling as Shadow or leveling my 20 Sentinel, although both are fun classes and are very strong
Yes, I know Guild Wars 2 is coming, and yes, I pre-ordered it on April 10th as you probably did too. And yes, I know TERA early access on live is happening later this month. It doesn’t change the fact that I’ve been a huge SWTOR fan and want the game to flourish. The more games that are successful, the better it is for gamers and for the industry
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AdvertisementsKevin Love has officially joined LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers after the Cavs, Minnesota Timberwolves and Philadelphia 76ers completed their trade call with NBA officials Saturday afternoon, league sources told Yahoo Sports.
In the finalized deal, the Cavaliers receive Love while sending Andrew Wiggins and Anthony Bennett, the No. 1 overall picks of the past two NBA drafts, to the Timberwolves. The Timberwolves will also receive forward Thaddeus Young in exchange for Alexey Shved, Luc Mbah a Moute and Miami's 2015 first-round pick, which the Cavs had owned.
The Cavaliers and Timberwolves reached an agreement in principle weeks ago on the basic foundation of the deal, sources said, but Wiggins could not be officially traded until 30 days after the signing of his rookie contract, which ended Saturday.
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Prior to reaching an agreement with Minnesota, Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert had a lengthy meeting in Las Vegas with Love after receiving permission from Timberwolves and NBA officials.
Love will join superstar James and Kyrie Irving to create the most devastating trio in the NBA and will instantly make the Cavaliers a frontrunner to win the NBA championship. James returned to the Cavaliers and his home state earlier this summer after spending the past four seasons with the Miami Heat.
More NBA coverage:Image copyright European Council
A new design for a €2 coin featuring a map of a European battle is proving divisive in Brussels.
The design shows an image of the Lion Hill memorial at Waterloo, near Brussels. It was submitted by Belgium to commemorate the battle fought there on 18 June 1815.
But one member of the European Union thinks it is in rather poor taste.
In a letter of objection, the French government argues the design contains a "negative" symbol for some Europeans.
The letter contends that the Battle of Waterloo, in which Napoleon was defeated, is an event with particular resonance in the European collective memory and goes beyond being just an instance of military conflict.
The coins could prompt an unfavourable reaction in France, the letter warns, at just the time that eurozone governments are trying to strengthen unity and co-operation.
'Fuss in Paris'
Not everyone agrees that Waterloo is laden with so much meaning in the 21st Century, reports |
a 6ft tall Red Ranger from Power Rangers Dino Charge at the Nickelodeon booth for photo opportunities - Sorry, you can't buy this one!
Nick in the 90s
Nickelodeon will look back at a classic era for the network via three exclusive t-shirts at Comic-Con, devoted to Ren & Stimpy, Rugrats and Rocko's Modern Life.
SquarePants SpongeBob
The one previously revealed exclusive is a new SpongeBob SquarePants print, by James Gilleard, entitled Bubble Buddies.
San Diego Comic-Con runs July 9th-12th, with a preview night on July 8th.
Eric Goldman is Executive Editor of IGN TV. You can follow him on Twitter at @TheEricGoldman, IGN at ericgoldman-ign and Facebook at Facebook.com/TheEricGoldman.Across America many small-business owners are cheering at the GOP win on repealing and replacing Obamacare. After years of debate, the House voted Thursday to repeal key parts of the Affordable Care Act and replace them with new provisions that change the way the federal government funds purchases of individual health plans and Medicaid.
Health care has become an ongoing source of pain for many small-business owners. It was the top issue owners wanted Trump to address in a survey of 700 owners and prospective buyers in late February by BizBuy Sell, a marketplace for small businesses.
Among respondents, 60 percent favored an ACA repeal. The major reason: spiraling health insurance premiums — often a result of insurance companies fleeing the marketplace.
It is a trend affecting business owners in all states. Ross Coulter, 49, and his wife, who run a two-person public relations firm in Dallas, have been hunting for a new health insurance plan after Humana notified them it was discontinuing their current one. They had no immediate plans to slow their search after the House vote. They are looking for an affordable replacement by July 1 for the high-deductible plan, for which premiums are $900 a month for the couple and their three children.
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"The only plans that are comparable would be a $400- or $500-a-month increase," says Coulter, who is now considering options like a Medi-Share plan, run by Christian Care Ministry, in conjunction with a cancer-coverage policy.One of the biggest blows to the Indianapolis Colts franchise during the Peyton Manning era was when stalwart left tackle Tarik Glenn retired from football following the Colts Super Bowl victory in 2006/07. It came as a shock to much of the fan base who simply wanted to build on the team’s playoff run and maintain momentum heading into 2007.
At 31 years old, Glenn wasn’t necessarily a young man in professional football years but since his retirement Indianapolis has not found a player to match his talent at left tackle. It would have been ideal for him to return for a couple of more seasons to help keep Manning’s blind side protected but Glenn had bigger plans.
Speaking with the IndyStar’s Clifton Brown, Glenn explained that he didn’t want football to dominate his life or his image.
Since his retirement, Glenn has put together a nonprofit organization based in Indianapolis called Dream Alive, which focuses on helping at-risk students from 7th grade through high school. Their work helps connect these students with internships, field trips, and mentoring that they might not otherwise experience.
“Dream Alive was our way to give back to Indianapolis, motivated by what Indianapolis gave to us.”
While he still considers Indianapolis a second home, he moved back to California and joined his alma mater, University of California, as the assistant director of student-athlete development. Needless to say, this role also allows him to have an impact in the lives of young people and try to pass along his experience and guidance to help them achieve their dreams.
“You get so much favor, so much attention for sports in our society. It’s harder to get a kid’s attention when you say, ‘Why don’t you become a scientist?' Not a lot of cool points come along with that. I’m trying to motivate our kids to be well-rounded, letting them know there are other identities they can embrace.”
While it was tough for the Colts franchise to lose such a huge contributor to its success during Peyton Manning’s prime, it is awesome to know that a man like Tarik Glenn is a key figure in the fabric of the Colts franchise in Indianapolis. At-risk youth in Indianapolis and student-athletes in California are reaping the benefits and it is hard to ask for more than that.Protesters demonstrate near Wall Street against banks and corporations in New York September 17, 2011. REUTERS/Eric Thayer
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Protesters complaining about the power of the financial industry staged noisy demonstrations that slowed pedestrian traffic on Wall Street for a third day on Monday, vowing to continue “for as long as it takes” to achieve vague demands.
Up to 150 protesters near the New York Stock Exchange held up signs saying “we must end corporate tyranny and corruption” and “debt is slavery”. The protesters claimed up to 350 demonstrators had come and gone throughout the morning.
Police reported eight arrests — two for attempting to enter a Bank of America office on Saturday, when larger crowds amassed for a protest billed as a “Day of Rage,” and six more on Monday. At least four on Monday were held for wearing masks, which is illegal for groups of two or more, police said.
“The elite corporate power have hijacked democracy,” said Alexander Penley, an international lawyer from New York. “The economic depression we are experiencing today has something to do with how Wall Street is run.”
Demonstrators have displayed other signs including “commodity inflation causes starvation” and “I can’t afford a lobbyist,” indicating wide-ranging frustration with what they say is the financial industry’s lack of accountability for the 2008 financial crisis and persistently high unemployment.
Police maintained an intense presence in the Financial District, partitioning off areas of the sidewalk and slowing pedestrian traffic in a neighborhood that in recent years has become more a tourist attraction than a center of financial trades.
The demonstrators have vowed to stay for months, though it was unclear what message Wall Street employees would hear.
“The truth is I was only half paying attention to what they were saying,” said Ken Polcari, managing director of ICAP Equities.For the first time, scientists have been able to detect signs of Alzheimer’s disease 10 to 20 years before the onset of dementia. The study, presented Wednesday at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Paris, focused on people with rare, inherited forms of the disease who develop it relatively young, with symptoms beginning in the patients’ 30s, 40s, and 50s. Researchers say the results will help them test drugs that could prevent or slow the progression of the disease, not only in these groups, but also in people with the more common late-onset variety.
Anticipating Alzheimer’s: Researchers are searching for early signs of Alzheimer’s, such as the buildup of amyloid protein in some parts of the brain, as shown in red above.
It’s proven to be extremely difficult to develop effective treatments for Alzheimer’s. One possible reason is that new drugs are tested too late in the progression of the disease; by the time memory problems become evident, extensive brain damage has already taken place. In the last few years, scientists have renewed efforts to find ways to detect the disease earlier, including brain imaging, blood tests, and tests of cerebral spinal fluid (CSF).
Randall Bateman, a neurologist at Washington University School of Medicine, and collaborators have been searching for such predictors by studying families with inherited versions of Alzheimer’s. In these cases, a single copy of the mutated gene guarantees that the carrier will develop the disease. Scientists can estimate the age of the disease’s onset based on the affected parent; that allows them to look for physiological changes decades before memory impairments become evident. The research is part of a large, multicountry study called DIAN (for Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer’s Network).
While this type of Alzheimer’s is rare, accounting for about 1 percent of cases, both inherited and more common “sporadic” forms of the disease are characterized by excessive buildup of amyloid protein in the brain. (The mutations that cause early-onset Alzheimer’s are different from those that increase the risk of developing the disease.)
“We can see changes over time, which allows us to estimate the order and magnitude of changes that occur leading up to Alzheimer’s,” says Bateman. “This is a way to tell us potentially how long of a window we have to treat it, and how we can use these markers in sporadic disease if the timing is the same.”
Families in the DIAN study have mutations in three different genes, all of which are linked to the production or processing of amyloid. Researchers found that family members who carried the disease gene showed an increase amyloid beta protein in the blood and CSF about 30 years prior to the expected onset of the disease compared to noncarrier family members. Within 10 to 15 years of the expected onset, that high level dropped to lower than noncarriers, while levels of tau, another protein associated with the disease, increased. The results come from the analysis of 150 family members with no outward symptoms and an average age of 37.
Brain-imaging studies with a marker designed to detect amyloid also revealed that the people with the disease-linked mutation had higher levels of the protein in their brains. All three of these changes—low amyloid and high tau in the CSF, and high levels of amyloid in the brain—are also evident in people with the disease.
Researchers involved in the DIAN study are already preparing to test drugs designed to prevent the disease in this group of patients. “If we know people will get the disease and about when, perhaps we can treat them before they get the symptoms,” says Bateman. Examining changes in the newly identified markers will help them assess whether a particular treatment is working without having to wait 20 years for the outward onset of disease.
Bateman and others are working with pharmaceutical companies to compile a list of the most promising experimental treatments; 11 compounds have been nominated so far. The group is focusing on drugs designed to dampen amyloid production or deposition, since this is a key early factor in the inherited form of the disease. “If we can normalize these initial steps, perhaps we can prevent downstream events from occurring and ultimately prevent dementia,” says Bateman.
He says treatments that slow the inherited form are likely to be effective in the more common form as well. “Data strongly suggests that the two diseases share a common pathway,” he says. “If we can prevent Alzheimer’s disease in this group, we hope we can translate over into preventing Alzheimer’s in other individuals that are already on this pathway.”
Bateman draws an analogy to atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, and heart attacks; people who have heart attacks often have increased atherosclerosis. Treatment with statins, which were developed to treat high cholesterol by reducing atherosclerosis, can also decrease the risk of a heart attack.
However, it’s not yet clear whether the early markers identified in the DIAN study are similarly detectible in people who will go on to develop common late-onset Alzheimer’s. These studies are much more difficult to conduct, given the difficulty of predicting who will develop the most common form of the disease.The NSA turned its eye on ordinary American citizens after 9/11, creating a massive surveillance dragnet to collect and monitor the communications of millions— without warrants, under a legal authority that hadn’t existed before.
As FRONTLINE explores in United States of Secrets: Part One, it was called “the program”— and when it came to light through Edward Snowden’s revelations, it sparked an intense debate over privacy, secrecy, and democracy in a post-9/11 world.
How did “the program” come to be? Why did the government keep it hidden from the people it was meant to protect? And what happened to the whistleblowers who spoke out against it?
Join us in a live chat with United States of Secrets: Part One producer and writer Mike Wiser and NSA whistleblower Kirk Wiebe, on Wednesday, May 14 at 2pm ET.
Spencer Ackerman, national security editor for the Guardian US, will serve as guest questioner.Dhanbad Police detained two cousins for questioning on Wednesday after they were seen wearing T-shirts printed with the words 'ISIS Pakistan' and allegedly promoting the violent militant group during a Muharram procession.
Shakir Rashid, 20, and Mohammad Javed Rashid, 22, were seen in the procession on Tuesday, but trouble began for them a day later when a local daily published Sadiq's photograph in the ISIS T-shirt.
Taking cognisance of the picture, police picked up the two from Indra Nagar colony.
Dhanbad police superintendent Hemant Toppo said, "Prima facie, we have not found any terror links (to) the three youths. The boys have revealed that they were portraying as terrorists during the street play organised on account of Muharram."
Shakir Rashid, 20, and Mohammad Javed Rashid, 22, were seen in the procession on Tuesday. (HT photo)
But other police sources said the brothers had admitted to being inspired by the terror group and that they wanted to join the organisation but couldn't do so because they didn’t know who to contact.
Working on a tip-off from them, the police also picked up one Sanjay Saw, 24, the owner of a printing firm for embossing “ISIS Pakistan” on the duo's T-Shirts.
Vishnu Rajak, officer in-charge of the Jharia police station, said the interrogation was still on.
"We are verifying their antecedents and trying to find out (the) names of people who are behind these youths and supporting them into the illegal act," he said.
Jharkhand, has of late, been in news for being home to several sleeper cells of banned terrorist outfits, the SIMI and Indian Mujahideen. Last year’s serial blasts at Patna Gandhi Maidan during a rally by Narendra Modi was planned and executed by Jharkhand- based militant sleeper cells. All the accused in the blasts have been arrested.
"This is something very serious," said Jharkhand Minority Commission chairman Shahid Akhtar.
"Police should go deeper and expose those who are trying to instigate the vulnerable youth into such acts," he said, suggesting stringent punishments against those found guilty.
The youths’ family members could not be contacted.
"We are in constant touch with Dhanbad police. Our team will step in once they are done with their preliminary probe," additional director general of Jharkhand CID, S N Pradhan said.
First Published: Nov 05, 2014 20:44 ISTA key price benchmark for oil closed at a new 6½-year low on Monday as the global crude glut shows no sign of ending soon.
The September contract for West Texas Intermediate settled at $41.87 US a barrel, off 63 cents from Friday's close.
It was the lowest closing price for light sweet crude since March 2009.
Oil dipped as low as $41.35 in intraday trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange last Friday, but ultimately recovered to settle above $42. Not today.
The energy subgroup on the TSX fell 1.9 per cent on the day and was the main reason why the S&P/TSX composite index shed 26 points on the day to close at 14,252.
Crude oil prices, which have plunged by more than half since last summer, are not expected to turn around anytime soon.
Analysts cite many reasons for the continuing slide. Japan, the world's third-biggest consumer of oil, reported Monday that its economy shrank at an annualized pace of 1.6 per cent in the second quarter. China's economy is also cooling.
"The general talk in the market is about the continued ripple effect from the Chinese devaluation," said David Thompson at energy-specialized commodities broker Powerhouse, in remarks quoted by Reuters.
The recently signed Iran nuclear deal is expected to allow that country to resume exports of oil to the rest of the world. That will add to the global supply glut.
The International Energy Agency, in its monthly report last week, said the global glut will last through 2016.
"While a rebalancing has clearly begun, the process is likely to be prolonged as a supply overhang is expected to persist through 2016, suggesting global inventories will pile up further," the Paris-based IEA said.
Some analysts also say that with the summer driving season drawing to a close, refineries in the U.S and Europe will soon start their fall maintenance shutdowns, which will limit crude oil demand.Kim Jong Un is Time's 2012 Person of the Year. That is, according to the magazine's online readers, who chose the North Korean leader over the likes of President Barack Obama, Olympic gold medalist Gabrielle Douglas, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and "Daily Show" host Jon Stewart in an online vote.
It doesn't mean Kim will be named Time's official Person of the Year when the choice is revealed on the "Today" show on Dec. 19—that honor is decided by the editors. It just means the son of the late Kim Jong Il received 5.6 million votes in Time's admittedly "completely unscientific" reader poll.
"While we don't make our selection based on the poll results," Time executive editor Radhika Jones noted in the blog post that announced the winners, "it's always interesting to see where some of our preferred candidates end up."
As has been the case in previous years, users of 4chan, an Internet forum, launched a campaign to manipulate the poll, pushing North Korea's supreme leader to the top of the list, according to the magazine.
Stewart came in second with 2.4 million votes. Rounding out the top five: undocumented immigrants (1,554,085); Douglas (1,515,215); and, together, Burmese leaders Aung San Suu Kyi and Thein Sein (1,487,945).
[Related: Obama no lock for Time's Person of the Year, panel says]
But if Kim is chosen as Time's Person of the Year, it wouldn't be the first honor bestowed on him by an American media outlet in 2012.
Last month, the Onion named Kim 2012's Sexiest Man Alive. The website for People's Daily—the Communist Party of China's newspaper—took the satirical declaration seriously, publishing a story congratulating him on nabbing the award.
The article's accompanying 55-page slideshow included images of Kim in varying degrees of sexiness—riding a horse, posing with military leaders, aiming a rifle, riding a horse and, uh, riding a horse.
It also wouldn't be the first time Kim made a splash on Time. In February, the magazine published a cover story on Kim assuming power at the end of 2011. The coverline: "Lil' Kim."
The Person of the Year, instituted in 1927, is "bestowed by the editors on the person or persons who most affected the news and our lives, for good or ill, and embodied what was important about the year."
Sometimes the Person of the Year is not a specific person at all. In 2011, for example, it was "The Protester." In 2006, it was "You."Neil deGrasse Tyson isn’t buying the UFO video released by former Blink-182 guitarist Tom DeLonge. America’s favorite astrophysicist swiftly decimated the clip while appearing on CNN’s New Day yesterday morning (Dec. 20).
DeLonge is currently working with former Pentagon official Luis Elizondo at To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science, which was founded by the ex-Blink guitarist. After releasing a mysterious video titled ‘Gimbal,’ the footage was picked up by various mainstream news sources and subsequently went viral. Opinions of the video have been mixed, but Neil deGrasse Tyson isn’t impressed.
"Call me when you have a dinner invite from an alien," Dr. Tyson says. “The evidence is so paltry for aliens to visit Earth, I have no further interest. Let other people who care go ahead, and then when you finally find some aliens bring them into Times Square.”
He continued, "The universe brims with mysteries. Just because you don't know what it is you're looking at doesn't mean it's intelligent aliens visiting from another planet. Scientists live in mystery every day of our lives... People are uncomfortable not knowing, not the scientists. I'm fine. We don't know what it is. Keep checking it out."
Though Dr. Tyson is skeptical about the video, he supports the government using resources to investigate such mysteries as the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program did for a decade. “I’m glad the Pentagon was looking at this, because if it posed a threat, I want them on top of it right away. The program is closed down, which said ‘not a threat.’”
Check out Neil deGrasse Tyson’s appearance on New Day in the clip above.
Blink-182 Albums Ranked“Can you prove you’re self aware?”
Transcendence proves that Wally Pfister is great at what he does, unfortunately, – Wally Pfister does not direct movies. The film is beautiful, from the first frame to the last. I can’t imagine that cinematographer Jess Hall (The Spectacular Now) had much to do standing next to Pfister– it must have been akin to taking painting lessons from Michelangelo. You see, Transcendence is the directorial debut for Pfister who has made a name for himself as Christopher Nolan’s cinematographer. He is responsible for the amazing look that films like The Dark Knight and Inception have. And at first, Transcendence even looks and feels like a Nolan film – Alas, it turns out to just be a soulless robotic version of one.
This screenplay is a mess. So much so that I’m surprised Pfister, Nolan, and his producing/life partner Emma Thomas, didn’t at least attempt to remedy its many issues. The film starts great; Johnny Depp plays the renowned A.I. scientist Will Caster, who is the target of an anti-tech terrorist group’s plot. They shoot him, resulting in him having a very finite amount of time left alive. Depp’s brain is uploaded by his wife, Evelyn, and best doctor buddy Max. Max chickens out after robo-Depp comes back to life and Evelyn has to flee the terrorist group after hooking him up to the internet. After this point nothing that happens really has any life to it. It just feels like a bland and bloated version of a William Gibson novel.
At times during the films third act, as it was crumbling to pieces before my eyes, I started thinking how this movie wants to be too many things. I credit it for not pandering to the dummies too much. The lingo used in this film is not just random science words thrown in to make the audience feel like they are watching a tech movie– all of the tech talk really means something most of the time. Because of this though, the film asks that you take it seriously, and then it does a lot of things that don’t follow the serious rules it has established. The movie did not have to be a tentpole summer blockbuster, it should have been tightened and smaller. It really feels at times like a superhero movie without the superhero, and instead of cutting to scenes of Batman doing things to counteract the evil Depp 9000, instead we just cut to Kate Mara putting up posters and looking through her Powerbook.
The characters outside of Will, Evelyn, and Max really have no life to them at all. Whereas Nolan can imbue a supporting character with instant gravitas, Pfister must have skipped that lesson. Morgan Freeman and Cillian Murphy just stand around like dolts most of the time. Murphy plays an FBI agent who hangs out with Professor Freeman instead of, you know, calling in more FBI agents to help out.
I’d also be kind of annoyed with this movie if I were a woman. There are two female characters in the movie, one is Mara, who plays the head of the anti-tech group R.I.F.T. She is not at all a likable character, usually just trying to kill people for most of the film. And then we have Evelyn, our very own biblical Eve 2.0 – who is responsible for plucking the forbidden fruit from the tree of technology by giving Johnny 5 everything he needs to become an evil super computer. She has to shoulder the blame for everything bad that happens in this movie, all while standing around looking dumbfounded. I mean really, she has a Ph.D. in science and can’t see what everyone else around her can see. I guess she was blinded by love, or blinded by all the nice things her new robot husband gives her – because women be shoppin’.
However, Rebecca Hall does an amazing job with what she is given. She is hands down the best performance in this film. Her emotions are the only believable ones on the screen– except for when D.E.P.P. Vista says “I’ll never let you go.” Sweet Titanic line read!
I guess there is a twist at the end, but by that point I really felt nothing other than “why is this 2 hours long?” The film establishes Will Caster as a greatest thinkable being and then limits his power for no reason to create an empty conundrum, resulting only in frustration.
Pfister has crafted a great looking film. I’m actually excited to see him make more movies, because we need more directors for these giant tentpole films other than Michael Bay. Maybe there is a learning curve to this thing, and it would have been better to not debut with a $100 million dollar film.
All we get here is a sleek but ultimately empty portrayal of the singularity. I really would have loved for this movie to have surprised me, and I would love to be able to recommend it to you– however – I’m afraid I can’t do that.
5/10
DownloadFebruary, Elland Road: Leeds United versus Wolverhampton Wanderers. Last against second-last, a six-pointer and then some. For the home side the mathematics of defeat may not be decisive but the effect on players, club and fans, not to mention creditors owed about £100 million, will almost certainly be terminal.
The omens are bad. Leeds have lost six in a row and Wolves are showing signs of a revival. The morning's Guardian includes a doomy feature about life after Leeds United and the afternoon's Yorkshire Evening Post fills its back page with the message: 'If United fail to beat Wolves tonight will the last person out of Elland Road please turn off the lights?'
For the vultures in the press box the script for this cold, wet Tuesday night is written already: the club is about to tip into relegation, administration and possibly oblivion.
Thirty minutes in and that is just how it looks. Leeds have scrambled a goal through Alan Smith only for Wolves to cancel it out. The home defence is a mess, with goalkeeper Paul Robinson missing crosses and central defender Steve Caldwell, just in on loan, wobbling under pressure. It's only a matter of time.
Then something changes. Seth Johnson starts winning tackles; James Milner, on the wing, makes Denis Irwin look his age; Smith is reaching the high balls; Mark Viduka's little passes find their men. Sensing the shift the crowd turns the volume up, chanting with arms aloft: 'We are Leeds! We are Leeds! We are Leeds!' Just before half-time, Dominic Matteo scores and, after the hour, Milner makes it 3-1.
'Want another,' says a fan beside me greedily, and he has his wish. In the final minute Viduka wins the ball on the left, slips past a couple of defenders and thumps it between keeper and upright.
On the bus back into town afterwards fans smile and shake their heads in disbelief. They have defied the doomsayers and bought the club some precious time; there's a long way to go yet but perhaps the worst will not happen.
It's not supposed to be this way. Clubs go down or get into money trouble every year, but not a big, ambitious, city club such as Leeds. And it's not just size, it's attitude: Leeds United don't care for popularity but they demand to be respected and feared. Elland Road, with its towering east stand, resembles a concrete warning to the weak, and even on this miserable night a near-capacity 37,000 have turned out to yell: 'We are Leeds!'
Yet here they are, relieved to beat Wolves, scrambling desperately for points at the bottom of the table, so close to ruin. What went wrong?
Amid the recriminations and panic engulfing Leeds over the past 18 months much of the real story of how a great club was brought so low has been forgotten, muddled or ignored, but by talking to people were close to the key decisions and linking their testimony to the hard facts of performance on the pitch and on the balance sheet it is possible now to piece together the making of a Premiership calamity. This is the story.
Summer 1999, Elland Road: another world. The season of the Manchester United treble was just over; Leeds had finished fourth and Peter Ridsdale had a smile on his face. Everything about his club smelled of potential.
Ridsdale himself was fairly new in charge, having just consolidated his position as executive chairman. His manager, David O'Leary, was also new: promoted in October, after the departure of George Graham to Spurs, he had exceeded all expectations by producing the best league performance in years. And the team was new, flush with exciting young players who had thrilled the fans and won admirers across the country.
The world of football, too, was brimming with promise. The game was fashionable, attendances were rising, stadiums were being renovated or replaced and television companies were paying ever-larger sums for rights.
A lifelong fan - he queued in a sleeping bag to see Leeds in the 1965 Cup Final - Ridsdale could sense one of those tides which, taken at the flood, lead on to fortune.
The Leeds board of directors agreed and, in retrospect, it's easy to see why, because almost everything on the club's balance sheet was healthy. Gate receipts were up 20 per cent in a year, television income up 40 per cent and merchandising earnings up 13 per cent. There was even - unusually for a football club - a modest operating profit.
Fast-growing companies need bold thinking, and Leeds had a plan. 'There was a belief,' Ridsdale says now, 'that with the right acquisitions we stood a genuine chance of challenging towards the top of the Premiership and certainly a chance of get ting in the Champions' League more often than not. So what we had to do was to see how we could add to the squad in a way that would take us forward.'
Acquisitions. That was the strategy. So they bought players. First came Eirik Bakke at £1.75m, then Danny Mills at £4m, then Michael Duberry at £4.5m and finally Michael Bridges at £5m. Bold indeed. The club's turnover in 1998-99 - everything that came into the club over the whole year, before any bills were paid - was £37m, and here they were spending more than 40 per cent of that on players in a single summer. This was only possible thanks to a form of credit that was completely new to sport.
Football clubs have long had difficulty borrowing. In the words of one former club finance chief: 'If you want to spend money then traditionally you have to have either a wealthy benefactor or a very nice bank manager.'
Ridsdale's Leeds didn't have a wealthy benefactor nor did they want one (such people like to say how their money is spent); and while the club bank, HSBC, was obliging enough, as always with banks there were limits.
That summer, before the spree, the club had been running a bank debt of around £11m, which was high by recent standards but acceptable to both parties. When it came to buying players HSBC was ready to offer an overdraft facility on top of that but it was strictly short term; Leeds had only a few months at best to pay it off. So the club had to find some other source of finance.
The problem was that football clubs can seldom offer lenders much in the way of security. Their principal concrete assets, the stadiums, are single-use and the ground they stand on tends to carry planning restrictions, so even if your club hasn't mortgaged its stadium already, a new mortgage probably wouldn't raise much. In 1999, financiers were beginning to see this as perverse. Here was a booming entertainment business turning over hundreds of millions a year and its ability to expand was being cramped by old-fashioned credit policies. There had to be a way to break out, and it was Ray Ranson who found it.
Ranson is not one to seek publicity or grant interviews, though he is known to many football fans as one of those Manchester City defenders wrong-footed by Tottenham's Ricky Villa on the way to his famous Cup Final goal in 1981. That is no measure, however, of his talents.
Even while he still played, he ran his own insurance business. It wasn't a humdrum house-contents outfit but one on the fringes of high finance. Once out of the game he sold up, joined the London money firm of Benfield Greig and set about applying his insurance expertise to sport.
'He's a very intelligent, able and charming man and he's comfortable in both worlds, the City and football,' says a former associate. 'Football people find it easy to get on with him and he understands their problems, while in the finance world, well, they're often fans and they're impressed to meet a real footballer. It opens doors.'
In the early summer of 1999 a door opened at Leeds United and Ridsdale listened with interest as Ranson described the funding idea he had. Business was not done straight away, but at the end of July, with the ink still wet on Leeds's purchase of Michael Duberry, Ridsdale rang Ranson urgently to ask for help.
In the interval, Leeds had tried a different finance option but that hadn't worked, so now, having heard on the grapevine that Ranson had successfully put together a deal for Chelsea, the Yorkshire club recruited him to cut down its overdraft. He did it like this.
Where Leeds had bought a player for, say £5 million, Ranson would find a financial institution that would advance the club exactly that sum. In return Leeds would have to pay back this money, with interest, over the course of the player's contract - typically four years.
Though known for shorthand purposes as a'sale-and-leaseback' arrangement, it is in most respects a conventional short-term loan, just as if you or I were borrowing £10,000 to buy a car. In the same way that, if we fail to make payments, the bank will take away the car, so if the club doesn't keep up payments the lender can make it sell the player and hand over the proceeds.
Because lenders were wary of football clubs, however, they required extra security. For one, these loans were not tied exclusively to the player: if for some reason the sale didn't cover the debt - say the player's market value had declined - the bank could claim the difference from the club. And then came the part that was the Ray Ranson speciality: the whole deal was insured with a German-based insurance company, Gerling, so that in the very worst case, if the club went bankrupt, the insurer would cover the lender's loss.
The benefit of this arrangement for the lender was that it transferred the main risk element - default by the club - to those professionals of risk, insurers. From the club's point of view the deal spread the cost of buying a player over the whole period of his contract and took the sum in question off the overdraft account, just as the bank manager demanded.
There were drawbacks. The loans were short-term and the interest rate was higher than the bank was charging, which meant that the quarterly payments were substantial (as they are with domestic car loans) and the extra insurance was expensive and had to be paid upfront.
In the late summer and autumn of 1999 Ranson successfully arranged separate finance packages of this kind to cover the purchases of Bakke, Mills, Duberry and Bridges.
The events of that season seemed gloriously to vindicate the acquisition policy: Leeds reached the semi-final of the Uefa Cup and finished third in the Premiership, clinching a place in the qualifying round of the Champions' League. The summer signings had lifted the side to a new level and Bridges, in particular, was a huge success, scoring 19 goals in 34 appearances.
The books were looking good, too. Turnover had jumped from £37m to £57m (including a 56 per cent rise in television revenue and a 33 per cent rise in gate receipts) and once again there was a small operating profit. So promising was the out look that BSkyB had taken a stake in the company.
What next? In the eyes of Ridsdale and his board the prospect of Champions' League football radically altered the terms of trade. That year's Uefa Cup run had been worth £6.9m and they had played in every round but the final. So lucrative was the Champions' League that Leeds could count on earning considerably more even if they went out in the first group stage. If they reached the second stage the very least they were likely to make was £15m. A Champions' League run, in other words, would rake in cash.
To improve the chances of such a run, and of qualifying again the following year, the board chose the same strategy that had paid off before: they strengthened the squad. O'Leary asked for three additional top-class players, one each in defence, midfield and attack. The board gave him exactly that, buying Dominic Matteo for £4.25m, Olivier Dacourt for £7.2m and Mark Viduka for £6m - a total outlay of £17.45m.
As before, Ranson was called in and he put together one of his packages to cover the Dacourt deal. Such deals take time, however, and a couple of months later he was still working on a Viduka package when Leeds United decided to take a historic step.
In the interval the newly strengthened Leeds side had successfully negotiated the qualifying phase of the Champions' League and then, after a disastrous start, surprised everyone by forcing their way through the first group stage to reach the second round. Six lucrative matches were in prospect, home and away against Real Madrid, Lazio and Anderlecht. The Leeds board decided this was the moment to strengthen the squad again |
seti and Alabama-based Schneider Electric signed last week a memorandum of understanding to improve electric auto infrastructure.
Reports by independent Russian energy bloggers and a press release from Rosseti say the project is aimed at pushing other Russian cities to follow suit.
The announcement – although on a relatively minor scale at present – corresponds with pledges by other European cities in the run-up to the crucial UN climate Summit in Paris later this month that they will beef up their own electric car infrastructure and create traffic free zones to reduce their municipal carbon footprints.
The announcement of the memorandum of understanding to create charge posts for electric cars in Moscow is some of the first concrete climate mitigation planning we’ve heard out of Russia in the run up to the critical Paris talks,” Bellona President Frederic Hauge said.
Credit: Bellona
“If Russia is to be taken seriously in Paris, initiatives such as this must be give full support by the Kremlin.”
Oslo was one of the first out of the gate, announcing last week a comprehensive plan to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent within five years with the introduction of traffic-free streets downtown, even higher reliance on its leading electric car reliance, and more improvements to its public transport system. And much of the city’s taxi fleet already runs on electric power.
European Automakers, in the wake of the Volkswagen scandal, are racing to accommodate high demand for electric cars. This has not come without setbacks, as the European Union caved to auto lobby pressures last week to delay rolling out tougher emissions standards by four years.
But the announcement of conceiving an electric car infrastructure for Russia, as announced at the Rugrids-Electro-2015 international electric forum last week is an idea that surprisingly fresh in a country that holds that its rising emissions are just a business cost in rebuilding post-Soviet industry.
“Although in the very early stages, the potential appearance of charge points for electric cars in Moscow is a step Russia could take along with other European capitols that are seeking routes to reduce their huge carbon footprints from automobiles,” said Hauge, who has been deeply involved with introducing the concept of electric cars to Russians on a street level.
In March 2014, he took the first known electric car trip form Norway across the snowy desolation of the Kola Peninsula to Murmansk in a Tesla Model S, which was something close to a UFO citing for locals.
The trip coincided with the Russian government repealing import taxes on electric cars until 2016, making them a more attractive buy.
Recharging problems were evident on the Russian side of the border, however, as an 80-meter extension cord had to be run out the window of the Polyarny Zory hotel where Hauge parked the vehicle.
But the mission served the purpose of drawing Russia’s attention to an economic boom it could take part in – if industry cleaned up its act.
The components of Teslas’ high-power batteries include nickel, and Russia’s Norilsk Nickel is the largest nickel producer in the world. It’s also one of Russia’s biggest polluters, making it ineligible for Tesla’s business until it zeroes out emissions in its production.
“It’s our hope that these informational journeys, most recently with the Tesla, will help Russia realize it has untapped resources of it’s own that can lend to the worldwide production of electric cars while making greater use of them at home,” said Hauge.
Schneider Electric told the Rusgrid-Electro conference that there is a considerable learning curve that Russia needs to catch up with before electric cars become more than and erstwhile sight on Russian roads.
“A recharging infrastructure is a necessary condition for further development of the electric car market [in Russia],” said Denis Bely, director of Schneider Electric’s operations in Russia, as quoted in a blog by Proenergo, which follows electric transport issues in Russia.253 Shares Share
(TRIGGER WARNING: Eating disorders)
Originally posted on …Until Eating Disorders Are No More, and cross-posted here with their permission.
I work at a hospital with a lot of different buildings spread across the medical campus.
My job has me going between buildings to different patient units or administrative offices, so I come into contact with a lot of different people throughout a given week, but don’t work closely with most of them.
There are plenty of people that I see regularly, but the extent of our interactions are a friendly nod or greeting as we go about our day, not even knowing each other’s names.
One such work acquaintance recently saw me waiting to meet with a patient’s family, and greeted me by saying, “Hey, Skinny!”
This caught me off guard.
When I was anorexic and dangerously underweight, it was not uncommon for people to make comments or observations on my weight or appearance – meant to be compliments if they didn’t know me well, and usually concern if it was from a friend.
These days, the only comments that I get on that subject are from people who haven’t seen me in a long time. For example, I recently got back in touch with an ex-girlfriend who knew me when I was still underweight. She had found some old photos of me, and repeatedly mentioned how much healthier I look now and how glad she is that I am recovered.
But, as I’ve been writing and reflecting on the two years that I was sick, I’ve become even more aware to the way people think about weight and observe themselves and others.
It has become painfully obvious the degree to which popular culture and common knowledge embraces the idea that being thin is equal to being healthy and that thin is always preferable.
This happens to such an extent that few people even question whether or not it’s true. It’s accepted at face value as an absolute truth.
The seemingly harmless greeting from my work acquaintance is the perfect example: She clearly thought she was being friendly.
But if someone addressed another person in a way that referenced or drew attention to how thin they aren’t, I anticipate that it would not be taken in a friendly way.
Words like thin or skinny are typically regarded as either neutral words or as compliments. However much I rack my brain, though, I can’t think of any words that are opposites for skinny or thin that society has not placed an inherently negative connotation onto.
Words like fat were at one time neutral descriptors, much like thin.
These days, though, fat has become the scarlet letter, the thing of pariahs.
Children who haven’t even started puberty are experiencing fat-phobia and learning disordered eating behaviors at very young ages.
The popular response to this is usually something about obesity prevention, but what most people fail to realize is that if you are talking about obesity, then you are necessarily talking about eating disorders.
Rather than focus on things like overall health and activity, the focus is on numbers, be it weight or BMI. Teaching children to obsess over these things (particularly an arbitrary measure like the BMI) won’t instill a “healthy” mindset. It just tells them that the approval of their teachers, parents, and peers has more to do with how thin they are.
According to the most recent statistics compiled by the Eating Disorders Coalition, 40% of 9-year-old girls have dieted, 40-60% of high school girls have dieted, and 13% of high-school-age girls purge.
When I was going through recovery, especially early on, it occurred to me just how obsessed our culture is with body image.
I think many of us don’t notice how bad it is because A) we are used to hearing it, B) we don’t think much of it when we see diet ads or hear people talk about losing weight, and – perhaps most dangerously – C) often we agree with what we’re hearing without really thinking it through.
The average person can usually hear these things without becoming especially concerned or obsessing over it (though I would not go as far as to say that people succeed at “tuning out” these messages) but for someone with an eating disorder, you become hypersensitive to it. Going out to eat with friends was often a challenge for me before and during my recovery. Just looking over a menu could be overwhelming, but being out with other people was nice because you could focus on socializing instead of the actual act of eating. At least, that was the idea at the time. It seemed inevitable that even close friends who knew what was going on would make comments on how much I was eating (usually intended in a friendly or encouraging way, but always having the effect of just drawing my attention back to eating) or would start discussing weight over meals. Especially in larger groups, once the subject came up, it seemed that everyone had something to say about their weight and how much they had lost or gained recently. I eventually learned to just excuse myself and walk outside for a few minutes in those situations, since at the time not all of my friends knew I was in recovery, and I didn’t always feel like explaining it. I was reminded of this when I was greeted with “Hey, Skinny!” because, although I no longer worry about or even think about my weight, it’s obvious just how much seemingly most everyone else does. What bothered me even more is how comfortable she was in combining a greeting with an observation about my appearance. Our society (and this is undoubtedly not limited to American culture) has a nasty habit of judging and evaluating each other based on appearances. The way I see it, if it would be considered rude or mean by most people to comment on how thin someone isn’t, then I’m equally concerned when superficial observations are made which in some way praise or compliment someone’s appearance. This idea is explored in enormous detail in Alfie Kohn’s Punished By Rewards, which mostly focuses on school and the workplace, but is entirely applicable to the topic of body image and eating disorders, since it all revolves around self-perception and self-fulfillment. Not to mention, many weight-loss schemes involve incentive-based dieting or exercising, a form of self-rewarding or self-punishing. He argues that it isn’t enough to abstain from punitive practices when students or workers under-perform, because praise or superficial rewards make people focus on and care more about the rewards themselves, and even rewards can have a punitive effect, such as when someone does not do well enough to earn a reward. I feel this idea translates fairly easily into the discussion of body image and the overall focus of weight with regards to health. Or, as it’s written in the Tao Te Ching, “Recognize beauty and ugliness is born.” It’s impossible to know what kind of perception someone has of their own body image. My co-workers who complimented my extreme weight loss back when I was anorexic were really just reinforcing the disease and giving me excuses to not worry about what was happening. I think that if we are to break out of our weight-obsessed culture and move towards something where people are valued for who they are and not what they weigh, one of the first places to start is with our own perceptions and ideas with how we perceive our fellow humans. Is it really appropriate or even friendly to make random comments on someone’s body, regardless of how short, tall, fat, or thin they are? Without context (like my ex-girlfriend excitedly telling me how healthy I now look), the only conclusion I have is no. It’s neither appropriate nor friendly, because despite how frequently and casually body image and weight get discussed, it remains a deeply personal subject for many people. Obviously, this may not apply to everyone. Recently I saw a friend’s mother for the first time in months who had been on a diet. She had noticeably lost weight, and truthfully, she looked like she had more energy and felt healthier. I almost commented on her weight loss and how “good she looked,” but then stopped myself. Later, my friend reported that her mother was disappointed that I supposedly didn’t notice the weight loss. Though I felt bad, it made me wonder: Did she really feel good about herself and her body image if she was disappointed that I didn’t compliment her weight loss? Or was her feeling of self-esteem less about liking herself and her appearance and more about how other people perceived her? I honestly don’t know the answer, but for many people I fear that it is the latter. What do you think? Want to discuss this further? Login to our online forum and start a post! If you’re not already registered as a forum user, please register first here. Matt suffered from anorexia as an undergraduate in college and has been doing advocacy work with the Eating Disorders Coalition since 2007. He currently is a graduate student at Virginia Commonwealth University in the Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies, with a special interest in how gender constructs influence body image and access to eating disorder treatment. Matt maintains his blog, …Until Eating Disorders Are No More and is also a monthly contributor to We Are the Real Deal. Follow him on Twitter at@TilEDsAreNoMore. Found this article helpful?
Help us keep publishing more like it by Help us keep publishing more like it by becoming a member!Not long ago, Turkey seemed optimistic about the future. But after clampdowns by strongman president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the rise of fanaticism and the Syrian war breaking out on its doorstep, the country is bitterly divided
Ankara, the city where I spent most of my childhood and early youth, is not only the capital of modern Turkey, and the centre of Turkish politics and the military. It is also home to a vast population – students, white-collar professionals, human rights activists – with a secularist worldview and liberal lifestyle. It was here that a bomb detonated at rush hour on 17 February near the Turkish parliament, killing 28 and wounding more than 60 people. This latest tragedy is yet another in a series of terror attacks that rocked the country since last summer.
Don’t sacrifice Turkey to save Syria | Jean-Marie Guéhenno Read more
When the news of the blast broke, I was sitting at a table with friends in Istanbul, in a small, bohemian flat overlooking the Bosphorus. On the walls were paintings by Middle Eastern artists and, facing them, a huge portrait of David Bowie that had been imprinted on the kitchen cabinets – an illustration of the many colours and conflicts in Turkish identity. There was a brief silence shattered by a plethora of questions. How could the Turkish intelligence service be so weak as to allow this to happen next door to military barracks and government buildings? Who could be behind the atrocity (later a Kurdish militant group, Tak, assumed responsibility)? Would Turkey manage to pull itself together or would it end up like Syria? Gradually, we went back to our dinner and to other subjects, but inevitably returned to politics, our mood vacillating between grief, sorrow and depression.
“Lebanon used to be like this at the time of the civil war,” said an Istanbul-based artist. “They would talk about death and love, funerals and weddings in the same breath. They would be crying one minute, laughing the next, and then cry a bit more. They could not hold on to an emotion for too long.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Photograph: Yasin Bulbul/AP
“Once we were the envy of the entire Muslim world,” said our host. “We were modern, westernised. Every year, Pakistanis, Iraqis, Iranians … they would come to Turkey to breathe freedom. Not any more. Nobody envies us now.”
One thing is clear: we Turks are collectively depressed. We have become an unhappy nation. Not that long ago, it seemed almost possible that Turkey would join the EU, make a new pluralistic constitution and strengthen its commitment to liberal democracy. The country was regarded as a role model that could bridge Europe and the Middle East. Western democracy and cultural Islam would coexist here peacefully, successfully. Not even the staunch advocates of the government express such dreams any more.
When countries are plagued by terrorism and fear of instability, it is vital that there remains a strong sense of solidarity around shared values. But such national unity does not exist in Turkey. The polarisation that skyrocketed after the 2013 riots – against the destruction of the Gezi park and the increasing authoritarianism of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Islamic-conservative Justice and Development party (AKP) – has reached such a critical level that people do not feel as if they belong in the same society any more. In past decades, Turkey’s splits were more visible: secularists and religious, Turks and Kurds, Alevis and Sunnis, leftists and nationalists, and class differences. Today, things are far more complicated. The main dividing line is now between those who are pro-Erdoğan versus those who are anti-Erdoğan. Many in the former camp regard those in the latter camp as “pawns of international powers”. The moment anyone speaks or writes critically, they are labelled a traitor.
The moment anyone speaks or writes critically, they are labelled a traitor
Turkey is going through a dark, seemingly endless tunnel. The first half of the population reacts to this tunnel in two major ways: surrender (accepting that they live in a turbulent region, leaving things in the hands of Allah) or aggressiveness (holding external and internal enemies responsible). In the meantime, the other half of the population has two responses: deliberate de-politicisation and over-politicisation. The urban, modern Turks either go around doing the same things they always did, talking about children’s schools, gluten-free diets and shopping malls. Or else they harp on obsessively about politics. Hence Turkey is not only deeply, hopelessly polarised. It is also divided into invisible ghettoes – islands of anger, islands of indifference, islands of obedience to central authority.
True, the country’s democracy was never great to begin with. But today’s quagmire is new and untested in several ways. First, there was never a time when national politics and regional politics were so dangerously intertwined. Today, what is happening beyond the borders has a direct impact on what will happen inside the borders. The blend of turbulent domestic politics with turbulent regional politics is a toxic cocktail. Second, the present turmoil triggers a profound sense of deja vu and hopelessness. Many people – Turks and Kurds – are worried that we are going back to the 1990s, a time of political violence, economic turmoil and frightening escalation in Kurdish insurgency, which left thousands killed, wounded and displaced. What is different this time, however, is how despair comes in the wake of years of optimism. Kurds constitute roughly 15% of the Turkish population, amounting to between 10 million and 12 million people. The biggest mistake in the past was to flame the fans of Turkish nationalism and authoritarianism and to invest heavily in military measures in the hope that this would solve the problem. This is a society of collective amnesia. Without memory, it is bound to make the same mistakes again and again.
If history is a weak subject, so is geography. One huge mistake on the part of Erdoğan’s government, which returned to power with an outright majority in November’s election, was to underestimate the complexity of the crisis in Syria. Ertuğrul Günay, a former minister, said in February that he warned then prime minister Erdoğan years ago about not getting too involved in Syria and the need to remain neutral. Erdoğan told him not to worry, the Syrian war would surely end in six months. Five years have passed since then with no resolution in sight.
There are more than 2.5 million Syrian refugees in Turkey. Only a small portion lives in refugee camps. The rest are located in Anatolian towns and major cities. Of these, a substantial number are on the streets and in public parks. As one drives across Istanbul, there are Syrian kids at every traffic light, begging for food and money. In one of the city’s most affluent neighbourhoods, Nişantaşi, Syrian youngsters wait in front of luxury stores. They do not have a language problem because the customers shopping at these expensive outlets are mostly rich Arabs. Local Turks have been visibly affected by the economic instability. The consumer confidence index is at its lowest.
Then there are things we rarely talk about. The increase in religious fanaticism goes hand in hand with an increase in sexism. In 2015, Turkey’s constitutional court announced that civil marriage would no longer be required for couples who were married in a religious ceremony. This unfortunate and unacceptable decision made it easier for families to marry off their daughters before they reached the legal age. The outcries of women’s organisations have been ignored. The ministry of women and family was turned into the ministry of family and social policy. The dropping of the word “women” was more than symbolic. Turkey is increasingly becoming more conservative and patriarchal, and a harder place for women’s rights.
Since the Syrian crisis erupted, the number of child brides has escalated. An alarming number of Turkish men are marrying Syrian women as their second or third wives. Even though polygamy is illegal in Turkey, the practice is not discouraged. Nezahat Bölge, a woman’s rights advocate and lawyer, says Syrian girls aged 15 and 16 are married to 50- to 60-year-old Turkish men as their second wives. “Some of these girls are married in return for a golden bracelet or a ring,” says a jeweller in Kilis, a city near the Syrian border. Across Turkey, domestic violence continues to spiral. Although a recent government report admitted that around 40% of Turkish women experience sexual violence, the AKP does not see the fight against gender violence as a priority.
Turkey’s foreign policy is now shaped by ideology rather than the art of diplomacy.
Turkey’s foreign policy is now shaped by ideology rather than the art of diplomacy. In its desire to become a major power player, if not the leading force in the Middle East, the government overemphasises a Sunni identity. Instead, it should have remained a secular, modern and globally integrated nation-state within an international community. Thus, from a “zero-conflict with neighbours” policy the country plummeted into “clashes with almost every neighbour”.
It is yet another moment of deja vu. Generations of people in Turkey have grown up believing they were surrounded by enemies on all sides. “A Turk’s only friend is another Turk,” they were told. In the early 2000s, this paranoiac ultranationalistic rhetoric seemed to be on the wane. But now it is back with a vengeance. Once again the dominant narrative is about how the country is surrounded by enemies both outside and within. The very words Armenian, Jewish, Christian or Alevi are used as accusations for defamation of character. A pro-government paper targeted Selin Sayek Böke, spokeswoman of the main opposition party the Republican People’s party (CHP), claiming she had been secretly baptised. In a powerfully written and courageous public letter, Böke announced that she had both Muslim and Christian ancestry – a fact she was proud of. I wish the rest of the society could follow her example and embrace its cosmopolitan past and cultural and ethnic diversity instead of succumbing to a dangerous ultranationalism and equally dangerous Islamisation. But Turkey has become too isolated. It is demoralising to see the ideological shift from being a country that aspires to be an EU member to a country that sees Saudi Arabia as its only ally.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Police inspect the blast site after an explosion during a peace march in Ankara last October. Photograph: Defne Karadeniz/Getty images
The biggest challenge awaiting the country is the failure of the Turkish-Kurdish peace process. Both the AKP government and the Kurdish group, the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) must be criticised for the revival of militarism and violence. Since “the Kurdish problem” erupted in the 1980s, more than 40,000 people have died. Military operations and hawkish policies have not solved anything. Nor will they be the answer this time. What we need is peace and reconciliation, but neither side is ready to acknowledge this.
When the prime minister, Ahmet Davutoğlu, speaking in The Hague, said Turkey was a safe haven for foreign investors, his words were pulled apart on social media. Burak Bekdil, a columnist for Hürriyet Daily News, wrote, “a safe haven that is also fertile ground for a multitude of terror groups?” He added: “Several cities, towns and districts in parts of this ‘safe haven’ look like Gaza or Aleppo.”
While politicians are painting a rosy picture of a gloomy reality, Islamic radicalisation remains a grave danger. Most of the IS-related terror attacks in Turkey have been carried out by Turkish citizens radicalised in Syria. More and more young people are becoming prey to fundamentalism on the other side of the border.
Meanwhile, the security forces seem more focused on hunting critical journalists, academics, cartoonists and writers than clamping down on terrorists. As party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the government is obliged to respect freedom of expression under the European convention on human rights. But Turkey’s record on freedom of speech has taken a nosedive. In a recent report, PEN International said: “The law contains very worrying provisions that empower the police to conduct searches without prior authorisation, detain suspects for up to 48 hours without the authorisation of a prosecutor.” Since the day Erdoğan was elected president in August 2014, more than 1,300 citizens have been prosecuted for insulting him. In the past, based on outdated draconian laws, writers and journalists would be sued for things such as “insulting Turkishness” or “insulting the army”. Nowadays it is all about insulting one person: Erdoğan.
In January, more than 1,200 academics from 90 Turkish universities signed a petition criticising the government’s war on the PKK in the south-east. “We will not be a partner to this crime,” they said. Erdoğan’s response has been fierce. He accused the academics of “high treason”. Both the higher education board and Turkey’s prosecutors immediately launched an investigation into the signatories. Since then, some academics have lost their jobs, others have been arrested.
“From tomorrow onwards, I will stop reading Turkish papers,” says another guest at our Ankara dinner table. “I’ll pretend I am living in Zurich. To keep my sanity when everything is going wrong.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest A Syrian refugee and her children in Akcakale, in Sanliurfa province, Turkey, June 18, 2015. Photograph: Umit Bektas/REUTERS
But she knows that the first thing she will do the next morning is to get the papers. Not only that; she will check the internet and her phone several times a day to see what else has happened in the country.
Turkey’s democrats are feeling lonely and depressed. When all outlets for critical opinion have been shut down from above, a climate of intimidation and paranoia dominates the land. But fear is not, and has never been, conducive to stability. The overall feeling among Turkey’s liberals and democrats is that the west, for the sake of keeping the refugees away from European soil, is ready to forsake democracy. In a moving letter addressed to Angela Merkel, the prominent editor of the daily Cumhuriyet, Can Dündar, reminded European leaders of the need to remember that democracy, freedom of speech and human rights should be the top priority in their negotiations with Turkey. On being released from prison last month Dündar, who was arrested after publishing a report alleging that Erdoğan’s government tried to illegally smuggle arms into Syria, said the ruling had opened the way, not just for them, “but for all our colleagues in terms of press freedoms and freedom of expression”.
Turkey’s ruling politicians have long confused “democracy” with “majoritarianism”. As important as the ballot box is, democracy is not about the number of votes political parties manage to get. Democracy is also about rule of law, separation of powers, women’s rights, minority rights, cultural and political diversity, media freedom, freedom of speech, and the right to talk and write without being intimidated. By this universal rule of thumb, Turkey, instead of trying to get involved in Syria or the Middle East, should urgently look within.– The State of Colorado will start phasing in mandatory lab testing of marijuana edible products on May 1. Currently, marijuana product testing of any kind has been performed strictly on a voluntary basis.
As Colorado ramps up its lab testing, CBS4 requested permission to perform independent lab tests of edible products but was forbidden by the Marijuana Enforcement Division.
In a letter banning independent lab testing, MED Director Lewis Koski states, “licensed labs are only allowed to accept samples from ‘Retail Marijuana Establishments’ only.”
RELATED: Lab Testing Letter
The MED said it was investigating to see if rule violations occurred after a licensed lab, Steep Hill Halent Laboratories, performed an independent test for the Denver Post.
In that test, Steep Hill Halent Labs tested 13 marijuana edible products for potency.
Lab director Joseph Evans said only three of the 13 products tested close to the potency promised on the packaging. One was significantly stronger than advertised. Nine were weaker and some had just traces of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.
“To show that that product was so far off indicated that the industry has a long way to go,” Evans said.
Under the current, voluntary testing system, Evans said only about 10 percent of the industry performs any lab testing of its products.
“Do you know if the marijuana is safe that you are buying? You really don’t,” said Evans.
At CannLabs, CEO Genifer Murray said there is a misconception that marijuana products have been tested. She said overdoing it on edibles has had consequences. Consumers who ate pot products have been hospitalized with moderate health problems like vomiting and panic attacks.
“You cannot die from a marijuana overdose,” said Murray. “But you may feel like you are going to die.”
Murray said lab testing can’t start soon enough.
“We are in territory where we could possibly make people sick and I don’t think anybody wants that,” she said.
RELATED: Dispensaries Advise Customers To Eat More Than State-Recommended Limits Of Pot Edibles
CBS4 asked Koski why mandatory testing has lagged behind legalizing sales of recreational marijuana.
“We were more interested in making sure we adopted thoughtful regulations that were going to work,” Koski said.
As of May 1 the marijuana industry will begin mandatory potency testing of edible products. The government’s primary concern is finding products with too much punch.
“We are going to be more concerned with test results that are higher than what the law allows,” said Koski.
But according to the labs, potency is just one issue with marijuana products.
“We’ve found e.Coli, we’ve found salmonella, we’ve found other gram negative bacteria, molds and mildews, pesticides,” said Genifer Murray.
Testing for other potential health hazards won’t become mandatory until later in the year.
Right now, there is no reporting process in place, tests are confidential. A negative test result only goes back to whoever paid for the test.
Until all testing is mandatory, both Evans and Murray agree, what you get is a crapshoot.
“It ranges from people who do everything by the book, to people who do almost nothing by the book.” Murray said.
Related StoriesThe conventional wisdom is that human trafficking is a major problem today, victimizing millions of people every year. The estimates range widely: from 600,000 to 4 million annual trafficking victims and 8 to 27 million persons in slavery. In 2010, the US State Department asserted that 1.8 per 1,000 persons in the world (0.18 percent) are trafficked every year. No sources have ever been provided to document any of these figures, yet they were quickly recapitulated in the media and by various government and international agencies, giving them the veneer of credibility.
However humanitarian their goals, many of the agencies and interest groups involved in anti-trafficking efforts have a vested interest in inflating the magnitude of the problem. The larger it appears, the greater the amount of attention human trafficking receives from the media, politicians, and the public. Government financial contributions to organizations involved in the trafficking arena, some of which have little or no expertise in the area, also increase with the exposure. Many independent analysts have criticized the lack of documentation for the estimates, but they have been completely overshadowed by those who insist the magnitude of the problem is both huge and growing worldwide.
Two recent trafficking reports
Two recent ‘studies’ have attracted a lot of international attention. Each presents incredibly flawed findings.
The first is the Global Slavery Index produced by the Walk Free Foundation. The report ranks 162 nations on the prevalence of slavery, which is defined rather broadly as human trafficking, forced labor, and slavery. The slavery index draws from a mix of unstandardized and thus non-comparable sources, including population surveys, estimates by governmental agencies and NGOs, and reports in the media. It also, rather bizarrely, ‘extrapolates’ from nations where some kind of estimate is available to ‘similar’ nations lacking such estimates. “For example, the prevalence ratio from the UK study was assumed to be relevant to other European island nations such as Ireland and Iceland, whereas the prevalence ratio for USA was assumed to be relevant to developed western European countries such as Germany.” Why the United States is “relevant” to Europe is not revealed.
Imputing ‘similarity’ to different nations ignores their particularities, and such ‘extrapolation’ runs the risk of grossly distorting the prevalence of slavery in any given country. For countries for which no extrapolation was possible, the creators of the index state that, “it was necessary to fall back on secondary source information,” which are often anecdotal (NGOs, media reports, local ‘experts’). These sources are especially problematic when we remember that modern slavery and trafficking are underground practices and very difficult to detect.
The Walk Free report names what its authors consider the ten ‘worst’ nations on the slavery scale. Five of these are in Africa (Gabon, The Gambia, Ivory Coast, Benin, Mauritania) where information is lacking and hardly sufficient to justify such categorization, and the other five are Haiti, Pakistan, India, Nepal, and Moldova. Some analysts would argue that we cannot have any confidence in estimates drawn from such societies, as the data are so unreliable. The authors also identify the ten ‘best’ nations, meaning those with the lowest slavery rates. All of these are rich nations in western Europe plus New Zealand.
Concluding that there are 29.8 million persons worldwide who are victims of forced labor, human trafficking, and slavery, the report seeks to lend empirical credence to the dubious estimate by the organization Free the Slaves that there are 27 million persons enslaved throughout the world. When the 27 million figure was first proposed, by Free the Slaves founder Kevin Bales, he justified it as simply a ‘guess.’ Given the incredibly unstandardized and fragmented information on which the Global Slavery Index is based, it has no more reliability than the 27 million figure. Yet, many media sources and government agencies (including the US State Department) have embraced these figures.
The second report, ‘Does Legalized Prostitution Increase Human Trafficking?’, seeks to determine whether countries where prostitution is legal have better or worse trafficking records than countries where prostitution is illegal. Using a report on 161 countries from the UN’s Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), economists Seo-Young Cho, Axel Dreher, and Eric Neumayer ranked countries and tried to determine if their prostitution laws were related to their alleged prevalence of human trafficking. In doing so, they ignore the UNODC’s caution against using its report as a measure of the number of victims in any given country. UNODC highlighted the absence of a standard definition of trafficking across countries, the lack of transparency in data collection and reporting in many nations, the diverse nature of the sources, and the conflation of smuggling, trafficking, and irregular migration numbers by some countries. Cho and her colleagues acknowledge that their figures do “not reflect actual trafficking flows” and that it is “difficult, perhaps impossible, to find hard evidence” of a relationship between trafficking and anything else.
They nevertheless use the UNODC report to draw bold conclusions about the relationship between trafficking and national prostitution laws. Even more problematic, the authors rely on aggregate national human trafficking figures – that combine labor, sex, and other kinds of trafficking – in their attempt to assess whether legal prostitution makes a difference. Thus, there is an embarrassing mismatch between the generic trafficking figures and prostitution law (for which only sex trafficking figures should have been used). By way of analogy, imagine using an analysis that compares national-level drug trafficking prevalence – all illegal drugs, that is – with the legal status of one drug, marijuana possession.
This is not the only problem with the Cho study. Its authors examine trafficking at a single time point, which is something that should be tracked over time to include data from before and after the legal institutionalization of prostitution. They furthermore ignore the important question of whether, and how, prostitution laws are actually enforced. Their analysis is confined to ‘law on the books,’ ignoring the ways in which the law is, or is not, implemented on the ground.
Why these ‘studies’ matter
- First, both the slavery index and the Cho report received a lot of favorable media publicity. They were embraced by policy makers in some countries, especially those seeking greater criminalization of prostitution.
- Second, if the claims or “findings” are unfounded they risk diverting attention and funding from other worthy causes. A ton of money has been spent by governments and the international community on anti-trafficking programs over the past 15 years. Yet, compared to the claimed high magnitude of the problem, few victims have been located and assisted and similarly few traffickers have been prosecuted worldwide.
- Third, even if claims about national-level victimization rates were roughly true, their macro-level nature means that they have no practical utility on the ground, where trafficking matters most. Micro-level studies (in a city or town) have clear advantages. They can provide: 1) more reliable victimization numbers because of the limited parameters; 2) insights regarding the actual organization and dynamics of trafficking rings; and 3) the potential for identifying “hot spots” for targeted deployment of enforcement resources.
This article is from the Beyond trafficking and slavery editorial partnership, supported by King's College London, the University of Nottingham and the University of the Witwatersrand.Nickelodeon, via Associated Press
New research on children and television has put SpongeBob Squarepants on the hot seat.
Researchers report that 4-year-olds who had just watched the fast-paced fantasy cartoon “SpongeBob SquarePants” — which follows the undersea adventures of a yellow sponge — did worse on tests of attention and problem-solving than young children who watched a slower-paced educational program or spent time drawing.
Officials from Nickelodeon, the network that produces “SpongeBob,” dismissed the significance of the study, saying in a statement that preschool-age children are not the show’s intended audience. “SpongeBob” is designed for 6- to 11-year-olds, according to the network, which questioned the study’s small sample size of white middle- and upper-middle-class children.
The study, which appeared in the Sept. 12 issue of the journal Pediatrics, involved 60 children whose parents reported similar levels of television-watching |
Brothers against the Raj (Columbia University Press, New York).14. Thomson, D. (1965) England in the twentieth century (Penguin, London).15. Trevelyan, O.M.(1952) History of England (4th edn, 1952, Longmans, London).16. Wells, H.G. (1951) The Outline of History (1951 edition, Cassell, London).17. Carter, E.H. and Mears, R.A.F. (1960) A history of Britain (Clarendon Press, Oxford).18. Langer, W.L.(1956) (ed.) An encyclopaedia of world history (3rd edn, 1956, Harrap, London).19. Porter, B. (1975) The lion's share. A short history of British imperialism 1850-1983 (Longman, London).20. Grün, B.(1975) The timetables of history. A chronology of world events (1975 edn, Thames & Hudson, London).21. Ross,J.(1993) (ed.) Chronicle of Australia (Chronicle, Melbourne).22. Shaw, A.G.L. (1960) The story of Australia (2nd edn, Faber & Faber, London).23. Frost, A. (1987) Towards Australia - the coming of the Europeans. Ch. 9 in Mulvaney,D.J. & White, J.P.(eds) Australians - a historical library (Fairfax, Syme & Weldon, Melbourne).24. Clark, C.M.H. (1962) A history of Australia (Melbourne University Press, Melbourne).25. Murray-Smith, S.(1974) (ed.) The dictionary of Australian quotations (Heinemann, Melbourne).26. Gürün, K.(1985) The Armenian file. The myth of innocence exposed (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London).27. Walker, C.J. (1990) Armenia. The survival of a nation (2nd edn, Routledge, London).28. El-Ghusein, F. (1917) Martyred Armenia (Pearson, London).29. Pearce, F. (1995) Don't stop talking about tomorrow. New Scientist, 15th April, p4 (see also Editorial, ibid, p3).30. Moore, T.G. (1995) Why global warming would be good for you. Public Interest, vol. 118, 83 - 99.31. Eastwood, P. (1991) Responding to global warming (Berg, New York).32. Edgerton, L.T. (1991) The rising tide. Global warming and sea levels (Island Press, Washington).33. Leggett, J. (1990) (ed.) Global warming. The Greenpeace report (Oxford University Press, Oxford).34. Mitchell, G.J. (1991) World on fire. Saving an endangered earth (Macmillan, New York).35. Myers, N. (1990) The Gaia atlas of future worlds. Challenge and opportunity in an age of change (Penguin, New York).36. Weissberg, A. (1958) Advocate for the dead. The story of Joel Brand (Andre Deutsch, London).37. Laqueur, W. (1980) The terrible secret. Suppression of the truth about Hitler's "final solution" (Penguin, London).38. Wasserstein, B. (1980) Britain and the Jews of Europe 1939 - 1945 (Oxford University Press, Oxford).Dr. Gideon Maxwell Polya29 Dwyer St., Macleod, Melbourne, Victoria 3085, Australia22nd May 1995An edited version of this account has been published :Polya, G.M.(1995) The famine of history: Bengal 1943. International Network on Holocaust and Genocide vol.10, 10-15.The US and its close ally Australia still refuse to sign the Kyoto Protocol on global warming and about a year ago a substantial part of Bangladesh was under water from monsoonal run-off. The Anglo-American mainstream media still overwhelmingly ignore the World War 2 Bengal Famine (4 million victims) just as they continue to ignore the horrendous post-1950 avoidable mortality in the World (1.3 billion), the non-European World (1.2 billion) and the Muslim World (0.6 billion). Mianstream media continue to ignore the post-invasion avoidable mortality in US-occupied Iraq (0.4 million) and Afghanistan (1.5 million).A detailed, wide-ranging account of the Bengal Famine was published by me in 1998 (now out of print but available in some major Anglo-American libraries):Gideon Polya "Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History. Colonial rapacity, holocaust denial and the crisis in biological sustainability" (Polya, Melbourne, 1998).Astronomers find brightest star explosion ever, located 3.8bn light-years away, which is more luminous than entire Milky Way
Astronomers have discovered the brightest star explosion ever, a super supernova that easily outshines our entire Milky Way.
An international team revealed “the most powerful supernova observed in human history” Thursday in the latest Science journal. The astronomers used a network of telescopes around the world to spot the record-breaking supernova last year.
Super luminous supernovas — extra bright stellar explosions — are believed to be rare. The newly discovered supernova is especially rare: It is more than twice as luminous as any supernova observed to date, including the previous record-holders.
At its peak intensity, it is believed to be 20 times more luminous than the entire Milky Way. Some estimates put it at 50 times brighter.
Scientists struggle to stay grounded after possible gravitational wave signal Read more
It is 570 billion times brighter at its peak than our sun.
Lead author Subo Dong of China’s Peking University said when he learned the magnitude of the discovery last summer, he was “too excited to sleep the rest of the night.” Fellow researcher Benjamin Shappee of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Pasadena, California, didn’t believe the results at first, which seemed “surreal.”
“Discoveries like this are the reason I am an astronomer,” Shappee said in an email. “Nature is extremely clever and it is often more imaginative than we can be.”
Labeled ASASSN-15lh for the All-Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae and pronounced “assassin,” the mega blast is located in a galaxy perhaps 3.8 billion light-years away. The precise galaxy is unknown. There are other puzzles as well.
“The explosion’s mechanism and power source remain shrouded in mystery because all known theories meet serious challenges in explaining the immense amount of energy ASASSN-15lh has radiated,” Dong said in a statement.
The next step for scientists is to figure out its incredible power source. Other super supernovas, like this one, could be out there. More observatories are on the case, including some NASA spacecraft. The Hubble Space Telescope will be pressed into service this year as well.
Dong said ASASSN-15lh “may lead to new thinking and new observations of the whole class of super luminous supernova.”The day Grayson James Walker was born, his parents—Heather and Patrick Walker, of Memphis, Tennessee—knew their time with him would be brief. Grayson had been diagnosed in utero with a rare neural tube birth defect called Anencephaly, in which a baby is born without parts of the brain and skull.
To honor the memory of their son's short life, the Walkers sought out help from a non profit organization called Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep, who sent a professional photographer to the hospital to capture on film the short life of the little baby Grayson.
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Wanting to share with her friends and family the little life that had come and gone, Heather Walker posted the photos to her Facebook profile. A tiny newborn in a knit hat, without a knit hat, in his mother's arms, in his father's. All perfectly appropriate birthday images.
So, why did Facebook remove them from Heather's profile? And subsequently, after Heather reposted this pictures and got her friends and family to contact Facebook, she was banned from the site entirely.
Facebook's community standards page lists nine types of content that may be deemed objectionable and removed: Violence and Threats, Self-Harm, Bullying and Harassment, Hate Speech, Graphic Violence, Nudity and Pornography, Identity and Privacy, Intellectual Property and Phishing and Spam.
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Which category Grayson's photos fall into is anyone's guess. [DailyMail]
Update: Facebook contacted us today with the below statement.
"Upon investigation, we concluded the photo does not violate our guidelines and was removed in error. Facebook is a place where almost a billion people share more than 300 million photos a day. Our dedicated User Operations Team reviews millions of pieces of this content a day to help keep Facebook safe for all ages. Our policies are enforced by a team of reviewers in several offices across the globe. This team looks at hundreds of thousands of reports every week, and as you might expect, occasionally, we make a mistake and remove a piece of content we shouldn't have. We extend our deepest condolences to the family and we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience."This is the first of a three-part series examining Amazon’s business model. On Thursday, we will probe the company’s labor practices, and on Friday we will explore the company's impact on small retailers.
So what's with Wall Street’s love affair with Amazon.com?
The company barely ekes out a profit, spends a fortune on expansion and free shipping and is famously opaque about its business operations.
Yet, investors continue to pour into the stock, pushing up the company’s share price to $388, a nearly 400 percent rise since the end of the company’s third quarter in September 2008.
At that time, Amazon’s net profit margin was 2.8 percent. By September 2011, that number fell to 0.6 percent. A year later, it was losing $274 million on net sales of $13.8 billion. And in the latest quarter, ended Sept. 30, the massive e-tailer reported a $41 million loss on $17 billion in sales.
Photo: IBTimes from company filings
The net result of nearly two decades in business is that Amazon’s trailing 12-month price-to-earnings ratio stands at an alarmingly high 550. Compare that to consistent profit earners with significant online retail operations such as Google (p/e 29), Wal-Mart Stores (2) or eBay (25), and it’s easy to be confused by investors’ hunger for Amazon.
Even Amazon’s strongest supporters can’t explain it.
“People have been buying ‘AMZN potential’ for a decade,” noted James Walker, a lecturer of business statistics at The King’s College in New York, in an email. He owns Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) stock because he’s certain that he can sell it at a higher price than when he bought it. Walker expects that trend to continue as “AMZN continues to execute well toward becoming the world’s largest ‘store.’”
Investors like Walker may be bullish, but some insiders at Amazon apparently are becoming a little more restive, which is never a good sign.
Since the company’s third-quarter earnings were released on Nov. 25, 10 of the company’s high-rolling insiders sold nearly 100,000 shares, not including the 1 million shares CEO and founder Jeff Bezos unloaded between Nov. 1 and Nov. 5, raking in more than $350 million. Among the sellers were Amazon’s Chief Financial Officer Thomas Szkutak, who sold nearly 12 percent of his stake in the company, and Jeffrey Wilke, senior vice president of Amazon’s consumer business, who parted with about 20 percent of his shares.
The Amazon insiders wouldn’t comment about why they sold the stock, but they may be concerned about how well the shares will hold up after the e-tailer’s fourth-quarter report in January. Estimates for Amazon earnings in the all-important holiday period have declined 10 percent to 66 cents per share, according to analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.
The forecasts are declining in part because Amazon is cutting prices ferociously on its products as Christmas shopping picks up, to levels that are break-even or below. For example, on Cyber Monday this year, Amazon slashed the prices of its Kindle Fire by upwards of $50, a savings of nearly 33 percent in some versions of the LCD tablet. And although Amazon is tight-lipped about Kindle sales, Bezos admitted to the BBC last year that “we sell the hardware at our cost, so it is break-even on the hardware.”
And then there’s Amazon Prime, which offers customers free two-day shipping for a one-time annual fee of $79 and is another loss leader affecting fourth-quarter estimates. Amazon is characteristically hush-hush about its profits (or lack of them) from this program and won’t even disclose how many customers are signed up for the service.
But the number of Amazon Prime customers is growing. According to a recent survey of 300 Amazon customers by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP), Prime had 16.7 million members at the end of September, or 40 percent of Amazon’s customers, up from 9.7 million the year before.
“We estimate that Amazon Prime customers spend approximately $1,340 per year, compared to $708 per year for non-Amazon Prime customers, and account for 56 percent of U.S. product sales,” said CIRP partner and co-founder Josh Lowitz. “They do so because Amazon Prime customers buy more than 50 percent more frequently than non-Amazon Prime customers, and they buy more expensive items.” That means that the shipping expenses Amazon incurs for these customers, which by all estimates far exceed the annual subscription fee, has an outsized impact on the e-tailer’s bottom line. In other words, the more items Amazon sells to Prime members, the more money Amazon loses.
It’s those types of skewed profit-and-loss models, routine aspects of Amazon’s business plan, that led Slate blogger Matthew Yglesias to describe the company earlier this year as “a charitable organization being run by elements of the investment community for the benefit of consumers.”
Yglesias continues: “The shareholders put up the equity, and instead of owning a claim on a steady stream of fat profits, they get a claim on a mighty engine of consumer surplus. Amazon sells things to people at prices that seem impossible because it actually is impossible to make money that way.”
Investors are buoyed by analyst reports that promise considerable earnings growth for Amazon after 2014, to as much as $10.13 per share in 2016.
However, shareholders hoping to get some of this money in the form of dividends will be disappointed. Amazon has no plans to divide its profits – should they ever materialize – with investors anytime soon.
“We intend to retain all future earnings to finance future growth and, therefore, do not anticipate paying any cash dividends in the foreseeable future,” the company says on its investor relations Web page.
That may be a moot point anyway. Amazon faces significant headwinds that could throw the lofty income-growth estimates well off course.
For one thing, Amazon’s ability to make a profit depends largely on its delivery costs. A huge portion of its expenses – nearly 9 percent of net sales – are tied up in shipping; that comes to about $5.5 billion in the 12 months preceding Sept. 30.
“We expect our net cost of shipping to continue to increase to the extent our customers accept and use our shipping offers at an increasing rate,” Amazon said in its annual report last year.
But this doesn’t account for the rate increases coming next year from Amazon’s shippers. On Jan. 26, the U.S. Postal Service will start charging noticeably more for the small Amazon packages it typically carries. For example, a one-pound box will cost 6.3 percent more to ship.
Similarly, United Parcel Service Inc. (NYSE:UPS) will increase North American shipping rates by an average of 4.9 percent next year while FedEx Corporation (NYSE:FDX) plans to increase prices by 3.9 percent.
These higher shipping costs, which analysts have apparently ignored in their earnings calculations, could amount to a hit of hundreds of millions of dollars to Amazon’s bottom line. If delivery expenses go up by about 5 percent, Amazon would be paying about $275 million more in 2014 than it shelled out this year. That alone would absorb a major portion of the $336 million that analysts estimate Amazon will make next year.
The company offsets some of its shipping expenses with revenue generated from what it charges third-party sellers that use its Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA) service. But it’s unclear how next year’s higher shipping costs will be passed on to fulfillment customers, or how these higher costs will affect the company’s fulfillment business.
Meanwhile, competing online retailers aren’t standing idly by as Amazon attempts to dominate the e-commerce world with its "revenue now, profits later" strategy. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE:WMT), in particular, is making online sales a high priority moving forward. The world’s largest retailer recently began offering same-day-delivery services in select U.S. cities, including San Francisco and Philadelphia, and in an investors presentation in October, Wal-Mart cited increased e-commerce business as one of the reasons for its 3.3 percent year-over-year net sales gain in the third quarter ended Oct. 31.
Most analysts believe that Wal-Mart’s online sales are growing at about a 30 percent clip per quarter. By contrast, Amazon’s quarterly revenue growth is only about 20 percent. And Wal-Mart has something Amazon doesn’t have (yet): brick-and-mortar stores from which customers can pick up the items they pre-order online.
Other large online merchants are also gaining ground – especially Google Shopping, which is enjoying annual sales growth of about 90 percent, according to ChannelAdvisor, the e-commerce optimization company. Google’s gains are thanks largely to the fact that third-party sellers pay only for the search advertisement, vs. the pricier commissions that Amazon takes as its cut.
Another rival on the horizon for Amazon is China’s Alibaba, which already offers e-commerce services for hundreds of companies and plans to make a big push for a much larger presence in global fulfillment and third-party sales.
And even as Amazon faces more pressure from other online companies, brick-and-mortar retailers could win back a bit of the price advantage that they ceded to Amazon in recent years.
Since Amazon opened its website in 1994, the e-tailer has avoided paying local sales tax in states where it didn’t have a physical presence, such as a warehouse. But now many states are demanding that Amazon charge sales tax for its products, and although Amazon has tried to fight this in the courts, it has had no victories.
The Senate has already passed a bill requiring that online retailers collect sales tax, but the House version of the bill has thus far failed to make headway. It’s virtually impossible for local retailers to compete with Amazon’s heavily discounted prices, but sales tax parity will at least give them a slightly more level playing field.
Amazon is a bit of an anomaly among e-businesses, as Daily Beast’s Daniel Gross pointed out recently: A typical Internet-based company, like Netflix or a company that makes iPad apps, can add customers without any additional cost. “It costs roughly the same to distribute 1,000 apps as it does to distribute 1 million apps,” Gross wrote.
But Amazon has to expand its physical operations in line with its sales growth. For example, Amazon added 8 million square feet of physical space in the third quarter this year – mostly in warehouses. It hires thousands of seasonal temporary workers to help pack and ship products from these facilities.
To fund some of these investments, Amazon has taken on nearly $3 billion in long-term debt and its interest expense in the third quarter nearly doubled from the same period in the year before. Those kinds of increases in costs will only make profits more elusive.
Investor patience with Amazon – and at the rate its stock is climbing, it might better be termed investor recklessness – is all the more perplexing when the record of other 20-year-old companies is taken into account. Virtually none have been given a free ride by the stock market if they failed to produce profits after a couple of decades in business.
Gross points out, for example, that chipmaker Intel was founded in 1968 and had a 16 percent profit margin in 1988. And Wal-Mart, which has never had a losing quarter in its history, had annual net profit of $2.4 billion by its 20th anniversary.
Amazon declined to comment for this story, but 59-year-old CEO Bezos is never short on words to describe his company and his vision.
“Invention comes in many forms and at many scales. The most radical and transformative of inventions are often those that empower others to unleash their creativity – to pursue their dreams,” he wrote in his letter to shareholders in April. “These innovative, large-scale platforms are not zero-sum; hey create win-win situations and create significant value for developers, entrepreneurs, customers, authors and readers.”
Missing from his list of winners are shareholders, who have been funding perhaps the longest-running equity bubble ever for a technology company. Enough said?
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified the Kindle Fire as an e-reader. It's an LCD tablet.Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. (SGBI), the country's largest owner of local TV stations, is poised to check another item on its wish list.
The Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday, Oct. 24, is set to take up a longtime broadcast industry proposal to eliminate the so-called Main Studio Rule, which requires TV station owners to keep a local staff where its antennae are based. The requirement dates to 1939, and though it was watered down in 1987 during the Reagan administration, advocates insist that broadcasters produce news and public affairs programming in exchange for using the public's airwaves.
"Broadcasters are granted licenses to serve local communities," said Chris Ruddy, chairman of conservative news organization Newsmax Media Inc. "What the FCC is saying is that it's all right not to have personnel in the community. But regardless of where you are politically, this a threat to free press and diversity of press at the local level, which leads to a centralization of news."
Sinclair has countered that it's not economically feasible or necessary to retain local staff at all of its TV stations, and that TV broadcasters are already overmatched by large tech companies such as Facebook (FB), Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) and Alphabet (GOOGL), owner of Google and YouTube, which have fast entered the media business.
Judging by a spate of recent proposals, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, a Republican appointee, agrees with Sinclair which has been calling for the elimination of the Main Studio Rule for years. The commission earlier this month argued in its official proposal that local residents are less likely to visit a local TV station, "instead choosing to contact their local stations through more efficient means such as the telephone, email or social media." At present, the FCC requires a station maintain at least two full-time employees.
As the country's largest owner of local TV stations, Sinclair's acquisition history is littered with employee layoffs. In locations where it owns more than one station, Sinclair has merged local news staffs, even sharing the same anchors. Examples include Columbus, Ohio, and Asheville, N.C.
Sinclair's business model differs markedly from 21st Century Fox Inc. (FOXA) or CBS Corp. (CBS), which generally own a single TV station in a given market and operate its local news bureau. By contrast, Sinclair operates about 65 total newsrooms among its 173 TV stations, located mostly in small-to-midsize markets such as McAllen-Brownsville, Texas, along the Mexico border, up to Portland, Maine. While its affiliations include broadcasters such as Fox and CBS, it also operates dozens of digital networks through Grit, Comet TV, a sci-fi channel, MeTV and getTV.
A Sinclair spokeswoman wouldn't comment on the company's position on the Main Studio Rule nor respond to emailed questions about its operations. An FCC representative declined further comment beyond the proposal.
Shares of Sinclair fell 2.1% on Monday to $30.10, extending its 2017 decline to 9.8%. By comparison, the S&P 500 has gained 15% this year.
The vote by the FCC comes as Sinclair is pressing the commission to approve its proposed $6.6 billion acquisition of Tribune Media Co. (TRCO), owner of cable network WGN America and 42 large-market TV stations including broadcast affiliates in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. The vote also follows Pai's successful reinstatement in March of the so-called UHF discount, which allows station owners such as Sinclair to skirt federal regulations that prevent any one company from owning stations that broadcast to more than 39% of U.S. households.
The UHF discount, created in 1985, was eliminated in September when Obama appointee Tom Wheeler headed the commission and argued that the industry-friendly designation was archaic and no longer applied to stations in the digital era. Sinclair announced its deal to acquire Tribune Media in May, just two weeks after the FCC reinstated the rule, which counts UHF stations for just 50% of their coverage area.
Because of the rule change, Sinclair's acquisition of Tribune Media only would result in a station group that covers about 45% of the country rather than 72% without the discount. Sinclair CEO Christopher Ripley has said his company is prepared to sell some stations to get below the 39% cap. Pai, though, also has hinted that he hopes to remove or raise that cap, another change in telecom regulations long sought by Sinclair.
"Ever since Pai was elevated to chairman, he has been looking for ways to allow big broadcasters like Sinclair to consolidate further," said Dana Floberg, a policy analyst at FreePress, a Washington advocacy group that has joined with NewsMax and a consortium of cable operators to oppose Sinclair's purchase of Tribune Media. "The Main Studio Rule proposal would make it even easier for Sinclair to sustain the pattern it has established over many years of cutting news operations and putting as few resources as possible into their local stations."
Cutting back operations at local stations can have effects beyond just news, of course.
Stations acquired by Sinclair routinely suffer a decline in local sports coverage, according to Brian Hess, acting executive director of the Sports Fans Coalition, a Washington advocacy group. In an FCC filing, the coalition cited layoffs of key local TV sports reporters following Sinclair acquisitions of stations in Rochester, N.Y.; Oklahoma City; and Birmingham, Ala.
"You can't helicopter a sports reporter from Baltimore to Springfield, Ill., to cover the local high school football game," Hess said. "Sinclair has been cutting for years even as they pretend to be a local broadcaster. If you get rid of this rule, they'll no longer have to pretend."LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigerian authorities have seen documents suggesting the proceeds from past crude oil sales were diverted to personal accounts rather than reaching government coffers, President Muhammadu Buhari said in a wide-ranging interview on Wednesday.
President Muhammadu Buhari addresses members of the National Working Committee during the meeting of the All Progressives Congress (APC) party at the headquarters of the party in Abuja, Nigeria July 3, 2015. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde
Africa’s biggest economy faces its worst economic crisis in years, since it relies on oil exports for about 58 percent of government revenue. The sharp fall in oil prices over the past year has hit those revenues hard.
This problem has been exacerbated by the long-standing mismanagement of oil revenue. Buhari has previously said treasury coffers were virtually empty when he took office in May and that “mind-boggling” sums of money had been stolen.
The 73-year-old former military ruler, who won April elections after campaigning on an anti-corruption ticket, outlined progress made by his government in a two-hour “media chat” with three journalists broadcast live on state television.
“We have some documents where Nigerian crude oil was lifted illegally and the proceeds were put into some personal accounts instead of the federal government accounts,” said Buhari.
The president said stolen money had already been recovered by the government. He did not disclose the sums involved and said he could not provide more details because various cases were being taken to court.
A former oil minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke, is under investigation as part of a crackdown on corruption in the oil industry. She has denied any wrongdoing. Buhari’s latest comments suggested other officials might also be named.
A 2013 investigation by former central bank governor Lamido Sanusi raised questions about the alleged disappearance of about $20 billion in oil revenues.
Clad in a white kaftan, the president answered questions on a wide range of topics, from security to the economy, unemployment and the Biafra secessionist movement.
Smiling frequently and at times laughing, Buhari seemed more at ease in the public interview format than his predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan, who widely considered to have responded to with rambling answers.
Buhari said the government was prepared to hold talks with the Islamist militant group Boko Haram in a bid to secure the release of around 200 schoolgirls kidnapped from the northeastern town of Chibok last year.
“If a credible leadership of Boko Haram can be established and they tell us where those girls are, we are prepared to negotiate with them without any preconditions,” said Buhari.
However, he said there was no firm intelligence on the whereabouts of the girls, whose abduction in April 2014 prompted an international outcry, or whether they are still alive.
Boko Haram has been waging a six-year campaign to create an Islamic state in northern Nigeria. More than 1,000 people have been killed in attacks by suspected Boko Haram militants since Buhari took office. In the latest flare-up, two suicide attacks killed at least 48 people on Monday.
The president also reiterated his belief that Nigeria’s currency should not be devalued further, despite the central bank’s growing struggles to keep the naira at current levels.
And he backed measures imposed by the central bank to restrict access to foreign exchange, which have not gone down well with investors. “The foreign currency restrictions cannot be lifted because the money is not there,” the president said.
Buhari added that “productive industries” - such as manufacturers - should be identified and allocated foreign exchange to pay for “essential materials” rather than to “those who want to import rice and toothpicks”.Sony Pictures Entertainment isn't the first corporation to reach out to the Rev. Al Sharpton for help with its image in the black community, and the New York Post reported Sunday that Sharpton allegedly gets paid to keep from calling the companies racist.Sharpton's National Action Network has received hundreds of thousands of dollars over the past decade from companies eager to gain his support or simply to keep him quiet, the Post said."Al Sharpton has enriched himself and NAN for years by threatening companies with bad publicity if they didn’t come to terms with him," National Legal & Policy Center Ken Boehm told the Post. "Put simply, Sharpton specializes in shakedowns."A typical scenario involves Sharpton confronting a company over accusations of racism. He then meets with company executives, who end up contributing to NAN."Once Sharpton’s on board, he plays the race card all the way through," the Post quoted a person it said has worked with Sharpton as saying. "He just keeps asking for more and more money."The Post cites a New York state inspector general's report on Plainfield Asset Management, which in 2008 gave $500,000 to Education Reform Now, which in turn gave the money to NAN.The money was intended to promote "educational equality," but it was given at the same time Plainfield was part of a group, Capital Play, trying to build a racetrack and casino in Queens.Plainfield denied the money was intended to curry favor from Sharpton, but a year later NAN was given another $100,000 from AEG, which had taken over for Capital Play, as a battle over the company's licensing was brewing.The inspector general's report cited an email between two AEG employees in 2009 claiming that Sharpton had lobbied hard on the company's behalf with then-Gov. David Patterson.Though Sharpton denied taking any action on the casino's behalf, AEG saw its payments as a way of keeping Sharpton from criticizing them and hurting their efforts, the Post quoted a person it said was familiar with the situation as saying.Many companies have paid NAN, including American Honda, which was targeted by Sharpton in 2003 for not hiring enough minorities in management. Two months later, the company met with Sharpton and began sponsoring events put on by NAN. Sharpton's protests stopped.Sharpton also got a $25,000-a-year consulting job with Pepsi after threatening a boycott in 2008 because he said their ads did not include black people.General Motors for six years resisted Sharpton's requests for money, but relented after Sharpton threatened a boycott over the closing of a black-owned dealership in The Bronx.Sony Pictures has not announced any donations to NAN after meeting with the movie studio's co-chair Amy Pascal, but Sharpton also has not given his support.The recent hack of Sony Picture's computer system revealed racially-tinged emails Pascal wrote wondering whether President Barack Obama liked some of the company's movies – all of which were about African-Americans."I have had no discussion with her about money," Sharpton told The Post. "There was never even a remote discussion about money."But he did say soon after the meeting, "The jury is still out on where we go with Amy."Hello! And welcome to GUEST MONTH! (although it’s not really a calender month, and more like 4 random weeks stuck between May and June)
Our first guest artist this week is Geneviève LeBlanc, a good friend of mine. She has incredible artistic skills, and was one of the first people I sought last year when I took my first hiatus. Sadly, Gen wasn’t able to finish her strip before my update deadline, so I decided to keep it around and use it the next time I’d take such a break.
So here it is, after wasting away in my Guest Folder for more than a year, Gen’s lovely strip. I think it was well worth the wait. Seems like Flore isn’t the only one with an imaginary world of her own. Or is this actually what Philemon does for real when no one is paying attention to him?
See you again on thursday! (Yes, THURSDAY! Two updates a week, remember?)
…
Sorry, Gen, for not being able to post this comic sooner. Hope you weren’t too upset about it! And again, thank you SO MUCH for doing this!
Please vote for me on Top Web Comics!
And don’t forget to comment, follow me on Twitter or like the Facebook page!Getty 'Hands up, don't shoot' ranked one of biggest 'Pinocchios' of 2015
Campaign trail whoppers dominate The Washington Post's annual list of the biggest political "Pinocchios" of 2015, published Monday. But among a collection of dubious statements that earned four "Pinocchios" from Republican poll leader Donald Trump and other candidates is the phrase that launched countless protests and calls for police accountability and reform: "hands up, don't shoot."
Those words, which rose to the public consciousness following the August 2014 shooting of Michael Brown by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, rang hollow with federal investigators. As the Post first noted in its March 19 fact check, a St. Louis County jury could not confirm testimonies to the effect that Brown had been holding his hands above his head and telling Wilson not to shoot him. A Department of Justice investigation released earlier in March could not corroborate those details, either, after interviewing roughly 40 witnesses.
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The phrase took off more than a year ago, becoming a rallying cry for protesters and others trying to draw attention to the death of Brown and other African Americans at the hands of police officers. In November 2014, some members of the St. Louis Rams ran out on the field during pregame introductions with their hands raised above their heads, an action repeated by four members of the Congressional Black Caucus on the House floor in December 2014.Image copyright SPL
Distinct changes in the immune systems of patients with ME or chronic fatigue syndrome have been found, say scientists.
Increased levels of immune molecules called cytokines were found in people during the early stages of the disease, a Columbia University study reported.
It said the findings could help improve diagnosis and treatments.
UK experts said further refined research was now needed to confirm the results.
It appears that ME patients are flush with cytokines until around the three-year mark, at which point the immune system shows evidence of exhaustion Dr Mady Hornig, University of Columbia
People with ME (myalgic encephalopathy) or CFS (chronic fatigue syndrome) suffer from exhaustion that affects everyday life and does not go away with sleep or rest.
They can also have muscle pain and difficulty concentrating.
ME can also cause long-term illness and disability, although many people improve over time.
It is estimated that around 250,000 people in the UK have the disease.
Disease pattern
The US research team, who published their findings in the journal Science Advances, tested blood samples from nearly 300 ME patients and around 350 healthy people.
They found specific patterns of immune molecules in patients who had the disease for up to three years.
These patients had higher levels of of cytokines, particularly one called interferon gamma, which has been linked to the fatigue that follows many viral infections.
Healthy patients and those who had the disease for longer than three years did not show the same pattern.
Lead author Dr Mady Hornig said this was down to the way viral infections could disrupt the immune system.
"It appears that ME/CFS patients are flush with cytokines until around the three-year mark, at which point the immune system shows evidence of exhaustion and cytokine levels drop."
This shows there are distinct stages to the disease, she said. When the cytokine response starts to settle down, the disease also appears to quieten down.
Drug treatments
Peter White, professor of psychological medicine at Queen Mary University of London, said it was premature to draw any conclusions from the study.
"Only one out of the 51 immune proteins studied was elevated in all cases compared with controls, something that could happen by chance alone.
"I hope the authors will go on to re-examine their data after stratifying their samples by other factors that determine the different sub-groups that most scientists now accept make up this illness.
"Finally, as the authors themselves suggest, we need to see these results replicated independently."
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must hasten to conclude. I wish, however, before leaving you, to call your attention to the gravest, and, in my opinion, the most instructive fact which this great spectacle has revealed to us. It is the danger, the evil, the insurmountable vice of absolute power, wheresoever it may exist, whatsoever name it may bear, and for whatever object it may be exercised. We have seen that the government of Louis XIV perished almost from this single cause. The power which succeeded it, the human mind, the real sovereign of the eighteenth century, underwent the same fate; in its turn, it possessed almost absolute power; in its turn its confidence in itself became excessive. Its movement was noble, good, and useful; and, were it necessary for me to give a general opinion on the subject, I should readily say that the eighteenth century appears to me one of the grandest epochs in the history of the world, that perhaps which has done the greatest service to mankind, and has produced the greatest and most general improvement. If I were called upon to pass judgment upon its ministry (if I may use such an expression), I should pronounce sentence in its favor. It is not the less true, however, that the absolute power exercised at this period by the human mind corrupted it, and that it entertained an illegitimate aversion to the subsisting state of things, and to all opinions which differed from the prevailing one;—an aversion which led to error and tyranny. The proportion of error and tyranny, indeed, which mingled itself in the triumph of human reason at the end of the century…this infusion of error and tyranny, I say, was a consequence of the delusion into which the human mind was led at that period by the extent of its power. It is the duty, and will be, I believe, the peculiar event of our time, to acknowledge that all power, whether intellectual or temporal, whether belonging to governments or people, to philosophers or ministers, in whatever cause it may be exercised—that all human power, I say, bears within itself a natural vice, a principle of feebleness and abuse, which renders it necessary that it should be limited. Now, there is nothing but the general freedom of every right, interest, and opinion, the free manifestation and legal existence of all these forces—there is nothing, I say, but a system which ensures all this, can restrain every particular force or power within its legitimate bounds, and prevent it from encroaching on the others, so as to produce the real and beneficial subsistence of free inquiry. For us, this is the great result, the great moral of the struggle which took place at the close of the eighteenth century, between what may be called temporal absolute power and spiritual absolute power…
THE END.On the chilly early morning of April 12, Freddie Gray walked along North Avenue's wide sidewalk with two friends. Davonte Roary, Brandon Ross and Gray called each other "brothers." They had grown up around West Baltimore's Gilmor Homes complex and were meeting for breakfast.
At one point, Ross recalls, Gray doubled over laughing and clapping. "He was always happy," Roary says.
And he was devoted to his friends: "I would die" for them, Gray wrote in one of his Instagram postings.
Most of the events that morning have been well documented. Gray, 25, was chased by police officers, arrested and loaded into a transport van. He suffered a severe spinal injury, and his death a week later triggered protests that drew global attention. On the day he was buried, Baltimore erupted in rioting, looting and arson. Six police officers charged in his arrest and death have pleaded not guilty; the first of their trials is scheduled to start Nov. 30.
Authorities have said little about what happened before Gray was arrested, but Baltimore Sun interviews with his friends shed light on those events — and on the friends themselves. Roary, 20, ran with Gray but was not arrested. Ross, 31, did not run and recorded some of Gray's transport with a cellphone, the last known footage of him still conscious.
Both would attend Gray's funeral and watch as the lid of the white casket closed over their friend. Ross sobbed and hugged his friends. Roary stared down, stunned.
Both would be arrested on charges that predated Gray's arrest — Ross for an alleged probation violation, Roary on charges of assault and theft. Both would spend time in jail, but their charges would be dropped.
Baltimore Sun Friends Davonte Roary, Freddie Gray and Brandon Ross on Freddie Gray’s Instagram. They are at Robert. E. Lee Park. Friends Davonte Roary, Freddie Gray and Brandon Ross on Freddie Gray’s Instagram. They are at Robert. E. Lee Park. (Baltimore Sun) (Baltimore Sun)
Roary and Ross joined in the protests surrounding Gray's death. "I want to try to turn all of this into something positive for the neighborhood," Ross says, adding that he is using the experience to try to turn his life around. "To make a change for the better."
All three men had had numerous interactions with the criminal justice system and had complained of police unfairness. In years past, Ross and Gray had convictions related to the drug dealing that plagues the neighborhood; Roary is back in jail, on a new charge involving an alleged drug transaction.
Gray, Roary and Ross — who had been talking about going back to school and getting jobs — grew up around Gilmor Homes in the Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood. Only Ross lived at the public housing complex, but it remained their meeting place.
Some in their clique of 20-something men had "Gilmor" or "Bruce Court" tattoos, and many of their Instagram handles ended in 1600 — the address of Bruce Court.
"They is like, 'We are the Bruce Court boys,'" said Prinshe Smith, mother to Gray's godson. "'We are 1600.'"
She said Gilmor was the friends' "home away from home," where they met after football, clubbing and family events. "They never forget where they come from."
Two men run
Ross — "B-Low" — was the handsome one, around whom others orbited. When the three men met on April 12, he wore a ribbed white undershirt that hugged his muscular upper body.
Roary — "Daddy Daddy" — wore a dark coat and jeans. Gray — whose friends called him "Pepper" — was outfitted in a black sweatshirt and a gray coat.
April 12, 2015 at 8:40 a.m. Davonte Roary runs into a Gilmor Homes building about one minute before Gray is apprehended by police a short distance away. April 12, 2015 at 8:40 a.m. Davonte Roary runs into a Gilmor Homes building about one minute before Gray is apprehended by police a short distance away. SEE MORE VIDEOS
April 12, 2015 at 8 39 a.m. Davonte Roary, the second runner with Freddie Gray, runs across a courtyard at Gilmor Homes. Roary beats bike patrol officers to Gilmor by less than twenty seconds. April 12, 2015 at 8 39 a.m. Davonte Roary, the second runner with Freddie Gray, runs across a courtyard at Gilmor Homes. Roary beats bike patrol officers to Gilmor by less than twenty seconds. SEE MORE VIDEOS
On that Sunday, the three planned to get breakfast at a carryout along North Avenue. The area often bustles with people going in and out of the Penn-North Metro station, the Pennsylvania Avenue branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library and several small grocery stores.
Once the area also boasted the Arch Social Club — a men's group established by African-Americans in 1905 in the pursuit of "collective survival." Streetcars connected the neighborhood to downtown.
Now the streetcars are gone, and the area is troubled by crime. Nearby is the CVS store that was looted and burned in the hours after Gray's funeral. Blinking blue lights show where police surveillance cameras keep watch.
The carryout where Gray, Roary and Ross planned to eat was closed, Roary says, "so we began walking back to the projects."
As they turned onto Mount Street, toward Gilmor Homes, Roary and Gray broke into a run.
Police have said Gray made eye contact with two officers on routine bicycle patrol and ran.
Roary did not have a clear explanation for why they ran, but said they didn't see any officers. "We just took off," he said in a phone interview from jail.
The difference between Roary's account and the police version could prove significant in court. Courts have allowed officers in high-crime areas to pursue individuals who see them and flee unprovoked, according to legal experts. But it can be more difficult to justify chasing someone who is simply running.
Roary said he cut through an alley to run down North Calhoun Street, and eventually wound his way back to Gilmor Homes and into a Bruce Court building.
Police surveillance footage shows a man sprinting across a Gilmor courtyard at 8:40 a.m. while bike patrol officers go down a different alley a block away. Footage from another camera shows Roary running into a building just seconds before officers catch Gray, who had run off in another direction.
Ross declined to talk about what he saw that morning, saying that he is saving his testimony for the officers' trials.
But cellphone and surveillance footage show Ross catching up to Gray as two bike patrol officers push his friend face-down on the sidewalk. Gray's arms and legs are bent behind his back.
April 12, 2015 at 8:41 a.m. Officers Miller and Nero begin to move Freddie Gray from a sitting position to a prone one on the ground. April 12, 2015 at 8:41 a.m. Officers Miller and Nero begin to move Freddie Gray from a sitting position to a prone one on the ground. SEE MORE VIDEOS
Ross paces back and forth and asks a neighbor to get the badge numbers of the officers. "Why the [expletive] are you twisting his leg like that?" he asks.
As police load Gray into the van, Ross and others begin to retreat, and the vehicle drives off. When it stops a block away, the bystanders run over.
Ross borrowed a cellphone to record the stop at the intersection of Baker and Mount streets. It would turn out to be the last footage of Gray while he was still conscious.
In that video, Gray lies face-down and motionless in the van, his legs hanging out the back. Police fasten irons on his ankles and load him back in, head first.Global Reflections
One of the characteristic of colonialism and arrogance is that it condones crimes against nations and the entire humanity and that it is indifferent towards such crimes. This is one of the greatest disasters of arrogance in modern times. Modern times means the era of scientific progress and the era of the emergence of dangerous weapons.
When these weapons became available to arrogant powers, they created a disaster for all nations. They do not attach any value on the lives of individuals – those individuals who do not follow, obey and surrender to them. There are many examples in this regard.
One example is the behavior of arrogant powers towards Native Americans – those people whose financial and natural resources, whose geography and whose entire properties are in the hands of non-natives now. Well, there were native people in America. Their behavior towards these Native Americans was so violent and so disgusting that it is one of the darkest points in the history of modern America. The Americans themselves have written many things about the massacres that took place and the pressures that they exerted.
Looting the vital resources of other nations is easy for them. Capturing and enslaving Africans is one of the tragic events in history which American imperialism and other such regimes do not like to be reviewed. They do not like the issue of enslaving the people of Africa to be reflected on. They used to sail ships from the Atlantic Ocean and anchor them on the coast of West African countries such as Gambia and other countries in this continent. Then, they used to go and capture hundreds of thousands of men and women and old and young people with guns and other weapons which were not available to people at that time.
While these people were in difficult conditions, they were taken to America on such ships for slavery. They captivated free people who were living in their houses and in their own cities. In the present time, the black people who live in America are the descendents of those slaves.
For several centuries, the Americans exerted such an eccentric pressure and there are many books in this regard such as the book “Roots” written by Alexander Haley. This book is a very valuable book for showing part of these crimes. How can today’s modern man forget such events? Despite all these crimes, the white people continue to discriminate against blacks in America.
Ayatollah Khamenei’s Speech in Meeting with Basij Commander 20/11/2013Today, a user onhas posted a video of the upcoming phone rooted and runningwhich has not been released on any phone except for theIt is speculated that the phone is one of the few that were given out to I/O conference participants, the Google event last week.The HTC EVO 4G boasts the most impressive specs on an Android phone yet, with a 4.3-inch WVGA capacitive multi-touchscreen display (with pinch to zoom), Android 2.1 with Sense UI, Google Search, Google Maps, Google Talk, Gmail, Google Goggles, YouTube, Google Calendar syncing, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g and 3G/4G Mobile Hotspot capability for connecting up to eight Wi-Fi enabled devices.Additionally, the device has GPS with Sprint Navigation, a Digital compass, Bluetooth 2.1, a 3.5mm headset jack, FM radio, Amazon MP3 store, Qik video sharing, HDMI out a kickstand for hands-free viewing, an 8MP autofocus camera with dual LED flash (and 720p HD video recording) and an additional 1.3MP front-facing camera for video conferencing.Under the hood is a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 1GB ROM, 512MB RAM, a 1500 mAh battery and an 8GB microSD card.Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2011 May 25
Space Shuttle Rising
Credit: NASA
Explanation: What's that rising from the clouds? The space shuttle. If you looked out the window of an airplane at just the right place and time last week, you could have seen something very unusual -- the space shuttle Endeavour launching to orbit. Images of the rising shuttle and its plume became widely circulated over the web shortly after Endeavour's final launch. The above image was taken from a shuttle training aircraft and is not copyrighted. Taken well above the clouds, the image can be matched with similar images of the same shuttle plume taken below the clouds. Hot glowing gasses expelled by the engines are visible near the rising shuttle, as well as a long smoke plume. A shadow of the plume appears on the cloud deck, indicating the direction of the Sun. The shuttle Endeavour remains docked with the International Space Station and is currently scheduled to return to Earth next week.I had about $500 worth of electronics gear stolen from my luggage in June. I spent several hours figuring out how to download the claim forms. After I filled them out, I got a brief note indicating that they received my submission.
Then I heard nothing. I spent many hours — my guess is more than 20, mostly spent on wait times — trying to contact somebody. I could get to an Indian call center, which could not give me any information on what to do.
After several months, I was informed that I had not included the tag from my baggage, which I did. I resent it. Many weeks later, I learned that I never sent it according to their records. After several iterations, I learned that my claim was denied because the company never received the tags.
A lawyer friend sent a letter to United. Now in January, I received a letter informing me that United does not accept responsibility for lost electronics.
AdvertisementsPope To Travel To Holy Land With Rabbi And Muslim Leader
Enlarge this image toggle caption Abbas Momani/AFP/Getty Images Abbas Momani/AFP/Getty Images
The first non-European pope in modern history will makes a pilgrimage to the Holy Land this week, a region with centuries of religious strife.
Francis — the first pope to take the name of the saint of peace — will carry far less historical baggage than any of his predecessors.
When John Paul II visited Israel in 2000, he prayed at the Western Wall and apologized for the church's sins against Jews. Nine years later, at Yad Vashem, the memorial to the Holocaust, Benedict XVI urged that the names of the victims never perish, be denied or forgotten.
Those two popes, one born in Poland and the other in Germany, carried the weight of their countries' histories: centuries of anti-Semitism in Poland; Nazism and the Holocaust in Germany.
Rabbi David Rosen, director of Inter-Religious Relations for the American Jewish Committee, says when Jewish and Catholic religious leaders meet, they focus mostly on the past.
"We have long memories, sometimes for better and sometimes for worse," Rosen says. "And if you don't encounter Christians on the positive human bases in the here and now, you are often captive to those tragic memories of the past, and that requires quite a lot of time and energy before the necessary healing has effect."
But the Argentine-born pope is less interested in history, says John Allen, Vatican analyst for The Boston Globe.
"With Francis, his focus in interreligious dialogue is much more on the present — it's what are the challenges of today, poverty and war, and what can the religions do together in facing them," Allen says. "It is a mode of interreligious dialogue that is free of the ghosts of the past."
A Clean Slate
Enlarge this image toggle caption Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images
In an unprecedented move, Francis asked two friends from Argentina to accompany him to the Holy Land, Rabbi Abraham Skorka and Islamic studies professor Omar Abboud.
As archbishop of Buenos Aires, Francis wrote a book with Skorka called Heaven and Earth. Skorka says growing up in a cosmopolitan city and going to the same schools created a special bond between people of different faiths.
"We shared lot of experience — being together, Jews, Christians — learning [about the other]. We were not in a closed ghetto," Skorka says. "We were in touch, one with the other, maintaining each one his own tradition but knowing that there exists another, that the other can be your friend, being other."
With Francis, the Catholic Church has the opportunity to present itself with a clean slate — and not just with Judaism.
In September, just months after he became pope, Western powers appeared ready to go to war over Syria. But Francis declared his opposition, calling a worldwide day of fasting. It was an anti-war action, says Allen, that won the pope much goodwill in the Islamic world, in many parts of which the memory of the Christian-led Crusades is still alive.
"In the Muslim street, the fact that he came out against Western intentions to invade a Middle Eastern Muslim nation, that is Syria, earned him a lot of political credibility," he says.
Francis will pray with Syrian refugees in Jordan on Saturday. He'll then travel to Bethlehem, Jesus' birthplace in the Palestinian territories. Finally, he'll visit Jerusalem.
He'll also commemorate the 50th anniversary of a historic rapprochement between the Catholic and Orthodox churches. And he'll appeal for an end to the Christian exodus from the Middle East, where more and more Christians are dying in recent conflicts.
In a part of the world where politics and religion are closely entwined, Francis' every word will be carefully analyzed, as well as his new geopolitical strategy, Allen says. "His position on Syria was closer to Putin and China than to the major Western powers. To break that centuries-old attachment to the Western powers and align himself with some of the new rising powers of the world, I think, said something of the new globality of the Catholic Church."
The pope from the global South is forging a new ad hoc diplomacy where the Vatican could play a completely new role on the international stage.CLOSE President Donald Trump will spend 17 days at his New Jersey golf club. That's according to an AP report. Buzz60
This file photo taken on July 15, 2017 shows US President Donald Trump as he arrives at the 72nd US Women's Open Golf Championship at Trump National Golf Course in Bedminster, New Jersey. July 20, 2017 marks six months in power for US president Donald Trump. Fellow Republicans hope to turn the page on a relatively fruitless debut and lift a trophy with tax reform before his first year is out.Since January 20 the president has rolled back 14 regulations set by his, predecessor Barack Obama, notably on environmental and industry rules. (Photo11: SAUL LOEB, AFP/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON – It's that time of year again: The president is going on vacation, and his opponents are going to criticize it.
President Trump, already under fire for spending so many weekends at his resorts in Florida, Virginia, and New Jersey, is scheduled to leave Friday for what aides are calling a 17-day "working vacation" based at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J.
His critics are ready to pounce.
"Whenever a president goes on vacation, the opposition always raises a fuss about it," said Kenneth Walsh, author of the book From Mount Vernon to Crawford: A History of the Presidents and Their Retreats.
"It's sort of an easy target," he said.
But complaining about presidential vacations is a tradition as American as apple pie.
It takes place every summer a president leaves Washington, yet Trump's vacation at Bedminster, one of his commercial properties, may draw even more scrutiny – since the president in his first six months in office has visited a Trump-owned property nearly every weekend.
Related:
Many ethics experts have questioned Trump's travels to resort properties like Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., or the Trump golf club in Virginia, saying they amount to advertisements for the Trump brand.
Trump's Jersey jaunt is "not a vacation," tweeted Walter Shaub, former director of the Office of Government Ethics.
"This is a marketing blitz. Lobbyists & foreign govts should watch to see if HSN live broadcasts any cheap deals on influence."
Not a vacation. This is a marketing blitz. Lobbyists & foreign govts should watch to see if HSN live broadcasts any cheap deals on influence https://t.co/y1dGTe4OOT — Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) August 3, 2017
Trump's August trip may also draw fire because he himself has been a critic of presidential vacations – at least those taken by his predecessor Barack Obama.
In August of 2014, then-private citizen Trump tweeted: "While Obama vacations, golfs, attends parties & jazz concerts, ISIS is chopping heads off of journalists."
"@BackOnTrackUSA: @realDonaldTrump While Obama vacations,golfs, attends parties & jazz concerts, ISIS is chopping heads off of journalists." — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 20, 2014
Trump himself has previously disdained even the idea of taking vacations as president.
Speaking with CBS' 60 Minutes just days after his election, Trump said, "there's just so much to be done... So I don't think we'll be very big on vacations, no."
White House officials said this is a "working vacation," and that Trump will not have time for reading lists and other pursuits.
In addition to holding meetings at Bedminster, the president is also planning to make day trips to other states to promote his administration's policies. As a president who is happy to announce major policy proposals and offer newsmaking commentary on Twitter, it's safe to assume the tweeting will continue even when he's away.
There is another reason for the timing of this particular getaway. Workers at the White House will spend the next two weeks or more replacing the heating and cooling system in the West Wing, forcing the president and his aides out of their work spaces, including the Oval Office.
"I don’t think any of you would like to be in the West Wing on an August D.C. summer day when it’s over 100 degrees with no air conditioning," said White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters.
She added that "the president's going to continue to work."
Still, presidential vacations are as old as the office itself – and so is the criticism.
Back in 1798, when the national capital was in Philadelphia, President John Adams left for his home in Massachusetts and spent some seven months there, in part to care for ailing first lady Abigail Adams. Critics still accused him of dawdling as the nation faced a possible war with France.
In spending time at his golf club in central New Jersey, Trump is following a semi-tradition set by Adams and other presidents: Vacationing on personal property. Just as President George Washington retreated to his estate at Mount Vernon, many presidents have found no place like home to get away from it all.
George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, and Lyndon Johnson all looked to ranches in Texas and California to re-charge. George H.W. Bush had his home at Walker Point in Kennebunkport, Maine, while President Jimmy Carter went back to his home in Plains, Ga. President John Kennedy repaired to the family compound in Haynnisport, Mass.
President Richard Nixon had a pair of vacation homes, one in Key Biscayne, Fla., and another in San Clemente, Calif. (Nixon's government-financed improvements to that property became a subject of an impeachment investigation against him.)
Presidents who did not keep these kinds of homes had special go-to places for time off.
Obama tended to take summer vacation at Martha's Vineyard, Mass., and end-of-the-year holidays in his home state of Hawaii. Bill Clinton also liked Martha's Vineyard. Harry Truman often headed down to Key West, Fla., where he conducted administration business while wearing loud tropical shirts.
Which leads to another truism: Presidents really don't have vacations.
There's always something do when you're commander-in-chief. Presidents take staff with them. Thanks to modern communications, presidents are never very far away for meetings, and they can make announcements on a moment's notice – especially in the case of the tweeter-in-chief.
Some presidential vacations have been anything but relaxing. President Dwight Eisenhower suffered a heart attack during his 1955 vacation in Denver. Clinton's 1998 sojourn to Martha's Vineyard took place right after his grand jury testimony in the Monica Lewinsky investigation.
While presidents almost always take criticism over time off, the evidence over time suggests that the public is largely indifferent and citizens don't mind presidents taking vacations.
There is one major risk: Vacationing presidents can be seen as indifferent to crises.
That's what happened to George W. Bush, when he was seen as reacting too slowly to Hurricane Katrina as it tore through New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.
"It's more of a symbolic risk than a substance risk at this point," said historian Tevi Troy, author of Shall We Wake the President?: Two Centuries of Disaster Management from the Oval Office.
Troy, who worked in the George W. Bush administration, criticized what he called the hypocrisy surrounding commentary on presidential vacations – the out-party criticizes the in-president over them, roles that reverse when the White House changes political parties.
"It's the most obvious and blatant hypocrisy," Troy said. "Presidents of both parties deserve to have a vacation."
As perhaps a warning against avoiding a break from a very stressful job, Troy cited the example of a president who did not take any long vacations: James K. Polk.
"It's important to remember he died shortly after his presidency ended," Troy said.
Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2wpi4IADavid Friend, The Canadian Press
TORONTO -- BlackBerry Ltd. (TSX:BB) (Nasdaq:BBRY) has hired another tech industry veteran for a key leadership role, as the smartphone maker pushes ahead with another turnaround attempt.
Ron Louks, who held senior positions at HTC America Inc. and Sony Ericsson, has been appointed to help develop the company's long-term product roadmap, BlackBerry announced on Monday.
Louks, 49, will take the newly created position of president for devices and emerging solutions, reporting to BlackBerry chief executive John Chen.
Louks will directly manage long-term plans for BlackBerry's product lineup, which includes its mobile devices, software, and partnerships with other companies, Chen said in a release.
"I am confident that Ron will bring the skills and expertise that will make an immediate impact to BlackBerry and to our customers around the world," Chen said.
"A good deal of Ron's time will be spent with customers, carriers and partners."
Louks joins BlackBerry from OpenNMS Group, where he was chief executive.
Prior to that, he was chief strategy officer of HTC America and chief technology officer of Sony Ericsson, two smartphone companies that have competed with BlackBerry and their mutual rivals.
This is the latest in a number of changes that Chen has made to BlackBerry's executive ranks since he joined the smartphone company in November as chairman and interim CEO.
Before joining BlackBerry, Chen was chairman and CEO of Sybase from 1998 until the data management company was acquired in 2010 by SAP AG. He was credited with helping to grow Sybase into a profitable operation focused on mobile business technology.
Chen also held executive positions at Siemens AG, Pyramid Technology Corp., and Burroughs Corp.
Last month, Chen appointed two executives from software maker SAP as part of an effort to strengthen its strategy and marketing operations.
Amid all the changes, Chen has said BlackBerry will continue to be a device maker, a part of the business that some suggest could be spun off amid intense competition from Apple, Samsung and others.
Apart from Chen's statements, BlackBerry has taken steps to demonstrate it has a long-term interest as a device maker -- including a five-year partnership with manufacturing company Foxconn announced last month.
Last week, BlackBerry also announced that it has launched a suit that claims its intellectual property has been infringed by a keyboard case for iPhones that has been developed by Typo Products, a tech startup co-founded by "American Idol" host Ryan Seacrest.
Typo said Monday that it will defend itself against BlackBerry's allegations, which it says are "without merit."
BlackBerry shares rose 26 cents, or 3.2 per cent, to $8.35 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.Photo by Kidwiler Collection/Diamond Images/Getty Images
Chuck Bednarik, the former NFL All-Pro who played both ways in three different decades for the Philadelphia Eagles—center on offense and linebacker on defense—died on Saturday at the age of 89.
Last year Sports Illustrated’s Monday Morning Quarterback website said Gifford was “leveled” with “a forearm to the chest.” In 2013 Philly sports writer Ray Didinger said that Bednarik was “coming full speed in the opposite direction” when he hit Gifford.
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So was it a blindside tackle to the chest? A right shoulder under the chin? Or a forearm to the chest? Was Bednarik moving at full speed? Did the blow itself knock Gifford out? Was it one of the hardest hits ever?
Let me respond to those questions: no, no, no, no, no, and no. Those answers are easily attainable by watching the grainy video.
Gifford catches a pass over the middle. He’s running gingerly across the icy field from left to right. Bednarik chases from about 5 yards behind and facing Gifford. Bednarik overpursues, and when Gifford cuts to his right to avoid him, Bednarik throws on the brakes and reaches back to intercept Gifford. The two collide, left shoulder to left shoulder. Bednarik’s left arm reaches across and stops Gifford’s forward progress. His right arm reaches across the back of Gifford’s shoulder pads, and Bednarik pushes him backward to the ground.
So: It’s not a blindside tackle, as the Times claimed; Gifford is running toward Bednarik, sees him, and tries to avoid him. Bednarik isn’t moving at full speed, as Didinger wrote; in fact, he’s barely moving at all. The initial contact isn’t to Gifford’s chest, as SI and others asserted. And contrary to the Daily News obit, Bednarik’s right shoulder makes no contact whatsoever with any part of Gifford’s body.
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As NFL hits go, it’s not a particularly violent one. It’s an awkward one. An off-balance Bednarik blocks the much smaller Gifford’s path, and the collision sends Gifford down in banana-peel fashion. To be sure, Bednarik is a brick wall, and Gifford’s descent is dramatic and powerful. But the Eagle doesn’t appear to slam the Giant down; momentum, conservation of energy, and gravity do most of the work. And while Gifford was indeed concussed and knocked unconscious, it wasn’t from the force of the blow. As he has said repeatedly in the decades since, Gifford was hurt because his head whiplashed against the frozen Yankee Stadium turf. (He also has said he skipped the 1961 season not because of the injury but because he was offered a job in television.)
The always excellent sportswriter Peter Richmond, who co-authored The Glory Game, Gifford’s book about the 1958 NFL championship game between the Giants and the Baltimore Colts, wrote after Bednarik’s death that the notable feature of the play isn’t the animalistic violence attributed to it, but its restraint. “Bednarik actually moves his head away so as to not go head to head, then corrals Gifford by the shoulders,” Richmond writes. He added: “Maybe we should praise Bednarik for trying to set an example on the play, and not trying to hurt Frank.”
Richmond went on to note that what’s really interesting about the play is also what helped make it so iconic: the image of Bednarik poised over the passed-out Gifford pumping his first downward as if punching out the fallen player. Richmond called it the first taunt. But even that appears to be at odds with what happened. Bednarik always said he wasn’t celebrating having knocked out Gifford, but rather having forced a fumble that sealed the Eagles’ 17–10 victory.
After the hit, Bednarik gets up, looks for the ball, and, realizing the Eagles have recovered, points downfield with his right arm. The video stops before Bednarik makes the famous celebratory gesture. The photo looks to me like a fraction of a second that’s contrary to the reality of the full sequence. Immediately after the game, Bednarik insisted he wasn’t taunting. “I remember waving my fist as a victory signal,” he said in the Philadelphia Daily News. “I always do that on a play that means the game.” Though he told the story of the hit for dramatic effect, Bednarik for years maintained he wasn’t being cruel to Gifford. “If people think I was gloating over Frank, they’re full of you-know-what,” he once said.
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“The Hit” or “the Tackle,” as the play came to be known, was a perfect piece of propaganda that the NFL set to ominous orchestral music and used to define itself as it soared in popularity in the 1960s and ’70s: tough, snarling, merciless, unspeakably violent. As a piece of history though, it’s the product of faulty memory, fish-tale exaggeration, and lousy reporting.
This transcript from Slate’s sports podcast Hang Up and Listen has been lightly edited for clarity.The White House as seen at night on Monday, Nov., 14, 2011 in Washington. The six Democrats and six Republicans have until next Wednesday to come together on a plan to save $1.2 trillion through spending cuts or tax increases. Despite some progress, there's still no deal.(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
(Adds response by lawyers for both sides in lawsuit, paragraph 5)
By Emily Flitter
NEW YORK, Sept 12 (Reuters) - The U.S. government has moved to invoke a powerful national security law to dismiss a private lawsuit against a non-profit group, United Against A Nuclear Iran, on grounds that the case could reveal state secrets, according to a court filing on Friday.
Lawyers for the government argued that proceedings in the private dispute between a Greek businessman and U.S.-based UANI could "cause harm to national security" if they are allowed to continue. The document in federal court in New York said the secrets were "properly classified national security information" which would be described in another filing that would not be made public.
Greek businessman and ship owner Victor Restis last year sued UANI for defamation after UANI, whose advisors include former intelligence officials from the United States, Europe and Israel, accused him of violating sanctions on Iran by exporting oil from the country.
UANI advocates economic pressure on Iran to keep over its nuclear program. Iran denies Western accusations that it has been seeking the capability to assemble nuclear weapons. One of UANI's tactics is to name and shame companies and people who do business in Iran.
In an emailed statement, UANI's lawyer said he believed Restis' complaint was without merit. Restis' lawyer declined to comment before filing a formal response in court.
Earlier this year, U.S. government lawyers declared their interest in the lawsuit, warning that information related to UANI could jeopardize law enforcement activities such as ongoing investigations.
The state secrets privilege is more powerful than the one the government would have used to protect law enforcement activities. It refers specifically to matters of national security.
It is used far more sparingly than the law enforcement privilege. In Friday's court filing U.S. Department of Justice lawyers pointed to another example in which the government invoked it to try to dismiss a defamation lawsuit in 1985 by a man claiming Penthouse Magazine had wrongly accused him of being a spy.
The case is Restis et al v. American Coalition Against Nuclear Iran Inc, (dba United Against A Nuclear Iran) et al, in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, No. 13-05032. (Reporting By Emily Flitter; Editing by Grant McCool)HBO has put in development an untitled half-hour single-camera comedy about the sneaker culture phenomenon, from NBA star LeBron James and Maverick Carter’s Springhill Entertainment. It hails from Warner Bros. TV and stems from SpringHill’s multi-year movie, TV and digital deal |
fake business representative, Happer acknowledges that his report would probably not pass peer-review with a scientific journal – the gold-standard process for quality scientific publication whereby work is assessed by anonymous expert reviewers. “I could submit the article to a peer-reviewed journal, but that might greatly delay publication and might require such major changes in response to referees and to the journal editor that the article would no longer make the case that CO2 is a benefit, not a pollutant, as strongly as I would like, and presumably as strongly as your client would also like,” he wrote.
He suggested an alternative process whereby the article could be passed around handpicked reviewers. “Purists might object that the process did not qualify as a peer review,” he said. “I think it would be fine to call it a peer review.”
Greenpeace said its investigation demonstrated how, unbeknownst to the public, the fossil fuel industry could inject paid-for views about climate change into the international debate, confusing the public and blocking prospects for strong action to avoid dangerous warming.
“Our research reveals that professors at prestigious universities can be sponsored by foreign fossil fuel companies to write reports that sow doubt about climate change and that this sponsorship will then be kept secret,” said John Sauven, the director of Greenpeace UK. “Down the years, how many scientific reports that sowed public doubt on climate change were actually funded by oil, coal and gas companies? This investigation shows how they do it, now we need to know when and where they did it.”
Such practices are receiving greater scrutiny in academic circles after it emerged that Dr Willie Soon, a researcher at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who rejects mainstream climate science, was financed almost entirely by fossil fuel companies and lobby groups and a foundation run by the ultra-conservative Koch brothers. The Smithsonian launched an investigation.
In Happer’s case, the physicist declined any personal remuneration for his work but wanted his fee donated to the CO2 Coalition. Happer wrote in an email that his fee was $250 an hour and that it would require four days of work – a total of $8,000. “Depending on how extensive a document you have in mind, the time required or cost could be more or less, but I hope this gives you some idea of what I would expect if we were to proceed on some mutually agreeable course,” he wrote.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Dr Clemente’s research specialization is the socioeconomic impact of energy policy- especially issues relating to electricity generation, reliability and cost. Photograph: Greg Campbell/Mississippi Energy Institute
Clemente, who was approached by the sham Indonesian firm to produce a report countering findings linking coal to high rates of premature death, said such a project fell within his skill set. He estimated a fee of about $15,000 for an eight-to-10-page paper, according to email correspondence released by Greenpeace. The professor said he charged $6,000 for writing newspaper opinion pieces.
He said there was no problem quoting him as professor emeritus at Penn State, or obscuring the funding for the research. “There is no requirement to declare source funding in the US. My research and writing has been supported by government agencies, trade associations, the university and private companies and all has been published under the rubric of me as an independent scholar – which I am.”
Clemente told the Guardian that he acted as a consultant to “many industries that improve the human quality of life”.
He added: “I fully stand behind every single statement I made in my emails. I am very proud of my research and believe that clean coal technologies are the pathway to reliable and affordable electricity, reduction of global energy poverty and a cleaner environment.”
“I write is an independent scholar and University is not responsible for any of my work. This is called academic freedom in the United States,” he said.
Greenpeace said it had approached a total of seven prominent figures in the US and UK climate denial movement. The other five declined, either citing time pressures and area of expertise, or just did not respond.
Greenpeace argues its investigation offered a rare glimpse into the practice of clandestine industry funding of reports casting doubts about the threat of climate change. The campaign group argues that obscuring funding in this way dupes the public into thinking the reports are produced by the scholars independently with no financial interests at stake.
Happer, who served as an energy adviser for former president George HW Bush, has long argued that rising carbon emissions are a net benefit for humanity.
He returned to the point in his email exchanges with the fake entity, saying: “The Paris climate talks are based on the premise that CO2 itself is a pollutant. This is completely false. More CO2 will benefit the world.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest United Mine Workers of America hold a rally outside the US Environmental Protection Agency headquarters in Washington. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
Naomi Oreskes, a science historian at Harvard University and author of Merchants of Doubt, a book about the climate denial movement, said Happer had been deploying the same arguments that CO2 is good for agriculture for about 20 years – even though such claims have, she said, been thoroughly debunked. “He has been recycling refuted arguments for quite some time now,” she said.
“Happer sits in the profile of people we wrote about in Merchants of Doubt,” she said. “I’ve always argued that for this group of people, cold war physicists, it’s not about money, it’s ideologically driven.”
Meanwhile, Peabody Energy regularly cites Clemente’s research to make its case that expanding coal use to developing countries would help eliminate global poverty. That argument runs counter to the thinking of financial institutions such as the World Bank which has rejected the notion of coal as a poverty cure.
Happer noted he had also donated an $8,000 fee from Peabody for testimony in a Minnesota state hearing on the impacts of carbon dioxide to the CO2 Coalition.
Happer did not dispute the veracity of the emails, but refused to address questions.In this May 6, 2012, photo, a Wells Fargo sign is displayed at a branch in New York. Wells Fargo is reporting higher earnings for the second quarter thanks to a pickup in lending and a decline in the amount of bad loans, according to reports Friday, July 13, 2012. (AP Photo/CX Matiash)
Update (7:51am EST 11/02/2012):
Wells Fargo and Carrington Mortgage Holdings, LLC, the servicer for Niko Black's home, contacted Huffington Post editors about this blog post on Thursday, November 1, 2012 claiming that the facts were wrong. "Both of the key premises of this article are factually incorrect," they wrote.
Wells Fargo's Communication Manager, Elise Wilkinson wrote:
1. There was no court ordered stay in place on the property in question at the time of the lockout. The former homeowner, Ms. Black, had previously obtained a stay, which expired after 30 days (on June 21, 2012). The expiration of the stay was in accordance with the bankruptcy code. The lockout took place on October 21, 2012, well after the expiration of the stay. 2. Wells Fargo did not evict Ms. Black. All foreclosure and eviction decisions were made and managed by the servicer (Carrington Mortgage Services). Wells Fargo is the Trustee for a trust containing the loan on this property. As Trustee, we manage certain administrative matters and court documents are filed in our name as trustee. However, all foreclosure decisions are made by the servicer.
"This story is highly inaccurate. Please remove it or correct the facts as soon as possible," Wilkinson continues.
It's an odd claim to make since the motion for relief of stay was requested by attorneys for Wells Fargo in a court filing on June 14, 2012, according to attorneys for Niko Black.
I contacted Stephen Golden of Stephen R. Golden & Associates, the attorneys for Niko Black, and asked them to respond to the allegations.
According to a recent motion filed by Stephen R. Golden & Associates, Wells Fargo Bank, filed a Motion For Relief From The Automatic Stay Or For Order Confirming That The Automatic Stay Does Not Apply Under 11 U.S.C. 362(l), on June 14, 2012.
The request for relief from automatic stay was denied by Judge Theodor C. Albert, when Wells Fargo's attorney's failed appear in court for the hearing.
Here is the statement issued by Stephen R. Golden, in response to the claims above:
It is understandable that Wells Fargo wants to at this time to disavow all participation in the foreclosure and eviction proceedings. It is undisputed that Wells Fargo was the Plaintiff evicting Miss Black in the Unlawful Detainer proceedings. Furthermore, legal counsel for Wells Fargo, Jason Burris, was at the home of Miss Black and advised the Orange County Deputy Sheriffs at her home that she had no right to possession despite her Bankruptcy. Secondly, Carrington Mortgage Servicers, as the loan servicer, is acting on behalf of Wells Fargo undoubtedly pursuant to a loan servicing agreement between these two entities. As trustee for the trust where Miss Black's loan was deposited, Wells Fargo is the purported legal holder of that loan. All actions on behalf of the trust regarding foreclosure on such loan would be the actions of Wells Fargo assuming any rights to do so in the first place.
In addition to the statement above, Stephen R. Golden & Associates said in a press release:
The law office is also aware that both Wells Fargo and Carrington Loan Servicing have contacted the media in an attempt to mitigate negative public opinion. While our law office will let the facts of the case speak for themselves in Federal Court, we are making public statements from Stephen R. Golden and Senior Attorney Thomas Freidman. Our office has received a vast amount of requests from the media for information regarding Miss Black, we will begin to post non confidential information on our website beginning tomorrow.
So, in response to the first claim, why did Wells Fargo or attorneys for Wells Fargo file a 44 page motion for relief of stay, seven days prior to what they were claiming was the expiration date - why not just let it run out?
As for the second claim, that Wells Fargo is not responsible for the eviction and that decisions concerning evictions fall on the servicer, "there is undeniable proof that the claim is false under the facts of this case," said Thomas Friedman, an Attorney with Golden & Associates. According to Friedman, who produced the documents to back up his statements, Sergeant Robert Sima, in a Declaration, dated October 29, 2012, submitted to the Bankruptcy Court, and signed under penalty of perjury, states "On August 27, 2012, the Orange County Sheriff's Department received a court ordered eviction and instructions from an attorney for Creditor Wells Fargo to conduct the eviction of Niko Black at 9581 Shannon Avenue, Garden Grove, California, 92841." Pretty clear, right? Then, on October 2, 2012, counsel for Wells Fargo sent a letter to the Orange County Sheriff's Department (attached to Sergeant Sima's Declaration), in which Wells Fargo's counsel instructs the Sheriff's Department to proceed with the eviction because "there is no automatic stay at this time".
________________________
Original post:
Wells Fargo is once again at the center of controversy with help from the California Orange County Sheriff's Department. You may have read Martin Andelman's piece "Husband's Suicide Yesterday, Wells Fargo to Evict Wife Tomorrow Anyway" and my follow up, "Wells Fargo Gets Picked Up On Radar" outlining a myriad of Wells Fargo's missteps, abuses, and egregious behavior.
The latest example of Wells Fargo thumbing its nose at the courts and using law enforcement to carry out its dirty work is the case of Niko Black, a 37-year-old Mescalero Apache woman, suffering from a rare and terminal form of cancer.
According to the Orange County Weekly, on the morning of October 10, Orange County deputies broke down Niko Black's door despite a court order taped to it forbidding them to do so, put a gun in her face and crumpled up the court order. They then carried her out of the home in her wheel chair and left her on the sidewalk while they locked up her home. The deputies locked her medication and medical equipment in the house as well, denying her access to it.
Because I have a very aggressive form of cancer, every appointment, every day is crucial," she says. "I'm a person with a lower immune system. That's why all my nursing care, my physical therapy, my medical equipment, everything is set up for home care. This violates the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The eviction according to the OC Weekly and the law offices of Stephen R. Golden and Associates, was in violation of a court order.
"Wells Fargo filed a motion about an inch thick all the reasons why they should be allowed to evict me," Black told the OC Weekly. "The federal judge denied them and stated very clearly they are not to. The bank illegally acquired an unlawful detainer, an eviction, without due process. They did it with fraudulent paperwork."
The Sheriff's spin department went into overdrive on Tuesday, taking to the airwaves on the same station (KTLK-AM 1150) that originally broke the story, saying that it's standard protocol to enter a home during an eviction with weapons drawn. They also claim that no guns were pointed. A claim that Black refutes:
Sergeant Bob Sima puts a gun to my face, finger on the trigger, no safety and walks around me. There's no reason, except for to threaten my life, for an intimidation factor, to put a gun to my head.
The part about defying the court order seemed to have slipped their mind in the statement. Neither the Sheriff's department nor attorneys for Wells Fargo would return phone calls in regards to this post.
According to witnesses, Jason R. Burris, an attorney for Wells Fargo, with a full eleven months of experience, ordered deputies to ignore the federal order and forcibly remove Black from the home. They also broke windows and smashed a security camera placed over the front door.
Stephen R. Golden of Stephen R. Golden and Associates and a member of the HPN trusted attorneys network announced earlier this week that the firm would be taking on Black's case:
Miss Black was evicted and locked out of her Garden Grove home by the Orange County Sheriff's office in violation of a federal court order. Niko is struggling with cancer and was granted the court order due to medical reasons by a federal judge. The Orange County Sheriff and Wells Fargo Bank chose to ignore the order and evict Miss Black anyway. The order issued by a federal bankruptcy judge was very clear in its language and was clearly ignored by the Sheriff and Wells Fargo Bank. Stephen R. Golden was retained "Pro Bono" and has set to work with an eight-person legal team to right the wrong.
Wells Fargo filed a motion in July to lift the stay that is automatically applied through a bankruptcy filing, but according to court documents didn't bother to show up in court, so the the motion was denied. Instead, Wells figured they'd go ahead with the eviction, sent some paperwork over to the Orange County Sheriff and the rest is history.
Theodor C. Albert, a Federal Bankruptcy Court Judge for the United States bankruptcy court in California, on October 18, ordered Wells Fargo and the Orange County Sheriff's department to appear in court, " to show cause why sanctions should not be imposed for violation of the automatic stay." The hearing is set for November 13. Let's see if they show up for this.
Thomas Friedman, a civil rights attorney at Stephen R. Golden Associates said in an interview:
We have no information at this time about any claimed'standard operating procedure' within the Orange County Sherriff's Department. Second, we are currently more concerned with the clear, ongoing violation of Ms. Black's right to remain in her home, in accordance with the Bankruptcy Court's Order forbidding her removal, than we are in an unnecessary debate about applying standard procedure when dealing with severely disabled citizens. Isn't the answer to that clear? Finally, we have no objection where a police officer employs a reasonable standard operating procedure when the situation is'standard.' But, if a police officer enters a home with his or her weapon drawn, and is faced with a disabled, ill, one-hundred pound female, in a wheelchair, holding an order that precludes the very act the police officer is engaged in, then, I would ask, should we be discussing standard operating procedure, or using good judgment?Never has a hockey player who never made it to the NHL become so legendary that people know him by two names – his real one, Bill (Goldie) Goldthorpe, and his nom de cinema, Ogie Ogilthorpe. As the afro-haired goon in Slap Shot, Ogie's story was torn from the life and hard times of Goldthorpe. It wasn't until a 2002 Globe and Mail article that Goldie revealed he was considered too dangerous to play Ogie in the movie – the role going to Ned Dowd. As the NHL Network celebrates the 40th anniversary of Slap Shot, Allan Maki caught up with Goldthorpe, who lives in Vancouver and has not been interviewed by the NHL for any of its movie recollections. Is he still too dangerous after all these years?
So the NHL has lost your phone number. Why do you think that is?
It's because of my criminal record. I couldn't cross the border once because of something that happened when I was drinking. I was stopped in Buffalo and I was trying to get to a Make-A-Wish foundation event. [U.S. Customs] let me in because it was for a charity. They told me I should get my record cleaned up. I said, 'You know how many times I've been drunk?'
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When did your life go off the rails?
I played the angel Gabriel in a Christmas pageant. It starts there.
Rumour had it you needed a police escort for your junior games in Thunder Bay and that you were once busted for grave robbing?
I was in the Thunder Bay jail, and [teammate] George Gwozdecky would sign me out for games, then he'd take me back after the game. I never robbed any graves. I had a job digging them. I got $52 a grave. It was the best job I ever had.
In Slap Shot, several of the game's wildest players got prime roles, such as Jeff and Steve Carlson and Dave Hanson. You didn't. Does it bother you?
I've met all the actors from the movie. The biggest thing for me was at a charity golf tournament in Southern Ontario. Nancy Dowd was there. [Dowd wrote the Slap Shot script.] I didn't know she was going to be there, and she got up and said I was the inspiration for Ogie Ogilthorpe. That was a big moment. People got to realize Ogie Ogilthorpe was a true Canadian hockey player.
You first battled the Carlson brothers in junior. What was that like?
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I only played against them once in junior. [Teammate] Willie Trognitz had [third brother] Jack Carlson in a fight. I had Jeff. He buried his head in my chest and never threw a punch. Then he comes out in a book saying Trog and I were jokes. You know, I went and saw the Hanson brothers [do their act] in Vernon, B.C. They're on the ice, and the fans start chanting, 'We want Ogilthorpe.' They wouldn't even say, 'Look, he's in the stands.'
You've become a regular at speaking gigs across the country. Anything to share?
I was at one where we roasted Bobby Hull. Dave (the Hammer) Schultz was there and he told me, 'Don't take the jokes personally.' I think people still feel that I'm a nutbar. I remember playing against Bobby. I was in Denver with the WHA and I'm at our goal line and I've got the puck – how that happened, I don't know. Bobby's at our red line. I look away for a second and now he's right in front of me. So I shot the puck at him. He asked me, 'Why did you do that?' I said, 'You skate too fast.'
Any more?
I also spoke at a Lakehead University dinner. I said, 'Who said I'd never make it to university?'
Did you ever have any concussions when you played?
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I had concussions. I woke up one day three days later. I got into a fight in junior in Thunder Bay. I got punched in the temple. I got offered smelling salts because that's all they knew back then. In the WHA, Gordie Gallant got a concussion running into one of his teammates. They took him to the dressing room, turned off the lights and left him there for the rest of the game. They didn't do a thing.
Do you have any regrets?
I look back at my career and I wish I had never got in trouble off the ice. I got that close to making it as a pro in the NHL. But I'm not going to whine about it. They were my mistakes. I was asked by the [Toronto Maple] Leafs to stick around after I'd gone to training camp with them. They didn't offer me a contract, so I left.
Why do you think so many hockey fans like you as Ogie/Goldie Goldthorpe?
I'm always honest. A lot of people don't believe I'm Ogie Ogilthorpe. They think I should be 15 feet tall and have lightning bolts shooting out my ass. People have said to me I look serious all the time. But I'm not angry. I don't want to be angry any more.LLVM Weekly - #53, Jan 5th 2015
Welcome to the fifty-third issue of LLVM Weekly, a weekly newsletter (published every Monday) covering developments in LLVM, Clang, and related projects. LLVM Weekly is brought to you by Alex Bradbury. Subscribe to future issues at http://llvmweekly.org and pass it on to anyone else you think may be interested. Please send any tips or feedback to asb@asbradbury.org, or @llvmweekly or @asbradbury on Twitter.
I'm going to be in California next week for the RISC-V workshop. I'm arriving at SFO on Monday 12th and leaving on Sunday the 18th. Do let me know if you want to meet and talk lowRISC/RISC-V or LLVM, and we'll see what we can do.
News and articles from around the web
I was getting ready to break out gitstats for some analysis of the LLVM repo and I find to my delight that Phoronix has saved me the trouble and has shared some stats on activity in the LLVM repo over the past year.
Tom Stellard has made a blog post announcing some recent RadeonSI performance improvements on his LLVM development branch. This includes 60% improvement in one OpenCL benchmark and 10-25% in a range of other OpenCL tests.
Gaëtan Lehmann has written a blog post about getting started with libclang using the Python bindings.
The C++ Filesystem Technical Specification, based on the Boost.Filesystem library has been approved.
On the mailing lists
LLVM commits
Instruction selection for bit-permuting operations on PowerPC has been improved. r225056.
The scalar replacement of aggregates (SROA) pass has started to learn how to more intelligently handle split loads and stores. As explained in detail in the commit message, the old approach lead to complex IR that can be difficult for the optimizer to work with. SROA is now also more aggressive in its splitting of loads. r225061, r225074.
InstCombine will now try to transform A-B < 0 in to A < B. r225034.
The Hexagon (a Qualcomm DSP) backend has seen quite a lot of work recently. Interested parties are best of flicking through the commit log of lib/Target/Hexagon. r225005, r225006, etc.
Clang commits
More crash bugs have been uncovered and fixed by the naive fuzzing technique previously covered in LLVM Weekly. e.g. r224915.
Other project commitsExpectant mothers have a lot to be concerned about, but those living near fracking sites have even more to fear, an expanding body of evidence shows. Most recently, a data review of more than 10,000 pregnancies has linked living in heavily fracked areas with a higher risk of premature births.
In the study, published Sept. 30 in the journal Epidemiology, scientists at Johns Hopkins University, Brown University and the University of California, Berkeley and San Francisco, analyzed data from the 10,496 pregnancies of 9,384 mothers in nearly 700 communities in Pennsylvania from 2009 to 2013. At the same time, they tracked shale gas drilling, fracturing and production in a 12.4-mile radius of each woman.
What they found was that mothers who had higher exposure to these operations and infrastructure -- in essence, those who had more drilling and fracking sites in the vicinity of their homes -- were 40 percent more likely to give birth to premature babies. They were also 30 percent more likely to have high-risk pregnancies, the researchers found.
"Any form of energy extraction that harms the well-being of infants and pregnant women has no place in society," Sandra Steingraber, a biologist with the organization Americans Against Fracking, who was not involved in the study, said in response to the new findings. "These data show that a ban on fracking is good prenatal care."
Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is the process of injecting millions of gallons of sand and chemical-laced water into gas-rich shale below the earth to allow gas to be released from the rock. Those liquids are then brought back to the surface of the earth. Previous studies have linked living near fracking sites to infertility, miscarriages and birth defects. Researchers have blamed the increased risk of exposure to toxic chemicals and even radioactive materials.
More than 15 million people in the U.S. were living within one mile of a fracking well, Al Jazeera reported in 2014, as the practice has increased significantly in the U.S. in recent years. Advocates say fracking helps communities by creating jobs, while critics argue it can be detrimental for human health and to the environment.Dive Brief:
A new study from California-based investment firm Wiser Capital estimates there are more than 274,000 commercial buildings in the Northeast which would be appropriate for solar power installations, potentially yielding about 95,000 MW of capacity, Greentech Media reports.
The study examined solar potential in New York and Massachusetts, to determine the Northeast region could potentially see $67.5 billion in investment.
The firm sees mid-tier commercial solar developments as an "untapped market" largely because financing options have lagged, but said a better understanding of solar economics has the potential to shift the balance.
Dive Insight:
A new study that looks at solar potential in the Northeast concludes a large market has been largely neglected, as solar developers focused on residential and utility-scale power. Assuming an average mid-sized solar system of 350 kW, the firm believes the Northeast's suitable commercial buildings have 94,733 MW of untapped solar potential.
"The mid-scale solar market is ripe for expansion in the Northeast," the report concluded. "A solid mix of available space, potential savings, and investment appetite combine to attract financiers to the market."
Wiser estimates that just New York represents a potential investment of $20 billion, and Massachusetts would require $11.5 billion to put solar panels on all appropriate commercial rooftops. Extrapolating those figures, the firm sees a $67.5 billion investment potential in the region. But it isn't just space and sun -- Wiser said the region stands out as a strong investment possibility because policies in place make solar viable.
“Many people assume that sunny states like Texas or Florida are automatically good markets for solar, but that’s simply not the case,” Nathan Homan, executive director of Wiser Capital, told Greentech. “Adequate sun for solar electricity exists across the U.S. The Northeast is a prime market for solar due to available commercial roof space, higher-than-average utility rates and regional incentives.”
New York's installed solar capacity grew 300% between 2011 and 2014, outpacing nationwide solar growth. The huge boom in solar was in part thanks to New York's $1 billion NY-Sun initiative, which aims to boost clean energy technology as part of the state's Reforming the Energy Vision (REV) strategy.
Massachusetts strong market for Solar Renewable Energy Certificates has given the state a boost, the report finds. An average 350 kW system, installed at $3.07/watt and offsetting about 80% of consumption, would save $12,170 at the end of their first year, reducing the company’s electrical
utility bill by 17.75%.by R. Gidon Rothstein
6 Shevat: Tzitz Eliezer on Autopsies
Are autopsies permitted? In the young State of Israel (Tzitz Eliezer 4;14 is dated 6 Shevat, 5712, 1952), the Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Herzog, raised this question (it would be a continuing issue for decades, Israeli doctors pushing for expanded rights to perform more autopsies, rabbinic opinion pushing back) and asked R. Waldenberg (I think, among others) to express his opinion.
Tzitz Eliezer comments on the magnitude of the endeavor, using a rabbinic phrase, that this matter omedet be-rumo shel olam, literally “stands at the top of the world;” he also speaks of cherdat din, the trepidation of judging a topic of great significance. He is offering his view nonetheless because he feels it his responsibility, especially since a great scholar asked him.
I note this opening because it is an underlying attitude that those not immersed in an halachic view of the world might not catch, and can create a gap among those discussing this and other questions. If I think autopsies are fine, and you think they’re prohibited, that’s one kind of disagreement; but if one group thinks they’re fine and helpful, and another concludes (Tzitz Eliezer will actually find many avenues to leniency, but that’s beside my current point) that it’s both prohibited and a desecration of the human body, that’s a much bigger gap. Tzitz Eliezer is fully aware of the stakes here.
Two Talmudic Discussions
Baba Batra 154 tells of a man who sold some of his inherited property and then passed away. His relatives, wishing to void the sale, claimed he had been a minor. When asked if they could disinter the deceased to check for signs of physical maturity, R. Akiva gave two reasons they couldn’t: they didn’t have the right to mistreat the body that way and the signs they were looking for tended to change as the body decomposed.
The discussion there makes clear that that’s true for relatives, who had not put their own money into the deal and owed more respect towards the deceased. For Tzitz Eliezer, R. Akiva’s answer shows both a prohibition against mistreating the body of the deceased and that the prohibition can sometimes be ignored—such as if the purchasers could benefit from examining the body (which was why R. Akiva had to give his second reason).
The second sugya quoted in this context is Chullin 11b, where the Gemara wonders why we don’t have to check every murder victim’s body to be sure s/he wasn’t already a terefah, bearing some physical injury that would have killed him/her anyway. (Killing a terefah is not a capital crime, so the murderer would not be put to death).
When the objection is raised that this would involve nivul, mistreating the body of the deceased, the Gemara argues that it should be permitted to save the life of the killer, and gives another answer. Once again, there is recognition of a general prohibition that allows for exceptions, such as to save the life of the murderer.
That discussion also proves this is a Biblical issue, since nivul, mistreatment, might have been a barrier to finding the information needed to allow putting a murderer to death for his crime.
Noda Bi-Yehuda—What Constitutes Saving a Life?
Among poskim, the first Tzitz Eliezer cites as addressing the issue was Noda Bi-Yehuda (R. Yehezkel Landau, 18th century rabbi of Prague), who was asked about a man in London who had died after a failed attempt to remove his kidney stones (even today, stones of 7mm and larger are unlikely to pass on their own). The doctors wanted to autopsy the body, to learn how better to handle future patients.
The people involved had turned to a rabbi who then turned to Noda BiYehudah. They had offered their own ideas, to allow it and prohibit it, which the rabbi rejected. He pointed out to Baba Batra and Chullin, which showed that autopsies are allowed to save lives, and therefore should be allowed here.
Noda Bi-Yehuda agreed with in principle, but questioned whether this autopsy qualified as saving lives. Without an actual kidney stone patient at hand, general acquisition of knowledge for the possible future patients strikes him as insufficiently pikuach nefesh to allow us to ignore a Biblical prohibition. Expanding the definition of possible lifesaving to include this autopsy would then have to mean that anything we do now that might save a life in the future should qualify as well. That would mean that mixing drugs, making surgical tools, all the lead-in activities of medicine, would be a safek pikuach nefesh and therefore be allowed on Shabbat [my emphasis].
In addition to opposing it for that reason, he worried that allowing this autopsy would lead to autopsies being done regularly, in the name of expanding scientific knowledge.
Despite the general negative tenor, Tzitz Eliezer notes that Noda Bi-Yehuda did agree that the presence of another patient with that same illness would define the autopsy as safek pikuach nefesh. On the other hand, it only permits an autopsy of someone who had had the illness in question, not of bodies in general, even if those would advance general medical knowledge and eventually save lives. [Tzitz Eliezer does not point it out, but in a time of global communication, this requirement seems significantly less of a barrier, since information from the autopsy can quickly reach those treating a patient with the same illness very far away.]
Chatam Sofer—Advance Permission to Autopsy
Chatam Sofer (who lived about fifty years after Noda Bi-Yehuda) addressed a new question, whether someone coud give consent in their lifetime for an autopsy (for either altruistic or financial reasons). In rejecting the idea, he repeats Noda Bi-Yehuda’s logic that calling the general expansion of medical knowledge pikuach nefesh was a slippery slope that would lead to do anything medical on Shabbat.
Without that as a factor, we face an issur hana’ah, a prohibition against gaining benefit from the deceased, as well as the concern with nivul. The deceased’s consent doesn’t help, according to Chatam Sofer, because it shows that the person had a mistaken lack of concern both with the honor of his own body, as well as with that of Hashem.
The idea that mistreating a human body is a disgrace to Hashem as well comes from the Torah’s prohibiting leaving a corpse hanging overnight, even when it’s someone put to death for his crimes. The Torah calls that killelat Elokim, a curse or embarrassment to Hashem; Ramban explained that since the body had been connected to a soul, containing the tselem Elokim, the image of Gd (whatever that means), mistreating it shows a lack of respect to Hashem as well.
[Along these lines, later in the responsum, Tzitz Eliezer notes that the Gemara discusses whether burial is a matter of personal honor or the disgrace of leaving corpses lying around; if the latter, we would not listen to a person who said not to bury him. Tur expressed it as being a general disgrace, to all living people, not just to the person whose body wasn’t being buried.]
Chatam Sofer contrasted the Jewish attitude to that of non-Jews, who assume that a deceased body is just a physical remnant with no special qualities. Jews’ recognition that the body and soul retain some connection even after death, means the body, too, must be treated with respect.
Binyan Tziyon—Limits on Pikuach Nefesh
R. Yaakov Ettlinger (about thirty years after Chatam Sofer, mid to late 19th century in Germany) rejected one avenue of permissibility that the earlier rabbis had accepted, autopsies when there other patients suffering from this disease.
He bases his disagreement on a view of Rashi’s in Baba Kamma, who understands the Gemara to prohibit stealing to save one’s own life (e.g., a person cannot break into a store to take needed medicines); all the more so, he argued, one could not save oneself through the embarrassment or disgracing of someone else.
Even Tosafot and Rosh, who permitted using someone else’s money to save lives (such as by breaking into a pharmacy and taking medicine), would have agreed here, Binyan Tziyon asserts, since there’s no way to repay dishonor done. He also questions the invoking of pikuach nefesh as a rationale, since the deceased has no obligation to observe the mitzvot, including saving lives.
The Difference Between Mothers and Others
Maharam Schick argued with Binyan Tziyon—this is in a second responsum in Binyan Tziyon– that the Gemara Arachin allows extracting a baby from a mother who passed away in childbirth (lo aleinu). The saving of the baby allowed disfiguring the mother’s deceased body, Maharam Schick noted.
Binyan Tziyon disagrees, first, that that qualifies as nivul—since doctors sometimes have to cut open living mothers in just that way, it’s part of childbirth, and might not be considered nivul. Further, that a woman would be willing to forego her honor for her child—or even that people would accept nivul for their heirs in general—is not the same as whether a person would do so to advance medical knowledge to save unknown strangers.
It is also true, he says, that a woman in childbirth anticipates the possibility of a ceasarean more than an ordinary person on the verge of passing away considers autopsies (this is even assuming that we accept consent, which Chatam Sofer had not).
Finally, |
care about; digital rights, ending mass surveillance, access to health care, protecting whistleblowers, working towards a citizens' income.
At the moment, UK MEPs simply do not get the issues we are passionate about. Let's change that, and give voters a real alternative.
"I'm excited about standing for this year's European Parliament Elections. Even as a 15-year-old in Greece I was thrilled by the opportunities of the EU, of being able to live and work wherever you wanted, following similar laws and regulations, and not having to have a particular nationality to do certain things. I believe that I can contribute to the European Parliament my unique perspective of the person with practically 3 national identities (or a single merged European identity). I've got experience in both the idealistic world of academia and the hard world of business, with technical expertise that makes me understand what the issues are and how to address them. We need to be defending freedoms in the EU like freedom of movement. Immigration is of Britain’s most emotive debate topics, but opinions seem rarely informed by evidence. Research proves migrant entrepreneurs are hugely productive net contributors to the UK economy. Entrepreneurial activity amongst the migrant community is double that of UK-born individuals. That benefits everyone. " - Lead NW Pirate Party Euro candidate Maria Aretoulaki
"I will be pushing to raise awareness of the benefits of EU membership and debunk myths perpetuated by nationalist organisations.
My main aim is to address the democratic deficit within the EU and make sure that it acts in accordance with its own principle of subsidiarity: decisions should only be taken at a European level if it is most efficient and sensible to do so." - NW Pirate Party Euro Candidate George Walkden
"There's more to life than Nick v Nigel, thankfully. It's possible to be a positive voice without being linked to the Tories. And it's possible to want change in the EU without throwing the baby out with the bathwater. We want to see an end to mass surveillance. We want to see an end to treaties negotiated behind closed doors. We want to see digital rights and net neutrality protected. The best way to do this is to have a strong Pirate Party voice in the European Parliament." - The Pirate Party's Europe Spokesperson Jack Allnutt
I'm really proud of the European Parliament candidates we have for the North West. Any one of them would make a fantastic, knowledgeable MEP, in my opinion. - Party Leader - Loz Kaye
For so many of us, it was the success of our sister party in Sweden in 2009 in the European Parliament which inspired us - that showed us there is a place for us that were feeling politically homeless. I know that Christian and Amelia have made a big impact in the European Parliament and are respected - even by those that don't really see things our way! I would love to be able to send representatives from Pirate Party UK to Brussels and Strasbourg. "Image copyright Thinkstock
The world is facing an "unrelenting march" of diabetes which now affects nearly one in 11 adults, the World Health Organization (WHO) says.
In a major report it warned cases had nearly quadrupled to 422 million in 2014 from 108 million in 1980.
High blood sugar levels are a major killer - linked to 3.7 million deaths around the world each year, it says.
And officials said the numbers would continue to increase unless "drastic action" was taken.
The report lumps both type 1 and type 2 diabetes together, but the surge in cases is predominantly down to type 2 - the form closely linked to poor lifestyle.
As the world's waistlines have ballooned - with one-in-three people now overweight, so too has the number of diabetes cases.
How diabetes has taken its toll 422 million adults were living with diabetes in 2014 - that's 314 million more than there were in 1980 8.5% of adults worldwide has diabetes
1.5 million people died as a result of diabetes in 2012
2.2 million additional deaths were caused by higher-than-optimal blood glucose
43% of these 3.7m people died before they were 70 years old
Dr Etienne Krug, the WHO official in charge of leading efforts against diabetes, told the BBC: "Diabetes is a silent disease, but it is on an unrelenting march that we need to stop.
"We can stop it, we know what needs to be done, but we cannot let it evolve like it does because it has a huge impact on people's health, on families and on society."
Failing to control levels of sugar in the blood has devastating health consequences.
It triples the risk of a heart attack and leaves people 20 times more likely to have a leg amputated, as well as increasing the risk of stroke, kidney failure, blindness and complications in pregnancy.
Image copyright WHO Image caption Roque, 70 and from Brazil, became blind 9 years ago because of his diabetes. His wife has given up her job to take care of him.
Diabetes itself is the eighth biggest killer in the world, accounting for 1.5 million deaths each year.
But a further 2.2 million deaths are linked to high blood sugar levels. And 43% of the deaths were before the age of 70.
Moving burden
In the 1980s the highest rates were found in affluent countries.
But, in a remarkable transformation, it is now low and middle income countries bearing the largest burden.
Dr Krug told the BBC News website: "That's where we see the steepest increase. Knowing that's where most of the population lives in the world, it does show numbers will continue to increase unless drastic action is taken."
The Middle East has seen the prevalence of diabetes soar from 5.9% of adults in 1980 to 13.7% in 2014.
Dr Slim Slama, a WHO specialist in region, told the BBC News website: "We are the region that has experienced the greatest rise in diabetes, moving from 6 million to 43 million - it is a huge, huge increase.
"In Qatar or Kuwait we have more than 20% of the population with diabetes and when you look at subgroups - people beyond 45 or 60 years old - it's 30-40% and things are even more worrying."
He said growing and ageing populations were behind part of the rise, but diet and inactivity were a major problem.
More than three quarters of teenagers in the region are doing less than the recommended level of exercise, he said.
The view from Turkey
By Selin Girit, BBC News
Turkey is the country with the highest figure for growth of diabetes in Europe, according to Turkish Diabetes Foundation (TDF).
In 2000, 7.6% of the population had diabetes and in only a decade this figure almost doubled and reached 13.4%.
Now, it is estimated that 15% of adult Turks are suffering from diabetes.
Prof Mehmet Temel Yilmaz, from TDF, says there is little awareness towards diabetes in Turkey - only one-in-five people know what diabetes is and what its causes are.
"We don't regularly exercise. We adapt to new technologies much faster than others, which make us move even less.
"And especially in the southeast of the country, we have a traditional culture of fast food - like doner kebabs," he says as to why an increasing number of Turkish people are getting diabetic.
There is also another factor dominant in Turkish people's lives that does not help diabetes either - stress.
Turks, it feels, need to adopt a new approach to increase their quality of life. Eating healthy food, exercising more and keeping a quiet mind seem to be the recipe.
Action
The WHO report said the solution required the whole of society to act.
"The 'easy' solution is for all of us to exercise, eat healthily and not gain excess weight - of course it's not so easy," said Dr Krug.
He called for governments to regulate the fat and sugar content of foods to ensure there were healthy options available to people.
Better urban planning that enabled people to cycle and walk was also essential as was encouraging breastfeeding, he added.
And he also called on the food industry to act responsibly to ensure it reduced the fat and sugar content of foods, and to cease marketing unhealthy foods to young people.
It is only by keeping blood sugar levels in check that the deadly complications of the disease can be contained.
But the report showed that two thirds of low income countries were not able to provide blood sugar monitors or drugs such as insulin or metformin for most people.
Dr Krug concluded: "Two things really worry me when I read this report.
"One is that one-in-11 people today have diabetes. And the other is the lack of fairness. Today in most low income countries, people who have diabetes and need access to medicine and technology to manage it don't have access to it."
Follow James on Twitter.Performers including Chance the Rapper are in town this weekend for the Boston Calling music festival, which will be a significantly bigger party than in the past.
After staging seven fests at City Hall Plaza, producers have moved the three-day event to the cushy fields at Harvard’s Athletic Complex in Boston's Allston neighborhood. (Here's a map of the new site).
New Turf, New Pizzazz
In its new location, there's been a persistent sound of golf carts zipping around as an army of staff and crew prepare for the arrival of the bands and fans. A black stage rises from green AstroTurf instead of the hard red brick that encases City Hall. Trees replace big urban buildings in the skyline.
Then, there's the Ferris wheel. As its pieces were being unloaded from a truck smack in the middle of the main field, Boston Calling co-producer and founder Mike Snow said he always dreamed of putting this particular amusement park centerpiece on City Hall Plaza — but never pulled it off.
"It's kind of like an iconic festival thing," he said, "but you're going to get the perspective everybody wants, right? You're going to get to the top of that thing, you're going to see Cambridge, you're going to see the river, you're going to see the stadium, you're going to see the stages."
The monument and the Ferris wheel on the eve of Boston Calling. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)
Boston Calling now has four stages instead of three. The expanded lineup boasts 12 comedians and 45 music acts, including Major Lazer, Mumford & Sons and Tool. The ability to grow is driving the big move.
"Easily in a numbers game, we had six acres — now we have 16," Snow said. "Our overall operating budget is probably close to triple. You know, our talent budget was definitely triple, and then our operations budget was closer to double."
Snow estimates the festival's cost hovers between $10 and 12 million. Additional funding came last summer when New York’s Madison Square Garden Company purchased a controlling interest in Boston Calling.
"We're still kind of the last of the mostly-independents," Snow said when asked about the corporate acquisition. "Sometimes when you want to grow, you need some more help, and that's all part of it."
Bringing in greater amenities for more fest-goers also works into the equation. Snow told me there are three times as many portable toilets, and room for twice as many trucks to bring in sound and lighting equipment. Twenty-six food vendors — up from six — are now on site. Some of the options are more upscale, too, with chef's offerings from eateries like Cambridge's Puritan & Company and Alden & Harlow in the VIP and new "platinum" guest areas.
There's also a lot more beer. Sam Adams is still present, from the festival's sponsoring Boston Beer Company, but there's also a wider selection from the Danish brewery Mikkeller.
These ingredients are fueling the vision Snow's team has for making Boston Calling a premier event for this city, like the long-established ones in Chicago and Austin.
"I think with urban festivals like Lollapalooza and South by Southwest -- they're great cities, right? And we have a great city. And I want to be able to use this as the benchmark to show people a great city," Snow said.
Boston Calling's Mike Snow, left, and Russ Bennett, right, at the entrance to the festival. (Andrea Shea/WBUR)
To take Boston Calling to the next level, the producers also hired seasoned "festival designer" Russ Bennett. He's had a hand in shaping several other big-name fests, including Bonnaroo (Tennessee), Outside Lands (California) and Life is Good (Boston), as well as ones hosted by the Vermont jam band Phish.
Looking around the new grounds, Bennett said the grassy site just across the Charles River from Cambridge and Watertown is definitely more forgiving than the Brutalist backdrop of City Hall Plaza.
His goal has been to fashion zones and navigable travel paths for the expected 40,000 fans each day. They need to circulate freely, Bennett explained, between the music stages, the comedy performances in Harvard’s hockey area, and the various places to get food and drink.
Bennett is also incorporating stronger visual elements. The new signage is more aesthetic and cohesive. He pulled potent lines of lyrics from songs by 30 bands and is posting the text — lit from behind — on sculptural supports scattered around the field.
The designer has also added original artwork to the experience that aims to celebrate Boston’s spirit, including a mini-model of the Bunker Hill Monument.
"We didn't want to have Paul Revere on a horse," Bennett mused, "but Bunker Hill is pretty serious — you know, the beginning of things. But we updated it a little bit with some graffiti."
Portraits painted by different artists will also line a perimeter wall. Bennett hopes their images represent the people of Boston — and send a message.
"I'm hopeful that the population that attends is going to be more diverse," he said, "because of the lineup, and because I think that's important."
Boston Calling's music programming has been criticized in the past for lacking diversity, but representation has broadened over the years.
Still, a last-minute change to the bill Thursday night ignited some social media ire when the festival announced that the rap trio Migos would replace Solange. (Migos has been accused of making homophobic comments in an interview with Rolling Stone.) Although Knowles promised on Twitter to come back for a "one off show," many of her fans are saddened by the change, having looked forward to seeing her for months.
'An Eye Towards Security'
The bottom line is that putting on a festival is a complicated and logistically as well as politically sensitive endeavor. Unexpected events have an effect on the atmosphere, the mood and issues of security.
In the wake of this week's horrific concert bombing in Manchester, Snow said, "We started our first event after the marathon in 2013, so we have always had an eye towards security. We sharpened it then, and we've met with everybody here in both Boston and Cambridge."
Only clear bags are allowed into the festival. Boston, Cambridge and state police will be on duty, according to Snow, along with extra security officers. He urges audience members to exercise patience going in and out of the main entrance "and to just be smart."
"It's the same way that I think Bostonians have looked at it over the last three years," he added. "Now you've got to be a little bit heightened again, just like you were in 2013. Be aware. If you think you see anything strange, just find somebody and tell them."
Get Bigger, But Don't Forget The Fans
In the end, Snow and his team members just want people to have a safe, meaningful and memorable time with other music lovers in a carefully curated new location.
I asked Bennett what he thinks ticket holders who pay about $100 for a day pass expect in 2017, considering how many festivals there are across the country.
"I think a lot depends on what festival they're going to," he responded, with a laugh. "This festival, I believe, is going to grow to be like any really good, profound city festival. So if you think about Jazz Fest, or Outside Lands, or the Chicago Blues Festival — you know, they reflect the area that they're from. And I think that's what these guys are doing."
Snow and his co-founder Brian Appel hope the returning fans that helped build Boston Calling will feel welcome in the new spot.
"And that can’t be forgotten," Snow said, "just because you move and just because you get bigger. So it’s really important to make them feel super-duper at home, because those are the people who give you the best critiques."
Snow will be watching social media for feedback — and weather forecasts.
Now that they're standing where the grass is greener, Snow admits that, with the recent rain, there's been a lot of mud.In December of 1967, Bob Hurd was driving to work at SDG&E in Escondido when he saw something weird on Highway 395. There were “these kind of long white things hitting my windshield,” he recalled this week.
Odd. What the heck? “After a few minutes it dawned on me what was happening and I thought ‘It can’t be.’ By the time I got to work, the ground was covered.”
Hurd had just seen snow fall for the first time in his 24 years. Plenty of other San Diegans did too. It was a snow day for our fair city, one of only a handful in the past 160 years, and still fondly remembered by those who were there.
Will there be another snow day this weekend? A chilly storm is upon us and has already dumped 16 inches on Mt. Palomar. The U-T says it might even dust the highest parts of the city with a few flakes.
This got us to thinking: What’s the history of sunny San Diego and snow? Here are some questions and answers.
How often has it snowed in San Diego?
The San Diego County mountains get dustings of snow just about every winter — Mt. Laguna got an amazing eight feet over just eight days in 1967 — and snow has been known to fall in the inland valleys as recently as 2008. But flakes in the city proper are quite rare.
According to the National Weather Service, the first report of snow in San Diego came in January 1882. The snowflakes that didn’t stick to the ground, although there was an inch of snow in Poway and three inches in El Cajon.
Snow flurries struck the city in January 1937, February 1946, January 1949 (when the city got an official trace, its first since 1882), Christmas Eve 1987 and January 1990. Snowflakes were reported in February 1990, and snow dipped to the 1,000-foot level on Valentine’s Day two years ago.
But nothing compares with the 1967 snowfall, which came on Dec. 13. Carlsbad got two inches and Fallbrook got five. Conditions were so bad on Highway 395, the road that Hurd took from San Diego to get to work in Escondido, that chains were required just north of Mission Valley.
“Most Unusual Day in San Diego; Snow Falls; Some Schools Shut,” read the headline across the top of the front page in that day’s Evening Tribune. The next morning, The San Diego Union weighed in with “City Gets a Surprise — Wrapped in White.” (Another headline noted that “Peace, Goodwill Still Escape Man.”)
Our readers remember that day well:
• “My dad woke me up and said, ‘Hey, come out and look at this, you’ll never see this again,'” said Jim Means, a Scripps Institution of Oceanography graduate student who lived in Kearny Mesa and was about nine at the time. “I’ve seen a few flakes since then, but I seem to remember we might have had a half an inch on our fence. There were some places around the city where kids managed to sled.”
• “I was a sophomore at USD College for Women, as it was called then, and remember how amazing it was to look out the dorm and classroom windows and watch snow falling,” recalled Rosemary Johnston, executive director of the Interfaith Shelter Network of San Diego. “It was so out of the ordinary that I clearly remember that day.”
• John Niedstadt Sr., a local pollster, was attending Franklin Elementary in San Diego’s Kensington neighborhood. “I remember exactly where I was in the early morning as the few flakes fell. The curved walkway between the upper and lower portions of the school is still there, and as I walked along, I saw these little white things falling. As they hit the ground they melted, so there was no snowman building or snowball fights.”
It snows in other places in the Sun Belt, like Dallas and Atlanta. Why isn’t it more common here?
You can thank (or blame) the planet’s rotation. “If you could turn the earth around and spin it the other way, we’d be the ones who’d get snow and they’d stay warm,” said Means, a scientist who is studying climate science at Scripps.
In reality, weather tends to move from west to east as the earth rotates, meaning that places back east get storms that got to spend time getting chilly in the center of the country. Our storms, by contrast, typically get to spend time over the ocean, which doesn’t get as cold as land, Means said.
“The ocean has a big heat capacity. It’s hard to cool it down, and it’s never going to get anywhere near freezing,” he said. “In a storm like what we’ll get this weekend, it’s not primarily coming in from the west. Maybe the north and northeast. The air won’t be spending much time over the water and getting a chance to warm up.”
We’ve had snow in our past, along with severe heat (a San Diego high of 111 degrees in 1963) and cold (a record county low of -4 degrees at Cuyamaca in 1949), heavy rainstorms and high winds, fog, hail and even tornados. Is there any kind of weather that we can’t get in San Diego?
“I used to say hurricanes, but there’s evidence that there was a hurricane that hit San Diego in the 1850s,” said Edward Aguado, a geography professor and climatologist at San Diego State University. The 1858 hurricane — the only one to ever hit the West Coast — was estimated to be a Category 1; researchers discovered its existence a few years ago after examining newspaper reports from the time.
What about sleet or an ice storm? Could we get those too?
“Yeah, we could. Boy, would we be up a creek,” Aguado said. “People here can’t drive in the rain, and freezing rain is deceptive. It can look real nice and fine until you meet a slick spot on the road, and you’re dead meat.”
Great. Still, there’s gotta be some kind of weather we’re immune to.
“We wouldn’t get a severe tornado,” Aguado said. “You need extremely strong contrasts in temperature from one region to another, 40-50 degrees difference. We don’t get that.”
Whew.
Please contact Randy Dotinga directly at randydotinga@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter: twitter.com/rdotinga.When Suna and Robert Shaw bought their previous home in Windham in 2004, the process was akin to taking a leisurely stroll.
The couple took their time, visiting the home they would eventually purchase on three occasions before making a decision. The house had been on the market for six months.
But this year, the Shaws’ search for a larger home in Windham to accommodate their growing family played out quite differently. It felt more like a breakneck sprint with several false starts.
“Every time we found one we wanted to see, it was already under contract,” Suna Shaw said. “There were at least three that we really, really liked that were under contract before we could get a look at them.”
The Shaws eventually did place a winning bid on a home. They paid $288,000 for a 2,100-square-foot, five-bedroom house – $3,000 above the list price. Other prospective buyers in southern Maine’s tight housing market have not been so lucky.
The shortage of available homes for sale in southern Maine is forcing home buyers to check frantically for new listings each week, dash to the open house for each property and submit their offer immediately if they hope to have any chance, according to buyers, sellers and their real estate brokers. It also has pushed prices upward and led to some irrational market behavior.
Portland seems to have the greatest imbalance of supply and demand. The median sale price in May for a home in Portland was $343,000 versus the state average of $200,000, while a home for sale in metro Portland spent an average of 43 days on the market compared with 81 days in Lewiston-Auburn and 104 days in Bangor.
The tight housing market is great for sellers but extremely frustrating for buyers. Some buyers have simply chosen to give up and continue renting after months of failed attempts to buy a home.
Aspiring home buyer Seth Adams of Topsham said that after three months of effort, he is no closer to obtaining a house in Portland than when he started. Adams, who recently got married, said he has looked at everything listed in his price range of under $250,000, including a tiny 675-square-foot home that was priced at nearly $200,000.
“It’s crazy. We really wanted a house of our own, but with the way the market is right now, it looks like that’s not going to happen,” Adams said. “We’re most likely going to have to stick with renting, unfortunately.”
PEOPLE HANGING ON TO PROPERTIES
Portland real estate broker Michael Hitz of Maine Home Connection said home sales during the first five months of 2017 were down 17 percent in Portland from a year earlier, while prices were up 20 percent.
The reason is lack of inventory, Hitz said. There just aren’t enough homes available to meet the demand, which is creating a minor frenzy every time an attractive property hits the market.
“For sellers it’s delicious, quite frankly,” he said.
Low housing inventory isn’t just a problem for buyers in southern Maine. Nationally, the number of homes for sale has been declining for the past year as more people are hanging on to their properties. Some are choosing to become landlords or list the property on short-term vacation rental websites such as Airbnb rather than sell it when they purchase a new home.
Some current homeowners are choosing to stay put because the market is so tight that they decide it isn’t worth it to sell the current home and attempt to buy another one, said Portland broker Chelsea Locke of Keller Williams Realty.
“People’s buying power has gone down a lot,” said Locke, former president of the Portland Board of Realtors. “A lot of times they’re getting the same or a little bit less than what they already have.”
At the same time, buyer demand has been increasing. That’s partly because homeowners whose homes lost value during the real estate crash of 2007 and 2008 are finally in an equity position to buy and sell again. Others went through home foreclosure, and their credit scores have now recovered sufficiently to get back into the market. Also, a number of millennials who initially held back on buying a home are taking the plunge.
According to the National Association of Realtors, homes listed for sale nationally sold faster on average during the first quarter than in any other quarter during the past decade. The reason was low inventory, it said.
SELLERS OWN THIS MARKET
In the Portland area, it is now a common occurrence for a seller to list the home on a Friday, hold an open house over the weekend and be sitting on multiple offers by Monday or Tuesday, Hitz said. Many homes are going under contract within five days of being listed, he said.
Hitz said he has begun holding back-to-back open houses for each home, on Saturday and Sunday, rather than a single open house on Sunday as he has done in the past.
The reason is that so many prospective buyers were showing up to each Sunday open house that Hitz was worried they would be intimidated by the amount of competition. Now, the crowds are split over two consecutive days, he said.
“I do it so the buyer doesn’t feel so hopeless,” Hitz said.
York real estate broker Greg Gosselin said there is currently a greater imbalance between housing supply and demand than he has ever seen. It’s not unusual for buyers to lose out on multiple attempts to purchase a home, he said, even if they are making offers that are above each seller’s asking price.
The market is especially challenging for first-time home buyers, who are not only competing with wealthy vacation-home buyers but also investors in rental properties who are coming in with cash offers. Cash buyers are heavily favored by sellers in the current market because cash deals do not require an appraisal, the brokers said.
“Investors are buying properties to rent them out,” said Gosselin, owner and designated broker of Gosselin Realty Group and president of the Maine Realtors Association. “When they can get these high rents, it’s a great opportunity for them.”
LITTLE TIME TO THINK THINGS THROUGH
The intense competition for available homes has led to some irrational buyer and seller behavior. Some buyers are making offers that are significantly higher than the home’s list price, which can be good for the seller but also can lead to a failed transaction or future financial problems for the buyer.
Home buyers are feeling pressure to submit offers that push the limits of their budget, and they are being given very little time to think it through, Gosselin said.
“They have to be quick to react,” he said. “They’ve got to be ready to look at a new listing just as soon as it hits the market.”
Hitz said an unrealistically high offer also can kill the sale transaction.
If a buyer submits an offer of $450,000 on a home that later only appraises for $425,000, the buyer will only be able to obtain financing based on the home’s appraised value.
For a conventional mortgage loan with a 20 percent down payment, the buyer offering $450,000 for a home appraised at $425,000 would be able to finance 80 percent of $425,000 – or $340,000. The other $110,000 would have to be paid in cash, and a lot of buyers don’t have that much on hand.
In another scenario, the buyer might submit an offer of $450,000 but then get cold feet when the home only appraises for $425,000. In either case, the deal falls through and the seller is back to square one.
Hitz said appraisers are taking a relatively conservative approach to valuing homes in Portland despite the intense demand. Otherwise home prices would be climbing even faster, he said.
“The appraisers are keeping us in check,” Hitz said.
‘WE REALLY NEED INVENTORY’
In some cases, sellers have gotten greedy and listed their homes for significantly higher than the likely appraised value, he said. That also has led to failed transactions and forced some sellers to ratchet down their asking price in order to complete a sale. In Cumberland County, the median original list price in May was about $315,000, but the median sale price was only $285,000.
The intense pressure and compressed timeline of the buying process also has led to multiple cases of buyer’s remorse, said Laura Sosnowski, owner and broker at Maine Home Connection in Portland.
“The buyer gets the offer, and then it’s like, ‘Oh my gosh – what just happened?'” she said. “‘I don’t even remember what (the house) looks like.'”
For that reason, Sosnowski said she always gives prospective buyers at least a day to come back and view the home again after the open house. Some brokers and agents don’t.
Despite those challenges, home sellers said they are thrilled with the current market conditions because it has never been easier to sell an appropriately priced home.
“We’re happy, of course, being the sellers,” said Falmouth resident Tracy Revoir, who is selling her home because the family is moving out of state. “Fewer people are actually listing their houses, so there’s less inventory, and there’s just fewer choices for buyers to make. So when they do find that perfect house, you’ve got five other people who are also finding that perfect house.”
It can be difficult for buyers to cope with the current situation, the brokers said. They recommend that buyers get pre-qualified for a mortgage and wait until they are serious before jumping into the frenzied market.
Locke said it helps to have an experienced real estate agent or broker who understands the current market and can help navigate its challenges.
“It’s so different that people are just kind of shocked by what they’re seeing,” she said.
Locke also made a plea to potential home sellers to help relieve the extreme supply shortage.
“If you’re even considering selling your home, call your Realtor, because we really need inventory,” she said.
J. Craig Anderson can be contacted at 791-6390 or at:
[email protected]
Twitter: jcraiganderson
ShareRepublican state officials working to pass a voter photo ID law in 2011 knew that more than 500,000 of the state’s registered voters did not have the credentials needed to cast ballots under the new requirement. But they did not share that information with lawmakers rushing to pass the legislation.
Now that the bill is law, in-person voters must present one of seven specified forms of photo identification in order to have their votes counted.
A federal judge in Corpus Christi has found the law unconstitutional, but the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the state can leave it in place for the November election while appeals proceed.
The details about the number of voters affected emerged during the challenge to the law, and were included in the findings of U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos.
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During the 2011 legislative struggle to pass the voter ID law, she wrote, Republican lawmakers asked the Texas secretary of state, who runs elections, and the Texas Department of Public Safety, which maintains driver’s license information, for the number of registered voters who did not have state-issued photo identification.
The answer: at least a half-million.
There was evidence, the judge wrote, that Sen. Tommy Williams asked the Texas Department of Public Safety to compare its ID databases with the list of registered voters to find out how many people would not have the most common of the photo IDs required by the law. No match was done to see how many people did not have other acceptable IDs. “That database match was performed by the SOS, but the results showing 504,000 to 844,000 voters being without Texas photo ID were not released to the Legislature.”
Gonzales Ramos sourced that finding in a footnote, noting that in a deposition, Williams, a Republican from The Woodlands who has since left the state Senate, said he requested that information and then did not share it with fellow lawmakers.
That many voters could make a real difference. Rick Perry, a Republican, beat Bill White, a Democrat, handily in the 2010 race for governor, winning by almost 13 percentage points. That was a difference of 631,086 votes. Earlier this month, the secretary of state announced that a record 14 million Texans are registered to vote in the coming general election. Using that office’s 2011 estimate, it is no stretch to think that 3.6 percent to 6 percent of current registered voters do not have the photo IDs now required to cast a ballot.
State Sen. Rodney Ellis, Democrat of Houston, testified in the federal case that he asked the secretary of state for the information and never received it. But not everyone was uninformed. Citing depositions from Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and Ann McGeehan, an elections official with the secretary of state at the time, the judge wrote, “Lt. Gov. Dewhurst was aware of the no-match list results showing 678,000 to 844,000 voters being potentially disenfranchised.”
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A spokesman for Dewhurst, Andrew Barlow, said the lieutenant governor was aware of the results when he gave his deposition, but not when the Legislature was debating the bill.
The no-match list was not enough, apparently, to prompt voter ID proponents to revisit the measure during the 2013 legislative session. So far, three statewide elections have been held using the new voter ID requirements, without clear evidence that it affected either turnout or outcomes: a vote on constitutional amendments in November 2013, and the party primaries and runoffs earlier this year.
The fate of the legislation was never in question in 2011. On the final vote, only 47 of 150 House members and 12 of 31 senators voted against it. Litigation started immediately and led to the ruling this month that the law is unconstitutional; has “an impermissible discriminatory effect against Hispanics and African-Americans; and was imposed with an unconstitutional discriminatory purpose.” The judge capped that by saying the law acts as an unconstitutional poll tax.
The Republicans who wanted the law won in the Legislature, and the Democrats who did not want it won the first round in court. However, the Supreme Court left the law in place, apparently wanting to avoid any disruption in this year’s elections.
At the moment, that leaves a legal contradiction: The law is both unconstitutional and in force.A student at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Canada, has discovered four new exoplanets hidden in data from the Kepler spacecraft.
Michelle Kunimoto recently graduated from UBC with a Bachelor’s degree in physics and astronomy. As part of her coursework, she spent a few months looking closely at Kepler data, trying to find planets that others had overlooked.
In the end, she discovered four planets, (or planet candidates until they are independently confirmed.) The first planet is the size of Mercury, two are roughly Earth-sized, and one is slightly larger than Neptune. According to Kunimoto, the largest of the four, called KOI (Kepler Object of Interest) 408.05, is the most interesting. That one is 3,200 light years away from Earth and occupies the habitable zone of its star.
“Like our own Neptune, it’s unlikely to have a rocky surface or oceans,” said Kunimoto, who graduates today from UBC. “The exciting part is that like the large planets in our solar system, it could have large moons and these moons could have liquid water oceans.”
Her astronomy professor, Jaymie Matthews, shares her enthusiasm. “Pandora in the movie Avatar was not a planet, but a moon of a giant planet,” he said. And we all know what lived there.
On its initial mission, Kepler looked at 150,000 stars in the Milky Way. Kepler looks for dips in the brightness of these stars, which can be caused by planets passing between us and the star. These dips are called light curves, and they can tell |
7 and resigned in 2001. This has been corrected.FEMALE barristers in Victoria have had enough of being the poor cousins of their male counterparts.
They are demanding Attorney-General Rob Hulls take action to boost their pay, which in some cases is just over a third of a male barrister's for the same work.
Kaye McNaught, Suzanne Kirton, Lindy Barrett, Fiona McLeod, SC, and Fran O'Brien, SC. Credit:Roger Cummins
In a submission to the House of Representatives inquiry into pay equity for women in the workforce, the Victorian bar's equal opportunity committee said there was "a consistent and significant discrepancy between the average brief fee earned by male and female members of counsel".
A woman briefed by a government department would receive on average 44 per cent of the fee paid to a male barrister, while a woman briefed in a litigation matter by a government department was likely to receive only 38 per cent of the male barrister's fee.If you were excited about the sneak peek from three weeks ago these photos could very well blow your mind (I know my jaw hit the floor on multiple occasions). First let me say that (as others have noted) the new opening date for Meridian Pint is looking like it’ll be June 17th give or take a few days.
But back to the table taps. Holy freaking cow these things are awesome. I believe these are the first table taps in any bar/restaurant in DC. So they are located in the lower level in the Joint Chiefs section. There are currently two tables set up with table taps (with a possibility of adding a third). There are two taps per table and the patrons simply swipe their card and have at it. As this bar celebrates American Craft Beers (more on that in a second) you’re not likely to find Schlitz on these table taps (no disrespect to Schlitz). They are unbelievable cool:
Meridian Pint Owner John Andrade shows the table taps to Sam Adams Founder Jim Koch (wearing sport coat)
Tap monitor
Meridian Pint Owner John Andrade show table tap to Dogfish Brewery Founder Sam Calagione (right)
Lots more photos of the space and more on American Craft Brew masters visit after the jump.
Completed mural on the first floor.
First floor restaurant space
Table first floor restaurant space
Booths and tables first floor restaurant space
Table taps lower level
Bar lower level
A couple of pool tables going in lower level
So how did it come to be that that founders of Sam Adams and Dogfish Brewery wound up checking out Meridian Pint? Well the Savor convention was going on in DC and various American Craft Beer Masters were in town.
Photo by PoPville flickr user sciascia
They heard about Meridian Pint’s concept through their reps and took the opportunity to check it out in person. I can tell you since I was there, they were just as impressed with the table taps as I was. They were also very complimentary to the space in general. The photos above don’t even really do justice to how great the space looks.
Meridian Pint team with Sam Adams Founder Jim Koch
Dogfish brewery founder Sam Calagione takes a photo of the table taps for himself
Meridian Pint team listens to Dogfish brewery founder Sam Calagione (Meridian Pint’s Beer Director, Sam Fitz in red shirt)Once again, gas prices are up — more than 30 cents over the past month. Some forecasters are predicting a price of $4.25 per gallon at the pump next month; others see it going up to $5 per gallon this summer.
USATODAY OPINION Columns In addition to its own editorials, USA TODAY publishes a variety of opinions from outside writers. On political and policy matters, we publish opinions from across the political spectrum. Roughly half of our columns come from our Board of Contributors, a group whose interests range from education to religion to sports to the economy. Their charge is to chronicle American culture by telling the stories, large and small, that collectively make us what we are. We also publish weekly columns by Al Neuharth, USA TODAY's founder, and DeWayne Wickham, who writes primarily on matters of race but on other subjects as well. That leaves plenty of room for other views from across the nation by well-known and lesser-known names alike. Columnists
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And once again, the response is predictable, if not comical. The Republicans blame President Obama. They say that he blocked the Keystone XL pipeline and that he's secretly in favor of higher gas prices as a social engineering strategy designed to punish Americans into accepting alternative energy.
Obama blames Iran for disrupting oil supplies, sees growth in China and India as driving up oil consumption and, when asked whether he secretly favors price hikes, resorts to sarcasm to dismiss the accusation.
Me, I'm not running for office. I blame feckless politicians from both parties for the lack of a sane energy policy over the past 40 years. And unlike Obama or his Republican challengers, I want higher gas prices. At least for a while. Long enough for us to get the market signals right and to continue to wean ourselves off our fossil fuel addiction. The way I see it, every time we've been confronted by an energy crisis, Americans have done the right thing. Faced with the cold hard economic facts of life when it comes to oil availability and price, we've figured out for ourselves how to be innovative, resilient and sensible. Having plentiful cheap resources can make us wasteful; scarcity and high prices can make us smart.
Whatever it takes
If that's what it takes, I'm all for it. And if it can drag business and the government along behind us, I'm for that, too.
Take the auto companies. For years, General Motors resisted doing what everybody knew it needed to do to adapt to global competition and a changing market. Finally, the crushing financial crisis and rising gas prices pushed the hubris-haunted company into Chapter 11. Today, GM can claim record profits and its Volt electric vehicle, though struggling in the U.S., was chosen car of the year in Europe. The whole auto industry, which resisted the suggestion of government-mandated fuel economy standards back in the 1970s, today has demonstrated a new sense of responsibility for more ambitious requirements. Why? Because the automakers can read the writing of the gas prices on the wall.
Today, while politicians do their comedy acts about energy prices and Obama promises Americans he's doing all he can to keep gas costs at the pump from rising, pragmatic business people are doing what they know they should. Architects and developers are calculating the lifetime costs of the buildings they put up, with the knowledge that oil-based energy will only get more expensive over time. More and more Americans are looking to alternative energy sources for their homes; companies and communities want to kick the oil habit; the rise of car-sharing and increase in public transit use demonstrate how expensive gasoline can create new economic opportunities and spawn new habits. Last year, Americans took 200 million more rides on subways, commuter trains, light rail and public buses than we did the year before, the American Public Transportation Association reports.
Military gets into act
And it's not just in the private sector or our private lives. One of the leading areas of change is in the military, which is going green for more than just environmental reasons. The Navy has figured out that the "all-in" price of oil means that it's cheaper, safer and smarter to switch our war-fighting operations from fossil fuel to renewable resources. They're doing it because they have calculated the real cost of oil and figured out that embracing renewable energy makes sound economic and military sense.
All that has been happening before the latest price spike. Now it's time to think seriously about what comes next. Beyond fuel efficiency in transportation and buildings, beyond alternative energy sources is the next big thing: the switch to local economic development.
As the late House speaker Tip O'Neill once observed, "All politics is local." It turns out that for a better, smarter, more sustainable future, all economic development is local, too. If we want to embrace a future with more and better jobs, more local autonomy and more sustainable communities, we need to look at this oil price rise as another market signal: It's time to focus on local economic development.
It's just plain smarter to produce and buy local products and services. Whether products come from local farms or local shops, local factories or local vendors, when we support community-based businesses we contribute to more home-grown jobs, stronger communities and a sustainable future.
It's the next stage of an evolutionary process that has been unfolding below the radar screen for the past 40 years. It's a simple enough equation to grasp: The more we see oil prices rise globally, the more we'll see the emergence of economic development locally.
Change happens when the cost of the status quo is greater than the risk of change. Right now, rising oil prices are driving up the cost of the status quo. That means it's time for all of us to embrace the risk of change. Once again. Because that's what we've done every time in the past when we've been challenged with higher prices and lower availability. It turns out, we're at our best, our most innovative and our most pragmatic when times get a little bit tougher.
Alan M. Webber, a member of USA TODAY's Board of Contributors, is author of Rules of Thumb: 52 Truths for Winning at Business Without Losing Your Self.Iran on Friday hurled new threats of retaliation against the West for the assassination of one of its nuclear scientists but also signaled a readiness to negotiate on at least one of the nuclear disputes behind the country’s worsening feud with the United States.
Even as angry throngs swarmed the memorial services for slain scientist Mostafa
Ahmadi-Roshan, state-run news media confirmed a visit to the country later this month by a special U.N. delegation to discuss alleged secret research by Iran on designing a nuclear warhead. The International Atomic Energy Agency, which will dispatch its delegation to Tehran on Jan. 28, has been pressing Iranian leaders for years to come clean about experiments.
Iran’s invitation to the IAEA was the first conciliatory gesture since the country’s leaders threatened last month to block the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for economic sanctions. But Western diplomats and nuclear experts on Friday expressed skepticism about the meeting, noting that Iran continues to move aggressively to enlarge its stockpile of enriched uranium in defiance of U.N. and Western demands.
Olli Heinonen, the IAEA’s former top inspector, warned in an interview that Iran may be seeking to buy more time by initiating talks without freezing its production of the nuclear fuel used in weapons and at nuclear power plants.
He said Iran has taken a major step toward weapons capability with last month’s start-up of an underground plant near the city of Qom, where hundreds of centrifuge machines are making a more concentrated form of enriched uranium.
“The new machines are working,” said Heinonen, who was the U.N. agency’s nuclear safeguards chief until 2010. “By February, they will have tripled the production rate for 20 percent enriched uranium.”
Ray Takeyh, a former senior adviser to the Obama administration on the Persian Gulf region, said Iran has repeatedly sought to use negotiations as a delaying tactic.
The talks typically “will be technical and protracted,” but the “fundamental problem remains unresolved.”
“Under this cover, Iran continues to move forward,” said Takeyh, now a Middle East policy expert at the Council on Foreign Relations.
In Tehran, thousands of angry Iranians demonstrated against the United States and Israel during a burial procession for Ahmadi-Roshan, the nuclear chemist who was assassinated this week in broad daylight on a Tehran street.
“I will kill, kill those who killed my brother,” shouted the demonstrators, most of whom appeared to be members of Iran’s paramilitary Basij forces. Some held posters depicting President Obama with a Star of David on his forehead and “terrorist” written underneath.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, also threatened revenge in a letter of condolence to the scientist’s family, which was made public Thursday. The 32-year-old chemist was described by Iranian media as the deputy director of Iran’s largest uranium-enrichment facility, near the town of Natanz.
“We will never disregard punishment for the individuals who committed this crime and the elements behind its scene,” Khamenei wrote.
Khamenei blamed the CIA and the Mossad, Israel’s spy agency, for the killing, which has added to growing tension between Tehran and Washington as Obama leads a global push for oil sanctions against the Islamic republic. On Saturday, the official Islamic Republic News Agency said Tehran has sent separate diplomatic notes to the United States and Britain insisting that both countries had an “obvious role” in the killing.
The Obama administration has denied any role in the attack and has distanced itself from the lethal tactics used. But numerous officials have warned Iran in recent days to avoid any move toward blocking the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping corridor for Middle Eastern oil.
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Friday the warnings have been conveyed publicly as well as through the private, informal channels frequently used by Washington to offer its views to Iranian leaders. Iran and the United States have no formal diplomatic ties.
Also Friday, the U.S. military confirmed that it has gradually increased the number of troops based in Kuwait to 15,000, including two combat brigades, but denied that their presence was part of any military plan to engage Iran.
Navy Capt. John Kirby, a Defense Department spokesman, said the increase was temporary and related to the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq last month. He declined to say how long the troops would remain in Kuwait and played down the significance of their presence.
“I want to disabuse everybody of the notion that there’s some kind of quiet increase going on, specifically aimed at some sort of contingency planning for any one country in that part of the world,” he told reporters at the Pentagon.
At the same time, Kirby acknowledged that “Iran is certainly a factor in our discussions with our allies and in our thinking about the future of the Middle East — there’s no question about it — thanks to their destabilizing behavior.”
Ahmadi-Roshan’s slaying on Monday by a bomb-wielding motorcyclist was the fourth hit in two years on an Iranian scientist with ties to Iran’s nuclear program. Security analysts have linked the attacks to a covert program that seeks to disrupt Iran’s nuclear efforts by all means short of open warfare. Iran also has witnessed a series of cyberattacks on its nuclear facilities as well as mysterious explosions at military research sites.
In the wake of the killing, some Iranian officials accused the IAEA of complicity in the attacks, saying the U.N. watchdog leaked the names of nuclear scientists to Israel so that Israel could covertly plan to kill them. The Tehran Emrouz newspaper reported Thursday that Ahmadi-Roshan had met with IAEA inspectors about his research.
“Some of the agency’s inspectors are Israeli spies, and they have given the names of our scientists to terrorist groups,” lawmaker Mohammad Karami-Rad told the semiofficial Mehr News Agency on Friday.
Current and former IAEA officials dismissed the allegation as absurd.
Warrick reported from Washington. Staff writers Craig Whitlock and Karen DeYoung and special correspondent Ramtin Rastin in Tehran contributed to this report.We're learning all about insects! We needed a dragonfly craft so we used our kids' hand prints to create their wings in this bug craft that is sure to be a keepsake as well!
We are studying insects at our Play & Learn class through Welcome Little Ones for our Creepy Crawly Calypso theme! This craft is the perfect way to extend that learning while working fine motor skills
Challenge your child to hold up two fingers! It's not as easy as it sounds for children who are still developing hand and finger strength. Press only those two fingers into a washable ink pad
We tried several different color combinations for our dragonflies. The ink washed off easily in between colors.
Press your child's hand down flat onto a sheet of paper. It was easiest to lay the whole open hand down as opposed to only those two fingers. It doesn't matter if the fingers are close together or slightly opened as both work for dragonfly's wings. Just try to get both sides spaced similarly on the paper.
Just like a dragonfly lands briefly before flying away, this craft reminds us that our children won't always be this little! I love preserving their hands at this exact size as we create creative projects together!Apple led conspiracy to raise prices of e-books, federal judge rules [live chat]
“The Plaintiffs have shown that Apple conspired to raise the retail price of e-books and that they are entitled to injunctive relief. A trial on damages will follow,” Cote wrote in her opinion.
U.S. District Judge Denise Cote ruled that Apple is liable for civil antitrust violations, more than two weeks after closing arguments.
NEW YORK -- Apple Inc. conspired to raise the prices of e-books, a judge ruled Wednesday morning, after a trial in which the Department of Justice accused the technology giant of aggressively pressuring publishers to raise prices and weaken Amazon.com.
PHOTOS: The 10 biggest tech gadget fails
Five publishers accused of conspiring with Apple already settled with the government in the case. They are: Penguin, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan and Hachette Book Group.
Apple said it would appeal the ruling, the Associated Press reported.
In a trial that lasted three weeks, federal prosecutor Mark Ryan argued that when it entered the e-book market in April 2010, Apple offered publishers a way to fight back against Amazon by raising the prices of e-books. Prices went up shortly thereafter, and Apple negotiated 30% of the profits.
The government showed that Apple executive Eddy Cue was in contact via email and phone with representatives of the five publishers who ultimately signed agreements with the company, calls that led the publishers to switch how they distributed and priced their books.
Apple argued that the phone calls were benign negotiations and that it did not conspire with anyone. It said it was Amazon, which sells the majority of e-books, that as a monopoly that was hurting consumers. Apple said it was going to trial, rather than settling, because it did nothing wrong.
Assistant U.S. Atty. Gen. Bill Baer, who is in charge of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, called the ruling "a victory for millions of consumers who choose to read books electronically."
"Companies cannot ignore the antitrust laws when they believe it is in their economic self-interest to do so," he said. "This decision by the court is a critical step in undoing the harm caused by Apple’s illegal actions."
Live chat: Join us at 1:30 p.m. Pacific
In her ruling, Cote wrote that there is no doubt that publishers conspired to raise the prices of their e-books. They were afraid, she writes, that Amazon’s $9.99 price point for bestsellers would completely upset their business model. But Apple was the ringleader -- publishers had tried to get Amazon to raise prices in 2009 and 2008, and failed by themselves.
“Apple was a knowing and active member of that conspiracy. Apple not only willingly joined the conspiracy, but also forcefully facilitated it,” she writes.
Cote cites admissions by former Apple head Steve Jobs to his biographer and to others as evidence that the conspiracy was planned.It's update time again! As always, nothing too big here, but still some fun stuff to play with. Now, let's get to it.
Posted by JordyJS on Jul 11th, 2013
If you have the launcher, simply open it to download the update. Otherwise, you can download the launcher here!
Mac users can also get the current update here!
It's update time again! As always, nothing too big here, but still some fun stuff to play with. Now, let's get to it.
Swimming
Both the trainer and all six Pokemon can now swim. Simply jump in the water to test it out. It's - like most things - still in its early stages, however, so don't expect it to be completely perfect quite yet.
In the future, water Pokemon will be able to dive similar to how flying Pokemon can flap to increase their altitude.
All Pokemon have unique movement speeds respective to the type of terrain they're fighting on/in.
Squirtle has purpose.
New GUI
The GUI has been reworked. It's not finished, but the framework is created so that in the future we can add in the new panels as we see fit.
The old bottom-right bar is gone, and now may be accessed in a larger menu on the left. As the pokeball button is also gone, you may toggle catchmode by pressing Backspace. Note that this is only temporary, as there will be an action bar added in the future for catching, pokedex usage, and whatever else we deem necessary.
You can also press the Home key to invert your current GUI setup. In the future however, this may just simply toggle it on/off instead of inverting the panels independently.
Move Changes
Quick Attack has been reworked to be more than just another Tackle. We'll be doing more to it in the following update to make it even more special, but for now it's essentially just a faster version of Tackle.
Notes
You'll have to press the 'Reset' button on the main menu again for this update as it will now remember your preferred character to play as (Male/Female/Spectator).
As always, we've done the occasional balance tweaks & bug fixes, which you'll likely find out for yourselves (I've forgotten what they were).
In terms of the future, I'm going to beef up Quick Attack some more as I stated above. Charmander will be getting a remake as we remade Pikachu. Swimming will be ironed out as per all of your critiques. GUI will slowly evolve over time, eventually filling out all panels fully. A new system for leveling up moves is in its early stages - lots of stuff.
We're moving slowly, but at least we're moving, right?Twenty years have passed, but anyone who saw the 1997 Toronto Argonauts will clearly recall the dominance of this particular team.
There are some people who say that the ’97 team was the greatest in franchise history.
Some will even suggest the ’97 team was the greatest in Canadian Football League history, although fans of the Edmonton Eskimos will point to the ’81 team as being the most superior, and a case can be made for the 1995 Baltimore CFLers.
It’s impossible to compare teams from different eras because of so many variables, but there’s no denying the 1997 Argonauts may have been one of the most exciting in CFL history.
Head Coach Don Matthews, who sadly passed away in June at age 77, had a proven history of winning.
He took the Argos to the Cup in ’96 and turned it up a notch in ’97, largely because quarterback Doug Flutie understood his players and what they could do, whereas in ’96 it took some time.
Even with the departure of offensive co-ordinator Adam Rita, the Argos didn’t miss a beat with the tandem of Jim Barker and John Jenkins sharing the co-ordination of the offence (Jenkins preferring to move the ball via the passing route, while Barker more overseeing the run game).
The likes of Flutie, running back Robert Drummond, receivers Mike (Pinball) Clemons, rookie Derrell (Mookie) Mitchell and Paul Masotti, and centre Mike Kiselak were some of the standouts on offence.
The stout defence featured defensive tackle Rob Waldrop, linebackers Mike O’Shea and Kelly Wiltshire, cornerbacks Donald Smith and Adrion (PeeWee) Smith, and safety Lester Smith, to name a few.
Punter/place kicker Mike Vanderjagt provided the Argos with solid special teams.
Among the most memorable moments was the touchdown pass from Flutie to Clemons late in the final quarter of the 1997 East Division final, a play Pinball described as the defining moment of his career on www.definingmoment.ca.
Clemons said this play, in which he caught a pass downfield and then quickly turned to his left and eluded two Montreal Alouettes’ defenders, was when the “concept of team really came to life.”
And, of course, there was the touchdown on the 95-yard kickoff return by Adrion Smith on the first play of the second half in the Grey Cup that provided a snapshot of the Argos’ creativity.
The Argos trounced the Saskatchewan Roughriders 47-23. There were more than 60,000 people in attendance, and the joke is that only 1,000 were cheering for Toronto.
“I recall the joy of frequent blowouts and there was never a week I didn’t expect them to win,” says longtime Argo supporter Lori Bursey.
“Imagine sitting in Edmonton on Grey Cup Sunday, with no stress by halftime. The ’97 team was that dominant.”
Canadian Football League statistician Steve Daniel provides some statistical data to underline that dominance:
First overall in both offensive scoring (36.7) and fewest points allowed (18.2).
The highest average scoring margin (+18.5), the highest in club history (Edmonton’s 1957 edition has the record with a +20.8.
Club record-tying 15-3 record. 11 of the wins were decided by 10 or more points.
Nine of their wins were wire-to-wire. The Argos trailed by 10 or more points only three times all season.
Clinched a playoff spot with seven games to go.
First overall in passing, turnover ratio, sacks allowed and time of possession.
Number one against the rush and against the pass, and first with sacks.
Undefeated at home, winning by an average of 24 points.
Won three of the five CFL Awards: Flutie (Most Outstanding Player), Kiselak (Top Offensive Lineman) and Mitchell (Top Rookie).
Nine of the 26 members on the CFL All-Star team and 15 of the 27 East Division All-Star spots.
Used only 46 players all season, 28 of whom did not miss a single game.
Leading scorer (Vanderjagt), leader in touchdowns (Drummond), leader in combined yards (Clemons, who set a CFL record with 3,840)
Leading passer (Flutie, who was second overall in league history with 47 TDs)
Leading receiver (Clemons with 122 catches).
Five future Hall of Famers: Flutie, Mitchell, O’Shea, Clemons, and guard Pierre Vercheval.
“Not only do I think they were the best in franchise history, I think they were one of the best in CFL history,” Bursey adds. “You know it’s a great team when the rest of the league’s fans despise you more than usual.”
Daniel says two of the essential measures for “granting that exalted status” as the greatest team of all time is the eventual Hall of Famers and, more importantly, the speed of the team’s rise in the standings from the previous year or years.
He points out the Argos had a 4-14 record in 1995 and averaged five wins a year from ’92-’95.
“The Argos were the only repeat Grey Cup winner from 1983 to 2009, but the thing that sets the ’97 team apart and above the ’96 Argos is that they were able to do it again when everyone had them as a target,” Daniel says. “They won back-to-back Cups in a time when clubs simply could not get that done in the shadow of the ‘80s Edmonton powerhouse.”
Toronto Sun sports columnist Steve Simmons, who grew up in Toronto and has covered 20 Grey Cups, says the ’97 Argos were “clearly” the best in franchise history and might have been the most fun offensive team in CFL history.
“When you have the greatest coach in history and the greatest quarterback in history, and you have that shoot the lights out approach to offence, well, it meant the Argos scored and scored and then scored some more,” he says.
“They scored 660 points, were a plus 333 in point differential and at home, they were beyond compare. Look at the Hall of Famers from that lineup: Matthews, Flutie, Pinball Clemons, Mookie Mitchell, Mike O’Shea, Pierre Vercheval, and they had some really good players who were probably borderline Hall of Famers like Paul Masotti, PeeWee Smith, Rob Waldrop and kicker Mike Vanderjagt.
“It all started with Matthews’ kick-butt attitude and Flutie’s many talents. Everything went from there. The Argos had won the Grey Cup the year before. This was the cherry on top.”
“That Argo team, like its coach, had swagger and played with arrogance. They were easy to love if you were an Argo fan and perfect for the CFL. They were easy to hate, if you were from everywhere else in the country.”
Paul Woods, another longtime Argo fan and author of a book about the ’83 Toronto team, thinks the ’97 edition was the greatest in franchise history and ranks up with the ’81 Eskimos and ’95 Baltimore CFLers as the greatest in CFL history.
“I think the ’97 team was the most talented Argo team ever,” Woods says.
“It was the culmination of two years of utter dominance that we’ll probably never see again. Both years they were 15-3 in the regular season and 17-3 overall, but they were a more dominant team in ’97 and won the Grey Cup in convincing fashion, whereas in ’96 it was a tight game, although conversely they won the ’96 East Division in convincing fashion and the ’97 Eastern final was very tight.
Both ’96 and ’97 seasons were back-to-back dominance from start to finish. Having said that, a good case can be made for the ’97 Argos being the strongest team – certainly the strongest Argo team ever and maybe the strongest CFL team ever.”
Phil Kitchen, another CFL historian, says coming off the dramatic snow bowl win of 1996, “the gang was back with the just the right nips and tucks to improve the juggernaut even further. Coach Matthews led an all-star team that dominated the league. The 1997 (edition) was a dominant team with stars across the board. Veteran players from 1996 were moved out including Jimmy Cunningham, Jeff Fairholm, Tim Cofield, Mike Morreale and impact new arrivals included Chad Folk and Derrell Mitchell as well as Jeremy O’Day, Antonious Bonner and Kelly Wiltshire. The contributions of Folk and Mitchell cannot be understated.”
“Mitchell started a legendary CFL career with instant chemistry with Flutie and that was the main reason for Flutie’s touchdown passes climbing from 29 in 1996 to a team record 47. Both Folk and Mitchell would stake their claims as all-time Argos over their careers. It’s not hard to see why the team was so great when you consider the number of superstars they had.”
Journalist Howard Berger, another longtime Argo fan and historian, says beyond everything else the Argos did in ’97 the point differential and corresponding average points per victory in the regular season make that Toronto squad particularly important in CFL history.
He says it’s between the ’97 Argos and ’81 Eskimos as the greatest CFL team. He says when you compare the two teams in terms of regular-season record (even though the CFL regular-season schedule in 1981 was 16 games), points scored, points allowed, average winning score and points differential in games, the teams are virtually identical.
“One edge to the ’97 Argos was the point differential roughly continued in the playoffs,” Berger says. “The Argos won two games by a composite 84-53, or 15.5 per game, the Eskimos won two games by a composite 48-39, or 4.5 per game).”
Perry Lefko covered the Toronto Argonauts from 1995-2006 for the Toronto Sun.On November 24th, 1858 Charles Darwin’s book The Origin Of Species was published. This book upended the public’s understanding of mankind’s origin and the history of the myriad species that populate the planet. It would eventually transform how the public conceptualized man’s origins and would impact virtually every field of study in some way or another. Since the time of its publication, Charles Darwin’s book has faced criticism, some of it from the scientific community but much of it from theologians and from those whose criticisms of it didn’t come from science but rather from ideologies and preconceptions about any ideas that differed from their own. The purpose of this post is to remind readers that to some strident creationists the battle to make creationism sneak back into public schools hasn’t yet ended and why that ought to matter to progressives.
Creationism In Charter Schools:
Others have noted that charter schools blur the line between religious and secular education. Charter schools can and occasionally do teach creationism. This is due to the complex rules concerning what is permissible and what isn’t permissible in charter schools, schools that receive public funding but operate independently of the established public school rules and regulations that vary from state to state and are from time to time privately owned.
Charter schools that teach creationism are not particularly common but they exist with one of the highest profile examples being that of Responsive Education Solutions (of which Slate reported on in 2014) a charter school system that operates in Texas and Arkansas, and until the beginning of 2016 also operated schools in Indiana, RES teaches around 17,000 students and despite the ridiculous content they teach to those unfortunate enough to go to their schools their schools receive public funds
Creationism In Conventional Public Schools & Academic Freedom Bills:
Creationism can be taught in public schools in Louisana and in Tennessee due to bills passed in 2008 and 2012 with Louisana’s being 2008 bill entitled the Louisiana Academic Freedom Act and Tennessee’s 2012 H.B. 368/S.B. 893. One of the key terms people need to familiarize themselves with, in this context is “Academic Freedom bills”. An “Academic Freedom bill” is a bill that deregulates the science classroom and makes it permissible to teach ideas that are unscientific alongside scientific ideas and theories in an effort to make the creationism and evolution appear as if they are on equal footing to impressable children.
The only 2 examples of Academic Freedom bills that have survived the vetting of legislative chambers and made it through the whole process by which a bill becomes a law is Louisiana’s Academic Freedom Act and Tennessee’s “Monkey Bill” (due to an article in Tennessee’s state constitution about how bills become laws if the governor doesn’t sign them within 10 days). That hasn’t stopped the legislative chambers of various states from trying to make one of these bills into their latest achievements with examples including Alabama, Oklahoma, Maryland, New Mexico, Florida, Missouri, Michigan, South Carolina, and Iowa. A few of these states have only had 1 attempt (Maryland, South Carolina, and Iowa) and the others had have more than one.
In Alabama, there were multiple attempts, including one that unanimously passed the state senate, and a few that died without being voted on (due to being stuck in committee), and a few that were never passed. In Oklahoma, two different bills that were after the same idea, in theory, were introduced into each chamber of the state legislature but didn’t pass the other chamber (one was introduced by representative Sally Kern and it passed the house but not the Senate, and the other was introduced in the Senate but didn’t pass it). In 2009 in Oklahoma, a new bill highly based off of the Louisana bill which passed in 2008 was introduced but died in committee. In Maryland, a bill was introduced in 2006 but lapsed at the end of the 2006 legislative session. In New Mexico initially, two bills were introduced in 2007 (one for each chamber) but died at the end of the legislative session. In 2009 another bill would be introduced which would die in committee at the end of the legislative session. In Florida, in early 2008 a bill was introduced to the state Senate and to the state House which was based on the Discovery Institute’s model statue but was cleverly used by state-level Senate Democrats to protect the discussion of sex-education which resulted in it being defeated and different from the state House of Representatives version of the bill. In 2008 in Missouri, a member of the state’s Representatives introduced an academic freedom bill which would eventually pass committee but died when the legislative session ended. Another representative would try in 2009 and would fail in the same way. In 2008 in Michigan bills for both state chambers would be introduced but would die at the end of the year without having gathered enough support to be affirmatively voted on. The same would happen for both South Carolina (bill introduced in the state Senate) and Iowa (Senate as well) where both would die in committee but on different years with Iowa’s happening in 2009 and South Carolina’s happening in 2008.
That might seem like a long time ago to some but not only is it not a long time ago but it’s worth noting that in Oklahoma in 2017 another attempt occurred which would be blocked in late April but not before making it through a house panel on general government oversight and accountability. It’s also important to remember that some of the proponents of anti-evolution legislation are still in office, such as Sally Kern, John Moolenaar, and continue to be involved in politics with an example being Alan Hays, one of the proponents and sponsors of the Florida bills (who was elected to be the supervisor of elections of his home in Lake County, Florida).
The debate hasn’t ended. Politicians who’d threaten the time and resources of science teachers continue to wait in office, and would undoubtedly make another attempt to deregulate our science classrooms and urge science teachers to behave like creationism and evolution are on equal footing if voters, scientists, science communicators, and more don’t pressure them to not waste tax-payer dollars on their ideological campaigns to deregulate our classrooms. Don’t be indifferent and don’t arrogantly think they’ve given up until they are all out of office.
AdvertisementsI cannot figure out how to get PreferenceFragment to work correctly. I have a ViewPager hooked up to a FragmentPagerAdapter, with two Fragments that the user can swipe between. I am trying to get the "Settings" menu working, using a PreferenceFragment, but I am unsure what I'm doing wrong. When I tap Settings the view is changed to a blank white screen.
My SettingsFragment class:
public class SettingsFragment extends PreferenceFragment{ @Override public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); addPreferencesFromResource(R.xml.preferences); } }
My PagerAdapter class:
public class PagerAdapter extends FragmentPagerAdapter { SparseArray<Fragment> registeredFragments = new SparseArray<Fragment>(); public PagerAdapter(FragmentManager fm) |
the media.
Nattavudh (Nick) Powdthavee holds a joint position as a Professorial Research Fellow at the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economics and Social Research, University of Melbourne, and a Principal Research Fellow in the WellBeing research programme at the Centre for Economic Performance at the LSE. He obtained his PhD in Economics from the University of Warwick in 2006 and has held positions at the University of London, University of York, and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He is the author of the popular economics book The Happiness Equation: The Surprising Economics of Our Most Valuable Asset. Click here for his website.Q: Why am I reading that LeBron James is considering returning to the Heat? -- Thomas.
A: Because no athlete these days, especially with Tiger Woods down and Tim Tebow out, has the ability to dominate the sports cycle (and generate clicks and ratings) like LeBron. I just find this bizarre on so many levels. First, this is the same player who turned his back on Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh ostensibly because of what instead could have going forward with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love. Now there is the uncertainty with Bosh and you'd have to wonder about LeBron's famous lack of patience when it comes to an Hassan Whiteside. Then there was the homecoming and family element of the equation when James left, which would require relocating yet again. Beyond that there were those final days of the way it went down with Pat Riley. It's one thing for Dan Gilbert to sell his soul and credibility to agree to cater to every whim by LeBron. It would be another for Riley to be cut down once and then gloss it all over. In fact, the end of these playoffs showed a completely different Riley, as someone who could express satisfaction in the pursuit of a title, without staking everything to a championship. Beyond that, there is the Erik Spoelstra element of the equation and those difficult final days in the 2014 NBA Finals against the Spurs. And yet, LeBron's decisions have so often come out of left field that who knows. This would be the kind of thing one would expect to immediately be shot down in the midst of a champion chase. Instead, the speculation is allowed to take on a life of its own.
Q: Ira, I think the Heat's biggest X-factor for the coming future is the improvement of Justise Winslow into a future star for this organization. Do you agree? -- Ken, Hollywood.
A: I see that as more of an issue of what happens when Dwyane Wade is gone, and when Justise will have to be more than just a defender. For now, the transition can be taken in small steps, starting with an offseason upgrade with Justise's shot. In the interim, the Heat can decide whether Justise can be a centerpiece or rather a supporting player. It's too early, at 20 years old, to know where exactly this is going. At worst, the hope is Justise can at least be an enduring 3-and-D presence.
Q: What about trading Goran Dragic for 24th and 26th picks of 76ers? That would open the cap space for Pat Riley's "whale" and will get two young, talent players for the future (which covers picks given for Dragic), and the 76ers definitely in need of experienced point guard for their young and running team. -- Tolga.
A: I don't see the Heat doing anything that dramatic before the start of free agency, simply because it would be too early to know what such cap space could/deliver. Plus, if the Heat were to move Goran for picks, I would think they would want future picks, perhaps for when the Chris Bosh situation is decided, perhaps for when Dwyane Wade retires. As it is, the Heat have plenty of youth currently in their pipeline, when counting Justise Winslow, Josh Richardson, Tyler Johnson and Briante Weber. I'm not sure the Heat, at the moment, would want to carry much more youth (or even the cap holds of 2016 first-round picks).The Cincinnati Subway is a set of incomplete, derelict tunnels and stations for a rapid transit system beneath the streets of Cincinnati, Ohio. Although it is only a little over 2 miles in length, it is the largest abandoned subway tunnel system in the United States. Construction began in the early 1900s as an upgrade to the Cincinnati streetcar system, but was abandoned due to escalating costs, the collapse of funding amidst political bickering, and the Great Depression during the 1920s and 1930s.
Rapid transit was seen as the solution for downtown congestion during the first quarter of the 20th century. Six million dollars were allocated for the project, but construction was delayed due to World War I. Unexpected post-war inflation doubled the cost of construction, so the project could not be finished at the original estimated price.
Various attempts to use the subway tunnels for mass transit have been unsuccessful. Political squabbling, the Great Depression, World War II, and the rise in popularity of the automobile have contributed to the failure of the proposals.[1] Today, many Cincinnatians are unaware of the tunnels underneath them.[2]
Context Edit
From 1825 to 1920 the Miami and Erie Canal divided Cincinnati's residential neighborhood of Over-the-Rhine from the business district of downtown.[3]:17[4] The canal was used to transport goods and people from the Great Lakes to the Ohio River and subsequently the Mississippi River via Cincinnati, until the popularity of railroads caused it to become disused. The canal became unprofitable by 1856 and was abandoned by the city in 1877.[1]
On September 15, 1883 a weekly Cincinnati magazine called The Graphic proposed that the "dead old ditch" be used to provide an unobstructed route for a subway system, with a large boulevard above.
In 1888, Cincinnati began adopting electric streetcars, which soon became the main form of public transportation. During this period Cincinnati was one of the seven most populous US cities[3]:17and had a rate of growth and economic importance that was similar to that of New York City and Chicago.[1] The slow streetcars shared the crowded streets with horse-drawn carriages and people, and collided with the first automobiles on an almost daily basis.[3]:19 It was not unusual for trips between downtown and the surrounding suburbs to take 45 minutes to an hour.[3]:46 Despite having 222 miles (357 km) of streetcar tracks, the city found itself in a growing traffic nightmare.[3]:19
Another newspaper, the Cincinnati Commercial Tribune, gave encouraging words to the public and said "We believe that the city we love, our home, is at the turning point, and that with the coming of Rapid Transit we will have the beginning of a Greater, More Prosperous, Healthier and Happier Cincinnati. We believe that a Vote for the Loop is a Vote for the best interests of all of us, and it is with pride that we state that every newspaper in the city is for the Loop, and practically all of the Business organizations as well as the Trades Unions." This helped the project win the fight in the polls when the people of Cincinnati enthusiastically passed bill to start construction.[8]
Planning Edit
In 1910, Henry Thomas Hunt spearheaded plans for a new rapid transit system. The next year City Council convinced the Ohio State Legislature to lease the city's portion of the canal for use as a boulevard and subway system. The city hired experts that worked on Boston's and Chicago's rapid transit systems to research the best possible implementation for Cincinnati's rapid transit system. The result were four "Schemes," or proposed routes. The chosen plan—Scheme IV, modification H—looped around the city hitting the central suburbs of St. Bernard and Norwood, the eastern suburbs of Oakley and Hyde Park, and then returned into downtown.
In 1916 City Council authorized a bond issue of $6 million with an interest rate of 4.25 percent,[11] and then held a plebiscite on the rapid transit plan.[4] The bond was supposed to fund a 16 miles (26 km) subway system stretching across Cincinnati, which would, in turn, slow or even stop the decline of Cincinnati's population at the time. One advertisement in support of the subway proclaimed, "Every newspaper in the city is for the Loop, and practically all of the Business organizations as well as the Trades Unions." On April 17, 1917, Cincinnati citizens voted in favor of using the bond for a Rapid Transit system, 30,165 to 14,286.[4] The system would be built as an elevated railway through downtown, Evanston, Oakley, and Norwood, with an underground portion to be built under the Miami and Erie Canal and extend under the Mill Creek valley to St. Bernard.
However, because the United States entered World War I just 11 days earlier,[1] construction was halted because no capital issues of bonds were permitted during the war.[4]
War conditions have prompted the opinion in certain official quarters that it would be unwise to proceed with the construction of the loop until after the war. High costs of materials and the difficulty in obtaining deliveries are cited as arguments in favor of the temporary abandonment of the project. Cincinnati Enquirer, "Subway Again May Meet Delay: Postponement Of Plans Until After War Is Considered," April 5, 1918 (p. 9)
Construction and failure Edit
When the war ended in 1918, costs had increased. By 1919 the cost of construction had doubled,[3]:71 increasing the original price to complete the loop from $12 million to $13 million.[4] Regardless, the city began work on January 28, 1920,[14] at the current intersection of Walnut Street and Central Parkway, and the city planned to raise the money to complete the loop later, since funds were so low and there was a shortage in construction materials. The subway's construction caused the foundations of buildings along the route to crack, leading to much litigation against the subway. When bonds ran out in 1927, construction ended with seven miles (11 km) of subway dug or graded, but no track had been laid.
A station platform and unlaid trackbed.
New estimates to complete the loop ranged from an additional $6 million to $12 million.[1] The eastern part of the loop was later canceled as a cost-cutting measure. The boulevard that ran on top of the subway, Central Parkway, officially opened to traffic on October 1, 1928, and was followed by a week of public celebration.[3]:47 However, by the late 1920s, Prohibition had severely impacted the city, because alcoholic beverages, a major source of revenue for the city, were not allowed to be purchased. Still, as late as 1926–1927, new tunnels, such as the Hopple Street Tunnel, were being built.
Once it became apparent that the original rapid transit plan had failed, political infighting in City Hall stalled any new progress,[1][3]:73 due to an anti-City Hall campaign led by city manager Murray Seasongood beginning in 1920. Newspapers started to print articles arguing against the subway, using such rationales as the tight curve of the subway and its small tunnels to try to advocate against its completion.
Along with this, the cities of Norwood and Saint Bernard continuously negotiated with the city of Cincinnati, pushing the construction back another year. Two more months were piled on to the delay. Also, Brighton residents were upset with the blast damages destroying their property. The construction methods created suspicion to state examiners.[15]
In January 1929, Seasongood – by then the Mayor – discontinued the Rapid Transit Commission, which until then had been in control of the subway's construction; that year, his own office took control of the project. Any hope of raising the money to complete the subway was further delayed with the stock market crash of 1929.[3]:81 Though few citizens owned automobiles when Mayor Hunt first planned rapid transit in 1910, their increasing popularity and convenience helped fuel critics' arguments against a subway system. They began referring to the project as "Cincinnati's White Elephant."[3]:71, 81 Even so, the "temporary" hiatus on construction was expected to end after the economy got better, and many Cincinnatians, including Seasongood, hoped that the subway would finally be completed.
Attempts at revival Edit
There have been many attempts to complete the tunnels, but few people know why the subway was never completed or used for another significant purpose. In 1936 the city commissioned the Engineers' Club of Cincinnati to produce a report on how to use the unfinished rapid transit property.[3]:82 The report could not find any use for the tunnels other than what they had been designed for. Because the city's needs had changed from twenty years earlier, the report suggested that the subway "should be forgotten".[3]:82 In 1939 the tunnels were researched for possible automobile traffic, but were found to be unsuitable for that use.[3]:82 In 1940 the city sought the advice of several experts to settle once and for all the fate of the subway. The report recommended placing all streetcar and trolley transportation underground (i.e., a subway), but Cincinnati already had too many other expensive public projects underway. In any case, the plan was put on hold yet again when the United States entered World War II in 1941.[3]:82, 92
During World War II, the city was focused on war-time rationing, so completing the subway was not a high priority.[3]:82 The tunnels were suggested as possible air raid shelters, but the idea was never implemented.[3]:92 Underground storage of commercial and military supplies was also proposed as a use for the tunnels, or as a pathway to bring freight into the heart of the city, but both ideas were rejected because they would delay bringing mass transit to Cincinnati.[3]:92 After the war ended the City Planning Commission decided to not include the subway in its plans. Instead, the commission would use the loop's right-of-way as pathways for Interstate 75 and the Norwood Lateral.[3]:98,103 Then, in the 1950s, a massive 52-inch (1.3 m)[16] water main was laid in the northbound tunnel to save $300,000[3]:102 by not digging a new tunnel for the water main.[citation needed] According to the engineering firm Parsons Brinckerhoff, a redundant water main was installed during the construction of Fort Washington Way so the water main in the subway could be removed easily.[17] There is also an escape clause in Ordinance No. 154-1956 that states, "in the event said section of the rapid transit subway is, at some future date, needed for rapid transit purposes, the Water Works shall remove said main at its sole cost."[3]:102
In the 1960's, Hamilton county proposed the Liberty Street station be turned into a bomb shelter. However, the result was a very weak attempt at a fallout shelter that would not provide much for those residing in it. There were also suggestions by investors to turn the tunnels into passages for freight trains, but that project failed due to the sharp turns existing in the tunnels that freight trains could not handle.[18]
The subway bonds were paid off in 1966 at a total cost of $13,019,982.45.[1] Around that time Meier's Wine Cellars Inc. wanted to use the subway tunnels to store wine, as well as install a bottling operation to draw tourists, but it fell through due to a lack of proper building codes.[3]:110 In the 1970s Nick Clooney wanted to turn parts of the tunnel into an underground mall and a night club, but that fell through early on due to insurance issues.[19] In the 1980s the city pitched the tunnels to Hollywood filmmakers as a location to shoot subway scenes. In particular, the location was presented to the makers of Batman Forever, but as of 2008 the tunnels had not been used in any feature films.
In 2002, a regional light rail system was proposed to use the tunnels; the system would cost $2.6 billion and take thirty years to build.[17] The tunnels were favored because they were in an ideal location, they could easily be used to connect the east side and the west sides of Cincinnati, and they would have saved the city at least $100 million in construction costs at the time.[17] The light rail plan, called MetroMoves, proposed a tax levy that would have raised sales tax in Hamilton county by a half-cent.[21] The plan was voted down by more than a 2-to-1 ratio,[21] with 68% opposing MetroMoves. Still, an underground portion of the Riverfront Transit Center was built to serve the proposed, unbuilt MetroMoves lines; this transit center was later served by another Cincinnati streetcar line, the Cincinnati Streetcar.PETALING JAYA (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK/AFP) - The act of throwing a snake into a muddy pit with Malaysian schoolgirls as part of character-building training has sparked condemnation, with the instructors involved set to be hauled up.
A 2 minute 49 second video that went viral on social media showed about 10 primary-school schoolgirls being instructed to wade across a muddy pit.
The terrified students were seen screaming and crying when a snake was thrown into the pit.
Those who tried to get out of the pit to escape the slithering snake were sprayed with water and told to “get in and dive” by male instructors, who were not seen on-screen.
The programme was part of a motivational camp for children aged between 10 and 12 and was conducted by a school and the Malaysian Civil Defence Department. The training was believed to have taken place in Kuala Kangsar, in Malaysia's state of Perak.
National Parent-Teachers Association chairman Mohamad Ali Hassan condemned the act.
"The government should ban this kind of training. Suspend the training centre and put the trainers involved on blacklist.
"The trainers should be sent for rehabilitation, themselves. It is a live snake. Not a toy snake. What were they thinking?" he asked.
Psychiatrist Andrew Mohanraj fears the psychological impact of such shock factor on young teenagers.
"For some participants who are more vulnerable, it can create unnecessary phobia that can have long-term implications," said Dr Andrew, who is also the Malaysian Mental Health Association's deputy president.
He added that there was no scientific evidence to show that such kind of intervention could toughen up an individual.
Perak civil defence department director Mohd Noor Hassan Ashaari Sulaiman told state news agency Bernama the camp’s coordinators had modelled the exercise on training videos found on YouTube.
The use of snakes was not endorsed by the department and was not part of its self-development module, he said, adding that the snakes used were non-poisonous. “This incident cannot be taken lightly,” he was quoted as saying. The department had since suspended four coaches and six assistants pending internal investigations.
Malaysian Civil Defence Force deputy director-general of operations Selamat Dahalan said the incident was being investigated, and a report should be ready within a week.
"We regret that this has happened. This is an individual act and not sanctioned by the department. In fact, it is against our standard operating procedure to have such training for primary-school children," he said.
Civil Defence Department officials will meet with the parents of those involved to explain the situation.
"We hope that they can accept our apologies and explanation on the incident," he told a press conference.
He added that the training modules for primary-school children usually involved demonstrations of what they should do in an emergency, some basic first-aid training and fire awareness.
"The one showed in the video is nothing like what we have conducted before. There should not be any water spraying or making the kids wade in a muddy pit - let alone involving a snake," he said.
The department, he said was in the process of identifying the instructors in the video for action to be taken.
The trainers involved were suspended shortly after the incident came to light on Monday.A 3-year-old Cape Cod girl is in custody of the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families after accidentally shooting herself with her father's unlicensed gun Friday, police say.
The child had a severe gunshot wound on her left hand when police responded to a home around 1 p.m. on Captain Daniel Road in Yarmouth, Massachusetts. She was treated at Cape Cod Hospital before being transported to a hospital in Boston. She is expected to survive.
The girl's father, 30-year-old military veteran Nicholas Alexander Jenner, was arrested on multiple firearm charges. According to police, the victim took his fully loaded.40 caliber semi-automatic pistol off a nightstand in a room she shared with her parents, shooting herself in the hand.
Authorities seized that gun and other unlicensed firearms and ammunition, police say.
The DCF was contacted and has taken custody of the victim.
Charges against Jenner include unlawful possession of a large-capacity firearm, improper storage of a large-capacity firearm near a minor and reckless endangerment of a child.
Police did not say when Jenner would appear in court. It was not immediately clear if he had an attorney.Image copyright Science Photo Library
NHS England has reiterated it will not fund a "game-changer" drug treatment that can prevent HIV, angering HIV charities which had been campaigning to reverse the decision.
The NHS is standing firm and says it has no responsibility to provide the treatment, known as Prep.
It says the onus should fall on local authorities instead.
Charities have called the decision "shameful", and warned that lives would suffer as a result.
Prep (pre-exposure prophylaxis) is a daily pill that can considerably lower a person's chances of catching HIV.
If taken correctly, it is almost entirely effective in preventing HIV.
NHS England has promised £2m in funding to treat about 500 people with Prep over the next two years.
But after considering representations from stakeholders, it still does not believe it should be the body responsible for offering the drug.
A statement on the NHS England website said: "'As set out in the Local Authorities (Public Health Functions and Entry to Premises by Local Healthwatch Representatives) Regulations 2013, local authorities are the responsible commissioner for HIV prevention services."
'Washed its hands'
Ian Green, chief executive of the Terrence Higgins Trust, said: "Today is a shameful day for HIV prevention.
"This country used to lead the way in the fight against the HIV epidemic, but today, our national health service has washed its hands of one of the most stunning breakthroughs we've seen - a pill which, if taken correctly, is almost 100% effective in preventing HIV.
"A pill which is already available in America, Canada, France, Kenya and soon to be Australia.
"How did it come to this? It defies belief that, after 18 months of false hope, delays and u-turns in the battle to see Prep made available on the NHS to people at high risk of HIV, today we are in a worse position than when we started."
He said repercussions for those at high risk of HIV infection could be dire.
"It's not right that people who know themselves to be at high risk of HIV have to buy Prep themselves from the internet at considerable personal expense. Currently, only those who can afford it are able to access this life-changing treatment."
The NHS in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have not yet made a decision on Prep.
Follow Michelle on TwitterWith President Bronislaw Komorwski signing into law late last month an amendment to the country's harsh, decade-old drug laws, Poland has taken a step in the direction of the decriminalization of drug possession. But how much of a difference the new law will make is unclear at this point, and it won't go into effect for another six months. The new law also increases sentences for some drug distribution offenses.
21st Century Warsaw. Now, if Poland can just move its drug laws into the 21st Century. (Image via Wikimedia.org)
Under the old law, possession of even the smallest quantity of illegal drugs could lead to a three-year prison sentence. Under the amended drug law, people would still be arrested, but prosecutors will have the option of not charging people for personal drug possession if the quantity involved is small, if it is a first offense, or if the person is drug dependent.It is one thing to have the law on the books, but whether prosecutors will take advantage of it remains to be seen. The experience in other European countries that have enacted similar laws suggests that they will have to be prodded.Also unclear at this point is just what will constitute a "small" amount of drugs for personal use. That is an issue that is now being contested. In a sign of how volatile the issue is, demonstrators demanding a 30 gram figure for marijuana, the ability to grow at home, and amnesty for pot prisoners, clashed last weekend with police in Warsaw just days after the president signed the new law. Nearly 30 people were arrested on drug charges, and police were attacked with eggs and empty beer bottles.The protest was called by the Free Hemp Initiative, and police estimated some 6,000 people attended. Demonstrators shouted slogans and waved banners with exhortations such as "Plant It, Smoke It, Legalize It!" on them. Organizers managed to cool down the crowd after the violence broke out by reminding people of their nonviolent stance.Activists are planning to both push prosecutors to use the new law and to try to open up discussion around the personal use threshold in a bit to push further in the direction of real decriminalization.Polish and international experts cautioned about making too much of the reform. "While this is only a small change, it is nevertheless a step in the right direction," said the International Drug Policy Consortium The reform "seems quite modest and even marginal," Dr Mateusz Klinowski, Chair of Legal Theory at the Jagiellonian University's Department of Law and Administration, told the Krakow Post. "Though the amendment doesn't seem to be a major breakthrough, at least it creates hope of future reforms," he added. "The first step has been taken and now it is public opinion and non-governmental organizations which have to advocate rational solutions and efficient law that will be aimed primarily at prevention and treatment, rather than at penalizing possession."In commenting on the new law, Justice Minister Krysztof Kwiatkowski demonstrated that the old mentality or at least the old politics is still strong in the halls of power. While he confirmed that prosecutors must now investigate each drug possession case to see if it qualifies for dismissal, his rhetoric was that of prohibition."We have increased the criminal responsibility for those who sell death, in order to provide for more effective prosecution," he said. "Police should concentrate on the pursuit of drug dealers and not drug addicts. We should focus on providing treatment for such people."Even this limited progress on reforming Poland's drug laws came only after years of delay. A team of experts appointed by the former justice minister had drawn up the amendments more than two years ago.Polish politicians were also the object of a concerted civil society campaign to liberalize the drug laws. Celebrity chef Robert Maklowicz created a Facebook video, Cook Our Children a Better Future, arguing for reform, while at the same time, 71 Polish artists sent an open letter to the Sejm seeking a review of Polish drug policy.Former Polish president Aleksander Kwaśniewski, sociologist Zygmunt Bauman, and renowned international human rights expert Wiktor Osiatyński also joined the fray, signing a January open letter coordinated by Krytyka Polityczna, an influential group of liberal thinkers. Over 100 organizations from Poland and worldwide recently signed a petition coordinated by the Polish Drug Policy Network. A video by the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union was viewed by nearly 50,000 people.While for many advocates the reforms don't go far enough, they are at least a step in the right direction. Now it will be up to activists and civil society to continue prodding politicians to keep moving toward more civilized drug policies.View 3 Photos
Men have been using their cars to pick up women since the automobile was invented, with varying degrees of success. In cases where an automobile was successfully employed in attracting a woman, there are several theories as to why it worked. Some say the woman in question may have been attracted by the display of wealth, but if the car in question is a Maserati, it may actually be because the car turned her on.
According to a recent study conducted by British luxury car insurer Hiscox, the sound of a Maserati engine revving actually stimulates sexual arousal in women. In the study, a group of women were asked to listen to a variety of cars from economy models to luxury cars while their hormone levels were monitored. After listening to a Maserati, 100% of the women showed increased levels of testosterone, correlating with sexual arousal. Yeah, we're a bit skeptical, too...
Maserati is wasting no time advertising this study. The Italian automaker's new advertising campaign is featured in GQ Magazine and comes with a special offer: take a picture of the ad with your cell phone and send it to GQ and they'll send you a ringtone of a revving Maserati. The ad also directs readers to GQ's website, where you can find out more about the study and watch a video Maserati has put together. If you're not a GQ reader, you can just text "maserati" to 707070 to get the ringtone. Let us know if it actually gets you anywhere with the ladies.
Source: Maserati[np_storybar title=”Michael Den Tandt: Harper heads Far North again in search of an opportunity to carve out his legacy” link=”http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/08/18/michael-den-tandt-harper-heads-far-north-again-in-search-of-an-opportunity-to-carve-out-his-legacy/”%5D
He will be accused of indulging in photo-op theatrics, of fleeing Ottawa’s scandals, or just of taking an expensive working holiday at taxpayers’ expense. Such is the lot of a third-term prime minister headed north on his eighth consecutive annual Arctic summer tour.
The irony is that this year, perhaps more than at any time previously, Prime Minister Stephen Harper can legitimately claim that the true North — strong, free and vastly wealthy in natural resources — is central to his government’s agenda. Indeed, it can be argued that, as Harper’s northern strategy goes, so will go his legacy.
Read more...
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Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s decision to prorogue Parliament and launch a new session in October will potentially kill a number of government bills and mean the House of Commons will not resume sitting in September as planned.
Harper confirmed Monday during a week-long tour through northern Canada that he plans to ask the Governor General to terminate the current session of Parliament, which was scheduled to see the House of Commons resume sitting on Sept. 16.
He also confirmed he’ll lead the Conservative party into the next election, scheduled for October 2015.
The prime minister said his government has fulfilled most of its election promises and that it’s time to reset the parliamentary agenda with a speech from the throne to be delivered in October.
“There will be a new throne speech in the fall. Obviously, the House will be prorogued in anticipation of that. We will come back — in October is our tentative timing — and we will obviously have still some things, still some unfulfilled commitments that we will continue to work on,” Harper told reporters in Whitehorse, Yukon. “The No. 1 priority for this government, I don’t have to tell you, will continue to be jobs and the economy.”
Harper has previously said the new throne speech, which outlines the government’s priorities, will focus on the economy, promoting safe streets, celebrating the country’s history and promoting Canada’s interests on the world stage.
A number of contentious government bills currently before the House of Commons will die when the Conservatives suspend Parliament, meaning the legislation would likely have to be reintroduced in the new session.
Government bills currently still in the Commons include legislation on Senate reform — including term limits and process for electing senators — that has been referred to the Supreme Court of Canada, as well as legislation that would put restrictions on offenders who cannot be held criminally responsible for their actions because of mental illness.
The government has not said whether it would recall the House of Commons for a few days to pass the bills before suspending Parliament.
Prime ministers in the past have regularly prorogued Parliament between elections to launch a new government agenda.
While opposition parities acknowledge proroguing in the middle of a four-year mandate is a normal use of prime ministerial power, they believe Harper and the Conservatives are simply looking to delay the return of the House of Commons to avoid the fallout from the Senate expenses scandal.
“He’s running away from accountability,” said NDP deputy leader Megan Leslie.
She said Harper avoided the House of Commons near the end of the spring sitting to avoid questions on the Senate expenses scandal that embroiled the Prime Minister’s Office and led to the resignation of Nigel Wright, Harper’s former chief of staff.
“It’s a pattern with him, where if he wants to avoid accountability, if he wants to avoid those uncomfortable questions, then he just hits the prorogue button.”
Leslie notes the majority Conservative government could easily table and pass a motion to reinstate the current bills and resume debate in a new Parliament on the legislation that would die when the session is terminated.
Harper came under fire in 2008 for asking the governor general to prorogue Parliament to avoid a non-confidence vote that could have toppled his minority Conservative government.
He prorogued again the following year, halting House of Commons committee hearings into the treatment of Afghan detainees and killing a number of pieces of legislation.
Prorogation jumped into the headlines again last fall when then-Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty, embroiled in a number of scandals, resigned as Liberal leader and called a halt to business at the provincial legislature.
Fun fact! (ok, just fact): Parliament can restore bills after prorogation by a simple vote but the Senate has no such mechanism. — Paul McLeod (@pdmcleod) August 19, 2013
With files from Tristin Hopper, National PostData-sharing has become a new front line in battles over privacy in healthcare, raising crucial questions about the ways in which information about patients is shared within and between the public and private sectors.
Given that this is not “patient data” but “patients’ data”, handling large personal private datasets is a highly delicate issue. The manner in which they are shared should be subject to the scrutiny of those whose data is exchanged, and how this is done should be a matter for open public debate.
But the fact that it required a leaked document to reveal the true scale of the recently announced high-profile data-sharing deal between the Royal Free Hospital and the UK’s most successful AI company, Google DeepMind, does not bode well.
#DataSavesLives is the hashtag of a campaign run by Manchester’s Health e-Research Centre, a centre of excellence in delivering public health through precision medicine. The challenge for those of us who believe in this message is delivering on this promise while balancing privacy concerns of the individual.
An example of where the balance can be misjudged was the NHS care.data scheme, which suffered a disastrous launch. In a major misjudgement of patients’ wishes, this intended to offer a “one-time only” opt-out. While I am optimistic about the long-term prospects for saving lives through data, my feelings on care.data’s launch were similar to those of Ben Goldacre who felt severely let down by its deployment.
There was a wave of optimism at its potential, followed by the horror of watching the slow car crash of the reality. It may be that there were a number of lessons learned from that fiasco. But what shocked many in the data analysis community was the extent to which those in charge were insensitive to the pitfalls of data sharing.
It is one of my main research goals to be able to access patient data to produce insights on disease. But I don’t want to do it under any circumstances. Principled approaches to sharing data that protect privacy are the subject of ongoing research.
Under current arragements, the NHS is the arbiter of our data, but it seems ill equipped and often stumbles as it moves forward.
Control of patients’ data should be returned to the patient. We should welcome the interest of private companies in delivering solutions, but we should not suppress the interest of patients in data that originated through their treatments.
Data can save lives, and for that reason there would seem to be a moral duty to apply “best of class” approaches to its analysis. This is vital to ensure we are obtaining the best individual outcomes. In a rapidly moving field, it’s highly unlikely that any individual company has all the correct people to provide the right solutions without any interaction with the wider international community.
The wider community also provides oversight and comment. However, doing all this requires working in the open. In practice, there is a natural, and important, tension between the nature of that openness and the need for individual privacy.
This circle is difficult to square, but private companies, in particular, have no incentive to broach this problem. The very existence of privacy concerns allows them to lock down their activities, meaning they can then market themselves without any oversight of what they are doing.
Curing illness through biomedical intervention, or the provision of drugs, is carefully regulated. But we may be entering a period where digitally driven interventions become just as important. Imagine if drugs trials were done in private, with no independent verification of methodology or results. That would be unacceptable. Unfortunately, it seems algorithmic deployment is unlikely to be subject to the same public scrutiny that drugs trials are.
These are big challenges that require innovative thinking.
Innovative thinking is what DeepMind has already shown itself capable of delivering. However, the challenges of health data also require sophisticated thinking and an awareness of the pitfalls of patient privacy. Data can save lives, but data can also destroy lives. The best way to ensure that the balance is shifted to the former is not to sign backroom deals to share data, but to interact openly with the wider community that shares the same vision to deliver on the promise of that data.
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All Guardian Media and Tech Network content is editorially independent except for pieces labelled “Paid for by” – find out more here.Just revising the original post a bit to reflect what we know so far! All credit goes to OP+ info available on the site. Bold Italics denote revised statements. [Revised as of 12/15]
...[Beginning of thread left out]...
Conventions
- Almost all data was sourced from the WOT database. [I had to look up Pz38NA and KV-13 values in-game.]
- The calculations show the absolute minimum XP |
/15 – 4/25/15.
Second Chance to Win:
If AXE White Label isn't your style, that’s okay—because all AXE products are 10% off with Cartwheel from 4/26 – 5/23.
What AXE product would you wear to meet Kyle Larson? Tweet me your answer using #TakeTheLeap for a chance to win a $25 Target Gift Card to use towards your purchase.
How To Enter:
Visit the AXE Website, and pick a product that you'd like to win. Tweet me: @ManTripping and include a) the AXE product you'd like to win b) include the hashtags #spon #ad and #TakeTheLeap.
To make things a bit easier, just click on this link or the "Tweet This" graphic and make sure to edit the tweet to include your favorite AXE product.
Enter between now (4/10/2015) and 4/24/2015 at 11:59 p.m. for your chance to win the $25 Target GiftCard. Winners will be contacted within 48 hours of contest ending via Tweet from @ManTripping and the person has 48 hours to DM or otherwise transmit their email contact info so that delivery of the gift card can be executed.
* The Bullseye Design, Target and Target GiftCard are registered trademarks of Target Brands, Inc. Terms and conditions are applied to gift cards. Target is not a participating partner in or sponsor of this offer.A frank and open panel discussion on the menstrual taboo: why it exists, how it manifests itself, and how we can lift it.
The natural, biological process of menstruating is a source of shame, inconvenience and awkwardness for millions of women all over the world. Many hide that they’re on their periods, and are made to feel ashamed of it. Menstruation has been used across many cultures, religions and even in folklore to vilify and taint women.
In some countries the taboos and myths that surround it can be extremely harmful and lead to devastating consequences. Such as in Nepal where in December 2016, a 15-year-old girl died after being banished to a badly ventilated shed during her period. She was victim of an old tradition known as chhaupadi, practised in rural areas in the west of the country, which have forced women into seclusion, often in cattle sheds alongside the animals. From extreme to subtle, many societies shun mentsruatinxg women and shroud periods in euphemism. Even adverts for sanitary protection use blue liquid instead of red to demonstrate absorbency of period products. Why the fear of menstrual blood?
A UK government health report published in 2018 details that women’s concerns about period pains and periods are their third biggest reproductive health worry. They just don’t dare speak about it. It’s time we did!
Our panellists are historian Louise Foxcroft, activist Sadia Hameed and Obstetrician and Gynaecologist Shazia Malik, comedian and campaigner Chella Quint.
The debate will be followed by a drinks reception during which you will also have the opportunity to meet brands who offer a range of alternative period products, such as period pants and mentruation cups. Take the opportunity to speak freely about bleeding! Let’s lift the shame.
Get your tickets using the following links:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bloody-shame-how-to-lift-the-menstrual-taboo-debate-drinks-tickets-53583908914
or
http://www.equationx.co.uk/When Terry Ryan brought his car to Roche's Automotive Services in the fall to get a fan belt fixed, he thought it would be at the garage for a couple of days.
Five months later, he's still waiting to hear when it'll be ready.
"It's frustrating. It's frustrating, to say the least," he said.
"Especially when it's not only me relying on it — it's my family."
'No peep' from garage
Last November, Ryan was about to go play hockey in Paradise, when he noticed the fan belt had popped off his 2011 Kia Soul.
It was a recurring problem, so he wanted to get it replaced — and also get both sets of keys for the vehicle fixed.
Terry Ryan said he's made many trips to the garage, but it remains closed. (Cal Tobin/CBC)
When he called to check in with Roche's Automotive on Brookfield Road in St. John's, he was told it would take some time, because the garage was busy.
Ryan said it wasn't a big deal at the time, because he had access to a work vehicle. But when his work ended just before Christmas, he was left without a car.
"I go back in [to Roche's], and there's no peep," he said. "So I left it, I said, 'Maybe after holidays.'"
The money I'm spending on transportation, and the places myself, my wife, and my kids can't get to, as a result of him having my car still. - Terry Ryan, customer of Roche's Automotive
Ryan returned to the garage in early January — but the business was still closed.
"I've known [owner Peter Roche] for 20 years. so I figured, 'OK, I'll call him, I'll see what's up.' I left some notes out front, I phoned. Nothing," he said.
Ryan said his transportation costs were adding up: he was still making payments on his Kia, while spending money on cabs and buses to get back and forth from his home in Mount Pearl.
He said he's also worried about the current state of the car, since he has seen it buried under snow outside the garage for months.
'I just want my car'
Ryan said he has visited the garage almost every day for the past few months, but to no avail.
He said he and his whole family have given Roche's Automotive their business for years, so when he'd heard about Peter Roche's legal troubles and reports of being in an accident, he wanted to give the garage owner some leeway.
But he said he hasn't heard anything back.
Ryan said enough is enough.
"I want to give him the benefit of the doubt. But I have a big concern about my own family, and my own transportation every day, and the money I'm spending on transportation, and the places myself, my wife, and my kids can't get to, as a result of him having my car still," he said.
He said he wants his car and his keys fixed.
"I just want my car, and I want it now," Ryan said.
"If I don't get some answers soon, then we're going to have to take the next step," he added, noting he may have to seek legal advice.
'Back to square one'
Ryan isn't the only person having issues with Roche's Automotive.
Amy Hancock said she was disgusted to discover her car wasn't working again, about an hour after she had finally picked it up from Roche's Automotive. (Cal Tobin/CBC)
Amy Hancock also brought her 2008 Mazda there for repairs last November.
She spoke with CBC Investigates in March, and finally got her car back April 7.
Hancock said Peter Roche tried to make her pay for the repairs, but she argued that he hadn't given her an estimate or cleared the work with her beforehand. He eventually let her take the vehicle, free of charge.
"[Roche] said it was perfect and I'd have no more problems with it," she said.
"About an hour later, everything was starting to go wrong with it again — the same problems I was having before."
Amy Hancock said the local Mazda dealership told her that her vehicle needs at least $3,000 worth of work. (Cal Tobin/CBC)
Hancock said she felt disgusted.
"I've got two kids that I'm driving around with, and I wanted the car back in running condition. It's just so frustrating," she said.
Penney Mazda had a look at Hancock's vehicle, and told her it needs at least $3,000 worth of work.
"I don't know what I'm going to do," Hancock said.
"The car's not really worth that much money. I don't have that much money."
Hancock said she contacted Roche about the car not working.
"[Roche] was saying he had an open line of communication with me now, and he was going to get my car fixed, he was going to make this right. And now his phone is not working," she said.
"The shop is down there, still not open for business. I still can't get ahold of anybody, again. So, back to square one."
Roche says he'll fix their vehicles
Roche appeared at provincial court in St. John's Wednesday on an unrelated matter.
Both Roche and his company, Roche's Automotive, face dozens of counts under the Highway Traffic Act, over allegedly fraudulent school bus inspections.
Peter Roche appeared in St. John's provincial court on Wednesday on charges related to school bus inspections. (Eddy Kennedy/CBC)
Roche is also personally facing 44 charges of forgery and one count of obstruction of justice under the Criminal Code.
He and the company have pleaded not guilty.
A two-day trial is scheduled for August.
While at court, Roche gave CBC Investigates similar information to what he'd said a month ago — that he'd been involved in a serious accident, and has been in recovery ever since.
He said a couple of employees will open the garage Thursday, and that if he gets clearance from his doctor, he will be back to work on May 1.
Roche said he will get in touch with Ryan, and have his car returned by Friday.
He also said he will reach out to Hancock to get her car fixed.
Garage facing big tax bills
CBC Investigates has learned that Roche's Automotive is facing allegations related to unpaid taxes.
The City of St. John's filed court documents in February, seeking more than $51,000 in unpaid property taxes from Roche's Automotive.
According to the documents, the city said the garage hasn't paid its commercial realty tax plus interest from July 1, 2012 to the end of December 2016.
No statement of defence has been filed to date.
In 2015, the Canada Revenue Agency filed documents in Federal Court against Roche's Automotive for not paying about $160,000 in taxes.Julia Louis-Dreyfus took home the Emmy for Best Actress in a Comedy Series for HBO's "Veep" at the 64th annual awards ceremony.
The "Veep" star beat out "Girls" star Lena Dunham, "Parks and Recreation's" Amy Poehler, "30 Rock" star Tina Fey, "Nurse Jackie's" Edie Falco, "New Girl" star Zooey Deschanel and last year's winner Melissa McCarthy of "Mike & Molly."
This is Louis-Dreyfus' 13th nomination -- which tied her with comedy legend Lucille Ball -- and third win, having previously taken home Emmys for her work on "Seinfeld" and "The New Adventures of Old Christine."
Louis-Dreyfus couldn't accept her award without a having a little fun with her speech, though. "First of all, I'd like to thank NBC, 'Parks and Rec,' my beautiful boys, Archie and Abel..." she stammered, before the cameras cut to fellow nominee Amy Poehler, who then ran the correct speech up on stage to Louis-Dreyfus.
Louis-Dreyfus then praised her "talented and powerful and funny" fellow nominees before joking about her freshman comedy hit. "At the same time, it's a bit mystifying to me because people say that this show is a comedy, and yet I don't see anything funny about me being Vice President of the United States," she said, before thanking her castmates and "the genius behind the show" Armando Iannucci.
Her speech ended with one last thing written in: "Lastly isn't a shame that Amy Poehler didn't win. What?" Cue cameras cutting to Poehler again, pencil in hand, nodding in agreement.A Senate hearing opened this morning with Code Pink protesters trying to arrest former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger for "war crimes."
The protesters, bearing signs reading "Kissinger War Criminal" and "Cambodia," rushed up behind the 91-year-old diplomat at the witness table of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which was holding a hearing on global challenges and the U.S. national security strategy.
Also testifying were 94-year-old former Secretary of State George P. Shultz and 77-year-old former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) said he would call recess until Capitol Police removed Code Pink from the room.
"I've been a member of this committee for many years, and I have never seen anything as disgraceful and outrageous and despicable as the last demonstration that just took place," McCain said, which led to shout-backs from the protesters.
"You know, you're going to have to shut up, or I'm going to have you arrested. If we can't get the Capital Hill Police in here immediately... Get out of here, you low-life scum," McCain added.
"So Henry, I hope you will -- Dr. Kissinger, I hope on behalf of all of the members of this committee on both sides of the aisle -- in fact, from all of my colleagues, I'd like to apologize for allowing such disgraceful behavior towards a man who served his country with the greatest distinction. I apologize profusely."An audit of how employees at the University of Nebraska use company credit cards reveals some "significant deficencies." Among the questionable purchases, a $750 purchase from Amazon.com for a 32” digital picture frame, a $628 fountain pen from Borsheims, a $219 golf club that can no longer be located.
State Auditor Mike Foley announced the release of a comprehensive review of the University of Nebraska’s credit card program, often referred to as p-cards. Several thousand University employees use the cards to make well over $40 million in annual purchases.
The monthly invoices are entirely paid with public funds through the University’s accounting system.
The audit found significant deficiencies in many areas of University control over the employees’ use of the cards, resulting in purchases that were unauthorized, not properly documented, in violation of policies and guidelines, or possibly inappropriate.
The report discloses details on nearly 1,600 separate transactions that were tested by the auditors. Many of these transactions are routine and of little note, while others have the appearance of being inappropriate.
University employees made well nearly $11 million of transactions with the major US airlines during the period reviewed. Other high-dollar vendors for p-card transactions included Dell computers, Sigma Aldrich (chemicals), and a wide variety of merchandise from Amazon.com
Comprehensive University guidelines on the proper use of the cards were found to be lacking. Moreover, minimal existing guidelines and policies were often ignored. For example, Nebraska State government policies, as well as written University guidelines in effect on all campuses, prohibit the purchase of first-class airline tickets.
Nevertheless, the auditors found over $283,000 in first-class airline tickets during the period under review including 20 instances of first class tickets costing more than $5,000 each. Five of these airline tickets cost over $10,000 each, and one of these – a round trip first class ticket to China – cost over $15,000.
Much of the problem with airline purchases stems from the current ability of University employees to self-register on the University travel agent’s web site and then select flights regardless of cost or class of service.
University guidelines at three of the four campuses also prohibit the use of the cards for the purchase of merchandise gift cards (UNMC operates with a unique exception). The auditors found thousands of dollars of gift card purchases.
On the UNMC campus, the auditors found nearly $55,000 in gift card purchases associated with a “Thank U Reward” program under which University employees can accumulate “medallions” redeemable for gift cards for each time a fellow employee recognizes them for excellent service or special projects.
Numerous weaknesses were found in the accounting controls established to govern the cards. In a number of instances, the auditors found active p-cards assigned to former employees who no longer work for the University.
Another example of accounting control weaknesses was found with respect to the lack of back-up documentation to support the need for the original purchase. Such documentation would normally include a vendor receipt, invoice, or packing slip. The report itemizes dozens of examples of purchases with no contemporaneous supporting documentation whatsoever as to why they were made.
The report stresses the importance of strong accounting controls for many reasons, including the fact that millions of dollars of purchases are being made by employees on weekends and holidays.
Under the p-card program, the monthly transactions of each cardholder are supposed to be independently reviewed by a second University employee known as the account reconciler. However, the auditors found dozens of instances where the cardholder and the reconciler were actually the same person. The auditors also noted a serious weakness in the University’s accounting controls that allow account reconcilers to log in to the system, change their user names, and then reconcile their own accounts.
Despite the serious nature of the findings, Foley praised the four members of the University’s Board of Regents audit subcommittee for receiving the report in a constructive way. Foley noted that the four Regents and key administrators, including University President J.B. Milliken, pledged an immediate review of the p-card program and prompt implementation of reforms to provide greater scrutiny of p-card transactions to ensure that they are subject to an accounting control regime that safeguards public funds.Armed officers swarmed on Merrylands police station in western Sydney, Australia, after the man rammed the vehicle through security barriers and drove into its underground car park.
Police sources said he then claimed he had a bomb and tried to detonate a large number of gas cannisters stored inside it but failed to do so, describing the incident as an "attempted terror attack". It is believed that he sustained burns during the incident, and that no police officers were injured.
The man was arrested by police and is now in custody, according to the ABC news network. Witnesses described him as being in his 60s and it is thought he is well-known to police.
Specialist officers from the Rescue and Bomb Disposal Unit are on scene and are working to ensure that all explosive materials are safe.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that the man tried to set himself and his car on fire but failed, and was arrested at gunpoint.
The paper cited a police source saying it was a "very deliberate attack on the station" and that officers are trying to work out the extent of the man's plans.
Channel 7 News tweeted: "It is believed a threat was made at the police station that there would be a large explosion."It is my observation that the recent branding of citizens as consumers has failed to tap into the potential to use or utilize or exploit citizen roles for the purposes of commerce and trade.
My aperture on the project described in the article is the emerging trend for media citizens, and the multiple exclusive categories of financial functions which run co-valent to micro-, meso-, and macro- categories of policy, expressions of citizen and government modalities.
These citizens will have a meaningful relationship to architecture much as bees and ants integrate with a specific type of structure, which is almost like a monetary policy. The shift in architecture then represents a shift in monetary policy. For example, with Wi-Fi hotspots, there is the recent emergence of virtual currency. In my feeling, this financial difference is more liquid than has been thought. But moreover, the bastions of industry and trade remain relatively reliable in many countries, from the standpoint of a citizen who has income. Yet the modalities of money may be subject to new definitions which fit within the new electronic or architectural function of economies.
For example, the emergence of modular pre-fab housing has in influence on the economy, cities built on the sea effect the economy, and electric cars effect the economy. While it does not always express in numbers, and the effects may not always be known immediately, it seems clear to me that the underriding trend in these things is a reductive correspondence between structure and money.
If that is the case, we should look to architects and other media-oriented thinkers to develop a structural system which is compatible with the most optimum idea of money.
In my view, if the internet cafe is the beginning of this---almost a leisure side of global trade, using an idea similar to the Chinese 'wu wei' or negative space---then clearly one way to develop a vital capital is to develop the concept of internet cafe, work with the principles of architecture and media.
Perhaps, for example, some citizens are willing to pay more money if their basic services are more satisfying. But they would still need to be sold on living that specific lifestyle. So there is a significant amount of marketing involved, perhaps the right idealization for cities which are more often than not, looking to become 'plugged in' 'intelligent cities'. See for example: https://twitter.com/intelcitiesexpo12. 11. 2015
67,2 per cent of Czech citizens are pleased with Czech President Miloš Zeman. 72,3 per cent of Czechs are pleased by Zeman´s anti-refugee attitudes. 68,3 per cent of Czechs happy with the way President Zeman defends "Czech national and economic interests". 59,3 per cent of Czechs like Zeman´s foreign policy.
According to an opinion poll, carried out by SANEP, Czech Citizens are particularly pleased that Zeman is sharply critical of the proposal that the Czech Republic should accept refugee quotas. They also like "his independence, his honesty, his patriotism, his truthfulness, his negative attitude to islam, his single-mindedness, his positive attitude towards Russia and China and his absence of servility towards the EU and the United States".
Miloš Zeman is particularly popular in the Czech public as a result of his negative attitude to the refugee crisis. This is because the Czech public associates the issues of the Czech national identity and sovereignty, patriotism and the defence of the national interest with a negative attitude towards the refugees, says SANEP.
The opinion poll was carried out by SANEP on 6th-9th November, 2015. A representative sample of 1102 respondents aged 18-70 years was used. SANEP is a member of the Alliance of International Market Research Institutes.
Source in Czech HEREBreaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
May 12, 2017, 1:33 PM GMT / Updated May 12, 2017, 6:02 PM GMT By Erik Ortiz and Ali Vitali
President Donald Trump unleashed a Twitter torrent Friday following days of punishing headlines over his decision to fire FBI Director James Comey.
Trump's tweetstorm railed against the "fake media" and those who expect his surrogates to defend him with "perfect accuracy," while giving a stern warning to Comey that he "better hope that there are no 'tapes' of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!"
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer was asked at the daily press briefing later Friday if the president had taped Comey. "The president has nothing further to add on that," Spicer said.
Later in the briefing, Spicer declined to answer when asked if Trump was recording his conversations in the Oval Office.
He added that Trump's tweet about the "tapes" was not intended as a threat to Comey.
Trump's tumultuous 48 hours came to a head during an exclusive interview Thursday with NBC News' Lester Holt, when the president contradicted the reason for Comey's firing — giving mixed messages and undercutting what his aides and surrogates were telling reporters about the FBI chief's surprise exit.
The president said he came to the decision to oust Comey on Tuesday after thinking about how "this Russia thing... is a made up story."
Comey had been investigating potential links between members of the Trump campaign and Russia and the Kremlin's alleged interference in the 2016 election.
Trump revealed to Holt that he had been planning to fire Comey even before he received Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein's recommendation to do so.
That was a reversal from what members of the administration, including Vice President Mike Pence, had told reporters. White House officials had flatly denied that the Russia investigation had something to do with Comey's firing.
Related: Fact Checking Donald Trump's Interview With NBC's Lester Holt
Trump in his interview with Holt expanded on the conversations he had with Comey after the termination letter he sent to him was made public. "I greatly appreciate you informing me on three separate occasions that I am not under investigation," Trump wrote.
Trump said those discussions occurred once during dinner and twice over the phone. He gave no indication that those discussions or others were taped.
"I'm not under investigation," Trump added.
Related: Current and Former FBI Officials Dispute Trump Account of Comey Dinner
"Did you ask him to drop the investigation?" Holt asked.
"No. Never," Trump said.
He fired Comey on the same day that he tweeted investigations looking into his campaign and Russia were a "taxpayer funded charade."
Trump on Friday again tweeted that any alleged collusion was "fabricated by Dems as an excuse for losing the election."
He followed up by attempting to defend his team by saying it's not their fault if they don't speak with "perfect accuracy" — and suggested that he would be open to ending future press briefings.
Trump has repeatedly lashed out at the press. In February — angered by leaks coming out of his administration — Trump accused journalists at a fiery news conference of being dishonest in their reporting of him and blasting reports of Russian interference as "fake news."
He also questioned Friday when the barrage of coverage would be over:
"When James Clapper himself, and virtually everyone else with knowledge of the witch hunt, says there is no collusion, when does it end?"
Clapper, who had resigned last fall as director of national intelligence, told "Meet the Press" in March that there had been no evidence during his tenure that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government.
But when asked whether he still believes that the Russians tried to undermine the U.S. election to help Trump win, Clapper said: "Yes, I do."The Treasury is to clash with the European Union in a last-ditch effort to overturn a draconian cap on bankers’ bonuses, arguing in Europe’s top court that rules limiting rewards are an unjustified intrusion.
Government lawyers will on Monday lay out objections to the rules, which have been widely criticised by those in the City who argue it puts London’s financial sector at a disadvantage to New York’s and Hong Kong’s.
As part of a systematic overhaul of EU banking rules designed to stabilise the financial system, bonuses are being capped at 100pc of banking salaries, or 200pc with shareholder approval.
The Treasury has opposed the move on the grounds that it is an overextension of the EU’s remit, and does not contribute to improving financial safety. The bonus cap is seen as among the most damaging of a number of Brussels diktats on the UK’s financial services industry. The Treasury said the rules could “undermine financial stability”.
Rather than reducing pay, UK banks have responded by increasing staff salaries and introducing role-based “allowances” – which are renegotiated each year.
Institutions argue that the bonus cap makes them less financially safe, since higher spending on fixed pay removes their ability to scale back spending in difficult times.
The UK accounts for the vast majority of highly-paid bankers in Europe. It launched a legal challenge against the European Parliament and European Council in September, and will make its arguments public for the first time this week.
On Monday, the case will reach a court hearing in which representatives from the UK and European Parliament will give oral evidence to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. The move represents the last chance for the UK to present its case. The court is not expected to make a decision until next year.
The Treasury will argue against the bonus cap on six grounds. Among them, it argues that the cap unfairly confers powers to Europe beyond Brussels’s remit, and that it has been introduced without any assessment of the likely impact.
The UK also argues that the cap runs counter to the objectives of the legislation, making banks less stable due to the rise in salaries, and that by applying the rules to employees of EU-based banks who work in Asia, the US and elsewhere, the rules infringe international law.
George Osborne, the Chancellor, and the Bank of England have both publicly stated their objections. Mr Osborne has said the rules will have a “perverse effect”.
The European Banking Authority, the pan-EU regulator, is considering a crackdown on allowances, saying they may violate the bonus cap. Banks including HSBC, Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) have all used allowances in response to the limit, with RBS especially hobbled by the cap as the Treasury – which owns 80pc of the lender – voted against allowing it to raise bonuses to 200pc of salaries.
The UK has had little success in overturning EU financial legislation. This year, a legal challenge against a financial transaction tax was thrown out, and the UK failed to have a ban on short-selling – betting on share price declines – in emergency situations overturned.
A Treasury spokesman said: “Britain has taken a global lead in efforts to tackle unacceptable remuneration practices in the banking sector, which is why we oppose this EU-wide bonus cap, which was rushed through without a proper impact assessment and which could undermine financial stability by leading to higher fixed costs at banks.”Copyright by WATE - All rights reserved
WFLA staff - DUNEDIN, Fla. (WFLA) – Frustrated after several previous attacks, a Dunedin man decided he needed video evidence to document his estranged wife's behavior. Mike Novak strapped a GoPro to his belt and let it roll.
The confrontation happens in an instant. The GoPro video shows Novak reaching into his vehicle to unbuckle his twin 2-year-old sons. That's when his wife, Corinne Novak, is seen sneaking up from behind Mike and hitting him in the testicles, according to deputies.
Investigators say it happened at about 10 a.m. on Sept. 17 in Dunedin.
"What the **** is your problem?" Mike is heard asking.
"What?" Corinne responds." Why are you assaulting me?"
The twins' mother was at the residence to pick up the boys for her visitation time. "She came from behind, reached between my legs and ya know … with the intent to hurt me," Mike Novak told News Channel 8.
He said he resorted to recording his wife because of several false allegations in the past. "The main point of using the camera was to prove what she was doing, paint an accurate picture because the camera doesn't lie," he said.
A Pinellas County deputy viewed the GoPro video and arrested Corinne Novak. Mike is convinced she came at him from behind because she knew he had the tiny camera.
He told News Channel 8 his biggest concern is their twin boys. They are the real victims, he said.
Corrine Novak, age 37, of Belleair, was charged with one count of domestic battery. She was booked into the Pinellas County Jail and is awaiting trial.PORTLAND, OR—Saying that he wants to provide a unique, enjoyable listening experience that draws from all periods of his life, area man Ian Watts told reporters Wednesday that he has been tinkering with his set list of anecdotes ahead of an upcoming date this weekend. “I’m thinking of opening with a quick, high-energy story about my dog to really set the tone for the night, and then I’ll transition right into some of my earlier college stuff,” said Watts, noting the importance of interspersing light, upbeat reminiscences with more emotional, deeper cuts from his personal life in order to build a varied lineup that would connect with his audience. “I’ll probably try to mix things up this time by bringing out some of the classics early on, like recounting my job delivering pizzas in high school or my first apartment, before I launch into some newer stuff. I’ve been working on this one about my recent experience on jury duty that I’d love to try out. Of course, I’ll close the night with the time I took the same plane as Regis Philbin, like usual.” Watts added that in the event he’s invited back to his date’s apartment, he’ll be sure to save a few chestnuts from his semester in Italy as an encore.
AdvertisementHello! I’m Oliver Tiu, a player new to the Pro Tour scene who qualified for the 2016 World Championships by being the first-ever Constructed Master. Going into my first Pro Tour (PT Battle for Zendikar) I had modest aspirations for the year. My sole goal, which seemed like a stretch at the time, was merely to achieve Gold player status. I reached the necessary threshold in Pro Tour Shadows over Innistrad, and then I figured I would start traveling to Grand Prixs and make a run at Platinum status. I felt like I was favored to reach it, but if I simply ended up as a Gold player during my rookie year I wouldn’t be terribly upset. Fortunately, the victories kept on coming, and I found myself with Platinum status before the upcoming Pro Tour! As a result, I had a single lofty objective for Pro Tour Eldritch Moon; to do well enough to qualify for Worlds either from Pro Points at-large or through being the Constructed Master. Thanks to a great team and fortunate matchups, I got there and found myself qualified for the most prestigious Magic tournament during my rookie year. Simply put, I was stoked for Worlds and what professional Magic had in store for me in the future.
Right after the Pro Tour, I approached Ondrej Strasky and asked him to test with me for the tournament, since he has had previous Worlds experience along with being an excellent player.
Going into Worlds, I knew the biggest edge to be gained was in Modern. It will be perceived as the least important format by most of the competitors, since it was the format with the least number of rounds. Therefore, I assumed many players will go with ‘safe’ decks such as Jund or Abzan. Normally, I like playing Affinity in Modern tournaments, because I believe it is the most powerful deck in Modern. However, many of the worlds players knew that myself and a few others (such as Mike Sigrist) had a preference for Affinity, so they would have the necessary number of sideboard cards to be favored against it. So, I ruled out that option and thought Dredge might be a good choice for the expected metagame. I tried it out, and was unimpressed. The final nail in the coffin was it doing superbly well in an SCG open, putting it on everyone’s radar. I tried thinking of other ways to fight Abzan from an unexpected angle, when I remembered that my friend Thien Nguyen had done very well with a unique RG Scapeshift deck. I had him ship me the list, and I immediately started 5-0ing league after league on Magic Online, crushing many GBx decks in the process.
The one glaring issue with the deck was its weakness to Modern’s quickest decks, such as Infect and Suicide Zoo. After much deliberation, myself and Ondrej decided that people will avoid these decks due to their unfavorable matchups vs the GBx decks. It was pretty clear that the numerous positive aspects of the deck greatly outweighed the negative ones, so we locked in on the deck fairly quickly. Then, one week prior to Worlds in Grand Prix Indianapolis, disaster struck. A couple of relatively similar Valakut-based decks top 8ed the tournament, which could lead to players being prepared with very effective sideboard cards, such as Leyline of Sanctity or Blood Moon. Thankfully, the lists that did top 8 featured a Through the Breach focused plan, rather than a Scapeshift-based one. This means that they perform worse against Abzan, due to Through the Breach being inherently poor against both Thoughtseize and Path to Exile. Ondrej and I were both hoping people will test these lists, and quickly dismiss them for their consistency problems. Quite luckily, this ended up being exactly the case and a vast majority of players completely ignored Valakut hate in their sideboards.
Titan Shift – Oliver Tiu
We then transitioned to testing for what is likely the most difficult Standard format in recent memory, both to play and build decks in. Early on, Ondrej told me he was likely locked into Bant Company, since it was quite clearly the best deck in the format. I was more reluctant to join the enemy, since I didn’t feel like the deck was unbeatable and I despised playing Bant mirrors. I tested a variety of non-Bant decks, such as GB, Jund Emerge, and Temur Emerge. I found GB to be borderline unplayable, since I felt like it didn’t have a single favorable matchup and a handful of unwinnable ones. Jund Emerge felt like it was trying to do too many things at once, and the deck lacked the crucial synergy between its control/midrange elements and its emerge package. Temur Emerge was compelling, but didn’t feel powerful enough to justify playing it over the Bant menace. To say I was discouraged at this point would be an understatement.
The Star City Games Invitational that took place a couple of weeks before the Pro Tour was the light at the end of the tunnel. Michael Majors top 8ed on the back of a ‘turbo Emrakul’ deck that looked like an improved Temur Emerge deck. I wasted no time and started testing it nonstop to see if it was the savior it appeared to be. After playing countless games against Ondrej and my friend Avi on Bant, I became convinced that it was a favorable matchup for Turbo Emrakul. It was also beating the other decks I expected to see in the field, such as GB, Temur, Crush, and Jund so I locked it in. Ondrej was skeptical, but eventually came to the right decision of submitting the exact 150 that I decided on.
Temur Emerge – Oliver Tiu
When the tournament finally came, I found myself to be in what has to be one of the most stacked draft pods ever in competitive Magic, even for the Worlds field. It consisted of myself, LSV, Reid, Sam, Marcio, Joel, Shota, and Lukas. I consider myself a weak Limited player, especially compared to players of this caliber, so I would be ecstatic to emerge from this pod with a 2-1 record. I read the signals well, and ended up with a solid GW deck splashing Altered Ego. I normally don’t like GW in this format, but my deck featured some great removal such as 2 Faith Unbroken and 2 Clear Shot. After beating Reid Duke equipped with a very good RU deck, I was feeling optimistic about my chances. The possibility of winning this |
while Avid hydraulic front brakes and rear Brembo four-piston brakes bring it to a stop. Hanebrink says, “Optional adjustable offset triple clamp forks allow the rider to adjust for corner entry reaction from very quick to very stable, or anywhere in between."
Mounted inside a water-tight box lies four lithium-ion liquid-cooled batteries that Hanebrink claims will get you 200 miles of travel on a single charge. The 14-speed transmission (yes, 14) lets you hit a top speed of around 80 mph.
When the juice runs out, use a coin to turn the fasteners and pop out the pedals from behind the fairings to go on human power. Regarding the X5's street legality, Hanebrink says, "the benefit of a legal electric bicycle is, of course, that it does not require registration, drivers license, or special motorcycle permit, etc. and can be operated where motorcycles are not permitted."
The X-5 carries an exceptionally high sticker of $16,940, and if you order now and you can expect delivery by the end of March 2013. But we'd suggest checking with your local DMV before making a deposit.If you have an HTC Vive Tracker, you may have already hooked it up and started tracking objects in Unity3D. That part isn’t too hard, and it’s a lot of fun. But you can also flip that Vive Tracker over and start using the POGO pins on the back. The pins are pretty easy to use and give you access to the same buttons you’d have on a normal Vive wand and even include an output for haptic feedback.
HTC Vive Tracker Documentation
To get detailed info, HTC has a guide here: https://dl.vive.com/Tracker/Guideline/HTC_Vive_Tracker_Developer_Guidelines_v1.3.pdf
Video Version
Setting up the HTC Vive Tracker in Unity3D
I’ve gone over it already and just wanted to share the steps involved to get going.
First, you need your tracker in-game. To keep it simple, we’ll use the CameraRig prefab.
Drop a [CameraRig] into an empty scene (and delete the existing maincamera).
Under the CameraRig, add an empty gameobject and name it “Tracker“.
Add the SteamVR_TrackedObject component to the “Tracker” you’ve just created.
Select the [CameraRig].
Drag the “Tracker” to the Objects array on the SteamVR_ControllerManager.
Turn on both controllers and press play.
Move the tracker around, if you see it move in-game, you’re good to move on to the next part.
Reading Vive Tracker POGO Pins
To show how to read the inputs, I’ve created this example script. Put it in your project, then add it to the “Tracker” object.
<script src=”https://gist.github.com/unity3dcollege/6b097fb4163abf6e6d36b33ff0d48776.js”></script>
Start playing again and make sure the Tracker is still moving (remember both controllers need to be on too).
Now let’s take a look at the image from the official documentation.
If you’re not familiar with electronics, don’t worry, this one’s pretty simple.
All you need to do is make a connection from GND (Pin 2) to whichever pin you want to trigger.
You can do this with a single wire, or ideally hook it up to a switch that’s attached to your physical device.
To test this, simply touch pin 2 & pin 4 with the same wire, and you’ll see the “Trigger” field set to true.
Pins
2 – Ground
3 – Grip
4 – Trigger
5 – Trackpad
6 – Menu Button
Hooking up Hardware
If you’re not sure what to use, try digging out an old electric nerf gun like this: http://amzn.to/2uDRI9b (or find a broken used one on craigslist for free/cheap)
Rip it apart and hook up the wires coming from the trigger to the tracker’s pogo pins.
There are a few different adapters out there you can order/print, like this: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2127180 – It’d probably be a good idea to have some sort of adapter in there to make pin access easier…One Palestinians youth was killed and another wounded early Friday after settlers reportedly opened fire at a village north of the West Bank city of Hebron, only a day after a Palestinian youth was shot and killed by an unidentified Israeli citizen near Nablus.
Palestinian stone throwers in East Jerusalem Emil Salman
According to preliminary Palestinian reports, the incident occurred after dozens of settlers from the settlement of Bat Ayin descended on the village of Khirbet Safa in the early morning hours and confronted some of the locals.
The confrontations reportedly resulted in the setters opening fire at the crowd, leaving one Palestinian lightly wounded and another in critical condition. The two were evacuated to a hospital in Beit Jala near Bethlehem, where one of them, a 17-year-old succumbed to his wounds.
The settlers, however, claimed that a group traveling nearby was fired upon, adding that others came to their rescue. Preliminary reports said it took police and Israel Defense Forces units over half an hour to arrive at the area.
Commenting on the fatal incident, Kiryat Arba's council chief Malachi Levinger reiterated claims that the settlers were attacked while hiking in the area, and emphasized what he called as the "right of Jews to travel their country."
"We call upon the IDF and the police to aid the defense of this right and to seek the guilty parties within the rioters not within the travelers who acted in self defense," Levinger added.
On Thursday, police confirmed Palestinians reports claiming that a Palestinian who was shot to death near Nablus earlier in the day was shot by an unidentified Israeli citizen.
Palestinian eyewitnesses said that 18-year-old Fadi Kaddous was shot to death by a settler after clashes broke out between the shooter and a group of rock-throwing Palestinians.
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A nearby security camera apparently captured grainy images of the shooting and confirmed that the shooter had Israeli features.
The camera footage showed the group of Palestinians attacking a man with rocks. The man responded by firing a gun in the air, which failed to deter his attackers. The man fired again, this time in the direction of the Palestinians. The video supposedly shows the bullet entering and exiting the shoulder-chest region of one of the attackers; it is being further studied by ballistics experts.
Police also investigated the group of three Palestinian villagers who reported the incident. The group had at first said that armed settlers attacked them but further on in the investigation changed their testimony. The police are currently searching for the unidentified shooter.Literature
The Wall
The wall rose up in front of her, the white paint gleaming beneath the fluorescent lights to show the texture of the bricks. Her eyes picked out patterns and shapes in the shadows and highlights of each hole and groove; first a bear, then a seashell, a row of smiling faces, a crocodile. Coming in and out of focus, the shapes gradually grew less and less distinct as they faded back into the blur of general whiteness. The wall had refused to give her an answer. With a sigh she leaned her forehead against its cool surface, feeling it draw the heat through her skin and away from that space behind her retina. She breathed with long and shallow breaths as her thoughts turned away from her question. There was comfort in the coolness of the cement. If the wall could not give her the answer, it could at least give her a few moments of peace, a break from the warm haze of tangled thoughts.
A door clicked somewhere to her right. A warm gust of air followed as the slapping of flip flopsAn interview with Simon de la Rouviere
Bounty0x recently interviewed Simon de la Rouviere regarding curation markets, blockchain, and the future of the crypto currency industry.
Angelo Blocked Unblock Follow Following Oct 23, 2017
In today’s spotlight article we sit down with Simon de la Rouviere. He is best known for his work on the development of “Curation Markets” and Ujo Music where he serves as lead Smart Contract developer. A curation market refers to the concept of using tokens to curate information & exploring ways to mint/spawn these tokenized, curatorial markets (eg continuous token models). Examples of curation markets are available here. Most notably District0x’s Meme Factory district will be structured as a curation market.
Curation Markets are a broad concept that will ultimately allow more groups to coordinate globally around shared goals.
On a related noted, Simon recently proposed a smart contract for developing “a bot that creates, owns and sells the digital art it creates without relying on humans.”
Bounty0x believes in pushing forward the vision of the decentralized economy. Bounty0x will be one of the first districts built on the district0x network, thus bounty0x will be a decentralized autonomous organization, such that DNT token holders will participate in bounty0x governance in conjunction with a corresponding Aragon entity.
Bounty campaigns and curation markets are both effective tools for organizing and incentivizing the decentralized workforce. In that regard, bounyt0x will be seeking Simon’s Curation Market expertise in order to discover ways to utilize tokenized curation markets within the bounty0x network of bounties.
One step bounty0x is making to bring the decentralized economy closer to fruition is by enabling a feature on the bounty0x network which will enable any bounty hunters to receive payment from startups in any type of token. We will be releasing more information on this project soon. Stay tuned for more information.
Simon please tell us a little bit about your background? How did you get involved in the crypto space?
I initially found Bitcoin in 2011 stumbling through the internet. Thought it was quite interesting. Studying programming at that time, I needed to know how it worked. So, I went down a rabbit hole, and kind of never stopped.
In 2014, I went full-time in the space after finishing a Master of Arts in Socio-Informatics (studying information overload), then worked on Bitcoin/Litecoin codebases and meta layers such as Counterparty. I was quite excited to see Ethereum come along, because as a developer it was really hard to make Bitcoin codebases do the things you wanted it to. I was interested in experimenting with tokenization and Ethereum was the perfect place to do that. It’s a protocol primarily for developers and you feel a lot more welcome in this community.
Tell us something most people don’t know about you?
As a future birthday gift to myself, in October 2015, I decided to lock up 5 ETH (~$5) in a smart contract till the year 2065. 48 years to go! ;)
What excites you most about the crypto space right now?
That it is growing! We’ve always been kinda crazy, and one wondered whether the world will really take notice. But this year, 2017, it really feels like we weren’t that crazy and that everyone is coming along for the ride.
Getting thousands of new perspectives is very interesting and exciting. New people, new industries, new ideas coming from all directions. Just keeps getting more exciting.
Can you tell those of us who aren’t already familiar what projects are you working on in the crypto space?
These days I work primarily on 2 projects: Ujo Music, making independent artists more money through the improvement of the licensing system. I’m a musician myself, so this project is very dear to me. I think the crypto space has a lot of potential to improve the lives of all creators. There’s many ways to tackle these problems, and improving the way music is licensed is one of those ways.
Then secondly, a long rabbit hole of thinking of new ways to tokenize networks of value led to designing Curation Markets: a protocol that uses tokenized signals to reduce information asymmetry.
Tell us a little bit about Curation Markets, What are they and how did you come up with the idea?
By incentivizing agents to curate information through tokenized signals, Curation Markets, very broadly, aims to reduce all kinds of information asymmetry. In doing this, it can produce quite broad outcomes: things like increasing coordination and decision making around open source projects, to tokenizing memes themselves (Dogecoin on steroids essentially).
It works primarily in 2 steps: allowing interested parties to mint a communal token continuously through a smart contract (say: #football), and then using that token to stake to information that the parties feel are relevant. If the token is minted with ETH, it is then kept in a communal pool. The staking of tokens, signal through a knowable cost is what is important/relevant. If it is, more participants might want to join, increasing the amount of tokens in supply and the size of the pool. Token holders can at any point leave by burning their tokens into the pool. Thus Curation Markets form and dissolve as they are needed.
As long as the tokenized signals help reduce information asymmetry, participants will want to join as the protocol rewards them for doing that work. Some Curation Markets will be bigger or smaller, depending on the need for better information dissemination.
What are some interesting use cases for Curation Markets?
Monetizing all open source projects. Meme Markets (see: District0x’s upcoming Meme Factory). Attention Markets (get paid for your attention). Tokenized Sub-Reddits (every sub-reddit having a token). Creating autonomous artists. Incentivizing funding of public goods (rewarding curators who best direct cashflow to communal goals).
It’s very broad. In a way, it’s rethinking the modern corporation: a corporation is used for many, many things.
Where do you see the crypto space heading in the next few years?
I still think we haven’t seen anything yet, tbh. The reduction to barriers to coordinate has been so vastly reduced that I’m fairly certain, we don’t nearly understand what’s going to come. We are in the phase of blockchain technology where we are publishing a newspaper as is daily on the web and people are reading through 56kb modems. Marginal improvements over existing systems. But we haven’t the reached the stage of blockchains where we are real-time consuming news through feeds (to use an extended metaphor). A lot of innovation still is going to come.
For example, I think all ICOs currently are thinking way too much like the legacy world. It’s a round peg in a square hole. Token generation can be done continuously as it is needed to use the protocol/network/dapp. I think almost all tokens will eventually move to continuous models as it more appropriately rewards everyone involved.
Simon thanks for your time! The bounty0x team is looking forward to working with you in the future!
Learn More
To learn more about Simon de la Rouviere:
Medium: Simon de la Rouviere
Ujo Music
TwitterGlobal banana companies supplying the UK are using tax havens to avoid paying tax on their profits here and in developing countries, the Guardian has found.
The investigation reveals that large corporations are creating elaborate structures to move profits through subsidiaries to offshore centres such as the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and the British Virgin Islands, to avoid handing money over to tax collectors in the countries where their goods are produced, and in those where they are consumed. Governments at both ends of the chain are increasingly being deprived of the ability to raise tax for development or services.
Dole, Chiquita, and Fresh Del Monte, the three companies that supply several UK supermarkets and between them control more than two thirds of the worldwide banana trade, generated over $50bn (£24bn) of sales and $1.4bn of global profits in the last five years. Yet they paid just $200m, or just over 14% of profits, in taxes between them over that period, our analysis of their financial accounts reveals.
In some years the banana companies have paid an effective tax rate as low as 8%, even though the standard rate in the US where they have their headquarters and file their full accounts is 35%.
The banana companies are not alone. Nearly a third of the UK's 700 largest businesses paid no corporation tax in the year 2005-06. A further third paid less than £10m each, according to figures from the National Audit Office.
The use of offshore havens by rich individuals to avoid paying tax was high on the political agenda this autumn, with Gordon Brown matching the Conservatives' pledge to tax "non doms". But increasingly, the far bigger challenge for government is how to keep up with the strategies being developed by large corporations to cut their tax bills.
About 60% of world trade now consists of internal transfers within transnational companies, according to the OECD. By weighting their costs towards countries such as the UK or the US that have higher rates of tax, corporations can make little taxable profit in those countries. Instead their profits are weighted towards subsidiaries they have set up in jurisdictions that charge little or no tax.
Del Monte Fresh Produce UK, Chiquita UK and Dole's UK business, JP Fresh, report combined sales in the UK of over £400m in their most recently filed annual accounts. Yet between them they paid only £128,000 in UK tax.
Fresh Del Monte, currently the supplier of the vast majority of Asda's bananas and some of Morrisons', is registered in the Cayman Islands and has more than 30 Cayman subsidiaries. The Caymans have a zero rate of corporation tax. It also has subsidiaries in other tax havens including Gibraltar, Bermuda, the Dutch Antilles and the British Virgin Islands. Over the last five years its actual tax paid has been as much as $69m a year less than tax calculated at the standard US corporation rate.
Dole, which supplies bananas to Tesco in the UK, paid actual tax that was $20m a year less than tax at the standard US rate. Its accounts only list its largest subsidiaries, but these include companies in Bermuda, Liberia and Puerto Rico.
Chiquita, which also supplies Tesco, lists 11 subsidiaries in Bermuda at the end of 2006. Our analysis of its accounts over five years shows that its actual tax paid is as much as $44m less a year than US standard rates.
In a double blow to the developing countries where the bananas are produced, the fall in tax as a percentage of profit paid by the large corporations has coincided with ruthless driving down of costs. Wages have been reduced on plantations even as working hours have been increased.
Fair trade campaign group Banana Link says Fresh Del Monte sacked all 4,300 of its workers on its Monte Libano plantations in Costa Rica in 1999 and re-employed people on reduced wages and benefits, a model it later rolled out across all its plantations. Chiquita's plantation labour costs meanwhile, which were 5% of its total costs in 2004, had been cut to just 2% in 2006.
Richard Murphy, a tax expert who advised the NAO on its report on the performance of the UK Revenue and Customs, said that large companies are effectively now able to set their own tax rates. "Corporation tax is falling worldwide as a percentage of profits. Corporations seem to be deciding what they should pay, not as a percentage like the rest of us, but as a sum above which they don't want to go."
John Christensen, a former economic adviser to the Jersey government and director of the campaign group Tax Justice Network, said the Guardian investigation confirmed that the flight of capital was continuing, having reached unprecedented levels in the 1990s. "The trend in the last 30 years has been to shift the burden of tax away from companies on to the consumer and labour. Capital is increasingly going untaxed." Dole declined to comment on the Guardian's detailed allegations, saying that they involved confidential and proprietary information. Chiquita said it complied with all tax laws in the jurisdictions where it does business. Chiquita added that "a significant portion of our earnings occur outside the US where they are subject to taxation at the local tax rate". Both companies say they are working with the Latin American unions to address workers' rights.
Fresh Del Monte said it too operated in many countries and complied with all local tax law and international tax treaties. It added that it also complied with all local labour laws, was a strong proponent of freedom of association, and that the average wage of its agricultural employees in the countries where it operates exceeds the mandated minimum agricultural wage.Nasser al-Halabi* is a 26-year-old Syrian citizen who fled home, was deported from Saudi Arabia, found himself homeless in Turkey, and now works and lives in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Al Halabi’s precarious journey began in early 2012, after he refused to enlist in Syria’s mandatory military service. To avoid punishment, the University of Aleppo engineering student escaped to Lebanon, and wasn’t able to finish school. “The Syrian regime did not postpone my army service requirement because they want to draft as many soldiers as possible to kill innocent civilians in Syria,” he told me via Facebook Messenger.
I interviewed al-Halabi nearly a dozen times from September to November via online chat, though he only agreed to speak over the phone once, for fear he’d be overheard in the DRC’s capital of Kinshasa. “I can be deported easily,” said al-Halabi, who asked that I use a pseudonym to replace his first name, citing safety concerns.
After arriving in Lebanon, al-Halabi secured a visitor’s visa to Saudi Arabia. But in 2014, the Saudi government deported him back to Lebanon for working illegally on a visitor’s visa for two years. (The government didn’t send him to Syria because Assad’s regime might've executed him for leaving the country without completing the required military service, al-Halabi explained)
Al-Halabi had trouble finding a job in Lebanon, so he traveled to Turkey (in late 2014, Syria and Turkey still had a mutual visa-exemption agreement, which the latter revoked in December 2015). Confronted by bleak employment prospects, however, al-Halabi began living on the streets of Istanbul. “I was forced to leave Turkey because all doors closed in my face, and I was practically homeless,” he said.
Just when al-Halabi was losing hope, his Syrian friend in Istanbul offered him a job in the DRC. He immediately accepted. “[Back] then, I didn’t even know where the DRC was on the map,” he told me.
Soon after, al-Halabi got a three-month tourist visa to the DRC, and within days, he arrived in the Central African nation to work as an air-conditioning technician. Legally, al-Halabi isn’t allowed to work on a tourist visa and is at risk of deportation, but found an employer who was willing to overlook his situation.
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"All doors closed in my face, and I was practically homeless."
Growing up in Aleppo, al-Halabi’s uncle taught him how to install and fix air-conditioning units. He said it’s easy for Syrians to find such jobs in the DRC, given the country’s hot climate: “The locals here have very small to no knowledge about technology and especially about air-conditioning systems.”
Plagued by conflict, corruption and poverty, the DRC isn’t a safe place for fleeing Syrians to end up, and al-Halabi says he fears for his life daily. The country is still recovering from wars that broke out during the 1990s, and left 6 million people dead. Much like what Syrians witnessed during the 2011 revolution and ongoing civil war, the DRC continues to experience turmoil.
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“The DRC is known that it’s one of the world’s poorer countries and there are hundreds of thousands people in Kinshasa who live under the poverty line. It’s very difficult in socioeconomic terms for Syrians to get support here,” Andreas Kirchhof, spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Kinshasa, told me. “It’s really astonishing that the Syrian conflict spread Syrians all over the world,”
Although Syrians are used to violent clashes in their home country, many are unfamiliar with racism, which al-Halabi says he’s experiencing for the first time in the DRC. Syrians tend to have a lighter complexion than locals, so they’re seen as foreigners among the local black population, he told me.
“Every day, I face the dangers of being kidnapped by locals because I am categorized as a ‘white man,’” al-Halabi said. “I live in a big prison, here. I don’t know the language or their culture. They all look at me as a stranger.”
For now, he’s living in a state of limbo, with nowhere safe to go.
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Lacking both financial and legal stability in the DRC, al-Halabi recently decided to return to Syria and live in Aleppo. Since September, al-Halabi has been working on getting a Turkish visa, so he can sneak into Syria through the Turkish border (it’s too risky for him to fly straight there). To get a visa, al-Halabi must prove to the government that he has money in the bank and a place to stay in Turkey. And Despite the dangers he faces in Syria, living in Turkey isn’t an option.
“All countries closed their doors in the faces of Syrians. I’d rather go back and live under Assad’s bombs,” said al-Halabi, who lost family members in a bombardment on Aleppo in September.
“I live in a big prison, here. I don’t know the language or their culture. They all look at me as a stranger.”
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When al-Halabi contacted UN officials in Kinshasa for help on his current status in the DRC, they told him to apply for refugee status. “The person I talked to at the UN was shocked that there are Syrians in the Congo,” he said.
The UNHCR’s Kirchhof told me that Congolese authorities have granted seven Syrians refugee status in Lubumbashi, the country’s second largest city, since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011. Refugee status in the DRC doesn’t automatically grant Syrians a path to citizenship, which means they can’t get a Congolese passport for travel to neighboring countries. Al-Halabi said his Syrian friend, who fled the regime of former president Hafez al-Assad (current Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s father) in the 1980s, has been married to a DRC native for 13 years but still hasn’t been able to get citizenship.
“A person can acquire a refugee status, but [that] doesn’t give the person the right to citizenship after a certain period. That is up to the authorities to decide,” Kirchhof said. “To my knowledge, there have been no Syrians recognized as refugees in Kinshasa so far.”
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For his part, al-Halabi says he doesn’t want to seek asylum in the DRC because he won’t likely be accepted for resettlement in a Western country, which prioritizes locals over Syrians. Host countries decide who they want to accept as refugees, according to Kirchhof.
Escaping to Europe illegally would also be too risky for al-Halabi. “I have many friends that snuck out of the DRC and made it to Europe through water. I don’t know how to swim and I don’t want to risk dying to get to Europe,” he said.
Jean Philippe Chauzy, chief of mission for the International Organization (IOM) in Kinshasa, told me that the IOM doesn’t have any data on Syrians in the DRC. The DRC mission in the UN did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
*First name changed to protect identity
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Alaa Basatneh is a human-rights activist and a writer at Fusion focusing on the Arab world. She is the protagonist of the 2013 documentary "#ChicagoGirl."A Kickstarter project aiming to turn unofficial Doctor Who audio spin-off The Minister of Chance into a movie starring Paul McGann and Sylvester McCoy launched on Thursday, immediately drawing pledges of over £15,000.
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Seventh and Eighth Doctors McCoy and McGann are set to reprise their roles from the cult sci-fi podcast if the first instalment of the proposed four-part movie reaches its target budget of £100,000 on the crowd-funding website.
Despite it’s humble origins as a fan-funded venture, the original audio drama boasts a star-studded cast with the two former Doctors joined by big-name British actors including Philip Glenister, Tamsin Greig and Jenny Agutter, as well as former EastEnders and Sherlock star Lauren Crace, and Paul Darrow, best known for another classic sci-fi series, Blake’s 7.
The Minister of Chance was created by Dan Freeman and based on characters from 2001 Doctor Who BBC audio drama serial Death Comes to Time, which he produced and directed.
The eponymous Minister was played by Stephen Fry in the original series, with Julian Wadham taking over for Freeman’s spin-off.
McGann plays the slithery Ambassador Durian of the magic-worshipping people of Sezuan, while McCoy is their hapless leader The Witch Prime.
In a land where science is outlawed, Crace is feral barmaid Kitty, whose life changes one night when she follows a cloaked stranger through a doorway to another world…
Rewards for pledging money to the movie project range from a mention in the film’s credits for a £10 donation to one of the main characters’ original costumes for those willing to shell out £2,500 or more.
The production will go ahead if the target of £100,000 is reached by 8pm on Friday 31st October.
Watch a teaser trailer for The Minister of Chance…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AN5McoDJPUU
Listen to the opening episode of The Minister of Chance audio drama below…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7KwmrKQXlQ
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Visit The Minister of Chance movie Kickstarter pageFilament Theatre Ensemble Set to Bring 'Cyrano' to Life View Full Caption
PORTAGE PARK — The Filament Theatre Ensemble will bring one of literature's great love triangles to life as part of its spring season with a family-friendly production of "Cyrano."
Starting Friday and running through May 18, the play — recommended for those 8 and older — is an adaptation by Jo Roet of the famous work of Edmond Rostand directed by Filament Artistic Director Julie Ritchey.
The performance is designed to capture the emotions of loss and love at the heart of the beloved story while moving fast to keep the audience enthralled, said Ritchey, who has wanted to stage a performance of Roet's adaptaion since she was in college.
The play, which features three actors — two of whom play multiple roles — tells the story of swashbuckling poet-soldier Cyrano de Bergerac whose path to true love is blocked by his gargantuan nose. Christian, who can not seem to speak to the beautiful Roxane, uses Cyrano's words to woo her, leaving both men unsure of Roxane's true feelings.
Set in a Paris of windswept balconies and bloody battlefields, Filament's production of "Cyrano" promises "a lightning-paced romance of duels, poetry, panache [and} sacrifice," according to the company.
Starting Filament Acting Company members Andrew Marchetti as Cyrano along with Lindsey Dorcus and Nate Drackett, the play is based on an adaptation of the original story by Edmond Rostand first produced in 1996 in Belgium, and translated into English by Audrey van Tuyckom.
In keeping with Filament's folk art tradition, set from "Cyrano" will be used for the group's next production, Ritchey said.
"Cyrano" will be the second mainstage production at Filament's Six Corners home, 4041 N. Milwaukee Ave. The 6-year-old, formerly itinerant ensemble moved to Portage Park last year, and has been working to transform the former furniture warehouse into a performance space.
The group is about $3,300 away from its goal of raising $25,000 to complete the work on its performance space, according to its website.
Ensemble member Peter Oyloe said the group was thrilled the fundraising campaign has been so successful.
"Things are moving along at a good space," Oyloe said.
Theater lovers who attended Filament's first mainstage production — "The Snow Queen" — will see the progress that has been made in just a few months, Oyloe said.
"We still have a long way to go," Oyloe said. "But we've been able to get a lot of work done."
The ensemble learned during the performances of the Snow Queen that their new home strikes a "fun balance" between allowing the actors enough room to play their scene while allowing the audience to feel like a "fly on the wall" because of the intimacy of the small theater, Ritchey said.
Once complete, the ensemble will be able to transform the performance space from a black box theater to a cabaret to a theater resembling an ancient Greek or Roman stage from one production to the next.
The group hopes the theater will become a community hub in the Six Corners Shopping District, a desire shared by Ald. John Arena (45th), who has been working to turn the area around Milwaukee Avenue, Cicero Avenue and Irving Park Boulevard, which has struggled for decades, into an arts and entertainment district.
Performances of the hour-long show will take place at 8 p.m. Fridays, 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays.
Tickets are $15 to $20 and are available at the group's website, filamenttheatre.org. A $5 discount is available from the alderman's office by using the online promo code Arena.
For more information, call 773-270-1660.The Anaheim Ducks apologized Sunday for an "insensitive" video they released in conjunction with the NHL's 100th birthday that depicted a nude player walking past the office cubicles of female co-workers.
The video, which has been taken down from the team's social media feeds, featured center Ryan Kesler walking naked through the Anaheim office with a black rectangle over his lower body. He strolls past two women who are working at their desks, before entering the office of a male co-worker.
"Kes, what are you doing, bud? You got no clothes on," the male co-worker says.
"It's the NHL's 100th birthday. I'm celebrating in my birthday suit," Kesler replies.
The video landed with a thud on social media, with some questioning whether the comedy was appropriate given the number of high-profile sexual harassment and assault allegations made across several industries recently, many of them involving the workplace.
"Our tweet posted earlier today was meant to be a lighthearted video celebrating the NHL's 100th birthday," the Ducks wrote on their official Twitter feed. "We realize in retrospect the content of the video may have been insensitive and we have removed the video and apologize."Happy New Year!!!!
Nothing says New Years Eve like confetti, and these crisp melt-in-your-mouth raspberry cookies will be everyone’s party favorite!!!
INGREDIENTS:
3 egg whites
1/8t. salt
3 1/2 T. raspberry Jell-O
3/4 c. sugar
1T. vinegar
Confetti sprinkles
INSTRUCTIONS:
Preheat oven to 250 degrees
Beat egg whites with salt until foaming.
Add Jell-O and sugar as you beat mixture and beat until it stands in peaks.
Add vinegar and gently mix.
(if you want, you can add a few mini chocolate chips at this point! yum!)
Spoon or pipe into small circles on a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper.
Sprinkle with confetti sprinkles or jimmies.
Bake at 250 degrees for 25 minutes, turn oven off and allow to sit for an additional 20 minutes.
Remove from oven and allow cookies to cool completely.
My thoughts: These are great with chocolate chips in them if you like raspberry and chocolate together. I opted for confetti for a fun New Years treat! These are like cotton candy- light and fluffy sugar that melts in your mouth and is a tiny bit chewy at the end. A unique and fun “end-of -the-year” party cookie.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!
Want another confetti-themed dessert idea? Try Confetti Cups made with sugar cookies and Fruit Loops—make them in mini-muffin tins for bite-sized New Years fun!
Enjoy! r-As of right now, only one Xbox 360 game that came on multiple discs is Xbox One backwards compatible. Microsoft promises more multi-disc games will be playable in the near future.
The only multi-disc Xbox 360 game that is playable on Xbox One right now is Deus Ex: Human Revolution Director’s Cut. People have been asking if more multi-disc releases are coming.
GamerHeadquarters reached out to a Microsoft spokesperson and they said: “Yes, ‘Deus Ex: Human Revolution Director’s Cut’ was the first multi-disc Backward Compatible title added to the program. We know fans were asking for this feature and our engineers worked hard developing a solution to enable it so we could further expand the titles included in Xbox One Backward Compatibility.
We’re continuing to listen to our fans on Xbox Feedback and work with our publishing partners to grow out library of Xbox One Backward Compatibility titles and will work to include more multi-disc games.”
This is probably a reason why we haven’t seen other multi-disc games such as the likes of Mass Effect 2 and 3, Grand Theft Auto V and more. It takes extra work to port over multi-disc games to the Xbox One.JOLIET – A Homer Glen attorney who is defending himself on solicitation of murder charges was removed from a courtroom Friday after an expletive-laden outburst.
Robert W. Gold-Smith, 53, appeared before Judge Daniel Rozak on a pending motion to bar recordings of phone calls made from the jail from being used in his upcoming trial.
In November 2010, Gold-Smith‘s then-wife sought an order of protection after he grabbed her by the hair and punched her in the face as they walked out of a courtroom, police said. He has been locked up since March 2011 for allegedly violating that order of protection and approaching jail inmates to have her killed in exchange for money.
Though it appeared Gold-Smith was being kept in general population at the Will County jail earlier in the week when he appeared in court, the yellow jumpsuit he wore Friday indicated he was moved to the "Discipline" unit.
Gold-Smith began discussing a |
be provided for government records.
Diversified clientele
Pua has noted a drop of around 20 percent in the number of Chinese buyers this year.
A buyer surnamed Liu, from East China’s Fujian province, went on a tour organized by Country Garden at the end of 2016 to visit the Forest City project. “Around 86 percent of the units were sold to Chinese,” said Liu, quoting Forest Garden’s sales manager. “Not just Chinese from China, but also Chinese from other countries, such as Singapore and Malaysia.”
Country Garden no longer organizes tours to the project for potential Chinese buyers and has ceased marketing Forest City in its sales galleries in the Chinese mainland. Instead, the company will open galleries to target customers in the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and Dubai between August and October to diversify its customer base, Bloomberg reported.
Liu said that many people he knows from a Forest City buyers chat group are worried that their investment could come to nothing, with some even considering canceling.
Shan Saeed, chief economist at real estate and investment advisory firm IQI Global, said “capital controls” happen in every economy when it is required. “We are quite buoyant about Chinese investment coming into Malaysian real estate.
“Most of the investors would like to be centered around the downtown area like KLCC (Kuala Lumpur City Centre).”
According to Shan, prices ranging from 1 million to 2.5 million ringgit (US$233,000 to US$584,000) will find favor with Chinese buyers, who are looking for high-end projects.
That high-end market will continue to be the focus of Chinese developers, with some starting to show more interest in Kuala Lumpur, said Sarkunan from Knight Frank.
But Sarkunan hopes that Chinese developers will pay more attention to the affordable housing segment where there is local demand. He reasoned that although the profits may not be as great as in the high-end market, expected profits without sales are meaningless.
According to figures from Knight Frank Malaysia, there was a year-on-year contraction of more than 20 percent in 2016 in both the volume and value of transactions of condominiums and apartments in Kuala Lumpur. Contractions of 7.95 percent in volume and 4.1 percent in the value of transactions were recorded in Johor.
“I think the trend (in the high-end market) will continue, but I hope they realize and change focus,” Sarkunan said.
Zhang Haizhou contributed to this story.Etymology and terminology Edit
History Edit
Bikini variants Edit
Bikini in sport Edit
Body ideals Edit
Bikini underwear Edit
See also: Underwear as outerwear Certain types of underwear are described as bikini underwear and designed for men and women. For women, bikini or bikini-style underwear is underwear that is similar in size and form to a regular bikini. It can refer to virtually any undergarment that provides less coverage to the midriff than lingerie, panties or knickers,[217] especially suited to clothing such as crop tops. For men, bikini briefs are undergarments that are smaller and more revealing than men's classic briefs. Men's bikini briefs can be low- or high-side that are usually lower than true waist, often at hips, and usually have no access pouch or flap, legs bands at tops of thighs.[218] String bikini briefs have front and rear sections that meet in the crotch but not at the waistband, with no fabric on the side of the legs.[219] Swimwear and underwear have similar design considerations, both being form-fitting garments. The main difference is that, unlike underwear, swimwear is open to public view.[220] The swimsuit was, and is, following underwear styles,[221] and at about the same time that attitudes towards the bikini began to change, underwear underwent a redesign towards a minimal, unboned design that emphasized comfort first.[222] History Edit Women's underwear 1927 2013 As the swimsuit was evolving, the underwear started to change. Between 1900 and 1940, swimsuit lengths followed the changes in underwear designs.[223] In the 1920s women started discarding the corset, while the Cadole company of Paris started developing something they called the "breast girdle".[224] During the Great Depression, panties and bras became softly constructed and were made of various elasticized yarns making underwear fit like a second skin. By 1930s underwear styles for both women and men were influenced by the new brief models of swimwear from Europe. Although the waistband was still above the navel, the leg openings of the panty brief were cut in an arc to rise from the crotch to the hip joint. The brief served as a template for most all variations of panties for the rest of the century.[225] Warner standardized the concept of Cup size in 1935. The first underwire bra was developed in 1938.[224] Beginning in the late thirties skants, a type of skanty men's briefs, were introduced, featuring very high-cut leg openings and a lower rise to the waistband.[225] Howard Hughes designed a push-up bra to be worn by Jane Russell in The Outlaw in 1943, although Russell stated in interviews that she never wore the 'contraption'. In 1950 Maidenform introduced the first official bust enhancing bra.[224] By the 1960s, the bikini swimsuit influenced panty styles and coincided with the cut of the new lower rise jeans and pants.[225] In the seventies, with the emergence of skintight jeans, thong versions of the panty became mainstream, since the open, stringed back eliminated any tell-tale panty lines across the rear and hips. By the 1980s the design of the French-cut panty pushed the waistband back up to the natural waistline and the rise of the leg openings was nearly as high (French Cut panties come up to the waist, has a high cut leg, and usually are full in the rear[226]). As with the bra and other type of lingerie, manufacturers of the last quarter of the century marketed panty styles that were designed primarily for their sexual allure.[225] From this decade sexualization and eroticization of the male body was on the rise. The male body was celebrated through advertising campaigns for brands such as Calvin Klein, particularly by photographers Bruce Weber and Herb Ritts.[227] Male bodies and men's undergarments were commodified and packaged for mass consumption, and swimwear and sportswear were influenced by sports photography and fitness.[227] Over time, swimwear evolved from weighty wool to high-tech skin-tight garments, eventually cross-breeding with sportswear, underwear and exercise wear, resulting in the interchangeable fashions of the 1990s.[228]
Men's bikini Edit
Men's bikini The term men's bikini is sometimes used to describe swim briefs. Men's bikinis can have high or low side panels, and string sides or tie sides. Most lack a button or flap front. Unlike swim briefs, bikinis are not designed for drag reduction and generally lack a visible waistband. Suits less than 1.5 inches wide at the hips are less common for sporting purposes and are most often worn for recreation, fashion, and sun tanning. The posing brief standard to bodybuilding competitions is an example of this style. Male punk rock musicians have performed on the stage wearing women's bikini briefs.[229] The 2000 Bollywood film Hera Pheri shows men sunbathing in bikinis, who were mistakenly believed to be women from a distance.[230] Male bikini tops also exist and are often used as visual gags.[231] A mankini is a type of sling swimsuit worn by men. The term is inspired by the word bikini.[232] It was popularized by Sacha Baron Cohen when he donned one in the film Borat.[233]
Bikini waxing Edit
Main article: Bikini waxing Bikini waxing styles American waxing (also: triangle, regular) French waxing (also: Mohican, landing strip) Brazilian waxing (also: Hollywood, full monty) Sources:[234][235][236][237][238][238][239][240][241] Bikini waxing is the epilation of pubic hair beyond the bikini line by use of waxing. The bikini line delineates the part of a woman's pubic area to be covered by the bottom part of a bikini, which means any pubic hair visible beyond the boundaries of a swimsuit.[242] Visible pubic hair is widely culturally disapproved, considered to be embarrassing, and often removed.[242] As popularity of bikinis grew, the acceptability of pubic hair diminished.[243] But, with certain styles of women's swimwear, pubic hair may become visible around the crotch area of a swimsuit.[242] With the reduction in the size of swimsuits, especially since the advent of the bikini after 1945, the practice of bikini waxing has also become popular.[242] The Brazilian style which became popular with the rise of thong bottoms.[244] Depending on the style of bikini-bottom and the amount of skin visible outside the bikini,[244] pubic hair may be styled into several styles[234][235][236] — American waxing (removal of pubic hair from the sides, top of the thighs, and under the navel), French waxing (leaves only a vertical strip in front), Brazilian waxing (removal of all hair in the pelvic area, particularly suitable for thong bottoms).[245]
Bikini tan Edit
See also: Sun tanning Tan lines created by a bikini The tan lines created by the wearing of a bikini while tanning are known as a bikini tan. A 1969 innovation of tan-through swimwear uses fabric which is perforated with thousands of micro holes that are nearly invisible to the naked eye, but which let enough sunlight through to produce a line-free tan.[246][247] As bikinis leave most of the body exposed to potentially dangerous UV radiation, overexposure can cause sunburn, skin cancer, as well as other acute and chronic health effects on the skin, eyes, and immune system.[248] As a result, medical organizations recommend that bikini wearers protect themselves from UV radiation by using broad-spectrum sunscreen, which has been shown to protect against sunburn, skin cancer,[249] wrinkling and sagging skin.[250] Certain sunscreen ingredients can cause harm if they penetrate the skin over time.[251]
See also EditHiring managers share their sincere reasons to insist you work in the office—and a few tips for how you might convince them otherwise.
Read “The Remote Worker's Survival Guide,” to find out what successful telecommuters learned the hard way.
People who appreciate the benefits of working remotely often find it unfathomable that any organization would prohibit the practice. To successful telecommuters, anyone who resists the lifestyle is missing a fundamental understanding about how knowledge workers work most efficiently.
But the contrasting viewpoint deserves to be honored as well. Plenty of businesses only hire onsite staff, and it isn’t solely because they’re wrong-headed meanies. I asked dozens of hiring managers to explain (mostly anonymously) why their companies have such a policy, and what it might take to change it.
You might object to some of these opinions, especially if your experience is different—but that makes it even more important to pay attention. Because if you do want to work remotely, it behooves you to understand the other party’s perceptions. You cannot counter a “No way!” attitude without addressing the would-be boss’ heartfelt—but often unexpressed—concerns.
Communication works better in person
By far, the most prevalent attitude is that rapport and camaraderie are generated best from in-person relationships. Hiring managers are convinced that colleagues build closer work relationships when they have lunch together, engage in water cooler chats about casual topics, or do team-building exercises. “I don't think people in remote locations are any different than my colleagues here,” explains one techie. “But the rapport is simply not there if I am going to meet them on video conferences or instant messaging only a few times a week.”
It’s not just the social time. In the eyes of many hiring managers, co-location encourages spontaneous and informal collaboration, Q&A, and problem solving, says David Silver, who owns executive search firm The Sterling Group. For the client, “It allows for an organic, real-time give-and-take,” Silver says.
Nor is this just a pronouncement from On High. Plenty of techies feel that on-site work keeps the barriers to communication as low as possible. “While tools like Slack and email get the job done if your team is working remotely, nothing beats being able to turn around in your chair and quickly engage another pair of developers (or the entire development team if necessary) in a quick discussion about something,” says one programmer committed to pair programming. Immediacy matters: “I can walk 30 steps or less and talk to anyone from the product or business teams about requirements,” he adds.
And even if everyone is comfortable with text chats and Google Hangouts, it’s still hard to collaborate spontaneously, says a developer I’ll call Phil. “I can't just walk to a whiteboard and draw something up quickly and have them easily see it.”
Creativity happens in the hallway
The communication concern isn’t only about paintball-inspired team building. There’s a strong perception that a lack of social interaction reduces creativity and innovation.
Most famously, in 2013, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer banned telecommuting at the company, saying, “Some of the best decisions and insights come from hallway and cafeteria discussions, meeting new people, and impromptu team meetings.” Best Buy also ended its flexible work program at around the same time
Mayer isn’t the only executive—or techie colleague—with that sentiment. Nearly everyone can share a story about a just-in-passing conversation that led to a better business outcome: bumping into an old teammate whose experience helped your project, a casual chat in which a buddy mentions her technology need where you know the right person, a discussion on the smoking patio that led to 10 new feature enhancements.
A culture dependent on spontaneous discussions leaves out telecommuters, with an impact on their job roles. “When I was at the office for a decade, 90% of the insight and productivity came from informal conversations in the hallway, lunches, and things I overheard in passing,” says Steve, who is now a remote worker. Now, he says, most communication is deliberate (an email, text, meeting), leaving him out of ad-hoc conversations. “The net result is my personal career becomes very confined and stunted,” he says. “I become that guy who does that one thing rather than a team-member who has an awareness of everything and the ability to jump in as needed.”
The opportunity for “Hey can you take a look at this…?” conversations is a valuable one. However, those who prefer remote work hasten to point out the other side of the story: “Interactions” are really interruptions that cost creative flow and productivity. For example, one telecommuting software engineer says, in the office, “The distractions were unbearable. Phones ringing, people walking by who always felt the need to interrupt me about anything (work-related or not), and many phone calls about unrelated projects that resulted in context switching.”
But plenty of companies put their attention on what’s visible—how many serendipitous events came from water cooler conversations—and not the heads-down productivity at home. Which brings us to the next point.
Managing remote workers is harder
In any context, management is a matter of trusting other people to know what they’re doing and to get the work done. Hiring managers never told me, “I don’t trust my people” directly, nor “We pay attention to butts in seats.” Instead, they spoke of accountability, training, and accessibility.
Plus, one bad remote apple does spoil the barrel. “Our management wants people onsite for better control,” says a techie I’ll call Joan. “We had some remote employee not work out, therefore all remote is ‘bad.’” The team has been working with a new remote QA team and has two telecommuting developers, all of whom are doing well. But, says Joan, management pushes back. “Some managers like to interrupt frequently for ‘urgent fires,’ and that is easier when someone is a few meters away.”
Managers stress the need to mentor junior team members—a process that’s more difficult when a newbie doesn’t know when it’s time to ask for help. The typical inexperienced tech worker isn't communicative enough for senior mentors to recognize when and how much the worker is struggling—not without seeing them. Says Susan, an infosec specialist, “This means that mentoring and support can come on a huge lag, which means it's harder to train and inculcate, which means the junior experiences successes at a slower pace, which is bad for their morale and productivity.”
“Interns and new hires much prefer somebody sitting with them and collaborating,” adds Phil. “Sure, you can do screen sharing, but it’s not the same at all.”
The extra logistics aren’t worth it
Changing business policies to permit remote work means that the company has to re-think several business processes, and the payoff isn’t obvious. The organization doesn’t know how to deal with the differences, and if you can avoid a risk, it makes sense to do so.
Organizations built on the assumption of on-site staff know how to support those users. Remote staff require more overhead, because now you need processes for on-site and off-site people: everything from fixing printing problems to ensuring the VPN works correctly to setting up new security procedures.
The cloud and SaaS applications have made some of this easier, and there are more ways to communicate online. But, say several techies, meetings are hindered by teleconferencing. For example, it’s hard to hear the remote person, even with high-quality video and audio, not to mention all-too-frequent tech failures.
Everybody does it that way
Conservatism often wins. When it comes to remote work, the benefits are fuzzy while the risks and costs are clear. On-site is the default. As long as the company can hire the people it wants, at a price it can afford, why change?
Or as one startup team member says, “I don't have a lot of great confidence in my hiring practices, and the owners of the company are a little more conservative. As such, I make the safer choice to hire candidates willing to work on-site instead. I can see when they come in, I can task and re-task on a whim, and I have a much better sense of when they begin to head down rabbit holes.”
Telecommuting is successful when the company has a “remote first” attitude, and that’s hard unless you’re starting from scratch. “Hiring remote employees without the organizational foundation to support them is a recipe for disaster,” says one startup founder. “Most companies have other priorities than to tackle this kind of change, and quite frankly, don’t need to look outside a 30-mile radius to find qualified candidates.”
And while plenty of remote workers huff about organizations missing out on great job candidates by sticking to a no-telecommuting policy, that rarely distresses the HR department. They still have plenty of people applying. If the company can’t find the right people in six months, says executive search pro Silver, he can bring up the topic again. “This has sometimes limited the number of good candidates and sometimes not,” says Silver.
What if you want to telecommute anyway?
Perhaps you have your heart set on a job at a particular company, despite its reluctance to support remote workers. Or maybe you know you’re the right person for the job, even if the job req clearly says, “Local candidates only.”
Under the right circumstances, it may be possible to change their minds. Here are a few points to make during those conversations.
Argue based on their cost savings. A company in an expensive city can afford to hire a telecommuting senior staffer for a local junior salary. Susan, the InfoSec specialist, applied for on-site jobs and got telecommute arrangements a few times. “My biggest selling point was, ‘I live in the Midwest, and expect to make $X; if I move to SF/NYC/etc., my cost of living will skyrocket, and I will need to make $2.5X.’ It's true. My huge farmhouse on 3.25 acres cost less than a two bedroom condo goes for in San Francisco.”
Alternatively, says Susan, suggest contract work rather than W2 employment. “Compensation was adjusted accordingly (e.g. so I could buy my own insurance), and their HR departments were less nervous that way, for reasons I've never fully understood.”
Show that you’ve telecommuted successfully. Silver’s clients are more amenable to hiring someone who can demonstrate being accountable, with a track record of successful remote work.
One element of that argument may be to offer to visit the office regularly—a practice on which most successful telecommuters insist (for communication reasons), so it’s no hardship. Maybe it’s in-office two days in five. Or if the employee is in another state, suggest you spend one week in the office every two months. “Being an integral part of the work culture is crucial,” says Joy Perry, CEO of JZP Consulting, an executive search firm for technology startups. “The only way to achieve that is by being present and embedded with the team culture.”
Be a rock star in your domain. “For the right talent and when a role has been open for a very long time, they tend to give in,” says Perry. “But not right away.”
“Keep on negotiating if you feel strongly about telecommuting,” says Perry. “As the employee, you may have to give in initially. As time goes on and trust and your performance have been consistently validated, go for it! Ask for that option. Everything can always be negotiated.”
That was true for a Ben, who got a remote job with a startup in Dallas because he had bargaining power. “A friend was going in as the director of engineering and really wanted me, and I basically made being 80% remote a condition of my employment,” he says.
It was also true for me, your loyal author. “The company really wants someone on-site,” said the recruiter. I responded, “I’m sure that when the hiring manager sees my body of work—and 20 years of telecommuting experience—she’ll want to speak with me.” (What did I have to lose? I might as well ask for what I want.) I started working at the company six weeks later.
Start out on-site, and go remote gradually. Give the managers time to realize they can trust you when you’re out of their sight—and their site.
For example, Josh was hired as a freelancer in a no-telecommuting company. After 18 months he was bored, and ready to leave; a two-hour commute didn’t help. The organization wanted him to stay, so he said he’d do so if he could telecommute two days a week. “I already had their trust and they knew I delivered, so they agreed cheerfully,” he says. “It would have never happened if I had asked for telecommuting at day one.”
But do ask yourself just how much of a stink you’re willing to make. Do you really want to work at a company that doesn’t trust you?
“Companies refusing telecommuters for senior staff positions usually have an underlying communication or trust problem,” says Susan. “I tend to steer clear, having been burned before.”
And while these tips may be helpful, don’t expect that they’ll always work. Some organizations have “must be onsite” built into the culture. You can invent the Web, and Google still won’t make it easy for you to work remotely.
Are you—and your company—committed to making remote work a success? Read the accompanying report, “The Remote Worker's Survival Guide,” to find out what successful telecommuters learned the hard way.Whether you have seven gallons of water in your basement - just in case, or your pantry hasn't seen an edible item in months, knowing how to survive in the city when It All Goes Down is a skill no one should scoff at.
Urban areas present the everyday survivalist with unique challenges and assets. To get to the essentials of what we need to know, Thorin Klosowksi of Lifehacker spoke with Dr. Arthur Bradley, author of The Handbook to Practical Disaster Preparedness for the Family and Disaster Preparedness for EMP Attacks and Solar Storms.
Dr. Bradley broke types of survivalists into three categories, Klosowksi writes:
The Stockpiler : someone with a wide assortment of supplies but very little knowledge of how to actually do anything.
: someone with a wide assortment of supplies but very little knowledge of how to actually do anything. The MacGyver : someone who can jury rig anything with duct tape, a pencil, and a pack of chewing gum.
: someone who can jury rig anything with duct tape, a pencil, and a pack of chewing gum. The Survivalist: someone who can find dinner in an old stump and keep warm using a roll of toilet paper and a rusty coffee can.
So what do we do with this information? Take the one piece of advice that really fits all sizes: find balance.
It's best to take a few tips from each of the different survivor types and turn yourself into an all-purpose urban survival master, but knowing your own skill set and strength can help you focus your attention on what matters.
For example, it's good to know what the Stockpiler, the MacGyver, and the Survivalist would do to find clean drinking water in the city. As we know, water is soon to be one of the hottest commodities on the market.
The Stockpiler has a recommended seven gallons of water in a cool, dark place. Most plastic water bottles have a two year expiration date.
The Stockpiler has a recommended seven gallons of water in a cool, dark place. Most plastic water bottles have a two year expiration date. The MacGyver takes a more dangerous approach: purifying water with bleach. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) states you can add 1/8 teaspoon of non-scented bleach to a gallon of clear water (1/4 teaspoon if the water is cloudy), mix and wait 30 minutes before drinking.
The Survivalist gets creative. Walk down to the basement and tap into the hot water heater. Cut the power, close the valve to the water supply, open the valve on the bottom of the tank, and turn on a sink - drinkable water will pour out.
To learn how to cannibalize a car for shelter, pick a lock into a home or building, cook food with a battery, and stay safe during a natural disaster, among other fine tips, study The Urban Survival Skills Everyone Should Know.
[via Lifehacker]
This post was originally published on Smartplanet.comWith the California League and the Midwest League All-Star breaks taking place this week and all the minor league affiliates right around the halfway points of their seasons, it’s the perfect time to take a step back and determine who the true standouts on the field have been in the A’s system in the first half of 2014. And with that in mind, it’s time to name A’s Farm’s 2014 Mid-Season Organizational All-Star Team!
Below you’ll find the primary starting players at each position for Triple-A Sacramento, Double-A Midland, High-A Stockton and Class-A Beloit. Offensive starters were selected from the players who had the most games played at each position for each team, with notable players not leading in games played at a particular position listed in the designated hitter category. Starting pitchers for each club were selected from hurlers who’ve had at least 7 starts for their team, while closers were selected from each team’s saves leader.
The asterisks denote players who may have also acquired statistics from other teams this season, though only their statistics from their primary team are listed below. Anthony Aliotti, Kent Matthes, Jose Chavez and Ryan Huck have all had stints with other teams in the A’s system, while Nick Buss and Andy Parrino have both done time in other teams’ systems, and Dan Straily, Evan Scribner and Parrino have all spent time in Oakland. But only the statistics from their primary teams are included below.
It’s also worth noting that long-time River Cats right fielder Michael Taylor was just traded to the White Sox on Saturday. But prior to that, he served in the most regular outfield lineup in the A’s system in Sacramento, along with Shane Peterson in center and Nick Buss left. Meanwhile, Max Muncy has only spent about half his time at first base this season while splitting the rest of his starts between designated hitter and third base. And speaking of third base, with Ryan Huck’s demotion from Beloit, B.A. Vollmuth has recently made the move from third base to first and Luis Baez has now stepped in as Beloit’s regular third baseman.
Check out our list of All-Star contenders at each position below. Then just click on the link below our list of contenders to find A’s Farm’s winning Organizational All-Stars at each position. The winners were determined based purely on performance, not potential. Remember, we’re not selecting the top prospects here, we’re choosing the top performers on the field so far this season. So take a good look at the candidates for yourself and feel free to chime in with your own thoughts and selections!
A’s Farm’s Organizational All-Star Team – The Contenders
CATCHER
Sacto – Ryan Ortiz (2 HR /.244 AVG /.400 OBP /.354 SLG /.754 OPS)
Midland – Beau Taylor (3 HR /.246 AVG /.303 OBP /.380 SLG /.684 OPS)
Stockton – Bruce Maxwell (5 HR /.273 AVG /.356 OBP /.392 SLG /.748 OPS)
Beloit – Jose Chavez (0 HR /.229 AVG /.292 OBP /.260 SLG /.553 OPS) *
FIRST BASE
Sacto – Nate Freiman (11 HR /.277 AVG /.354 OBP /.485 SLG /.839 OPS)
Midland – Anthony Aliotti (5 HR /.257 AVG /.376 OBP /.421 SLG /.797 OPS) *
Stockton – Matt Olson (15 HR /.233 AVG /.384 OBP /.465 SLG /.849 OPS)
Beloit – Ryan Huck (3 HR /.202 AVG /.312 OBP /.311 SLG /.623 OPS) *
SECOND BASE
Sacto – Tyler Ladendorf (2 HR /.315 AVG /.399 OBP /.455 SLG /.854 OPS)
Midland – Conner Crumbliss (3 HR /.222 AVG /.332 OBP /.340 SLG /.672 OPS)
Stockton – Chad Pinder (11 HR /.308 AVG /.349 OBP /.577 SLG /.926 OPS)
Beloit – Sam Roberts (1 HR /.244 AVG /.307 OBP /.307 SLG /.614 OPS)
SHORTSTOP
Sacto – Andy Parrino (3 HR /.344 AVG /.411 OBP /.452 SLG /.862 OPS) *
Midland – Dusty Coleman (7 HR /.254 AVG /.322 OBP /.408 SLG /.730 OPS)
Stockton – Daniel Robertson (6 HR /.295 AVG /.384 OBP /.425 SLG /.809 OPS)
Beloit – Melvin Mercedes (0 HR /.259 AVG /.346 OBP /.345 SLG /.691 OPS)
THIRD BASE
Sacto – Alden Carrithers (1 HR /.308 AVG /.406 OBP /.384 SLG /.790 OPS)
Midland – Jefry Marte (4 HR /.234 AVG /.281 OBP /.333 SLG /.614 OPS)
Stockton – Renato Nunez (9 HR /.255 AVG /.321 OBP /.449 SLG /.770 OPS)
Beloit – B.A. Vollmuth (6 HR /.176 AVG /.263 OBP /.299 SLG /.562 OPS)
LEFT FIELD
Sacto – Nick Buss (2 HR /.305 AVG /.371 OBP /.404 SLG /.775 OPS) *
Midland – Kent Matthes (4 HR /.211 AVG /.248 OBP /.421 SLG /.669 OPS) *
Stockton – Bobby Crocker (5 HR /.257 AVG /.306 OBP /.388 SLG /.694 OPS)
Beloit – B.J. Boyd (4 HR /.220 AVG /.300 OBP /.331 SLG /.631 OPS)
CENTER FIELD
Sacto – Shane Peterson (4 HR /.302 AVG /.389 OBP /.408 SLG /.797 OPS)
Midland – Billy Burns (0 HR /.259 AVG /.335 OBP /.333 SLG /.668 OPS)
Stockton – Billy McKinney (7 HR /.228 AVG /.336 OBP /.375 SLG /.711 OPS)
Beloit – Herschel Powell (2 HR /.337 AVG /.449 OBP /.424 SLG /.873 OPS)
RIGHT FIELD
Sacto – Michael Taylor (5 HR /.243 AVG /.357 OBP /.385 SLG /.742 OPS)
Midland – Josh Whitaker (9 HR /.324 AVG /.374 OBP /.537 SLG /.911 OPS)
Stockton – Dusty Robinson (8 HR /.226 AVG /.298 OBP /.398 SLG /.696 OPS)
Beloit – Tyler Marincov (7 HR /.248 AVG /.345 OBP /.429 SLG /.774 OPS)
DESIGNATED HITTER
Sacto – Jose Martinez (3 HR /.267 AVG /.349 OBP /.350 SLG /.698 OPS)
Midland – Max Muncy (3 HR /.268 AVG /.378 OBP /.399 SLG /.777 OPS)
Stockton – Ryon Healy (7 HR /.242 AVG /.279 OBP /.385 SLG /.664 OPS)
Beloit – Luis Baez (2 HR /.263 AVG /.278 OBP /.384 SLG /.662 OPS)
STARTING PITCHER
Sacto – Dan Straily (45 2/3 IP / 36 H / 18 ER / 18 BB / 46 K / 3.55 ERA / 1.18 WHIP) *
Midland – Nate Long (63 2/3 IP / 52 H / 24 ER / 18 BB / 48 K / 3.39 ERA / 1.10 WHIP)
Stockton – Seth Streich (74 IP / 66 H / 25 ER / 17 BB / 78 K / 3.04 ERA / 1.12 WHIP)
Beloit – Kyle Finnegan (75 2/3 IP / 58 H / 24 ER / 32 BB / 35 K / 2.85 ERA / 1.19 WHIP)
CLOSER
Sacto – Evan Scribner (23 2/3 IP / 24 H / 12 ER / 6 BB / 31 K / 4.56 ERA / 1.27 WHIP / 9 SV) *
Midland – Seth Frankoff (29 2/3 IP / 26 H / 9 ER / 9 BB / 42 K / 2.73 ERA / 1.18 WHIP / 12 SV)
Stockton – Austin House (29 IP / 29 H / 16 ER / 11 BB / 46 K / 4.97 ERA / 1.38 WHIP / 9 SV)
Beloit – Andres Avila (30 2/3 IP / 31 H / 10 ER / 5 BB / 22 K / 2.93 ERA / 1.17 WHIP / 7 SV)
Click here to see A’s Farm’s 2014 Mid-Season Organizational All-Star Team…
A’s Farm’s Organizational All-Star Team – The Winners
CATCHER
Bruce Maxwell – Stockton Ports
(5 HR /.273 AVG /.356 OBP /.392 SLG /.748 OPS)
FIRST BASE
Matt Olson – Stockton Ports
(15 HR /.233 AVG /.384 OBP /.465 SLG /.849 OPS)
SECOND BASE
Chad Pinder – Stockton Ports
(11 HR /.308 AVG /.349 OBP /.577 SLG /.926 OPS)
SHORTSTOP
Andy Parrino – Sacramento River Cats
(3 HR /.344 AVG /.411 OBP /.452 SLG /.862 OPS) *
THIRD BASE
Alden Carrithers – Sacramento River Cats
(1 HR /.308 AVG /.406 OBP /.384 SLG /.790 OPS)
LEFT FIELD
Nick Buss – Sacramento River Cats
(2 HR /.305 AVG /.371 OBP /.404 SLG /.775 OPS) *
CENTER FIELD
Herschel Powell – Beloit Snappers
(2 HR /.337 AVG /.449 OBP /.424 SLG /.873 OPS)
RIGHT FIELD
Josh Whitaker – Midland RockHounds
(9 HR /.324 AVG /.374 OBP /.537 SLG /.911 OPS)
DESIGNATED HITTER
Max Muncy – Midland RockHounds
(3 HR /.268 AVG /.378 OBP /.399 SLG /.777 OPS)
STARTING PITCHER
Seth Streich – Stockton Ports
(74 IP / 66 H / 25 ER / 17 BB / 78 K / 3.04 ERA / 1.12 WHIP)
CLOSER
Seth Frankoff – Midland RockHounds
(29 2/3 IP / 26 H / 9 ER / 9 BB / 42 K / 2.73 ERA / 1.18 WHIP / 12 SV)
Be sure to like A’s Farm’s page on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @AthleticsFarm. You can also get our weekly A’s minor league newsletter e-mailed to you free by signing up here.
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within range. Until the spell ends, you can use your action to make a melee spell attack at the creature, dealing 5d6 thunder damage on a hit. On a hit you can use your bonus action to transfer the enchantment onto the target, ending the spell. The creature must make a Dexterity saving throw or be propelled backwards to a location you choose within 15 feet. Each creature within 10 feet of the target area must make a Dexterity saving throw or take 5d6 thunder damage. At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, the damage of the spell attacks increases by 2d6 for each slot level above the third. The damage of the final attack also increases by 2d6. Projected Attack 3rd-level evocation Casting Time: 1 action
1 action Range: 10 feet
10 feet Components: V, M (any weapon)
V, M (any weapon) Duration: Instantaneous As part of the action used to cast this spell, you must make a melee weapon attack against one creature or location within the spell's range. Depending on the damage the weapon deals, the spell has a different effect (you choose if the damage isn't one of the following) Slashing. A crescent of energy races from the attack, and each creature in a 30-foot cone (oriented as you choose) in the direction of the target must make a Dexterity saving throw.
Piercing. A pure beam of energy streams from the attack, and each creature in a 60-foot line must make a Dexterity saving throw.
Bludgeoning. Explosive energy emanates from the attack, and each creature other than you within 10 feet of the target must make a Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, creatures take 2d12 radiant damage, are pushed back 10 feet from the target of your attack, and fall prone. A creature that is hit with your attack automatically has disadvantage on the save, and on fail is pushed back 10 feet from you instead. At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, the damage of the spell increases by 1d12 for each slot level above the third. Ghostly Dirk 3nd-level evocation Casting Time: 1 action
1 action Range: 50 feet.
50 feet. Components: V
V Duration: Instantaneous Choose one creature that can see you within range. You teleport within 5 feet of that creature, and make a melee spell attack, dealing 5d10 psychic damage on a hit. Regardless of a hit or miss, the target must succeed on a Wisdom Saving throw or be frightened until the end of your next turn. At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, the range of the spell doubles for each slot level above the third. Nystal's Crystal Dagger 3rd-level evocation Casting Time: 1 action
1 action Range: 90 feet.
90 feet. Components: V, M (a small stone)
V, M (a small stone) Duration: Instantaneous You conjure a splendid shard of light and hurl it at a creature within range. Make a ranged spell attack against the target. If you hit, you deal 4d10 force damage. If you miss, the shard reassembles and returns to you. You regain an expended spell slot of level 2 or lower. At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, the damage of the spell increases by 1d10 for each slot level above the third. You can regain a spell slot below the spell slot used to cast it. Arcane Joust 3rd-level evocation Casting Time: 1 action
1 action Range: 30 feet
30 feet Components: V, S
V, S Duration: instantaneous You take a step back before flashing forward with a blur of speed. All creatures in a 30 feet long and 5 feet wide area emanating from you in a direction you choose must make a Dexterity saving throw. On a fail, they take 3d10 piercing damage, or half as much damage on a success. Teleport to a location within 5 feet of the creature farthest from you effected by the spell. Make an melee attack roll against the target dealing an additional 3d10 piercing damage on a hit. At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, the damage of the spell attack increases by 1d10 for each slot level above the third. The damage of the area of effect also increases by 1d10.
Larloch's Hungering Blade 3rd-level necromancy Casting Time: 1 action
1 action Range: 10 feet
10 feet Components: S, M (an empty sheath)
S, M (an empty sheath) Duration: Concentration, Up to one minute You make a silent oath against one creature within 5 feet and draw out a black spectral katana from your sheath. Make a melee spell attack with advantage against that creature within your reach. On a hit, the target takes 3d10 necrotic damage, and you gain temporary hit points equal to half the amount of damage dealt. Until you miss on the attack, you can make the Attack again on each of your turns as an action against the same target. While you have the sword out, you cannot cast any other spells or attack with anything other than your blade. You can sheath your sword if you reduce the creature to zero hit points, ending this effect. At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, the damage of the spell increases by 1d10 for each slot level above the third. Meteor Drop 3rd-level evocation Casting Time: 1 action
1 action Range: 30 feet
30 feet Components: S, M (two rocks)
S, M (two rocks) Duration: instantaneous You leap 10 feet into the air and slam down in an unoccupied location within range. You don't provoke opportunity attacks with this movement, and you can't use this spell if there isn't at least 10 feet of open space directly above you. Creatures within 10 feet of the target location must make a Dexterity saving throw or take 4d10 force damage and be pushed 10 feet away from you. A creature you are grappling when you cast this spell travels with you, makes the saving throw at disadvantage and is incapacitated until the end of its next turn on a failure. If you cast this spell while airborne, the radius of the area of effect increases by 5 feet for each 10 feet you are above your target location, up to a maximum of 30 feet. At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, the damage of the spell increases by 1d10 for each slot level above the third. At 5th level creatures who fail the saving throw are also knocked prone.
Level 4 spells Umbral Assault 4th-level necromancy Casting Time: 1 action
1 action Range: 120 feet.
120 feet. Components: V, M (any weapon)
V, M (any weapon) Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute When you cast this spell, you seperate your shadow from your body. You can expend movement to move your shadow to a location within range and make up to 3 melee spell attacks. These attacks target one creature within 5 feet of the shadow, dealing 4d6 necrotic damage on a hit. If you reduce a creature to 0 hit points their body is hidden in magical darkness until dispelled. Your shadow does not provoke opportunity attacks and can pass through small holes, narrow openings, and even mere cracks, though you must remain within 5 feet of a solid surface at any time. Your shadow is silent, and invisible in darkness. The spell ends once your shadow makes its 3 attacks or takes any damage. While you are concentrating on this spell, you see through your shadow, which has magical darkvision and you are blinded. At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 5th-level or higher, the shadow makes an additional attack for each slot level above the fourth. Acidwrought Glaive 4th-level evocation Casting Time: 1 bonus action
1 bonus action Range: 10 feet
10 feet Components: V, M (any weapon)
V, M (any weapon) Duration: Concentration, up to one minute You slam your hands into the ground, and draw out a demonic emerald blade. The weapon is similar in size and shape as a Glaive, which lasts for the Duration. If you let go of the blade, it disappears, but you can evoke the blade again as a Bonus Action. You can use your action to make a melee spell attack at a creature in range, dealing 3d6 acid damage on a hit. On a hit, choose another creature within 5 feet of the original target and within range. They must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or take 2d6 acid damage. Alternatively, you can use your action to end the spell, and make an attack roll on each creature within reach, dealing 6d6 damage on a hit. At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 5th level or higher, the damage the spell deals increases by 1d6 for each slot level above the third. Fangs of the Storm Serpent 4th-level transmutation Casting Time: 1 bonus action
1 bonus action Range: self.
self. Components: V, M (two light weapons)
V, M (two light weapons) Duration: Concentration, up to one minute Electricity pulses out from your hands and envelopes your blades in bright yellow sparking energy. For the duration, you can use your spellcasting ability instead of Strength for the attack and damage rolls of attacks using these weapons, which deal an additional 2d10 damage lightning damage the first time you hit with either weapon each turn. Additionally, a magical connection is forged between each weapon and the hand that holds it. After using an action or bonus action to make an attack with one of these weapons, you can teleport the blade back into your hand or teleport up to 30 feet to where the blade struck. At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 5th level or higher, the damage of the spell attack increases by 1d10 for each slot level above the fourth. Shadow step 4th-level Illusion Casting Time: 1 action
1 action Range: Self
Self Components: S
S Duration: 1 minute Choose a spell that you can cast that is of a level lower than what was used to cast this spell, that targets only one creature, and doesn’t have a range of self. The next time you are targeted by a melee attack, the attack automatically misses. Regardless on a success or fail, you teleport to a location within line of sight of that creature and within range of that spell. You cast that spell at the lowest level it can be cast, without expending a Spell Slot, targeting the triggering creature. If that spell requires an attack roll, you have advantage on the first attack. Sacrificial Dagger 4th-level necromancy Casting Time: 1 action
1 action Range: 5 feet
5 feet Components: V, M (any bladed weapon)
V, M (any bladed weapon) Duration: Instantaneous You imbue a blade with a sacrificial curse and plunge it into an enemy. Make a melee spell attack against a creature within range, dealing 2d12 piercing damage on a hit. If it hits, every creature other than you within 30 feet of you must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, a ghostly specter appears within 5 feet of that creature and stabs them as well, dealing 4d12 psychic damage. Alternatively, you can stab yourself with the blade, which automatically hits and causes creatures within 30 feet of you to make the save at disadvantage. At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 5th level or higher, the damage of the area of effect increases by 1d12 for each slot level above the third
Iron Spike of Dis 4th-level evocation Casting Time: 1 action
1 action Range: 5 feet
5 feet Components: V, M (any weapon)
V, M (any weapon) Duration: instantons You imbue your weapon with the curse of Dis's kiss and make an overhead strike with it. Make a melee spell attack against a creature within range, dealing 2d12 piercing damage on a hit. On a hit or a miss, you can use your bonus action to summon thin iron spikes that rupture from the 5-foot square attacked. The creature must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or take 2d12 piercing damage and be restrained. The creature can use its action to free itself. At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 5th level or higher, the damage of the spell attack and area of effect increases by 1d12 for each slot level above the third.
level 5 spells Acheron's Maelstrom 5th-level transmutation Casting Time: 1 action
1 action Range: 5 feet
5 feet Components: V, M (any bladed weapon)
V, M (any bladed weapon) Duration: instantaneous Your weapon starts to glisten with black blood, and you use it to make 20 strikes at a target within range. You learn the target's AC. Subtract the target's AC from 20 + your spell attack modifier and record that value. The target takes 2d4 necrotic damage, plus an additional number of d4s to the damage roll equal to the value recorded. Rimestrike 5th-level evocation Casting Time: 1 bonus action
1 bonus action Range: self
self Components: V, M (an empty two-handed hilt)
V, M (an empty two-handed hilt) Duration: Concentration, up to one minute You evoke the chill of the demiplane of ice blade in your hilt. The blade that extrudes from it is similar in size and shape to a greatsword, and it lasts for the Duration. You can use your action to make a melee spell attack at creature within 5 feet with your icy blade, dealing 4d6 cold damage on a hit. If you miss or aim at the area in front of you, you cause ice to splay outwards. Each creature in a 15 feet long 5 feet wide line emanating from you must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or take 4d6 cold damage. On a hit you can choose to leave the blade stuck into the enemy as it freezes over. The creature takes an additional 4d6 cold damage and must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or be paralyzed for the duration. At the end of each of its turns, the target can make another Constitution saving throw. On a success, the spell ends on the target. Maul of the Mountain King 5th evocation Casting Time: 1 action
1 action Range: 40 feet
40 feet Components: V, M (any weapon)
V, M (any weapon) Duration: one round You slam your weapon into the ground, releasing a torrent of energy at a location within range. Creatures within a 5 by 5 cube at the target location must make a Dexterity saving throw or take 4d10 thunder damage and be flung 20 feet into the air. On a success they take half damage and aren't flung. Each creature within a 15 feet wide line emanating from you towards the target location must make a Dexterity saving throw. On a failure they take 2d10 bludgeoning damage and fall prone. On a success they take half damage and don't fall prone. Gravity pool 5th-level transmutation Casting Time: 1 action
1 action Range: 60 feet
60 feet Components: V, S
V, S Duration: Concentration, up to a minute. A low thrumming comes from your feet as gravity condenses around you. When you cast the spell, and as a bonus action on each subsequent turn, you may target a creature within range. It must succeed a Strength saving throw or fall prone and have disadvantage on ability checks, attack rolls, and saving throws that use Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution until the end of its next turn. All creatures within 10 feet of you when this spell is cast must also attempt the same save, as do any creatures that enter within 10 feet of you on their following turns. Creature who fail the save fall prone. Creatures other than you in the area of effect have disadvantage on Strength and Dexterity based skill checks, and treat the area as difficult terrain. Psi Blade 5th-level evocation Casting Time: 1 action
1 action Range: 30 feet
30 feet Components: V, S
V, S Duration: one round You coalesce an aquamarine blade of distilled pain, having the unique property of phasing through armor and carapace. When you cast this spell, you make 3 melee spell attacks at creatures within range. You treat your target as having AC of 10+their Dexterity modifier. On a hit you deal 2d8 psychic damage. If at least two of your attacks hit, the creature must make a Constitution saving throw or be incapacitated until the end of their next turn. If three hit, the creature is stunned for the same duration. At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 6th-level or higher, you make an additional attack for each slot level above 5th. Shade Splice 5th-level necromancy Casting Time: 1 action
1 action Range: 30 feet
30 feet Components: V, S
V, S Duration: one round You summon a sliver of shadow essence from the shadowfell and exchange part of your soul with it, gaining the ability to manifest 3 shades. Shades are invulnerable to damage, but can interact physically with the world and have your stats. Each shade moves up to 30 feet and can touch a creature within 5 feet of them. Make a melee spell attack, dealing 3d10 necrotic damage on a hit. Each shade has a reaction, which it can use to repeat its attack as an opportunity attack. At the beginning of your next turn, you can teleport to the location of one of your shades.
Level 6 Aganazzar's Fiery Boomerang 6th-level transmutation Casting Time: 1 action
1 action Range: 30 feet.
30 feet. Components: V, M (any bladed weapon)
V, M (any bladed weapon) Duration: Concentration, up to one minute A weapon you are holding levitates, starts to spin at incredible speeds and ignites with a hellish blue flame. When you cast the spell and as a bonus action on your subsequent turns, the weapon moves up to 30 feet and then causes one of the following effects with it: Direct. All creatures in a line 5 feet wide and length equal to the distance moved must make a Dexterity saving throw or take 4d10 fire damage. Deflecting Stance. The spinning weapon interposes itself between you and a creature of your choice until you give the weapon a different command. The weapon moves to stay between you and the target, providing you with half cover against the target. The target can attempt to move through the Boomerang, but must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or take 4d10 fire damage, be pushed 5 feet back and land prone. Spin. The weapon spins more vigorously and lets out gouts of spiraling flame. Creatures within 15 feet of the weapon, must make a Dexterity saving throw or take 4d10 fire damage. Afterimage Strike 6th-level Illusion Casting Time: 1 action
1 action Range: 5 feet
5 feet Components: V, M (any weapon)
V, M (any weapon) Duration: Concentration, up to a minute Until the spell ends, as a reaction to being targeted by an attack, you can make that take to be made at disadvantage. On a miss, you teleport 5 feet and can make a melee attack against a creature within 5 feet of you after your teleport. If you attack the creature was the one that triggered the spell, your attack is at advantage. Level 7 Dimensional Binding 7th-level evocation Casting Time: 1 action
1 action Range: self
self Components: V, M (any weapon)
V, M (any weapon) Duration: Concentration, up to a minute You summon a thin flanged needle with a trailing evanescent thread. While you are holding this weapon, you can use a bonus action to teleport back to the location you were when you cast the spell. When you cast the spell, or as an action on a subsequent turn you can stab the needle into a creature within 5 feet of you. Make a melee spell attack at the target, dealing 6d12 psychic damage on a hit. On a hit, you can fix a target to that location. You leave the weapon in them, and at the end of each of the target's turns, it must make a Wisdom saving throw or be teleported back to this location. Titan's Impact 7th-level evocation Casting Time: 1 action
1 action Range: 5 feet
5 feet Components: V, M (any weapon)
V, M (any weapon) Duration: One minute. You imbue your weapon with the calling of the Titans. Make a melee spell attack against a creature within range, dealing 8d6 bludgeoning damage on a hit. On a hit, the creature is thrown in an arc 20 feet high and 40 feet back. You can repeat this attack on a subsequent turn using your action. On a miss, or if you chose to stab your weapon into the ground, a titanic version of your weapon materializes in the sky. At the start of your next turn, it crashes downward. Creatures in an 15ft by 15ft area in front of you must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or take 8d6 bludgeoning damage, and the spell ends.
Level 8 Karsus's Rift Slicer 8rd-level necromancy Casting Time: 1 action
1 action Range: 20 feet
20 feet Components: V, M (any bladed weapon)
V, M (any bladed weapon) Duration: Concentration, up to a minute You slide two fingers across the blade of your weapon, tinting the edge with a purple hue and magically sharpening it to cut through realities. You spend your next contiguous 20 feet of movement making a long gash through the space you moved through. Make a melee spell attack at each creature you passed within 5 feet of, dealing 3d6 necrotic damage on a hit. At the end of your turn, the gash becomes a rift into the negative plane. Creatures who are within 5 feet of the rift when it opens must succeed on a Strength saving throw or be pulled into its area. When a creature enters the rift's area for the first time on a turn, it must make a Strength saving throw, or take 10d6 necrotic damage and are restrained. A creature restrained by the rift can use its action to make a Strength check against your spell save DC. If it succeeds, it is no longer restrained. A creature within 5 feet of the rift can take an action to pull a creature out of the rift. Doing so requires a successful Strength check against your spell save DC, and the creature making the attempt takes 3d6 necrotic damage. Agnanazzar's Instant Battalion 8th-level necromancy Casting Time: 1 minute
1 minute Range: 30 feet
30 feet Components: S, M (any weapon)
S, M (any weapon) Duration: Concentration, up to one hour. You call forth the spectral warriors of past to fight for your stead. At the start of each turn, 8 spectral humanoids appear, each in an unoccupied space 5ft by 5ft space adjacent to you. As a bonus action, you can mentally command them, directing each one to move to a location within range. After moving to a location, you can choose for it to make a melee attack against a target within 5 feet of it using your spell attack modifier. On a hit, it deals 2d8 necrotic damage and disappears. These ethereal humanoids have the same ability scores as you, and they disappear when they fail a saving throw, are attacked, or are beyond the radius of this spell. You can only have a maximum of 8 at a time. When one hits a creature with an opportunity attack, the creature’s speed becomes 0 for the rest of the turn. Level 9 Bladeform 9th-level transmutation Casting Time: 1 action
1 action Range: 5 feet
5 feet Components: V, M (any weapon)
V, M (any weapon) Duration: Concentration As part of the action casting this spell, you cast a spell using a spell slot level 5th or lower that damages on a failed save. You sculpt the dissipating energies of the spell to craft a blade for yourself. On an action on a subsequent turn, you can target a creature within 5 feet of you. The creature must make a Dexterity saving throw. On a failure it suffers the same effect as failing the saving throw of the triggering spell. Kyuss' Sinew Bow 9th-level necromancy Casting Time: 1 action
1 action Range: self
self Components: V, M (a worm)
V, M (a worm) Duration: 24 hours. You grant a worm Kyuss' curse, and allow it to burrow into your arm. Your bow arm explodes outwards rearranging muscle, bone, and sinew into a longbow. Drawing your other hand near the bow causes a thin bone arrow fletched with cartilage to extrude from your wrist. You can accelerate arrows by flexing muscles in your new arm. You are considered proficient in this bow, and can use your spellcasting modifier on attack and damage rolls. You attack 4 times, instead of once, when you take the Attack action on your turn and attack with this weapon. Each attack with this bow deals 10+2d10 necrotic damage on a hit. Upon exiting combat, your arm rearranges back into its normal form, with hairline cracks where the skin reconnects. You can now undergo the same transformation at will using a bonus action. Dark Tempest 9th-level evocation Casting Time: 1 bonus action
1 bonus action Range: 60 feet
60 feet Components: V, M (a thorn)
V, M (a thorn) Duration: 1 minute You hurl shards of shadow at nearby enemies. When you cast this spell, and as a bonus action on a subsequent turn, you make a ranged attack roll at each creature you choose within range. On a hit, you deal 8d10 necrotic damage and if the target was within 5 feet of you, they are pushed back 15 feet. When a creature enters the range of this spell for the first time, they are also subject to this attack. If you are holding a weapon that does a damage type that isn't bludgeoning, piercing, slashing, or necrotic, the damage this spell deals is instead that type.Former rugby league player turned pro-fighter Tai Tuivasa's message after his stunning UFC debut was simple: "I'm here to stay."
The Panthers and Roosters junior claimed victory over American Rashad Coulter via a first round knockout, as he predicted, but it was not with a punch, but rather a flying knee – a remarkable move for a heavyweight.
Bam Bam: Tai Tuivasa soaks in victory. Credit:Chris Lane
"I saw his head and I was like 'I gotta give this a go' – and I did it, he went back and I'm like 'oh shit it worked!'"
"Bam Bam" entered the ring to a rousing rendition at Qudos Bank Arena, with Vanessa Carlton's A Thousand Miles blaring, an Aboriginal flag draped around his shoulders and mentor Mark Hunt in the front row.WWE Puts In $27 Million Bid On TV Production Building In Stamford
According to a report by The Stamford Advocate, WWE is in the running to buy a large building from a bankrupt developer in their home base city of Stamford, CT. WWE wants to acquire the old AmeriCares headquarters on Hamlton Ave in Stamford and use it as their own TV production building.
WWE reportedly put a $27 million bid on the property, which is $3 million above the minimum price set by the court-approved sale coordinator. There are more than 100 bidders in the running for eight different buildings from the bankrupt developer that were made available for bidding. WWE issued the following statement to The Advocate:
“An opportunity arose that made sense for us to pursue. If we’re successful in the purchase of the building, WWE would become the building’s landlord and assumes the previous owner’s lease obligations.”
WWE reportedly abandoned their plans to begin construction on building their own TV production facility.
Two Top WWE Stars Added to Upcoming Australia Tour
WWE has announced that AJ Styles and Seth Rollins have been added to the upcoming tour of Australia from August 10th to the 13th.
Also announced for the tour are John Cena, Roman Reigns, Sheamus, The New Day, Kevin Owens, and Sasha Banks. As of this writing, Ryback is still listed on the official listing on Ticketek.com.au.A Cook County jury on Wednesday convicted a man of killing a Chicago police evidence technician and a second victim in 2010 as the officer investigated a car burglary on the Southeast Side.
The announcement came in a courtroom packed with Chicago police officers and relatives of Officer Michael Flisk. Flisk's family members began crying as the verdict was read, putting their arms around each other in the second row of courtroom gallery.
Flisk, 46, an evidence technician and father of four, was dusting for prints behind Stephen "Sweet Pea" Peters' home a day after Thanksgiving in November 2010 when he and Peters were fatally shot. Peters' beloved customized red Mustang GT convertible had been stripped of its stereo and other gear.
Prosecutors alleged that Timothy Herring Jr. had burglarized Peters' car and shot both victims when he learned Flisk had found a usable fingerprint. He shot both again when he noticed one of them moving, prosecutors said.
The jury was sequestered overnight and deliberated for more than seven hours before convicting Herring, 24, on charges of first-degree murder and burglary.
Herring faces mandatory life in prison without the possibility of parole.
He looked at family members and shook his head as sheriff’s deputies led him back to the lockup.
“I think this case is another example of the senseless violence that we see unfortunately here in Chicago and the easy use of guns to take away two lives,” State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez told reporters after the verdict. “My heart goes out to both families that lost loved ones.”
Neither family would be speaking publicly yet about the case, Alvarez said.
Flisk and Peters, a former Chicago Housing Authority police officer, were armed, but neither had time to draw his weapon.
Herring's fingerprint was found on a box that held a monitor stolen from Peters' car, according to prosecutors.
Two cousins of Herring's as well as three other witnesses testified that he confessed to them about the killings, but Herring's attorneys argued the cousins decided to turn on an easy target in exchange for a $10,000 cash reward for information on the killings.
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In social media posts, the Women’s March group announced a “General Strike: A day without a woman.”
The date and other details about the strike were not immediately clear.
The will of the people will stand. pic.twitter.com/SKJCRLhRKn — Women's March (@womensmarch) February 6, 2017
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Hundreds of thousands of protesters gathered in cities across the world on Jan. 21 to march on Trump’s first full day in office to voice opposition to his policies.
The plans, hatched just after Trump's Election Day victory, began with a march in Washington and quickly ballooned into a massive protest that sparked sister demonstrations around the world.
The Women's March group is now organizing in local communities to keep people involved in politics.Ric Edelman is one the top financial advisors in the US. His firm, Edelman Financial Services, has 41 offices across the country. And he thinks, all things constant, most financial advisors as we’ve known them won’t be around much longer.
At Exponential Finance, Edelman said, “I firmly believe that in the next ten years, half of all the financial advisors in this country will be gone.”
Edelman spoke on a panel with fellow advisor, Bill Bachrach, chairman and CEO of Bachrach & Associates.
Technology, they said, doesn’t spell the end of financial advisors, but it does mean they’ll need to adapt significantly if they’re to survive. Not unlike other industries, like medical diagnostics, for example, artificial intelligence may soon perform many of the technical skills of financial advice better than their human counterparts.
This shift will place greater emphasis on human abilities.
That is, the technology can’t yet fit all of the many disparate financial pieces together into a comprehensive financial plan—debt, taxes, college planning, buying cars and houses, planning for weddings, and so forth. And AI won’t soon replace the uniquely human relationships clients seek from the best advisors.
“We are therapists, counselors, marriage consultants, and psychologists as much as we are financial planners,” Edelman said. He thinks those embracing new technologies and also a broader definition of financial services will find success. And there is precedent for such adaptation.
Bachrach noted Charles Schwab disrupted the industry back in 80s, putting many traditional stock brokers out of business. But they reinvented themselves as wealth planners. And of course, there has been continuous adoption of new technology.
“We’ve been doing this for decades with simple things like financial planning software,” Bachrach said. “You don’t see financial planners and financial advisors using a slide rule or a calculator and a number two pencil and a yellow pad.”
Edelman has even launched his own “robo-advisor” for clients who want it. And for those who need the personal touch, his human advisors are still a phone call away.
Even so, the effect of technology on financial services isn’t merely on the operational side of things. Bachrach and Edelman said one of the greatest challenges they face is convincing their clients that instead of planning to live to 95—which is as far as financial planning software goes at the moment—they should plan to live longer. Perhaps much longer.
“We’re fully cognizant that the first person to reach age 150 has already been born,” Edelman said. “Chances are, if you make it another 30 years, you’ll make it another 100, thanks to the development of exponential technologies in so many fields that we’re studying here in this conference.”
But how do you have that conversation without losing a client who now thinks you’ve lost your wits? That’s the tough part. But for those planning for greater-than-expected longevity, Edelman has a new model he thinks many of us will adopt.
Instead of the traditional linear progression—birth, school, job, retirement, death—our lives will become more cyclical. That is, we’ll go to school, get our first job, work for awhile, take a five- or ten-year break, and then go back to school to reinvent ourselves and start our next career cycle. Rinse and repeat.
“You’ll spend a career as a schoolteacher, and then a career as a lawyer, and then a career as a pilot, [and on and on],” Edelman said. “We’re going to have cyclical lifelines, constant repetition, and constant reinvention of yourself.” Discrete college degrees, he thinks, will be replaced with lifelong learning.
None of this, of course, has yet come to pass. But if financial advisors |
(CNN) -- About 83,000 Defense Department employees and contractors with security clearances to protect the nation's secrets have delinquent federal tax debts totaling $730 million, according to an internal government audit.
The findings in the new Government Accountability Office study raise security concerns for the U.S. government. Officials say employees and contractors who have financial problems are top targets of foreign intelligence agents.
Federal regulations governing security clearances say that a person "who is financially overextended is at risk of having to engage in illegal acts to generate funds" and that indebtedness should be among factors considered when someone applies for a clearance, the GAO study said. But the study found that government agencies in charge of the issue can't readily collect data on tax debt, in part because IRS privacy rules prohibit sharing certain taxpayer data.
The GAO study is expected to be released Monday. CNN reviewed a copy prior to the release.
The study comes as federal intelligence and law enforcement officials are grappling with ways to tighten access to classified information in the wake of major unauthorized disclosures carried out by insiders cleared to handle the nation's most sensitive secrets.
Edward Snowden, a former NSA contractor, and Bradley Manning, an Army private who now calls herself Chelsea Manning, passed the required background checks to obtain their security clearances. Snowden, under Russian government protection in Moscow, is charged with releasing to reporters millions of NSA surveillance documents. Manning was convicted of violating the Espionage Act, for releasing thousands of diplomatic cables and military documents.
The 83,000 employees and contractors with tax debt in the GAO study are among 3.2 million people who the Pentagon says held or were approved for secret, top secret, SCI [sensitive compartmented information] and interim security clearances from January 2006 to December 2011, the period covered by the GAO study. The $730 million in tax debt was as of June, 30, 2012, the most recent data analyzed by the study.
Most accrued their unpaid tax debt after they received their clearances.
Of the 83,000 with tax debt, about 4,800 had IRS liens against their property. About 28% or 23,000 of them were subject to wage garnishment and other collection tactics by the IRS to collect taxes owed.
According to the GAO, the Pentagon distinguishes between those who are eligible for access to classified information and a smaller subset of those who "need to know" and are therefore granted access to classified documents.
But even by that measure, the numbers are problematic. The GAO found 26,000 Defense Department employees and contractors with access to classified information owed about $229 million in delinquent tax debt.
There are now 5.1 million federal employees and contractors eligible or holding security clearances, a number hard to police, government officials say.
The Office Director of National Intelligence, which is developing new procedures to tighten the security clearance procedures, agreed with the GAO's recommendation that tax debt be more readily available to investigators who gather background data on applicants for security clearances.
The problem is the government is still struggling with technology that could provide automated tax debt information on applicants at the time of their application and during the time the security clearance is valid, according to the GAO. There are also privacy restrictions that limit what data the IRS can provide on taxpayers.Red Alert, Red Alert! If you’re a sucker for hipster retail spaces, no-nosense industrial aesthetic and New York City (who the hell isn’t?) then boy do I have a treat for you today. Retrosuperfuture is an Italian sunglasses label with their first recently opened flagship store in the US that has me feeling weak at the knees. Let’s break it down, y’all.
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This interior was a result of a collaboration between Andrea Caputo, Retrosuperfuture founder Daniel Beckerman, and the brand’s creative director Sean Michael Beolchini. Confidence, honest and robust, while verging on a minimalist aesthetic. Or as I like to call it – hipster-to-the-max-hotness! That’s all.
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[Photography by Paul Barbera.]NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police has not pointed out any pattern in repeated attacks at churches in the capital, calling the latest incident at St Alphonsa Church as a “stray case”, in a report to the Home Ministry. The report added that 265 temples have seen thefts in the last one year as well.The Delhi Police report to the Home Ministry after the incident at St Alphonsa Church in Vasant Kunj – where unidentified persons broke into the church on early Monday and took away the ciborium after scattering the Holy Eucharist on the ground. There have been four earlier attacks on churches in Delhi in the last two months.“The report does not point to any pattern or link between all these incidents and the present incident is described as a stray case of theft. When Delhi Police was asked why churches were being targeted repeatedly in the capital, the police reasoned orally with us that 265 temples have also seen thefts in Delhi in the last one year but the same has not been highlighted in the media,” a Home Ministry official told ET on Wednesday, on condition of anonymity.The Home Ministry, nevertheless, has asked Delhi Police to catch the culprits at the earliest in the present case and also enquired on why arrests have not been made in all earlier four cases at different churches. “A Special Investigation Team was formed after the arson case in a Dilshad Garden church in December. We have sought what has been the progress in that matter too,” the ministry official said.The parish priest of St Alphonsa’s Church had described the incident as an act of vandalisation, and not theft, as the miscreants had not taken anything else than the ciborium that contained the Holy Eucharist. The donation box and many gold-planted chalices in the antechamber were left untouched. The police, however, registered only a case of theft and defiling a place of worship.Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Democrats question GOP commitment to Senate's Russia inquiry
Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee are raising fresh concerns about the GOP-led panel’s appetite for digging into the Russian ties forged by multiple advisers to President Donald Trump.
Friction on the committee last spiked in October, when the chairman, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), sent a slew of letters to key figures in the Russia investigation without the signature of Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the panel’s top Democrat. Feinstein has followed by sending four rounds of letters without Grassley’s signature that seek material from other players in the Trump campaign’s communications with Russian officials — the most recent series of letters coming on Monday.
Story Continued Below
Asked about Grassley’s decision to not sign on, Feinstein told reporters late Monday that “I think there’s an effort, subtle, not to go deeply.”
“And I hadn’t realized it before, but I realize it now,” she continued. “And we’re going to have to find a way to deal with it.”
Feinstein added that she “can’t say” Grassley is trying to shut down the committee’s investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election, including questions of potential obstruction of justice. And relations on the committee have not frayed entirely: Grassley’s and Feinstein’s aides are permitted to attend interviews that result from the other party’s letters of inquiry on Russia matters, according to a panel aide.
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Another Judiciary Democrat, Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, sounded a similar note to Feinstein, describing himself in a brief interview Monday as “very concerned about the stalled and slow pace of the Judiciary Committee. I think it needs to move forward with much greater urgency.”
A third Democrat on the committee, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, on Friday raised his own question by tweeting a portion of a New York Times report that described the president’s prodding an anonymous Republican senator — not to wind down any congressional Russia investigation, but to open a separate one into Fusion GPS, the firm behind a disputed dossier of incendiary charges about Trump.
“Is this why full Judiciary hearings have veered in this direction instead of Russia/obstruction?” Whitehouse asked.
Grassley has received no pressure from Trump regarding a Fusion GPS investigation, his spokesman Taylor Foy said, nor has the president appealed to him to stop investigating Russian electoral meddling.
“Chairman Grassley has never had a discussion with the ‘resident about ending the Judiciary Committee’s investigation into matters relating to Russian interference in the 2016 election, and the president has never requested such a discussion,” Foy said by email.
Foy also questioned whether Democrats have avoided Republicans’ inquiries about Fusion GPS in order to protect the firm’s clients within their own ranks.
“It’s unclear whether the Democrats who refused to join in a bipartisan inquiry into Fusion’s role in the dossier knew at the outset that it was funded by the DNC or whether that motivated their desire to block any real scrutiny of the firm’s work on behalf of both its Democrat and Russian clients,” Foy said.
Fusion’s initial research on Trump was funded by the conservative Washington Free Beacon website, while the Clinton campaign and the DNC paid for the dossier that later resulted from it.UPDATE: Butterfly Labs Motion to Dismiss has been denied, presumably because they broke some rule on page limits. We should take that as their rant (covered below) was too long for THE MAN to take.
The Federal Trade Commission filed Case 4:14-cv-00815-BCW on September 15th, 2014. In their report, the FTC claims that BFL did a bunch of dumb things. These include:
–Refusing to refund payment, by flipping between two policies: No refunds, and refund offers that were never fulfilled.
–Josh Zerlan, Vice President of Product Development, testified that BFL used pre-paid rigs to mine for BTC before shipping (if they were even shipped). This may explain why some were broken messes by the time they got to customers.
–Because the products were shipped so late (or not at all), the rigs were incredibly outdated, and because of that, miners couldn’t use the rigs properly. (Via FTC):
–Refusing to ship the BitForce miner months after pre-orders, then using deceptive marketing to get people to buy or upgrade to a newer miner, the Monarch.
For these reasons, primarily, the FTC had temporarily shut down operations at Butterfly Labs (From what I understand, some operations have since resumed after a TRO elapsed. More on that later). The FTC has said in their later report:
Given their record of repeated law violations, Defendants [Butterfly Labs] cannot expect the Court simply to take their word for it that they have abandoned their illegal conduct for good Defendants business survives upon income obtained through misrepresentations about timely delivery and profitability that should be returned to their victims… [The] Defendants have failed to explain why the Court should permit them to resume operations and deplete assets available for consumer redress, especially in light of the Commissions likelihood of success on the merits. (Case 4:14-cv-00815-BCW Document 42)
Yeah.
About that last bit, the Success on the merits part. As detailed earlier, BFL is fucked. The FTC has multiple points (and evidence) on BFLs deceptive practices that are quite compelling. These include:
–BFL admitting that they were behind schedule, while using vague terms that didn’t set a firm ship date. Like, openly saying Two months or longer to consumers. Which is not considered “Qualifying language”, AKA Not some vague bullshit. BFL later admitted that, with Bitcoin mining, Time was of the essence. They ended up never shipping most of their orders, and the ones that did ship, as mentioned earlier, were outdated due to the difficulty rate constantly increasing. That basically means that because the miners weren’t delivered on time despite the company admitting that, in order for their product to be competitive, it had to be operational ASAP, the rare few who did receive their broken, piece of shit machines could not recoup their costs and, therefore, lost a ton of money.
–That stupid calculator they put everywhere, stupidly. (More below)
–The language used to explain shipping delays specifically was Feeble, and any excuses they use are bullshit because they clearly were not shipping anything or being reasonable in the meantime.
–They lied about testing the Monarch chip, saying it was nearly finished with “Taping” when, in fact, it was barely even beginning, with internal messages saying to expect shipment in early February 2014. This was November 2013.
–Around the same time they were panicking about the Monarch chip not being close to done, they sent an email blast promising early 2014 would be the ship date. This is, again, vague, not qualifying language, and also deceptive marketing, because it is claiming that a product that is not close to being done is close to being done, and pre-orders are open now! What a great source of revenue: people trying to jump into the mining game not knowing that BFL was supposed to ship that product months earlier!
–They claim to have a full refund policy for orders between August 9th-November 9th, 2013. Hilariously, they have no documents proving this, making this one of, if not BFL’s most blatant lie when you realize the FTC had to consult The Blogosphere to see how customers had to force refunds via Credit Card disputes or lawsuits. The main thing from all of the comments in each thread is simple: BFL did not willingly refund a single damn order, probably in part to their confusing refund policy explained earlier. We’ll call it “Kafkaesque”.
–Later on, they allowed consumers an option to upgrade their order without disclosing that by doing so, they would void their opportunity to get a refund. That is illegal, since you have to notify consumers when you change details like that. Its why you get an email from eBay or PayPal or Tumblr saying “Our Terms of Service have changed”.
– By the FTCs count, BFL had 3 major products that did not ship: BitForce, Monarch and their Cloud Mining service that charged $10/GHS using their Monarch miners. Yet they still advertised new products and accepted pre-orders.
–Not one BFL consumer, not a single one out of 20,000 paid-in-full consumers, got a BFL miner on its original ship date. And even if there was a reasonable delay, since this is supposedly very high-tech stuff were dealing with here, and delays do happen, BFL still has literal tons of Monarch orders left to ship almost a year after the original ship date. That’s unreasonable for any company with orders paid-in-full.
–Those stupid Y U NO SHIP pitchforks from our last article on BFL? The FTC sees that as the company mocking their customers. And its kinda hard to deny.
The calculator bit is an important one. For those not aware, BFL posted a calculator on its Facebook and Tumblr accounts, as well as its website and a few other official BFL pages, telling people they could see how much they could potentially earn with their rigs, based on the current difficulty level, exchange rate and how much electricity costs. The FTC says the calculator showed when someone would break even with the machine using the calculator. This is a problem, because since the machine never shipped, these calculations would equal an outdated and useless miner, if and when they finally got their machine. Theres also the fact that an employee of BFL has said they lied about how powerful the machines actually were, meaning the calculations outputted were always wrong, thereby misleading customers, a serious charge that will most likely be one of the main reasons BFL will crumble.
So, in the end, what is the FTC charging them under? The Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914, a law President Woodrow Wilson signed to stop monopolies and unfair trade practices. Section 5(a) of the FTC Act, 15 U.S.C. § 45(a), prohibits unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce”, which, as demonstrated above, BFL has done in fucking spades. Here’s the full list of violations:
AND, before we get to BFLs rebuttal, lets not forget that BFL Co-Founder and Innovation Officer Sonny Vleisides engaged in mail fraud by participating in a lottery scheme run by his dad that, internationally, netted $25 Million dollars from victims. He was still on probation when all this insanity occurred, so out of all of them, his odds are the worst.
So… What was BFLs response?
Hilarity.
–BFL contends that the FTC is basically Dirty Harry, a good cop gone rogue because of their foaming at the mouth hatred of all things Bitcoin and Butterfly Labs, despite the fact that the FTC noted in its earlier report that the IRS has decided to let Bitcoin be counted as taxable property, and therefore okey-dokey.
–BFL called the FTC Kafkaesque, with the following footnote:
From a certain point onward there is no longer any turning back. That is the point that must be reached. Franz Kafka, The Trial.
According to Wikiquote, that is actually from Kafkas 1918 work Aphorisms. Also, the FTC is not acting Kafkaesque, its doing its job. The refund thing from earlier? That is definitely Kafkaesque.
–The first footnote, the very first one, is very adamant about how much the FTC is on a Campaign to Destroy Butterfly Labs. The quote that follows inside the footnote is as docile as an actual butterflys queef:
We often see that when a new and little-understood opportunity like Bitcoin presents itself, scammers will find ways to capitalize on the publics excitement and interest, said Jessica Rich, director of the FTCs Bureau of Consumer Protection. Were pleased the court granted our request to halt this operation, and we look forward to putting the companys ill-gotten gains back in the hands of consumers.
Considering the harm these guys have done to thousands of paying customers, that is as calm and reasonable as it gets.
–Despite the FTCs pretty good explanation of what Bitcoin mining is in its first affidavit, BFL is claiming that THE MAN COULD NEVER UNDERSTAND THE BIGGER PICTURE, MAAAAAAAAN.
And here is the first page (of 2) from the FTC explaining the basics of Bitcoin:
Moreover, their argument that the FTC’s claims don’t matter because they don’t understand Bitcoin (They do) is bullshit as well, because you don’t need to understand something to know its a scam. I don’t know a thing about chemistry, but when I see con artists selling juice they claim cures AIDS, I know that’s bullshit. We all know buttsex is how you cure AIDS.
–I get a very weird Boston Legal-esque vibe from this motion to dismiss. Its like some guy at BFL handed in a megalomaniacal rant about how the government hates him and his company to a lawyer, and the lawyer was like I think I can translate this into legalese. Case in point:
That is an actual quote, from a real court document. That is so out-of-bounds rude for any case document Ive seen in a while. Even the Whitey Bulger trial docs had class, and that guy ran the Winter Hill Gang! They based Jack Nicholsons character from The Departed on him! Yes, that guy! This document is more offensive than Bulgers trial, and the fact that he actually killed people is on public record, in pretty graphic detail. Depictions of bodies are less offensive than this motion to dismiss. Im sure there are other motions on record somewhere with language this glaringly condescending, but I havent seen it. I think, side by side, this motion for dismissal will be used to teach law students how to lose a case before the trial has even begun.
The main problem with the language is the condescension. It is clear that whoever wrote the rant that was translated into legal babble thinks he understands Bitcoin than anyone else, even Satoshi, and just KNOWS that no one inside the FTC could possibly understand such a broad concept as digital currency, because OBAMA. I’d be willing to bet.000001 BTC that whoever decided to add condescension to their motion against the federal government’s case is probably one of the three main BFL officers listed in the original trial docs.
In fact, going through this whole document, it reads less like a professional defense of a company accused by the government of defrauding investors, and more like if you took the out of touch and not at all accurate legal advice from the comments posted on /r/Bitcoin, got said comments complied into one dump of quotes, and shipped it to a law firm with some of the more confident Libertarians standing in the room, bull-headed as ever, demanding their constitutionally protected day in court be as close to Perry Mason Syndrome as possible.
–They did ship some of their Jalapeno units, and, in fact, did ship other products as well. It isn’t disputed that some product was shipped. However, there doesn’t seem to be any documentation saying it was 45,000 units. There really isn’t any proof of that 45,000 unit number besides them just making it up. Note that there is no footnote, and there isn’t one on any other page mentioning that number. They are blatantly lying in their motion to dismiss against the FTC. I don’t know if that’s a felony or not, but I hope to God it is.
But thats not the point. They very well may have shipped 45,000 units, but in the meantime they were refusing to refund customers, mining BTC with pre-ordered machines, not shipping paid-in-full units to customers, and then mocked said paying customers with those stupid foam pitchforks. According to the FTC, BFL didnt ship anything to something like 20,000 people who had already paid for their machines. Thats the point: That they conspired to use customer funds to make equipment for themselves, and then ship it off to the customers when they were done. If that wasn’t their plan in the beginning, it certainly became their plan after, lets say, 2 days.
–This:
Oh, so NOW the FTC wants to protect consumers, even though we were already being sued for our deceptive practices by someone else! They should have stopped us sooner! Well, its too late now, and thats how law works, so I think were in the clear.
And for those wondering about the footnote, well
If Plaintiff already knew about the District of Kansas putative class action when it filed its ex parte papers, it had an ethical obligation to inform the Court of the existence of that case.
Basically, the FTC should have known they were already being sued in Kansas, and by not putting that in their briefing theyre basically liars, even though the FTC did mention that there were at least 2 lawsuits against BFL in the past, in its first report.
–They seem to have lost touch with reality. This, by the way, was the best part of their whole motion:
I seriously cannot fathom the stupidity it must take to write that second paragraph. BFL is basically saying The FTC CLAIMS that we stole up to $50 Million dollars from thousands of customers, yet they let us reopen our doors! They must have finally opened their eyes to the future of Bitcoin! It was all just a big mistake!”
Lets explain: On September 23rd, the FTC announced that, through court order, BFL was shut down through a Temporary Restraining Order, or TRO, on the grounds that the three main officers, Darla Drake, Nasser Ghoseiri, and Sonny Vleisides, respectively the treasurer, CTO and Innovation officer, had done all the fun stuff weve covered. Because it was so blatantly obvious that BFL was going to continue doing what it was doing (And, based on the language here, they DEFINITELY would, since they don’t seem to see what they did wrong), the FTC got a TEMPORARY restraining order, meaning that for a short period of time, operations would cease.
What they are contending in that second paragraph is that because a temporary restraining order lapsed, the FTC has no case. Because, as we all know, when time elapses on a legal matter law.
There is absolutely no point to their contention here. Because the TRO ended, and the Judge decided he wasnt going to renew it, they win. Because law.
We’ll be keeping track of this story, and any updates will be posted on our new main site, ButtcoinFoundation.org, or by following us on Twitter. Or don’t, I don’t give a shit.Support this blog by visiting Jim’s Patreon Page!
“There is no other endeavor in which men and women of enormous intellectual power have shown total disregard for higher-order reasoning than monetary policy.
— David Collum
American Notes
Apart from all the ill-feeling about the election, one constant ‘out there’ since November 8 is the Ayn Randian rapture that infects the money scene. Wall Street and big business believe that the country has passed through a magic portal into a new age of heroic businessmen-warriors (Trump, Rex T, Mnuchin, Wilbur Ross, et. al.) who will go forth creating untold wealth from super-savvy deal-making that un-does all the self-defeating malarkey of the detested Deep State technocratic regulation regime of recent years. The main signs in the sky, they say, are the virile near-penetration of the Dow Jones 20,000-point maidenhead and the rocket ride of Ole King Dollar to supremacy of the global currency-space.
I hate to pound sleet on this manic parade, but, to put it gently, mob psychology is outrunning both experience and reality. Let’s offer a few hypotheses regarding this supposed coming Trumptopian nirvana.
The current narrative weaves an expectation that manufacturing industry will return to the USA complete with all the 1962-vintage societal benefits of great-paying blue collar jobs, plus an orgy of infrastructure-building. I think both ideas are flawed, even allowing for good intentions. For one thing, most of the factories are either standing in ruin or scraped off the landscape. So, it’s not like we’re going to reactivate some mothballed sleeping giant of productive capacity. New state-of-the-art factories would require an Everest of private capital investment that is simply impossible to manifest in a system that is already leveraged up to its eyeballs. Even if we tried to accomplish it via some kind of main force government central planning and financing — going full-Soviet — there is no conceivable way to raise (borrow) the “money” without altogether destroying the value of our money (inflation), and the banking system with it.
If by some magic any new industrial capacity were built, much of the work in it would be performed by robotics, not brawny men in blue shirts, and certainly not at the equivalent of the old United Auto Workers $35-an-hour assembly line wage. We have not faced the fact that the manufacturing fiesta based on fossil fuels was a one-time thing due to special historical circumstances and will not be repeated. The future of manufacturing in America is frighteningly modest. We’ll actually be lucky if we can make a few vital necessities by means of hydro-electric or direct water power, and that will be about the extent of it. Some of you may recognize this as the World Made By Hand scenario. I’ll stick by that.
Similarly for “infrastructure” spending touted by the forces of Trump as the coming panacea for economic malaise. I suspect most people assume this means a trillion-dollar stimulus spend on highways and their accessories. Well, that also assumes that we expect another fifty years of Happy Motoring and suburban living. Fuggeddabowdit. We’re in the twilight of motoring anyway you cut it, despite all the chatter about electric cars and “driverless” cars. We won’t have the electric capacity to switch over the Happy Motoring fleet from gasoline. The oil industry itself is already headed for collapse on its sinking energy-return-on-investment. And our problems with money and debt are so severe that the motoring paradigm is more prone to fail on the basis of car loan scarcity and unworthy borrowers before the fueling issues even kick in. Every year, fewer Americans can afford to buy any kind of car — the way they’re used to buying them, on installment loans. The industry has gone the limit to help them — seven-year loans for used cars! — but they have no more room to maneuver. The car financing system is broken. Bear in mind the original suburbanization of America back in the 20th century — along with its accessory automobiles — must be regarded as the greatest misallocation of resources in the history of the world. So, a rebuild of all this stuff would represent more and possibly even greater malinvestment. We could have applied our post-WW2 treasure to building beautiful walkable towns and cities with some capacity for adaptive re-use, but we blew it in order to enjoy life in a one-time demolition derby. Life is tragic. Societies make poor choices sometimes, and then there are consequences.
We also might have been in better shape now if, beginning twenty years ago, we began a major rebuild of our railway infrastructure. But we blew that off, too, and shortly it will be very difficult to get around this geographically large country by any mechanical means. It may be too late now to do anything about that for the financing reasons already touched on — and which I will elaborate on next. The bottom line is that President Donald Trump will be overwhelmed by a sea of financial troubles from the very get-go, and here’s why.
Designated Bag-Holder
The American people have been punked by their own government and their central bank, the Federal Reserve, for years and the jig is now up. In 2017 both will lose their authority and legitimacy, a very grave matter for the survival of this republic.
Insiders surely have seen this coming for a long time. The people running this so-called Deep State of overblown and overgrown institutions probably acted at first with the good intentions of keeping the national lifestyle afloat. But in the end (now approaching) they stooped to too much duplicity and deceit in the desperate attempt to not just preserve the system, but to protect their own reputations and personal perquisites. And now there ought to be some question with the election of 2016 that they have engineered all of this system fragility to blow up on Mr. Trump’s watch, so they can blame him for it. It was going to blow up anyway. But had Hillary Clinton won the election, at least the right gang would have had to take the blame — the people in charge for the past twenty years. Instead, Donald Trump has been elected Designated Bag-Holder.
About That “Big Fat Ugly Bubble” and its Consequences
Part 1: History Lesson
The USA ran out of growth capacity around the turn of the millennium because we ran out of affordable energy to run our techno-industrial economy. It was hard to see this with seemingly plenty of oil available. And, of course, the computer tech fiesta was blossoming, but for all that glitzy stuff to attract dwindling real capital, other old stuff had to go, and did go, and when all was said and done the computers did not generate much wealth or social value. In fact, the diminishing returns and blowback of computer tech were arguably more damaging than beneficial to society and its economy. Look at where the middle class is today. Computer tech gave the magical appearance of growth while actually undermining it.
By affordable energy I mean energy with a greater-than 30-to-one energy-return-on-investment, which is the ratio you need for the kind of life we lead. That’s what the now-ridiculed Peak Oil story was really about: not running out of oil, but not getting enough bang for our bucks pulling the remaining oil out of the earth to maintain our standard of living. I’ll return to this issue in more detail later. But that was what provoked America’s 21st century economic malaise. Everything we’ve done in finance since then has been an attempt to compensate for our fundamental problem with debt — borrowing from the future to maintain our current (unaffordable) standard of living. Our debt has grown ever larger and faster each year, and our methods for managing it have become more desperate and dishonest as that occurred.
The culprit at the center is America’s central bank, the Federal Reserve, which is actually not a government agency as it seems, but a consortium of the nation’s biggest private banks, lately known as Too-Big-To-Fail. The Fed was created in 1913, when the complexities of capital finance were multiplying in step with the complexities of industrial production, which, remember, was a new and evolving phenomenon of human history. Mankind had no prior experience with industrialism. We discovered toward the end of the 19th century — decades of unprecedented industrial growth — that the system’s dynamic produced booms accompanied by very destructive busts. The operations of banking usually outran the cycles of trade, industry, and war that were coloring evolving Modernity. So the Fed was created to smooth out these cycles. It had two basic mandates for this: acting as the lender of last resort between banks during financial panics so that some money would always be available in an emergency; and stabilizing the money supply and prices in the system. The Fed failed spectacularly to smooth out the cycles of boom and bust and to maintain the value of the dollar over time.
Sixteen years after the Fed’s creation, America entered its worst economic downturn ever, the Great Depression, which was only mitigated by the colossal abnormality of World War Two. America emerged from that episode as the last industrial society standing amid everyone else’s smoldering ruins. That gave us an extraordinary advantage in world trade lasting roughly thirty years. That high tide of the era of seeming “normality” — the 1950s and 60s, which the Trumpian-minded might recall as “great” — started unraveling in the 1970s, which was not coincidentally the moment of America’s all-time oil production peak.
In 1977, the Fed was given a third mission of promoting maximum employment with a trick-bag of tools for manipulating the money supply and credit creation that have proven to be fatally mischievous. This new task elevated Fed officials, and especially its chairperson, to the status of viziers — magicians using occult mathematical models and formulas — to cast spells capable of controlling the macro economy the way wizards are thought to control external reality. Their pretenses seemed to work for reasons unrelated to the spells they were learning to cast.
It is still largely unrecognized that America recovered from the financial disorder of the 1970s not because of the charms of “Reaganomics” but for the simple reason that the last giant finds of oil with greater than 30-to-one energy-return-on-investment came on line in the 1980s: Alaska’s North Slope, Britain and Norway’s North Sea fields, and Siberia. That allowed the USA and the West generally to extend the techno-industrial fiesta another twenty years. As that bounty tapered down around the year 2000, the system wobbled again and the viziers of the Fed ramped up their magical operations, led by the Grand Vizier (or “Maestro”) Alan Greenspan, who worked the control rods of interest rates as though the financial system were a great nuclear powered pipe organ that could be revved up and tamped down by a wondrous Fed control panel. This period of Fed spell-casting was characterized by ever more systemically complex finance, growing systemic fragility, pervasive institutionalized accounting fraud, and ever-greater bubbles and busts. Deregulation, especially the 1998 repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1932, sealed America’s financial fate.
Debt was the meat-and-potatoes of the Fed’s wizardry, but the “secret sauce” of Fed magic was fraud, in the form of market interventions, manipulations, regulatory negligence, and just plain systematic lying about the numbers that defined the economy. It amounted to nationalized financial racketeering. Under the consecutive Grand Vizierships of Greenspan and Ben Bernanke, control fraud (using official authority to cover up misconduct) was perfected by banking executives, eventuating in the mortgage securities fiasco of 2008, which took down the housing market and the economy. (That housing market, by the way, was made up mainly of suburban houses, the sine qua non of the greatest misallocation of resources in the history of the world.)
Of course, nobody paid a criminal penalty for any of this misconduct besides the maverick Ponzi artist Bernie Madoff, and a few other small fish. The regulators looked the other way, on orders from their bosses. Unlike the earlier Savings and Loan bank crisis of the late 1980s, none of the leading bank officer perps went to jail. The damage of the 2008 crash was epic and never repaired, only papered over with more debt, more deceit, and more racketeering.
The supposed remedy, the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010, was a cover for continued pervasive fraud and the institutional “capture” of government by the banking industry and its handmaidens, really a fascist melding of banking and government, a swindle machine in which anything goes and nothing matters. The frauds have only been rechanneled since 2008 into college loans, car loans, corporate stock buyback monkey business, currency arbitrage shenanigans, private equity asset-stripping, and the gigantic black box of derivatives trading.
About That “Big Fat Ugly Bubble” and its Consequences
Part 2: 2017, the Year of Living Anxiously
Under Bernanke’s successor, UC-Berkeley Professor Janet Yellen, the emphasis in Fed policy has been an elaborate game of “data |
fraud is completely unfounded,” Milot wrote.
In fact, he said, Trinity has helped the RCMP, which has investigated Ciccone and Ciccone Group and will continue to do so.One of the great transformational experiences of my lifetime has been drinking beer in American bars. As a man who spent more of his 20s in America (and mostly in bars) than in the UK there is no-one who can testify better to just how disappointing American beer once was. Somehow Americans, and me along with them, accepted the idea that the variants offered by Budweiser, Miller and (if you really wanted to push the boat out) Coors were enough to satiate all your drinking needs.
And then it all started to change. Tiny independent brewers began to spring up all over the USA. They started brewing distinctive, beautiful ales of every possible variation and inclination. These beers first appeared around the periphery of American liquor stores and independent beer shops. Then they started to pick up distribution in local bars. American palates that had been raised on watery, indistinct, mass-produced tedium suddenly started to get a taste of local, diverse, fresh, brilliantly made beer – and they liked it.
I will say this and you can shoot me later. A typical bar in any major American town is now going to offer you a wider array of better local ale than the equivalent location in England, Germany or even (deep breath) the Czech Republic.
The age of making jokes about American beer is long over. A typical bar in Chicago, San Diego or Boston now offers a mesmerizing selection of different local ales. I sat recently in a small dive bar in Deerfield, Illinois, gazing in wonder at the dozen different draft beers before me with a look that blended admiration, incomprehension and the absolute and inevitable realization that there was too much good beer in this small bar to get through in the evening ahead.
AB InBev is rapaciously acquiring its independent rivals to ensure that, while it keeps one hand in the big beer business, the other increasingly works on the boutique side of things.
The man sitting next to me at the bar was struck by my countenance and we started a conversation. Despite being half my age he taught me about a dozen things about hops and yeast I did not know in the 60 minutes that we sat there and – in the age-old tradition of American bars – had a few.
This is all great news for consumers of beer but not such a wonderful development for AB InBev – the world’s largest beer company. Created from a merger of the behemoths that once owned Budweiser, Miller and a host of other mass-manufactured global beers, AB InBev still owns 45% of the entire American beer market. But that proportion is now in free-fall as American drinkers switch from big to boutique beer and imported alternatives in their millions.
AB InBev has a solution to this problem, one that probably will not surprise you. It is rapaciously acquiring its independent rivals to ensure that, while it keeps one hand in the big beer business, the other increasingly works on the boutique side of things. In true big corporate style AB InBev has housed its newly acquired craft beers in a newly created ‘High End’ division. So far, that division encompasses 10 much loved, formerly independent beer brands and includes such iconic names as Goose Island, 10 Barrel, Elysian Brewing and – its most recent acquisition – Wicked Weed Brewing from North Carolina.
With this growing stable of High End brands in place, AB InBev is understandably now investing in them. The company recently announced a massive $2bn investment – much of which will be devoted to its long term goal of growing its presence in the craft brew sector. Funds will almost certainly be used to acquire more craft breweries but also to scale up production and allow AB InBev to manufacture much greater amounts of its newly acquired beer brands, presumably from centralized production facilities.
The Issue Of Brand Architecture
Experienced marketers will begin to spot a potential problem in all of this: brand architecture. If target consumers become aware of the parentage of AB InBev’s growing stable of former craft beer brands, it could undermine the brand image of the brews and result in their widespread rejection in the market.
Before we go any further let’s make it abundantly clear that this is a very rare event. Typically, customers do not have the faintest clue about the organizational parentage of brands they may have had an enduring purchase history with.
Very few customers realize that Lamborghini is owned by VW or that Fiat owns Ferrari (along with Maserati, Alfa Romeo and Jeep too). Consumers spend hours reviewing prices for their next holiday by switching between Expedia, Trivago and Hotels.com entirely ignorant of the fact that all three belong to the same company. Standing in Boots they compare Pantene shampoo with Head & Shoulders and Vidal Sassoon unaware that all three options are manufactured by Procter & Gamble. At a bar they order a Baileys on the rocks and a Guinness for their partner, oblivious to the common link back to Diageo. And at the end of the night they debate whether to order from Pizza Hut or KFC, ignorant of the fact that the two brands are both part of the Yum! Brands group.
Brand architecture is a magic trick that allows big companies to proffer the illusion of choice to customers, constrain competitors’ access to all-important distribution channels and position different brands in a portfolio that can cover every corner of the segment map.
But there is a catch. Brand architecture only works if the magic trick remains a secret. Usually the combination of consumer indolence and competitor equivalency means no-one draws attention to the secret connections and shared parentage of brands. But there are special factors at work in the beer market that make this situation far riskier for AB InBev than most might anticipate.
The consumers who buy craft beer buy it because of its craft. They prefer their beer local and independent and made by a slightly mad bloke who takes his beer far too seriously. If I whisper into the ear of the woman in boots holding Pantene in one hand and Vidal Sassoon in the other that they are both made by the same company she is likely to shrug and then call security. But if I tell craft beer loving patrons that the Goose Island ale they are lovingly imbibing is actually made by the same company that brought you Bud Light, you are likely to humiliate these drinkers in a manner that ensures they don’t buy it again. When much of what you are buying is independence and craft, a parent that stands for the opposite is a killer of a brand association.
Second, the brands in question that AB InBev has purchased were positioned on their absolute and total revulsion for AB InBev and everything it stood for. That might sound like an overstatement but, trust me, it’s not. Prior to its acquisition, for example, Seattle-based Elysian Brewing used the slogan ‘Corporate Beer Still Sucks’. They emblazoned it across their six packs. Clearly, the biggest corporate beer company of them all buying an independent beer brand that positions itself as hating corporate beer companies is the kind of conundrum that will keep your marketing department up at night.
Clash Of Cultures
Then there is AB InBev and its own marketing strategy. The company has positioned its own brands aggressively against craft beers in the past by openly making fun of the precious and involved manner in which craft beer lovers consume their ale. Their infamous, and rather well executed, TV spot for Budweiser during the 2015 Super Bowl for example, is exactly the right corporate approach if you want to position big beer against craft beer, and exactly the wrong approach if your company is about to go on a craft beer acquisition spree.
Already there are signals that the craft beer industry is not taking AB InBev’s incursion into craft beer lying down. Industry bible Brew Studs has listed 14 formerly independent craft beers that it now recommends consumers boycott because of their big beer acquisition. Independent distributors have begun to delist any formerly independent beer brand now owned by the big beer companies.
Formerly friendly beer brands have moved fast to isolate and abandon any links with their newly acquired peers. In the month after its acquisition was announced, for example, Wicked Weed was banned and uninvited from a series of different craft brewing events. The brand had its local membership of the North Carolina Craft Brewers Guild revoked almost immediately and has been widely shunned by the local beer making community.
What emerges from all this is inarguably one of the great brand challenges of recent years. Can AB InBev pull off the dual marketing feat of maintaining its big brands while nurturing its newly acquired craft labels at the same time? The company certainly has the brand strategy capabilities but it will require an exceptional period of careful planning and execution to pull it off.
There is always the potential danger that a company famed for its economies of scale and mass production does the unthinkable and starts mass-producing and mass-marketing their growing stable of craft beers with unthinkable consequences. That might sounds like a ridiculously dumb thing to do but most big companies tend to keep doing things the way they’ve done things in the past. Acquiring a boutique brand does not always mean you also accept their approach to marketing and manufacturing.
American beer quality has improved dramatically over the past decade and with it the knowledge and discernment of American beer consumers. Maybe it’s time for brand management to follow suit in America and raise its game too.
This thought piece is featured courtesy of Marketing Week, the United Kingdom’s leading marketing publication.
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FREE Publications And Resources For MarketersThe idea is pure Green city planning and if its backers get their way, it will be applied with consummate Teutonic thoroughness in the German capital’s trendiest borough.
For one month next summer, cars with conventional diesel or petrol engines will be banned from a square kilometre section of Berlin’s Prenzlauer Berg district. The area’s 20,000 residents will be ordered to remove their estimated 3,500 vehicles.
They will be replaced by a fleet of electric cars which inhabitants will be encouraged to share along with additional electric trams, vans and bikes. The project, backed by Germany’s Green Party, has been dubbed the Eco Mobility Festival.
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. From 15p €0.18 $0.18 $0.27 a day, more exclusives, analysis and extras.
It is an attempt to highlight the advantages of using electric cars rather than their carbon-emitting petrol counterparts.
Berlin’s tourist board is already euphoric about the project “ It exactly fits the image the world has of Berlin,” a spokesman said. Big business finds it “exciting” and even the reform Communist Left Party is sympathetic. But not so Berlin’s two main governing parties: the conservatives and the Social Democrats.
The latter has dubbed the idea “ forced enjoyment”, the former argues that it is unworkable because some families need their carbon-emitting cars every day.
Even Berlin’s “enlightened” newspaper Der Tagesspiegel has described the project as “being told what to do – under the banner of progress”. But the man behind it, Prenzlauer Berg’s Green councillor Jens-Holger Kirchner is unperturbed: “ In Berlin, everyone is anti – at first,” he claims.
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 nowVienna, Austria (CNN) Austria says it can't keep this up much longer. Germany says it can't, either.
After absorbing more than 12,000 refugees, Austria wants to see a gradual reduction in the numbers of refugees coming through, Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann said.
"We have always said this is an emergency situation, which we have to handle quickly and humanely," Faymann said Sunday. "We have helped more than 12,000 people in an acute situation. We must now step by step go from emergency measures to a normality that is humane and complies with the law."
Austria's border with Hungary remains open to potential refugees, Austrian Interior Ministry spokesman Alexander Marakovits said Sunday, and packed buses and trains continued to arrive.
Despite the government's desire to curb migrant flow, there has been an outpouring of support from Austrians. Many have brought food and water and cheered for the refugees pouring onto the platform at Vienna's train station.
The Austrian Red Cross has also been on hand to provide medical supplies and warm blankets.
The refugees I am meeting at the Vienna station are so grateful for the warm welcome. pic.twitter.com/uwwK89uQ3B — Melissa Fleming (@melissarfleming) September 5, 2015
One recent arrival, standing with his two daughters, told CNN of the family's difficult journey through Hungary.
"We went through a torture," he said. "We walked 110 kilometers (68 miles) with the children. They didn't allow us to take cars or trains."
But the Hungarian people, he said, "were very nice. We arrived here safely, and we are comfortable here, and we like the people and the government of Austria."
Most of the arrivals in Austria intend to travel farther into Europe, however. Of the thousands who have arrived there this weekend, only a dozen or so have opted to apply for asylum there, the country's Interior Ministry said.
German patience tried
Germany is attractive to refugees because of its robust economy, strong democracy and long history of taking in refugees. But it, too, can't keep taking in refugees at the current pace.
"The great helpfulness that Germany has shown in these last weeks and months should not be worn thin," the Interior Ministry said in a statement Sunday.
It called for all European countries to work together and share responsibility.
"Only if that is guaranteed can Germany continue its do its part in helping the large number of asylum-seekers," the statement said.
Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said as much Saturday, telling his European counterparts that Germany's acceptance of the thousands fleeing conflicts in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan must not be the practice in the coming days, according to the website of the German newspaper Die Zeit.
The government has said it will accept 800,000 applications for asylum from refugees. A poll released by broadcaster ARD on Thursday found 88% of Germans willing to donate clothes or money to refugees, and 67% willing to volunteer to help them.
Some 5,000 migrants arrived on Sunday at the train station in Munich, according to police there. The country's interior ministry said around 8,000 arrived in southern Germany the day before.
After arriving, the people are registered, fingerprinted and brought to shelters or temporary housing such as university dorms or even shipping containers that have been converted into living spaces.
Pope implores European Catholics to help
Pope Francis implored Catholic institutions throughout Europe on Sunday to show mercy to the flood of refugees arriving on their shores by offering them shelter.
"May every parish, every religious community, every monastery, every sanctuary of Europe host a family, starting from my diocese of Rome," Francis said at the end of his Angelus prayers in Rome.
"The two parishes in the Vatican these days will welcome two families of refugees."
The Pope's urging came as more than 12,000 migrants poured into Austria on Sunday, the Interior Ministry said, arriving at train stations to applause, cheers and pats on the back from Austrians eager to help them.
There were similar scenes at train stations in Germany. In Saalfeld, a crowd of locals stood on the platform clapping and singing in English, "Say it loud, say it clear, refugees are welcome here" as migrants arrived.
Hungary's treatment 'absolutely unacceptable'
Many of the migrants arrive with harrowing tales of crossing the Mediterranean, then walking from Greece through Macedonia, Serbia, Hungary and finally into Austria.
It is in Hungary that many say they endured the worst treatment. Buses took them to two transit camps, where migrants and their advocates say conditions are inhumane. CNN was not allowed in.
Amnesty International representative Barbora Cernusakova said she visited the camp in Roszke, just over the border from Serbia, on Sunday.
"There were a number of refugees who didn't want to stay at this collection point, and I don't blame them because there are absolutely no facilities," she told CNN.
She said migrants have complained of overcrowding, no access to toilets and sanitation facilities, and verbal abuse by police.
"These are simply not conditions where you put a person who's been through a traumatizing journey through several countries," she said. Many of these people have been walking for a number of days, and actually these people are in many, many cases escaping an armed conflict. This is absolutely unacceptable."
A Syrian refugee girl in her mother's arms waiting in the rain to move onto buses for their onward journey to Austria pic.twitter.com/SqrhJXQtao — UN Refugee Agency (@Refugees) September 5, 2015
Hungary's right-wing government, trying to stop the flood of migrants, has erected a barbed-wire fence along its more than 160-kilometer (100-mile) border with Serbia to prevent them from crossing there. Lawmakers last week passed bills aimed at tightening border restrictions, according to Hungarian news agency MTI.
Hungary's government has blamed the onslaught of migration on the European Union's immigration policy and on statements made by European politicians that could be understood as welcoming migrants.
Photos: Europe's migration crisis in 25 photos Photos: Europe's migration crisis in 25 photos A woman cries after being rescued in the Mediterranean Sea about 15 miles north of Sabratha, Libya, on July 25, 2017. More than 6,600 migrants and refugees entered Europe by sea in January 2018, according to the UN migration agency, and more than 240 people died on the Mediterranean Sea during that month. Hide Caption 1 of 26 Photos: Europe's migration crisis in 25 photos Refugees and migrants get off a fishing boat at the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean Sea from Turkey in October 2015. Hide Caption 2 of 26 Photos: Europe's migration crisis in 25 photos Hide Caption 3 of 26 Photos: Europe's migration crisis in 25 photos Migrants step over dead bodies while being rescued in the Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Libya in October 2016. Agence France-Presse photographer Aris Messinis was on a Spanish rescue boat that encountered several crowded migrant boats. Messinis said the rescuers counted 29 dead bodies -- 10 men and 19 women, all between 20 and 30 years old. "I've (seen) in my career a lot of death," he said. "I cover war zones, conflict and everything. I see a lot of death and suffering, but this is something different. Completely different." Hide Caption 4 of 26 Photos: Europe's migration crisis in 25 photos Authorities stand near the body of 2-year-old Alan Kurdi on the shore of Bodrum, Turkey, in September 2015. Alan, his brother and their mother drowned while fleeing Syria. This photo was shared around the world, often with a Turkish hashtag that means "Flotsam of Humanity." Hide Caption 5 of 26 Photos: Europe's migration crisis in 25 photos Migrants board a train at Keleti station in Budapest, Hungary, after the station was reopened in September 2015. Hide Caption 6 of 26 Photos: Europe's migration crisis in 25 photos Children cry as migrants in Greece try to break through a police cordon to cross into Macedonia in August 2015. Thousands of migrants -- most of them fleeing Syria's bitter conflict -- were stranded in a no-man's land on the border. Hide Caption 7 of 26 Photos: Europe's migration crisis in 25 photos The Kusadasi Ilgun, a sunken 20-foot boat, lies in waters off the Greek island of Samos in November 2016. Hide Caption 8 of 26 Photos: Europe's migration crisis in 25 photos Migrants bathe outside near a makeshift shelter in an abandoned warehouse in Subotica, Serbia, in January 2017. Hide Caption 9 of 26 Photos: Europe's migration crisis in 25 photos A police officer in Calais, France, tries to prevent migrants from heading for the Channel Tunnel to England in June 2015. Hide Caption 10 of 26 Photos: Europe's migration crisis in 25 photos A migrant walks past a burning shack in the southern part of the "Jungle" migrant camp in Calais, France, in March 2016. Part of the camp was being demolished -- and the inhabitants relocated -- in response to unsanitary conditions at the site. Hide Caption 11 of 26 Photos: Europe's migration crisis in 25 photos Migrants stumble as they cross a river north of Idomeni, Greece, attempting to reach Macedonia on a route that would bypass the border-control fence in March 2016. Hide Caption 12 of 26 Photos: Europe's migration crisis in 25 photos In September 2015, an excavator dumps life vests that were previously used by migrants on the Greek island of Lesbos. Hide Caption 13 of 26 Photos: Europe's migration crisis in 25 photos The Turkish coast guard helps refugees near Aydin, Turkey, after their boat toppled en route to Greece in January 2016. Hide Caption 14 of 26 Photos: Europe's migration crisis in 25 photos A woman sits with children around a fire at the northern Greek border point of Idomeni in March 2016. Hide Caption 15 of 26 Photos: Europe's migration crisis in 25 photos A column of migrants moves along a path between farm fields in Rigonce, Slovenia, in October 2015. Hide Caption 16 of 26 Photos: Europe's migration crisis in 25 photos A ship crowded with migrants flips onto its side in May 2016 as an Italian navy ship approaches off the coach of Libya. Passengers had rushed to the port side, a shift in weight that proved too much. Five people died and more than 500 were rescued. Hide Caption 17 of 26 Photos: Europe's migration crisis in 25 photos Refugees break through a barbed-wire fence on the Greece-Macedonia border in February 2016, as tensions boiled over regarding new travel restrictions into Europe. Hide Caption 18 of 26 Photos: Europe's migration crisis in 25 photos Policemen try to disperse hundreds of migrants by spraying them with fire extinguishers during a registration procedure in Kos, Greece, in August 2015. Hide Caption 19 of 26 Photos: Europe's migration crisis in 25 photos A member of the humanitarian organization Sea-Watch holds a migrant baby who drowned following the capsizing of a boat off Libya in May 2016. Hide Caption 20 of 26 Photos: Europe's migration crisis in 25 photos A migrant in Gevgelija, Macedonia, tries to sneak onto a train bound for Serbia in August 2015. Hide Caption 21 of 26 Photos: Europe's migration crisis in 25 photos Migrants, most of them from Eritrea, jump into the Mediterranean from a crowded wooden boat during a rescue operation about 13 miles north of Sabratha, Libya, in August 2016. Hide Caption 22 of 26 Photos: Europe's migration crisis in 25 photos Refugees rescued off the Libyan coast get their first sight of Sardinia as they sail in the Mediterranean Sea toward Cagliari, Italy, in September 2015. Hide Caption 23 of 26 Photos: Europe's migration crisis in 25 photos Local residents and rescue workers help migrants from the sea after a boat carrying them sank off the island of Rhodes, Greece, in April 2015. Hide Caption 24 of 26 Photos: Europe's migration crisis in 25 photos Investigators in Burgenland, Austria, inspect an abandoned truck that contained the bodies of refugees who died of suffocation in August 2015. The 71 victims -- most likely fleeing war-ravaged Syria -- were 60 men, eight women and three children. Hide Caption 25 of 26 Photos: Europe's migration crisis in 25 photos Syrian refugees sleep on the floor of a train car taking them from Macedonia to the Serbian border in August 2015. How to help the ongoing migrant crisis Hide Caption 26 of 26
UNHCR spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said there are a number of things European nations could do to help.
"First of all, once people arrive in Europe, what we're proposing is that there be reception centers, registration centers run by the EU, supported by UNHCR in Greece and Italy and also in Hungary so that they could claim asylum in those countries," she said.
"But it would only work if there is a relocation in place into other countries of Europe -- not just Germany, not just Sweden, not just Austria."Electronic Cigarettes Have Saved Many Lives
It is very much true, electronic cigarettes have saved many lives and they might be able to save yours too. When it comes to quitting cigarettes, it is typically one of the hardest things that anyone ever tries. Many people have heard of all the different techniques that people have used to stop smoking and most of them fell for most people. What are the reasons why most techniques fail is because they ask for too much too soon? What do we mean by that? By that we mean that cigarette addiction is more than just being addicted to nicotine, it is a psychological addiction to, people have programmed their mind to do this task each and every day that it is very difficult to quit.
It does not matter if they have nicotine chewing gum or any other technique it just won’t work because it doesn’t give people what they want, it doesn’t allow them to solve the programmed action that your mind has adopted for many years so those techniques fail. The way that you solve the problem of this type of addiction is to slowly move people away from smoking cigarettes.
The easiest way to do this is with an electronic cigarette and the best 18650 battery for vape mods. If you think about it, with an electronic cigarette, a person is performing all of the actions of smoking a traditional unhealthy cigarette by using a healthier electronic cigarette. They get all of the sensations, the touches, the feelings, the mental relief, the programming and all the things they are used to doing. This allows them to replace their negative habit with a much healthier one. It satisfies their mind and their psyche on many different levels this is why it works better than any other technique. It doesn’t rip the person away from a habitual task that they have been doing for very long time it instead replaces the negative part of that habit was something positive.
It is similar to improving anything in life and making very important changes. It is similar to losing weight. Those who go on a crash diet do not keep the weight off for very long and they have a high risk of not having any success at all. They try too much too soon. If instead, a person would just do a 10 minute walk every day and create a new habit if Dave tried to just add one healthy meal a day instead of getting rid of everything they are used to, they will find it easier to wean themselves often are unhealthy habits is all about making these tiny changes, satisfying the emotions, while learning new and better habits at the same time.
When it comes to electronic cigarettes and the best vape tank – the best place to purchase them is on the Internet. On the Internet, a person will find a huge inventory of electronic cigarettes that have of very high-quality deeds will allow a person to quit their awful habit of smoking traditional cigarettes. Some people might try to find their electronic cigarettes locally. Most people will find that locally they cannot find the same level of inventory, the same prices and he typically will not find the true specialist when it comes to this. On the Internet, you will find websites and stores that are completely dedicated to electronic cigarettes. It is an industry within itself. It is not like going to your local gas station or corner store and simply buying electronic cigarettes from them. Instead, you get a much higher level of service and expertise so that you can find what you are truly looking for.
When it comes to the price of electronic cigarettes it is something that varies from brand to brand but what you will find is that the best prices can be found on the Internet. On the Internet, prices are much lower because the competition is higher and overhead is lower. All this leads up to you getting the best deal that you can on the Internet. So, most people would be better off buying their electronic cigarettes on the Internet than from anywhere else. With shipping, a person will quickly get their electronic cigarette in a few days.
Electronic cigarettes might also make a great gift to someone who you care about. Someone who you do not want to die or suffer for the type of problems that cigarette smoking can cause. It really is the gift that keeps on giving because it can give them a new life, it can give them health, it can give them peace of mind, and a lot of benefits and that is why it will make a very good gift for someone. So if you’re looking for the perfect gift, when it is life-changing, one that can truly save a person’s life, then look no further than this.
As you can see, electronic cigarettes have many different benefits. One of the most important things is that it has the highest rate of success comes to helping people quit smoking. It is a safer option, it is one that is psychologically easy for people to use and that is what a stick to it. It allows them to get nicotine without all the dangers involved. It also allows a person to wean themselves off nicotine slowly. It really is the best thing that we have going around when it comes to quitting smoking.Free apps 'can spy on texts and calls': Smartphone users warned of privacy dangers
Companies are using free smartphone apps as ‘fronts’ to allow them to spy on users’ text messages, intercept calls and even track their location, it was claimed yesterday.
By accepting little-read terms and conditions when downloading apps, consumers give developers the right to harvest vast swathes of private information.
Facebook insists that people using its Android smartphone app agree to give them permission to read their text messages, although the internet giant said it had not yet taken advantage of this right.
Privacy risk: Smartphone app developers have the right to access incredible amounts of users' personal data thanks to provisions in little-read terms and conditions documents
Social media sites Flickr and Yahoo! are also alleged to read text messages via their apps, while apps from smaller companies allow them to extract private details about users’ lives. They can even remotely take images from users’ handset cameras and even dial their phone and intercept calls without them knowing.
Privacy campaigners criticised the abuse of personal information. Nick Pickles, director of Big Brother Watch, described the apps market as ‘an unregulated Wild West’.
Emma Draper, of the Privacy International campaign group, said: ‘Your personal information is a precious commodity, and companies will go to great lengths to get their hands on as much of it as possible.’
The Facebook app has been downloaded to Google’s Android smartphones more than 100million times, yet few of its users are thought to know that they have agreed to give Facebook the right ‘to read SMS messages stored on your device or SIM card’. Apps are also used to identify the location of users through global positioning software and access the phone numbers and email addresses of their contacts.
HOOVERING UP YOUR DATA: WHAT THE APPS CAN ACCESS
Location data Internet history Text messages Contact book Online account IDs Who you are calling May intercept calls Can access camera Flickr x
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TweetDeck x
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Netflix
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Facebook x
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Ancestry.co.uk x
x Badoo x
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Yahoo! Messenger
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Shazam x
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My Fitness Pal
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Twitter: The site admitted that its smartphone application transmitted data from users' private address books
They can also be used to gain information about the app users’ web browsing history.
These details are often sold on to advertisers and market research companies, exposing those downloading the apps to unwanted advertising and spam messages.
Daniel Rosenfield, director of app company Sun Products, said selling on the information was far more lucrative than charging for the app. He said: ‘The revenue you get from selling your apps doesn’t touch the revenue you get from giving your apps away for free and just loading them with advertisements.’
Chris Brauer, of the centre for Creative and Social Technology at Goldsmiths, University of London, said: ‘Most adults have smartphones now. They are a source for incredibly rich information about people’s lives. A lot of apps are fronts for various companies who are now capturing this data.’
A spokesman for Facebook said the request for permission to read text messages was to allow the app to read and write data between itself and the phone’s SMS feature, rather than for the company to trawl individuals’ messages.
He added: ‘If Facebook ultimately launches any feature that makes use of these permissions, we will ensure that this is accompanied by appropriate guidance.’
Google said: ‘From the beginning, Android has had an industry-leading permissions system which informs consumers what data an app can access and requires users’ approval before installation.’Esmat is in her mid-twenties and is from South Khorasan - Naz Dasht village
She added: “The project organized workshops for us which enabled us to learn and enhance our handicraft skills. At first it was just me, but after a while when other women started to see my success, they also joined me and started working with me.”
Fatemeh feels confident and empowered. “I now have an income and can support myself and my family. I make decisions and the men in our village have more respect for us. In a sense I can say that this project has brought unity among the villagers. I encourage all women to see their potential. It is never too late to change and make a difference” she says.
400 kilometers south of Hojjatabad lies Naz Dasht village.
Esmat runs a kindergarten and she also weaves carpets in Naz Dasht. “I went to school until grade six. I did not want to continue my education. I thought it’s pointless, because at the end I had to sit at home and not work. But the project motivated me to finish my studies and now I have my diploma.”
“My own personal experience allowed me to see the value of education and that is why I decided to open a kindergarten. I tell girls that is important to stay in school and become educated. I want them to feel equal to their brothers and fathers and other men in their family. If we start from young age then we will surely succeed” Esmat says.
According to her, men and women work alongside one another now and the men in the village give credit to women and respect them: “This project has made me feel stronger. When other men in my village see that I am so active and contribute to the wellbeing of my family then they start to open up to the idea and possibility of allowing their own daughters, sisters or wives to do the same and be agents of development in their community.”
“I have one last message” Esmat said “and that is that I hope one day all men around the world realize that gender empowerment and eradication of poverty are essential to economic and social development and with this in mind work alongside women and not exclude them in their societies.”Ferenc Karsai Full 1 Hour Interview - Plastic Balls, Boosters, How to Improve Your Game, and Much More
Here's the full 1 hour version of our interview with Ferenc Karsai, one of Europe's most famous table tennis coaches.
Who is Ferenc Karsai?
Karsai is one of Europe's most famous table tennis coaches. He was the head coach of Austrian Men’s National Team from 1995 to 2013 working with Karl Jindrak, Robert Gardos, Chen Weixing, Werner Schlager, Daniel Habesohn, and others. Coach of World Team against China in 2004, and was elected to be the best trainer of all sports in Austria in 2003.
Although officially retired after leaving the Austrian National Team, he remains active and has been seen coaching Canadian and Belgium players at World Championships and other important international competitions.
If you're interested in taking your game to the next level, Ferenc's training camp is the perfect opportunity to do that. Click here for more information.
Got any questions or comments? Let us know in the discussion section below! Did you find this interview helpful? Why not share it with your friends!
YOU CAN ALSO WATCH THE INTERVIEW BY TOPIC HERE:
Ferenc Karsai Video Interview Part 1: How Plastic Balls Have Changed Table Tennis
Ferenc Karsai Video Interview Part 2: How Could the Best European Players Beat the Best Asian Players?
Ferenc Karsai Video Interview Part 3: Is the Sport of Table Tennis Expanding or Shrinking?
Ferenc Karsai Video Interview Part 4: Advice to Recreational Table Tennis Players for Improving Their Game
Ferenc Karsai Video Interview Part 5: Are Boosters Good for Table Tennis?
Ferenc Karsai Video Interview Part 6: Are the Many Recent Changes in Table Tennis Rules Good?
Transcript of the Interview:
The Interviewer: Today, our guest is top table tennis coach from Hungary, Mr. Ferenc Karsai. Is that correct?
Ferenc Karsai: That's correct, yes.
The Interviewer: It's correct. We are happy to meet him in Estonia. Ferenc, welcome to Estonia. Very nice to see you. Thank you for coming, and thank you also for this great opportunity to ask some questions.
Ferenc Karsai: Thank you for the invitation. This invitation came from ETTU, because European Table Tennis Union asked me, that Estonia want to make one coach seminar and I am first time here, and I am very happy that I take this opportunity to be here, and from tomorrow, we make coach seminar.
The Interviewer: Okay. Then, I have to thank also European Table Tennis Union for this wonderful opportunity. As you know, I am working for Tabletennis11 company. We are shipping table tennis equipment all over the world. As a top coach, you are coaching national teams. Also not weakest countries, you are coaching big table tennis nations. You don't need to buy quite often this equipment, because you are supplied by national federations, I guess. Still, I guess you heard something about Tabletennis11.
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at all. He’s got some growing up to do, but hopefully he learned something from this whole ordeal and offseason.”
That said, don’t count on Lynch trading for another former teammate from the Broncos. In the same interview, he offered a “buyer beware” assessment of receiver Brandon Marshall, who was drafted by Mike Shanahan in the same year that Cutler was selected.
“I don’t like saying [buyer beware], but you’ve got to call a spade a spade, and I think it’s a dangerous proposition,” Lynch said. “I don’t think you’ll see the Broncos sign him to a long-term deal, because right now the behavior he’s demonstrated off the field, I don’t think you’d feel comfortable doing anything long term.
“As I said, on the field, he’s very comparable to a guy like Terrell Owens. He’s that good of a player. But being a professional in my mind... takes doing it on the field and off the field. You can’t have all choir boys. I believe in first and second chances, but when you’re talking about 13 or 14... I think at a certain point you’ve got to say this guy’s got some issues that he’s got to work out before you can trust him.”
In the eight years since then, Marshall has indeed worked through issues and matured considerably. Cutler, by all appearances, has grown up as well. Given that both are currently under contract with other teams and in light of the fact that Lynch now works for the 49ers, it won’t be known whether his opinion has changed unless and unless he does, or doesn’t, trade for either guy.Cardcaptor Sakura is now a 20-year-old franchise and what an awesome way to celebrate its greatness but to bring back the hype of the well-loved show: more merchandise, a continuation of the manga series (Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card Arc), an announcement of a new anime adaptation in 2018, and so on.
The series’ unique storyline as well as unforgettable characters makes this series one of the most memorable anime shows to date and even one of those shows that you would like to watch all over again if you have the time. Anime shows nowadays may have bigger guns, sexy clothes, and an offer of fan service— there is just something in Cardcaptor Sakura that would really tug the heart of the inner anime fan in you.
Now we are not going to be talking about the well-loved original Japanese production, oh no. In this article, we are going to talking more about its short-lived English dub titled Cardcaptors.
About the Show
Just to refresh your memory, Cardcaptors was first aired in the United States in the year 2000. This English adaptation of the series was produced by Nelvana, a company quite known for their animation productions as well as distributions of foreign shows for viewers in the United States and Canada.
The anime’s story is centered on an ordinary girl named Sakura who one day finds a mysterious book at her basement called the Clow Book which contains magical cards in them. When she called one of the card’s names, (Windy to be specific) all of the “Clow cards” flew away and scattered all around town. It is up to Sakura to seal all of the cards before they wreak havoc into the world. Aside from her new role as the Cardcaptor, she has to deal with other things like school, homework, family, and later on her rivalry with Li.
The Characters
While Cardcaptor Sakura is mostly-remembered for its cute and bubbly characters, the English adaptation Cardcaptors removed these very important essences of the anime. If you were lucky enough to watch the original series first than in the English dub, you would probably notice these numbers of changes in the characters.
First off, we’ll focus on the main protagonist of the series, Sakura Kinomoto. In the English dub, her name is changed to Sakura Avalon and the sweetness of her character is mostly been removed in this adaptation. They made Sakura even more serious and it seems that they had to cut off her moments when she would giggle and squeal over her older brother’s best friend Yukito (he is named Julian in the English dub). Also, instead of saying her name Sah-ku-ra, it is pronounced as Sa-KUR-rah for some reason.
In the “first season” of Cardcaptors, she is treated as the main protagonist. When Li was finally introduced, it seemed that her role as the center of the series was shifted immediately to him.
For those who watched Cardcaptor Sakura, Tomoyo Daidouji is described as “the perfect best friend a girl could ever have”. Well, we have to break it to you that the kind and soft-spoken rich kid of Tomoeda Elementary cannot be found in the English adaptation. She is renamed as Madison Taylor and her voice never seemed to fit for some reason since the show is like making her sound so outspoken opposite to her original Japanese dub. Due to this shift of voice and some cuts made to her scenes, you may not be able to see the very close friendship with Sakura unlike the original. It’s a disappointment since being so devoted to Sakura is what Tomoyo is quite known for.
Next up, we have Li Shaoran or Li Showron in the English dub. They seemed to have made him a little jerk especially to Sakura and they seem to have made him more intelligent and mature than the series’ main protagonist. I’m not sure if they did this because they want Cardcaptors to not only be a girl-centered audience, I guess they also wanted to reach into the male demographics. For them to do that, they decided to use Li and place in more limelight on him.
As much as we would like to go through on the other characters and some of their changes, let’s move forward now to find out what was good in this English dub and what was bad about it.
The Good
We have to admit that we should really give the producer and distributor some credits because if it weren’t for their efforts in getting the rights to Cardcaptor Sakura, fans in the West wouldn’t really know about the series at all. Regardless of the many changes they did, it was quite impressing to see how they formed this sweet and cute mahou shoujo anime into a show perfect to be watched for both boys and girls.
Another good thing about Cardcaptors is their choice of background music and insert songs in each episode. You might say this is one of the primary factors in which transformed this series into something serious and in a hyped mood like you’re watching Power Rangers or Dragon Ball. Although some of the insert songs may sound a bit awkward in a particular situation, the show’s soundtrack CD is a must-have (you might want to check out online stores because the album is a rare gem now).
The promotions for this anime were just something to be respected. Although they almost changed everything in Cardcaptor Sakura to meet their target demographics, their promotions deserve a two thumbs up. The early 2000s were the time when distributors were still testing out the waters of anime dubbing and the related so this seems to be a good start and one example that it works as long as you put everything right.
The Bad
The number one disappointment with Cardcaptors is that they really changed everything and only one-fourth of the original content remained. The English adaptation was known for a lot of skips, episode order changes, and so on. They had a powerhouse English dub cast but sadly most of them don’t really fit the characters. The biggest disappointment would be Tomoyo/Madison for her character aesthetics in the original Japanese version don’t really need changing at all and forcing someone to do a very outspoken and lively voice for her character doesn’t cut it.
Just in case people are not aware, Cardcaptor Sakura had a total of 70 episodes and two full-length movies. Nelvana was able to release them in home video uncut in English dub which is a first since they did so much cuts and changes in the anime. For those who are curious on how many episodes that were aired in the Cardcaptors version, it was only 39 episodes— nearly half of the entire series.
It is pretty obvious that Nelvana really was serious in removing the mushy stuff like falling in love, having a crush on someone who’s older than you, and so on. During the time Cardcaptors was aired was also the time Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh were popular on national television. So aside from making the characters and the anime series on a serious note, they also did what they can to make sure that “capturing cards” is the main plot of the anime (and not finding a way for your sempai to notice you).
One big slap to this show is that they completely removed the Sakura and Syaoran romantic relationship off its version. For the record, the reason why the franchise is still going strong until this day is due to this canon ship between these two. Seems the production was too focused on “card collecting” to even care about innocent romance—we can’t do anything about it. Aside from that, Sakura’s very close friendship with Tomoyo is also removed too. If they just removed these close relationships because they think people will get the wrong idea, that’s just way overboard.
Should You Watch This?
With all these things laid down on the table for you, it comes down to the question if this version of Cardcaptor Sakura is okay to be watched or not. The answer? It would really depend on you.
If you can survive the many scene cuts, randomized episode orders, as well as character voice and personality changes, then it doesn’t hurt to give the English dubbed version a try. For starting fans of Cardcaptor Sakura however, we recommend that you start off with the original series rather than the US version. At least in the original version, you would really know how the anime progresses unlike its English adaptation that would only leave you scratching your head a bit.
Final Words
Cardcaptors is a good show at the same time it’s not really much of a good version to watch if you are looking for an English adaptation. This has opened our eyes to the fact that English dub or adaptation of an anime can work as long as they do what they can to keep it to the original. Sadly, this version never had all that. You might just remember the original version more than this one. This version maybe short lived, but the efforts of bringing the anime to US audiences was one huge step.
With the hype of the franchise’s 20th year, I think it wouldn’t hurt getting another English dubbed version of this series a try—only this time it would be the entire 70 episodes and not another English adaptation that wouldn’t really satisfy the true Cardcaptor Sakura fan in you.Welcome to Fatherhood Friday just days before Father’s Day. If you have a few moments, check out some of the other great posts over at Dad Blogs today. And if you haven’t already, take a peek at my latest Armed and Fatherly…
Father’s Day is nearly upon us, and as this is the first where I actually can count myself among the honorees in addition to my duties as honorer, the day holds a good deal of significance to me. And it has caused me to reflect on what parenthood means to me, and more importantly what I believe my basic tenets of fatherhood entail. At the core of these is my belief that we as parents have a imperative responsibility to be truthful to our children, despite the personal consequences that might befall ourselves, or cause us to lose respect in these eyes of our kids. But in particular, I believe that no parent has the right to color the opinion of the other parent in the eyes of their children.
I have a friend who was married once before, and had several children with his first wife. He adored his kids, and spent their formative years as a strong presence in their life. Somewhere along the way, the marriage soured as marriages can do, and his wife began turning his girls against him. Eventually she shut off all contact for him to them, and basically drilled into them that he wanted out of their lives. They are now under the impression that he walked out on them, when quite frankly the opposite is true.
He still lives in the same area as his girls, who are all grown up now and have kids of their own. He has inadvertently run across them during the mundanities of existence, but they refuse to even acknowledge him. Imagine the pain of seeing your children but having them spurn your existence having done nothing to warrant it. Imagine seeing children and wondering if you are their grandfather, and that they have no knowledge of your existence.
My friend is a quiet, unassuming man who is always willing to help me out of whatever mess I’ve gotten myself into. He;s remarried now to a wonderful woman, and inherited three older kids that adore him and the love that he brings to their family. Things are going pretty well for him now, but his kids are always in the back of his mind somewhere. Frankly, he doesn’t deserve the fate that has befallen him – he doesn’t deserve the consequences of someone else’s agenda, and the decades of emotional pain that followed it. It angers me because I know it, and there’s little I can do about it.
But maybe these words may ring true for you. If you are estranged from your father this Father’s Day because of what someone told you rather than what you experienced yourself, consider the possibility that everything you’ve been told is a lie. Reach out, and reconnect with someone that was once an integral part of your life, and judge for yourself what kind of a human being he is. You may be surprised at what you find.
- MWF -× Clown costume sales up 300% in wake of creepy clown headlines
Creepy clowns have dominated news headlines over the last few months, with reports from people feeling threatened or just plain creeped out in at least 32 states.
Claims have ranged from kids saying clowns were trying to lure them into the woods, to people seeing them lurking on running trails. Some reports have been confirmed as hoaxes, but others come with photo proof.
These news headlines are creating profit for many Halloween retailers across the country. Halloween sales already add up to an estimated $7 billion in the U.S. each year; and it now appears a big part of that number will come from clown costumes.
“Clown mask sales are up more than [300%] from a year ago the same period online,” Brad Butler of national Halloween costume chain Halloween Express told Eye Opener TV Tuesday.
“In the top 10, eight of them are ‘evil’ clown masks this season whereas last year, five of the top 10 were ‘evil,’” Butler added.
Eye Opener TV also reached out to national Halloween pop-up store chain Spirit Halloween. They declined to comment on their sales, strangely citing a policy not to comment on ongoing police investigations.
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Wal-Mart and Party City didn’t immediately respond to requests for preliminary sales data.
With all these sightings and reports of children feeling threatened, we asked former prosecutor, licensed peace officer and defense attorney Pete Schulte if law enforcement or stores should keep track of sales of clown costumes.
Schulte said, “No.”
“[The costumes] aren’t illegal. Even what they’re doing with the costumes is not against the law,” Schulte said.
“Creepy, yes. Illegal, no.”
So if you’re thinking of jumping on the creepy clown bandwagon this Halloween, you’ll have a lot of company. And, judging by the costume sales data released to Eye Opener TV, it doesn’t look like reports of sightings will stop any time soon.As Videographer, I’m always intrigued by the behind the scenes. I wanted to find out more about the man behind all the videos of Gary Vee, So I put out a Wave on Anchor to see who could help me out. The 1st reply was from Ali, who ultimately hooked me up with D-rocks email and made this interview possible. Big shout out to Ali for reaching out and helping me out ( The power of the internet).
I emailed D-rock in March 2016 ( DailyVee 025 ) in which he replied right away and agreed to do a writing interview which I was excited about. After a few emails and being persistent it happened.
Here I present to you #createyourhustle interview with DRock.
photo from Drocks IG - https://www.instagram.com/davidrock/
Tell us a little about yourself. Where did you grow up? When did you fall in love with Filming? Did you go to film school?
“I grew up in the mountains (hills) of the Poconos in Pennsylvania. I was homeschooled with my sister Sarah (who is three years younger than me) by my parents; mainly my Mom, who was very open to me being as creative as I wanted to be. I tried a sleuth of instruments, I loved drawing and writing, basically anything I could “create,” I loved doing. Hard work was instilled in me at the age of 14, when I helped my dad in construction (yes even on school days) on top of a laundry list of chores waiting for me at home. Doing all of these things made me realize I had to find something I loved doing.
At the age of 15, I fell in love with filmmaking. My older sister Jennifer bought a Sony Handycam to film family event and asked me for help to figure it out.
I don’t know what it was that I enjoyed about capturing things through a lens but I was hooked, instantly. In the beginning, I was never satisfied with live events; I wanted to create stories. Eventually I saved enough money from my birthday, Christmas and various summer jobs and bought myself a camera and started to film random things with friends. The true moment I truly fell in love with filmmaking was when I discovered “Windows Movie Maker.” It was the free editing suite on Windows. Once I knew that you could manipulate images to create scenes.. everything changed. I still highly recommend this software for beginners (that or Imovie) because it’s so basic and teaches you the essentials of editing -> cut, move, adjust and repeat”.
If you could pick one lens to shoot Daily Vee with which lens would that be?
“Currently I use one lens so it would be the 24–70 but recently I got the 36- lens and I am excited to try using that. If you want to check out the rest of my equipment I use for DailyVee, check it out here“.”
Where do you get your creative inspiration?
“This question is always tough but the most practical answer would be when I watch movies. Ever since I was a kid I was always fascinated by cinematography. How did they get that angle? Wow, such a flawless edit! why did they edit it that way? Were things I was always thinking about while watching films/tv. Now since I don’t have as much time to watch films as much as I used to I draw inspiration from always trying to make the next video I make better than the last”.
What did you do before working with Gary Vee?
“I was a freelance videographer and editor”.
Tell us about your journey to getting the opportunity to work with Gary?
“I heard of Gary through my friend Nik. Nik had told me that Gary was speaking in manhattan at Columbia College. I hadn’t ever listened or read any of Gary’s books/content until then..so I was intrigued because Nik had talked so highly of him. After the talk I instantly fell in love with Gary’s authenticity (especially because of all of the tacky, uninspiring marketers I had run across in the previous ten months running our podcast). I went down the rabbit hole of Gary’s YouTube page and keynotes, read Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook and was inspired to try and get Gary on our podcast.
Two fun facts about that night:
Alex who now does Business Development for Gary was also there that night (we had no idea) I ready Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook (the week after the talk) but I never read Crush It! Or The Thank You Economy until after I had started working for Gary.
Nik and I were looking for guests on our podcast and once I heard Gary speak I was like…how do we get him on our podcast? My plan was to use Gary’s own philosophy Give, Give, Give then Ask. So I emailed him saying “I’ll make you a free video” …and no response. I tweeted at him…no response (quite a few times) Until one day Gary tweeted “I’m trying out Kik” the messaging app “add me: @garyvee” and I quickly downloaded the app made a username and then messaged him, “Hey, next time you are in NYC I’d love to make a free video for you.” Within five minutes Gary had responded and after a little dialogue he connected me with Steve (Stunwin) who said I’d be following Gary around and making a day in the life video. I met up with him and filmed all day, and the results of that day was a short film called Between the Clouds and Dirt and the rest is history.
…still never got that podcast interview”.
What has been the biggest lesson you’ve learned so far from Gary?
“Two things. Patience and Self-Awareness. I have always known I wanted to be a filmmaker but then I got caught up in the “podcasting, blogging, and marketing world” and was getting further and further away from my strengths. I thought the only way to be successful would be to start a business. I was trying so hard to convince myself that’s what I had to do to be successful. But the sooner I realized I’m a filmmaker and I enjoy creating and put ALL of my energy towards doing that… I’ve excelled 100x more than I would have if I kept trying to “focus on my weaknesses” Sometimes I still find myself thinking of things I could “start” or “create” but have to keep reminding myself to have patience and to continue to work hard and do the things I love to do. It’s just a matter of time”.
How hard is to keep up with Gary all day? Does he ever get tired?
“I’m super energized around Gary and it’s a big plus when you are doing what you love”.
Enough about Gary, What is your vision for Daily Vee?
“I want every episode to be better than the previous one. In order for me to be happy with where we are going..I always think the last episode is dead and it never existed and I always try to outdo myself. I apply myself every day in how can I make this diffrent, how can I keep people engaged in the content. So as long as I keep doing that… I’ll be happy”.
What kind of goals or plans do you see yourself accomplishing in the next 5 years?
“Continue to do what I do, film and to keep putting myself into situations that I feel I can’t handle because that’s when I’ve found I learned the most. I also want to keep surrounding myself with amazing people, because I love people and the experiences of learning from them. Talk to me here -> Twitter, Instagram or Snapchat”.
What advice would you give to up-and-coming videographers?
“I used to want to be a Director, like Spielberg and Christopher Nolan…because that’s what I thought I had to do to inspire people, but we are living through some really exciting times right now and video storytelling is super important. Figure out what stories you love to tell and create them. Don’t make another “Vlog” because you watch Casey Neistat or DailyVee. Find the content that makes you the happiest and create that”.
Photo from DRocks IG -https://www.instagram.com/davidrock/
I went on anchor to ask fans, like myself, what more they would want to know about you and here’s what they said. Listen to the whole wave here
Ali Hanif asked “ How has your life changed since working for Gary? What doors has it opened for you?”
“My perspective has just been confirmed. I’ve always been a positive guy, always, always, always. I always knew I had drive and was very self-motivated. I knew I was going to do what I loved to do and be great at it. So how has my life changed? I’ve learned to trust my intuition, keep betting on my strengths, and always try to outwork everyone”.
David Verjano asked “ How is it working in Vaynermedia and how does it operate?”
“I love every single person I’ve ever met at Vaynermedia, we are family. So I would say pretty damn good. It’s a big operation and we are always growing”.
Josh Hayes asked “ If you had the opportunity to work with Casey Neistat for a year would you do it? if not why?”
“I feel like if I said no (you’d all think I’d be stupid) because he’s an amazing storyteller and I’d would love the opportunity to watch and learn from him. At the same time I’m doing my thing and I like doing my thing. I really learn by doing and I’m creating something every single day, always hacking, always learning and every day I’m just trying to get better and better. I love that guy tho”.
Billy Cassano asked “ Gary always talks about owning the NY Jets, What do you think about the Jets?”
“You know I’ve been thinking about this a LOT lately (like every day) preciously. I said I always wanted to be a Director and create feature films, but the world is sooo much bigger than that now and there are so many more opportunities. So, I don’t know and I’m continually thinking about what my new North Star is, but for now I’m really enjoying being a pioneer in this “new” world of video storytelling. (I’ll be writing an article on this soon)”
Josh asked “ Any weird moments happen while shooting with Gary?
“Don’t have a “weird moment”
Thats all Folks! Be sure to follow D-Rock on all his social media accounts as he puts out great content → Twitter, Instagram or Snapchat.
I want to thank D-Rock again for giving me the opportunity to speak with him and taking the time out for this interview.
For everyone else reading this, Thank you you are awesome.
Until next time, remember its up to you to #CREATEYOURHUSTLE.
Be sure to follow me on Twitter, Instragram and check out my Youtube series #createyourhustle.
Andres VillegasPrime Minister Narendra Modi
New Delhi: The after-glow of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's election victory nearly four months ago is expected to have helped India's lumbering economy register its fastest growth in more than two years for the quarter ending in June.
The new prime minister has promised to make it easier to do business through speedier clearances and stable tax policies, allowing investors in Asia's third-largest economy hope of a rosier future after years of low growth and high inflation.
Economic growth is forecast to have picked up to 5.3 per cent between April and June, according to a Reuters poll of 40 economists, sharply higher than 4.6 per cent in the previous quarter. The GDP data is due at 5.30 p.m. on Friday.
If the forecast proves correct, it would mark only the second quarter of above 5 per cent growth since early 2012.
Mr. Modi knows he must spur the economy to far higher rates of growth in order to provide jobs for the increasing numbers of young people joining the work force, and lift millions of Indians out of poverty.
The improvement in the GDP figures is largely due to the steps taken by the previous government to kick-start capital investments and spur consumer demand.
Those measures aided industrial production and vehicle sales.
The year-on-year growth has been helped also by a favourable statistical base because of weak economic activity last year.
But, there is little doubt that Mr. Modi's election - he won the first outright parliamentary majority in three decades - improved sentiment among consumers, investors and the business community.
Months before Mr. Modi's victory, investors poured money into India confident that the business focused leader would win.
Since taking office, Mr. Modi has initiated measures to minimise tax litigation, loosened caps on foreign investment in railway infrastructure and defence manufacturing, speeded up regulatory approvals and reduced bureaucratic discretion.
Foreign capital inflows to India have risen markedly, making Indian shares the best performers in Asia this year.
Waiting for Big Bang Reforms
Even though the new Indian premier is yet to launch big-bang reforms needed to propel the economy back to a near double-digit annual growth, his three-month-old administration has received a big thumbs-up from Indian corporates.An overwhelming majority of CEOs in two polls, published by two national dailies on Thursday, credited Mr. Modi for reviving business confidence and said they were starting to draw up new investment plans."As returns on investment improve, the corporate sector will be incentivized to lift capex," wrote economists at Morgan Stanley, who expect the annual pace of economic expansion to hit 6.8 per cent in the March quarter next year.A recovery in industrial production, along with improvements in exports has led to a raft of upward revisions in the growth forecasts for the fiscal year to March 2015. This week Nomura upgraded its estimate to 6 per cent from 5 per cent earlier.This augurs well for an economy stuck with sub-5 per cent growth for last two years.However, it doesn't diminish what many economists say is a pressing need for structural reforms to create a broader and sustained economic revival.Structural reforms will also help tackle India's recurring food price shocks, which have prevented the central bank from lowering interest rates and supporting the economic recovery.Mr. Modi vows to build new roads, factories, power lines, high-speed trains and even 100 new cities.These gigantic tasks will require an overhaul of India's strained public finances, stringent land acquisition laws, chaotic tax regime and rigid labour rules.Mr. Modi has to expend political capital to push through those reforms, and he is still hampered by the lack of majority in India's upper house (Rajya Sabha), though upcoming state elections might put his party in a stronger position. Copyright: Thomson Reuters 2014ALBERTVILLE, Ala. -- An 80-year-old grandfather in northern Alabama has experienced his first high school prom after going as his granddaughter's date.
CBS affiliate WIAT-TV reports that James "Poppa" Drain of Albertville said that his granddaughter, Joy Webb, asked him to be her date for Saturday.
The prom was the first for Webb and Drain, who never had the chance to attend while he was young.
Webb wanted to share the event with her grandfather, who has been in her life since she was born.
"My family is everything to me, and I like love him so much, and it's just like really special to me because I know not many people get to do that," Webb told WIAT. "I know he loves me and I love him, and it's just really, really neat and special."
For Drain, it was also his first time wearing a tuxedo.Jakiyah McKoy is a 7-year-old who was recently named the winner of the Little Miss Hispanic Delaware pageant. After complaints that Jakiyah doesn’t “represent Latino beauty” because she is “Afrolatina,” Nuestras Raices Delaware, the organization sponsoring the pageant, withheld her title pending an investigation of her heritage.
The contest requires 25% Latino heritage to qualify but since Jakiyah’s Dominican grandmother came to this country as an illegal alien and has since died, the family was unable to provide proof and Nuetras Raices took Jakiyah’s crown away.
Can you imagine the outcry if there was a Little Miss European American pageant and something like this happened? There would never be such a pageant, of course, because whites are supposed to believe the lie that race is a social construct, but if there was this would be international news.
Another day, another double standard.
For the record, I support the Little Miss Hispanic Delaware pageant and their sensible rules. Everyone should be allowed to celebrate with pride their own unique cultural heritage – including whites.A recent Davidson College graduate at the center of a fake news storm involving the presidential election has been fired from his job as a Maryland legislative aide and apologized for his actions late Wednesday.
“I apologize to those disappointed by my actions, and my wish is that I will be allowed to contribute my informed experience to a larger dialogue about how Americans approach the media, tough issues, and the manner in which we, collectively, will inform our decisions going forward,” Cam Harris said on Twitter.
Maryland lawmaker David Vogt III, R-Frederick, told The Washington Post he terminated Harris “on the spot” after learning he was the mastermind behind the fake news.
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“I was shocked to hear that he could do such a thing,” Vogt told the newspaper on Wednesday night. “He seemed like a bright young man that was interested in getting involved in politics.”
Harris, who graduated from Davidson College in North Carolina in May, had worked for the Republican delegate since June. He did not return a call for comment, but he apologized in a Twitter post to “those disappointed by my actions” and called for a “larger dialogue about how Americans approach the media” and other issues.
With Donald Trump behind in the polls in early fall, Harris sat down at the kitchen table in his apartment and created a fake story that was eventually shared with 6 million people, The New York Times reported.
Harris started by crafting the headline: “BREAKING: ‘Tens of thousands’ of fraudulent Clinton votes found in Ohio warehouse,” according to The New York Times, which broke the story on Wednesday about what Harris had done.
SHARE COPY LINK President-elect Donald Trump during a press conference on Wednesday refused to answer a question from CNN reporter Jim Acosta, and called BuzzFeed a 'failing pile of garbage' after being asked about a controversial memo that Russia has been blackm
It made sense, Harris told The Times, to locate this shocking discovery in the very city and state where Trump had highlighted his “rigged” meme.
“I had a theory when I sat down to write it,” Harris told The Times. “Given the severe distrust of the media among Trump supporters, anything that parroted Trump’s talking points people would click. Trump was saying ‘rigged election, rigged election.’ People were predisposed to believe Hillary Clinton could not win except by cheating.”
Harris is a 23-year-old former college quarterback and fraternity leader, who graduated from Davidson College in May, according to The New York Times.
A Facebook page for Harris shows he’s from Kings Mountain and went to Kings Mountain High School, in Cleveland County. A Davidson Wildcats football roster corroborates that.
In a statement, a Davidson college spokesman said the school “works hard to create a culture of trust in which honesty and personal integrity are foundational.”
“We hope that these values are instilled for life and we are disappointed when any alumnus falls short,” said Mark Johnson.
Harris responded to The New York Times story on Twitter Wednesday night.
“While the initial motivation behind launching a fake news site was financially-based, the lesson I learned from the experience is far more important – and it’s one that can’t be covered in a tweet or even a NYT article,” Harris wrote.
“There are large-scale changes occurring in America, from where we live and where we work to the people with whom we interact and the lens through which we see the world. America has responded to these changes poorly. Instead of engaging with one another we have withdrawn into the ideological and cultural circles that support the belief systems to which we subscribe.
“Fake news flourished during this election cycle because it served the purpose of reinforcing these biases, and it occurred on both sides,” Harris continued. “It catered to predispositions that Americans already held, and while fake news has been widely discussed, the dynamics behind it have largely been ignored. Whether fake news remains prevalent or not (and I hope that it doesn’t), our nation cannot move forward from such a divisive election cycle if we continue to seek comfort in our own beliefs and refuse to challenge our personal world views.”
SHARE COPY LINK A man from Salisbury, North Carolina who said he was investigating a conspiracy theory about Hillary Clinton running a child sex ring out of a pizza restaurant in Washington, D.C fired a gun inside Comet Ping Pong but did not injure anyone, accord
Staff Writer Ely Portillo contributed.Among the highest paid corporate executives, only 2.5 percent are women. Among the most elite scientists (those who have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences), fully 9 percent are women. Depending on your biases, you can read that as evidence that women are better at science than business, that corporations discriminate against women, or (if you believe that profit-maximizing corporations get everything just right) that the National Academy discriminates against men.
If you have access to the World Wide Web, you’ll have no problem finding theories, evidence, counterevidence, and polemics galore on this subject. Here I just want to talk about one bit of evidence regarding one of the many factors that might be in play: Women—especially high-achieving women—choke under pressure.
You can observe a lot of high achievers under pressure at a Grand Slam tennis tournament. Better yet, you can observe them under variable pressure: Things are a lot tenser when the score is 5-5 than when it’s 0-0. Professor Daniele Paserman of Hebrew University made good use of this variability at the 2006 French Open, U.S. Open, and Wimbledon tournaments. First, he assigned an “importance” to each point in each match. He did this by assigning probabilities to every way the match might unfold, accounting for players’ ratings, the surface they were playing on, and the identity of the server. That allowed him to say things like, “If Roger Federer wins this point, he has a 60 percent chance to win the match; if he loses the point, he has a 55 percent chance.” The 5 percent difference measures the point’s importance.
It turns out that by at least one measure—the number of unforced errors—men play equally well throughout the match. They make unforced errors on about 30 percent of the most important points, about 30 percent of the least important, and about 30 percent of all those in between. But women show a very different pattern: 34 percent unforced errors on the least important points, steadily rising to almost 40 percent on the most important. That’s almost surely too big a difference to be mere coincidence.
What, besides choking, could explain those numbers? Maybe the closest games are usually played late in the match, when players are more fat |
In a video specifically aimed at the active Warcraft III community in China, Blizzard classic games head Robert Bridenbecker announced the upcoming patch in a video uploaded by Back2Warcraft (via GameSpot). No details were given about the content of the patch, though it’s likely there will be tweaks to make the aging game run better on modern systems, which was the core focus of this week’s Diablo II update.
Patch 1.27 will be released simultaneously around the world on March 15. The previous update, 1.26a, was released in March of 2011.
In the video Bridenbecker says the update is “only our first stop,” suggesting more updates are on the way. The June 10 release of the Warcraft movie looming, Blizzard might be gearing up for an influx of curious new fans eager for some pre-World of Warcraft lore.ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The Iraqi parliament has rejected the Kurdistan Region’s independence referendum in a vote on Tuesday that also authorizes the prime minister to take measures against the Kurdish move.
The referendum issue was put on the agenda upon the call of 80 MPs.
The parliament has authorized Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to take any measures against the September 25 referendum process taking place in the Region and Kurdistani areas outside of the Region’s administration but under its control.
The decision by the Iraqi parliament stipulated that the Kurdistan referendum is a “threat” against the unity of Iraq and that while the Iraqi constitution allows a referendum on a number of issues, such as Article 140 to address the disputed areas, it maintained that the constitution does not include a section that permits a referendum on separation.
Iraqi MPs voted on three points.
First, they voted to reject the referendum that will take place in the Kurdistan Region and disputed areas, including Kirkuk, and to commit “all relevant authorities to take every measure to cancel it.”
Second, “the Iraqi government will be responsible for preserving the unity of Iraq, taking all measures and decisions that include the protection of the unity of Iraq.”
And third, they voted to commit “the Iraqi government and the Regional government to begin serious negotiations to solve outstanding issues based on the constitution and the laws in place.”
Sirwan Sereni, a Kurdish MP from the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) faction in the Iraqi parliament told Rudaw that the petition which was voted on and approved by the parliament contains “military measures” against the move.
He said they were not consulted with or informed of the petition in the first place, and when a hearing given to the petition “we were not allowed to comment on it.”
Ashwaq Jaf, another Kurdish MP from the KDP faction, accused Turkmen MPs of stirring the motion.
All the Kurdish factions in the Iraqi parliament boycotted the vote.
Jaf derided the parliament ruling saying “the decision will not go beyond the doors of parliament” and said that putting the matter on the agenda “violates the parliament’s bylaws.”
Baghdad has on several occasions rejected the Region's independence referendum calling it "unconstitutional."
Despite mounting pressures, the Kurdistan Region is determined to hold the referendum as President Masoud Barzani has repeatedly stated in meetings with local players and international delegates.This article is over 8 years old
Ecologist says radioactive particles from trees and plants burnt by summer fires in Chernobyl fallout area could be carried for hundreds of miles by winds
Forest wardens today stepped up patrols in the Chernobyl fallout zone as a leading ecologist warned that fires could send radioactive particles as far as Moscow.
Around 160,000 emergency personnel are battling 600 wildfires across Russia, 290 of which ignited in the last 24 hours.
Greenpeace said at least 20 fires – three of them in a highly contaminated forest area – had broken out in the Bryansk region, bordering northern Ukraine, in recent days.
Bryansk was part of the zone sprayed with a plume of radioactive isotopes caesium-137 and strontium-90 when the Chernobyl power plant's fourth reactor exploded in 1986.
Alexei Yablokov, a member of the Academy of Sciences, warned that winds could spread contaminants embedded in trees and plants as they succumbed to the inferno.
"Radionuclides may reach places at distances of hundreds of kilometres, depending on the weather," he said. "If the Bryansk region is in flames, they can reach the Novgorod region, Moscow and, in some conditions, eastern Europe."
There were conflicting reports over the extent of the fires in Bryansk. Asked about the gravity of the threat, Gennady Onishchenko, the country's leading public health official, said: "There's no need to sow panic. Everything is quiet there."
But Russia's forestry protection service said it was increasing patrols in the area after around 30 hectares of land went up in flames.
"The situation is complicated, but stable and controllable," an official from the service told Interfax.
Greenpeace played down fears of Chernobyl pollution reaching Moscow, but said the harmful potential of smaller doses of radiation, combined with smog, carbon monoxide and other particles, should not be overlooked.
A veil of smog lifted from Moscow but temperatures remained high as political repercussions of the crisis emerged. It appeared that the absence of the city's powerful mayor during its hour of need could hasten his demise.
Yury Luzhkov left for holidays and "treatment for a serious sports injury" as the city sweltered on 2 August and did not return until Sunday, several days after a toxic cloud had enveloped Moscow.
A senior health official has said the smog killed at least 320 more people each day than usually die in the city.
Luzhkov, in office since 1992, is the last of the regional heavyweights in Russian politics, but his future as city boss has looked increasingly fragile amid allegations of sleaze and incompetence.
The prime minister, Vladimir Putin, greeted the tanned-looking mayor in a televised meeting yesterday, saying: "You were quite right to return from your vacation. Your timing is perfect."
Observers interpreted the comments as disapproval. "Luzhkov underestimated the political situation and he underestimated how serious and tense the situation in Moscow is," said Gleb Pavlovsky, a political analyst with close ties to the Kremlin.
"Surely, he is in a very weak position now and worsened it even more by saying, amid all that is happening, that the situation in Moscow is quite normal."
Before Luzhkov returned, his spokesman, Sergei Tsoi, had said there was little reason to cut short the break because the fires causing Moscow's smog were outside the capital and therefore "nothing depends on the city authorities in dealing with the current environmental situation".
Luzhkov, 73, denied rumours that he was getting treatment in Tyrol, Austria, but declined to say where he had been.
The deputy mayor, Vladimir Resin, made a clumsy attempt to exonerate his boss, saying he had a backlog of 370 days' holiday. "He could have taken a whole year off," he said.
But a Kremlin source said it was "too bad" Luzhkov hadn't returned sooner.
"The mayor's absence obviously did not help the necessary decisions to have been made in timely fashion," the source said.Image caption Campaigners say animals do not recognise human boundaries
An animal rights group in India has requested Pakistan's top envoy to look into the welfare of a monkey who crossed the border recently.
The Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisations (FIAPO) says in its letter that "animals do not recognise boundaries marked by humans".
The "trespassing" simian was captured by wildlife officials on 5 December and lodged in a zoo in Bahawalpur.
Pakistani media reports said the monkey had been named "Bobby".
He is lodged along with a Pakistani monkey, Raju, and has become a hit with visitors.
"Captivity is cruel for animals meant to roam free," FIAPO convenor Arpan Sharma wrote in his letter to High Commissioner Shahid Malik.
"On behalf of all our member organisations and thousands of supporters we urge you to kindly rehabilitate any trespassing animals in their natural environment and not in the pitiable prisons-zoo."
Mr Sharma requested Ms Malik to "consider our request and look at this issue beyond human territories defined and marked by humans".
"Let the monkey be a messenger of peace and freedom and not of captivity and confinement," he said.
The report about the "trespassing" monkey first appeared in Pakistan's Express Tribune newspaper last week.
It said this was not the first case of cross-border animal arrest - last year, police in India's Punjab state has "arrested" a pigeon after it was caught allegedly "spying" for Pakistan.Spatial Indexes: Calculating Distance
Montréal, Canada
During my "Geolocation and Mapping with PHP" talk that I've given a few times I briefly touch on the subject of indexes on data-sets of spatial data. This isn't as simple as just solving Pythagoras theorem and this article is meant to clarify this.
The flat Earth model
Pythagoras theorem can be used to calculate the distance between two points quite easily; you take the square root of the square of the absolute vertical distance plus the square of the absolute horizontal distance; in short:
d = √(|x1 - x2|² + |y1 - y2|²)
or in PHP:
$d = sqrt(pow(abs($x1 - $x2), 2) + pow(abs($y1 - $y2), 2));
If you take for example London's coordinates (51.50°N, 0.13°W) and Amsterdam's coordinates (52.37°N, 4.90°E) we can calculate the distance with:
d = √(|-0.13 - 4.90|² + |51.50 - 52.37|²) d = √(5.03² + 0.87²) d = √(26.0578) d ≅ 5.10
And on a map:
But what does a difference of "5.10°" actually mean? How far is this in useful units, such as meters?
If we show the whole map of which the above is an extract, we come to:
The distance around the equator, and through the poles is roughly the same, 40.000km (please be aware that the blue line only shows half of it, the other half is going through the anti-meridian at 180°W/E). 5.03° in East-West difference is then about 40 000 ✕ (5.03/360) = 559 km and the North-South difference about 20 000 ✕ (0.87/180) = 97 km. Using those numbers within the Pythagoras theorem we end up with a distance of √(559² + 97²) = 567 km. Although the calculation is correct, the answer is still wrong. The real distance is closer to 360 km.
The spherical Earth model
If we look at the Earth in its original (mostly) spherical shape, then it's clear that 10° longitude (East/West) at 60°N is going to be less of a distance than 10°E/W at the equator. It's actually fairly easy to calculate how much 1° longitude is at 60°N by using cos(60) * 1/360 * 6371 * 2π. Or in PHP:
<?php $oneDeg = cos(deg2rad(60)) * // adjustment for latitude and radians/degrees 1/360 * // 1 out of 360° 6371 * 2 * M_PI, // circumference of the Earth at the equator "
";?>
This returns 55.597 km per ° for 60°N. The same distance in degrees on the Equator gives 6371 * 2 * M_PI / 360 = 111.195.
The following diagram shows ones more that latitudinal degrees always correspond with the same distance in kilometer, whereas longitudinal degrees differ.
In the diagram the line A is a line from 0°N, 90°W to 10°N, 90°W. It has the same length as line B, from 30°N, 90°W to 40°N, 90°W: a 36th of the circumference of the Earth through the poles. Line C, from 0°N, 30°W to 0°N, 20°W has the same length. Line D however, from 50°N, 30°W to 50°N, 20°W is shorter by a factor of cos(50°) ≅ 0.64.
If we look again at the distance between London and Amsterdam, ignore the differences in latitude and instead pick the average, we see:
<?php $d = abs(-0.13 - 4.90); // $d = 5.03 degrees $e = 5.03/360 * cos(deg2rad(51.935)) * 6371 * 2 * M_PI; $e = 5.03 * 0.617 * 6371 * 2 * M_PI; // $e ≅ 345 km?>
Which is a bit shorter than the expected 360km, but that's because we conveniently forgot about the difference in latitude.
Sadly, we can't use Pythagoras's theorem to calculate the real distance with the latitude difference taken account as well. This is because the theorem is meant for Euclidean geometry, and a sphere does not follow the rules of this geometry. Instead we need to use a formula that is called the great-circle distance formula. The main concept behind it is that a circle is drawn across the whole sphere that connects both the start (point P) as well as the end (point V). Then with that circle the distance can be calculated. The following diagram shows this:
I will spare you how the function is derived, but the distance calculation ends up as being:
<?php function distance($latA, $lonA, $latB, $lonB) { // convert from degrees to radians $latA = deg2rad($latA); $lonA = deg2rad($lonA); $latB = deg2rad($latB); $lonB = deg2rad($lonB); // calculate absolute difference for latitude and longitude $dLat = ($latA - $latB); $dLon = ($lonA - $lonB); // do trigonometry magic $d = sin($dLat/2) * sin($dLat/2) + cos($latA) * cos($latB) * sin($dLon/2) *sin($dLon/2); $d = 2 * asin(sqrt($d)); return $d * 6371; }?>
If we punch in our original numbers form London (51.50°N, 0.13°W) and Amsterdam (52.37°N, 4.90°E), we calculate the following:
<?php $d = distance(51.50, -0.13, 52.37, 4.90); echo $d, " km
";?>
Which gives us the expected result of 358.07 km.
Conclusion
I hope that the above clarified the difference between 2D spatial indexing with the flat Earth model and spatial indexing of geo-located data (the spherical Earth model). In future articles I will go into specific implementations of spatial indexing by traditional databases such as SQLite, MySQL and PostGreSQL; NoSQL databases such as MongoDB and CouchDB; and Solr.Emerson, Lake & Palmer keyboardist Keith Emerson has died at the age of 71.
The news was confirmed by on the band’s Facebook page and their official website.
A statement reads: “We regret to announce that Keith Emerson died last night at his home in Santa Monica, Los Angeles, aged 71. We ask that the family’s privacy and grief be respected.”
Santa Monica police confirmed Emerson died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
Bandmate Carl Palmer adds: “I am deeply saddened to learn of the passing of my good friend and brother-in-music, Keith Emerson.
“Keith was a gentle soul whose love for music and passion for his performance as a keyboard player will remain unmatched for many years to come. He was a pioneer and an innovator whose musical genius touched all of us in the worlds of rock, classical and jazz.
“I will always remember his warm smile, good sense of humour, compelling showmanship, and dedication to his musical craft.
“I am very lucky to have known him and to have made the music we did, together. Rest in peace, Keith.”
The keyboardist was born on November 2, 1944, and played with the Keith Emerson Trio, John Brown’s Bodies, The T-Bones, The V.I.P.’s and PP Arnold’s backing band The Nice, before co-founding supergroup ELP in 1970 with singer and guitarist Greg Lake and drummer and percussionist Carl Palmer.
They released the studio albums Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Tarkus, Trilogy, Brain Salad Surgery, Works Volume 1 and 2, and Love Beach between their formation and 1978, along with live record Pictures At An Exhibition.
They split in 1979, coming back together in 1991, releasing Black Moon in 1992 and In The Hot Seat in 1994.
Emerson also carved out a successful solo career and worked on a variety of film soundtracks.
He was due to tour Japan next month.VANCOUVER—It’s been a bumpy few weeks for the Vancouver Whitecaps, who are coming off back-to-back losses and have been shut out in three straight Major League Soccer matches.
That last part of the early season narrative—the lack of scoring, and especially the failure thus far to score from open play—feels like the dramatic arc of a daytime soap opera, played out in excruciatingly small increments from one episode to the next: it just refuses to wrap up.
But Whitecaps coach Carl Robinson maintains the goals will come, and the players have been echoing that sentiment this week. Plus, they insist they’re not rattled. Not yet, anyway.
“I think you guys think about it a lot more than we do,” midfielder Andrew Jacobson told Sportsnet, explaining why Vancouver’s standing near the bottom of the Western Conference isn’t a concern just yet. “We’re looking to play well and perform well, and do that for a season.”
It’s true that Vancouver has a long way to go yet in their MLS campaign, but a good performance on Saturday, when the Whitecaps host FC Dallas at BC Place, would do a lot to put the scoring-woes storyline to bed.
Like any battle worth watching, it should be a tough one: Dallas currently sits atop the league standings with a 5-1-2 record, and they’ve proven in their performances so far this season that they’re a very dangerous team.
Jacobson knows not to underestimate them. The 30-year-old MLS veteran spent four seasons with Dallas before joining New York City FC for their inaugural campaign; he was traded to Vancouver in March at his request (the California native wanted to live closer to his family on the West Coast).
The key to a result against his old team, says Jacobson, will be for the Whitecaps to be stronger in possession. Dallas has a very disciplined and organized defensive unit, which allows their offence a lot of freedom on the pitch.
“A lot of it’s going to be in the transition when we do lose the ball, to make sure we get guys behind it,” Jacobson said. “They have some very fast, creative players, so it can be very tough to defend.”
While Jacobson spent several years in Dallas, he doesn’t draw any extra motivation from facing a former team. “I try to take every game the same,” he explained.
That’s not the case for 35-year-old forward Blas Perez, whom the Whitecaps acquired from Dallas in February.
Perez spent his entire MLS career with the club before coming up north to wear the blue and white. He was a fan favourite in his time with Dallas, though he spent much of last season coming off the bench.
The six-foot-one Panamanian was left off the roster for last week’s matchup with Real Salt Lake as he dealt with some hamstring tightness. But he participated in training this week and insisted to a crowd of reporters that he was ready to go. The player known as Super Raton (“Mighty Mouse”) called the opportunity to face Vancouver’s Western Conference rivals “an exciting and motivating match.”
“I think we’ll definitely be out there helping him, and we’ll want to win that game for Blas,” winger Kekuta Manneh said. “He’s a big character for us in the locker room right now, making everyone smile and just helping the younger players and trying to make everyone around him better.”
Dallas, meanwhile, has a similar storyline in motion. Midfielder Mauro Rosales, who spent two years with Vancouver, was sent south in exchange for the rights to Perez. Saturday’s game will mark his return to BC Place in a new uniform.
If the Whitecaps are going to prevail, they’ll need some of the players who haven’t quite lived up to their potential thus far to come through, namely Manneh, Cristian Techera and Christian Bolanos.
The list also includes striker Octavio Rivero, though given his scoring drought—the 24-year-old last scored in September—there have been calls for benching the struggling designated player in order to give some new faces an extended run.
One such player is Japanese striker Masato Kudo, who was mostly invisible when he came on as a late-game substitute last week versus RSL, but whose movement across the pitch was impressive in his first MLS start earlier this month. Though Kudo has zero goals through five appearances so far, he requires service from his teammates, so Vancouver’s midfield especially—missing captain Pedro Morales, who’s still out with a hip strain—will need to connect with him if he’s going to make some magic.
Dallas, too, is missing its captain due to injury (Matt Hedges underwent surgery for a torn meniscus in his left knee earlier this week), but the team will see the return of playmaker Mauro Diaz, who reportedly made the trip to Vancouver. The 25-year-old midfielder has been sidelined with a hamstring injury; he could provide a burst of creative energy on offence if he makes an appearance on Saturday.
As Robinson prepares his team to face Dallas, he’ll be considering not just the stakes of this game—for optics reasons at least, a result seems crucial—but the strategy going forward. Vancouver faces two more matches in a one-week span: a Wednesday evening game at home versus Sporting Kansas City, followed by a Saturday road game versus New York City FC. That’ll be a tough and tiring string of tests in quick succession, though Robinson is taking them as they come—and preaching patience.
“We’ve just got to keep going,” said Robinson, acknowledging the slump his team’s been on.
“I think we just believe in the process, keep doing what we’re doing,” offered Manneh. “We went on the same slump last year. It happened and we changed it. I think we can do it again.”
Sportsnet’s Soccer Central podcast, hosted by James Sharman, takes an in-depth look at the beautiful game and offers timely and thoughtful analysis on the sport’s biggest issues.
Listen now | iTunes | Subscribe to the podcastThis USA Today article talks about when Rivers‘ agent, Sexton, and former Chargers GM, AJ Smith, finally worked out a deal. The date was August 24th, 2004 when this article was posted. It talks about how Rivers finally worked a deal out after missing out on so much practice and camp. Rivers signed on August 23, 2004. Ironically, on August 24th in 2016 the Bosa Watch drama blew up. “So you’re saying there’s still a chance?!” YES. Rivers went on to become what he is today in the Chargers organization.
The statement that AJ Smith released regarding disagreement around Rivers’ contract demands is creepily similar to the statement released about Bosa by the Chargers yesterday. Check this out!
Negotiations between the San Diego Chargers and first-round choicePhilip Rivers broke off Sunday night after Rivers’ agent, Jimmy Sexton, failed to meet a 5 p.m. deadline to accept what appears to be the Chargers’ final offer.
“Negotiations have broken down,” Chargers general manager A.J. Smith said. “Prior to the training camp report date, we made an effort to get Philip signed. Also, during the past week, we exchanged ideas and could not come to an agreement. On Friday, we offered a great deal to Philip. We also notified both Philip and his agent, Jimmy Sexton, that the offer will stand until 5 p.m. Sunday evening and if not accepted, the final offer will be pulled off the table.”
According to sources, the Chargers’ offer was six years — worth slightly over $40.4 million — although sources close to Rivers say the deal is worth around $39 million. Rivers was the fourth player selected in the NFL draft following a trade involving the Giants that enabled New York to get Eli Manning.
Both sides appeared to be close on the guaranteed portion of the contract. Until the last proposal, Rivers would receive $14 million in guarantees plus another $2 million in a hidden bonus that he should be able to trigger. There were disagreements on how $9 million more of incentives would be triggered.
“The offer we made to Philip is not a slot offer at No. 4, but in fact, an offer that exceeds [those of] No. 2 Robert Gallery and No. 3 Larry Fitzgerald. We believe it’s a great offer. Jimmy Sexton has been informed several times that the Eli Manning-Tom Condon deal with the New York Giants was of no concern to us before, no concern now nor will it be in the future. This is very unfortunate and disappointing but it is what it is.”
Sexton felt progress was made over the weekend when he decided to stop asking for more than the base value of the Manning contract, which is worth $45 million over six years, excluding another $9 million in incentives and escalators. According to two sources, Rivers lowered his demand to $44 million over six years and agreed to take the structure Manning had in his contract.
“It’s a shame the club decided to do this,” Sexton said of the Chargers’ position to go public and take a hard-line stance. “I don’t think it helps to get a deal. All they have done over the weekend is keep making ultimatums.”
The strange part of his holdout is that both sides moved closer to a deal over the weekend. By coming below the Manning contract, Rivers is within $3 million to $4 million of a contract if the Chargers’ offer is better than the Fitzgerald deal.
Gallery is expected to make $40.5 million over seven years but has some huge incentives and escalators over the backside of the contract. Fitzgerald is supposed to make $40.4 million over six years, but there is a $12.5 million payment in the final year of the contract. The Chargers didn’t like that deal because of a bigger backside for incentives.
To further fuel the possibility of a long holdout, the Chargers are threatening to start taking money off the table soon.
“We also informed them that the package we talked about and offered will now only go down in value,” Smith said.
These were the final words the Chargers said they will discuss for the Rivers contract negotiations.
“It’s now time to concentrate on the players we have here and get ready for our preseason game and gear our efforts to get ready for the opener against Houston,” Smith said. “From this time forward, I will not talk about the Philip Rivers contract situation anymore. I hope I’ve made our position very clear. If he decides to sign a contract with the San Diego Chargers, then I’ll be more than happy to talk about Philip Rivers.”
John Clayton is a senior writer for ESPN.com. August 24, 2004.SpaceX has been sued again over the mass firing of at least 200 workers in July. A second class action suit has been filed alleging a violation of California’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, which requires 60-days notice of the firing of 50 or more workers, according to Law360.com
Space Exploration Technologies Corp. was hit with another proposed class action in California state court on Tuesday over the aerospace company’s alleged failure to give workers notice of a mass layoff in July, marking at least the second suit over the firings.
A class action lawsuit filed earlier in August made the same allegation. SpaceX claims WARN doesn’t apply because the workers were not laid off but were let go for cause after the company finished its annual performance reviews.
SpaceX faces two other lawsuits filed in August. One claims the company broke the law by failing to provide regular rest and meal breaks. The other alleges racial discrimination in employment and promotions.
SpaceX has denied all these allegations and said it will vigorously defend itself in court.A thief stole the rainbow flag that flies outside a Plano church and replaced it with an American flag and a note on Easter weekend. (Published Sunday, April 16, 2017)
A thief stole the rainbow flag that flies outside a Plano church and replaced it with an American flag and a note on Easter weekend.
The note reads, “I didn’t agree with your flag, so I took it down. If you don’t agree with this one, you can take it down. P.S. There are only two genders.”
The rainbow flag was donated to the Community Unitarian Universalist Church on Parker Rd. in late October by member Betsy Friauf as a symbol of the church’s inclusiveness.
She said she expected the rainbow flag to be stolen or vandalized and was surprised it lasted six months undisturbed.
Developing Judge Issues Arrest Warrant for Dallas City Councilman
“It wasn’t a shock to me, but it is disappointing,” Friauf said. “But you know, they gave us a gift, they left us a brand new American flag.”
Reverend Patrick Price is also taking it in stride.
“This is not something to be upset about. It’s annoying, but there’s nothing malicious done,” Price said. The church was not damaged or defaced in any other way. They did file a police report.
Price does, however, have a message for the vandal.
“Come and talk to us. Have a conversation,” Price said.
And little did the thief know, the church was already planning to replace their wind-tattered rainbow flag with a brand-new one this week.
The rainbow flag will fly side by side with the Stars and Stripes.Cubs Crypt Beyond the Vines View Full Caption
NORTH PARK — Is this heaven?
No, it's Bohemian National Cemetery, where an unusual burial site, "Beyond the Vines," offers Cubs fans the next best thing to a final resting place under Wrigley's center field bleachers.
Covered in ivy, with a "scoreboard" perpetually set to 1:20 p.m., Vines' 24-foot-high brick wall mimics Wrigley Field's but is actually a columbarium, which is similar to a mausoleum, only for urns, not caskets.
Sound a little creepy? It's meant to produce the opposite reaction.
Listen to Patty Wetli describe the Cub themed burial crypt.
Beyond the Vines was the brainchild of Dennis Mascari, who's been interred there himself since 2011.
When the columbarium opened in 2009, Mascari told a reporter from ESPN.com that he'd been inspired to build the Cubs-themed crypt after yet another depressing visit to his father's grave.
"I figured there had to be something better, a way people could visit their loved ones without being miserable," Mascari said.
To date, fewer than 20 Cubs fans have chosen to spend the afterlife in Beyond the Vines, accounting for fewer than 10 percent of the columbarium's 288 "niches."
"We have plenty of room," said caretaker Rob Charlemagne, who also conducts tours at the cemetery.
Though queries about the site have picked up in the last 1½ weeks, Charlemagne said Beyond the Vines typically draws few curiosity seekers.
"It's low on the totem pole" compared with other points of interest at the cemetery, he said.
According to Charlemagne, the top draw at 122-acre Bohemian National, 5255 N. Pulaski Road, is the tomb of Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak, which attracts visitors from all over the world.
Cermak was assassinated in 1933 when he took a bullet intended for President Franklin Roosevelt and is "literally considered a saint" by some Europeans, Charlemagne said.
"Perpetual skyboxes" is how Dennis Mascari, who built Beyond the Vines, referred to the vaults. [All photos DNAinfo/Patty Wetli]
Niches cost $1,300 to $2,600.
Mascari built Beyond the Vines to make a visit to the cemetery less depressing.
The clock on the scoreboard is perpetually set for a 1:20 p.m. game time.
Beyond the Vines offers Cubs fans the next best thing to a final resting place under Wrigley's center field bleachers.
Visitors leave behind mementos, including ticket stubs.
Still rooting for the Cubs, even in the afterlife.
Beyond the Vines mimics Wrigley Field, right down to the ivy.
This Cubs fan saw it all, except a World Series victory.
The Cubs and Wrigley Field are 95 percent owned by an entity controlled by a trust established for the benefit of the family of Joe Ricketts, owner and CEO of DNAinfo.com. Joe Ricketts has no direct involvement in the management of the iconic team.
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here.MSNBC is reportedly planning to bring back contributor Sam Seder, according to The Intercept.
The move comes after the network previously opted not to renew its contract with Seder after one of his old tweets resurfaced in which he made a joke about director Roman Polanski raping his daughter.
“I appreciate MSNBC’s thoughtful reconsideration and willingness to understand the cynical motives of those who intentionally misrepresented my tweet for their own toxic, political purposes,” Seder said in a statement, according to The Intercept.
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“We are experiencing an important and long overdue moment of empowerment for the victims of sexual assault and of reckoning for their perpetrators. I’m proud that MSNBC and its staff have set a clear example of the need to get it right,” he said.
The initial move to cut ties with Seder faced backlash, as people argued the tweet was sarcasm.
Seder said earlier this week the network made a mistake cutting ties with him.
"I've had thousands of tweets since 2009. There was context for those tweets. If they can't make that assessment, if making that assessment is a bridge too far, they have no value as a news organization," Seder told CNN.
He maintained that the tweet was intended to be satirical. He said his other tweets at the time provided context to prove as much.
MSNBC president Phil Griffin said that "sometimes you just get one wrong."
"That’s what happened here. We made our initial decision for the right reasons — because we don’t consider rape to be a funny topic to be joked about," he said in a statement to The Intercept.
"But we’ve heard the feedback, and we understand the point Sam was trying to make in that tweet was actually in line with our values, even though the language was not. Sam will be welcome on our air going forward,” he said.
Polanski was arrested and charged in 1977 with raping a 13-year-old girl. He took a plea bargain that included pleading guilty to lesser charges but fled the U.S. when he learned he likely faced jail time. Polanski has lived in Europe ever since.
Right-wing activist Mike Cernovich referenced Seder’s comment on Twitter last month, asking why the media was ignoring them.
"Don't care re Polanski, but I hope if my daughter is ever raped it is by an older truly talented man w/ a great sense of mise en scene," Seder wrote in the since-deleted tweet.
Seder said on his podcast last week that Cernovich was leading a smear campaign to drown out his criticism of President Trump Donald John TrumpHouse committee believes it has evidence Trump requested putting ally in charge of Cohen probe: report Vietnamese airline takes steps to open flights to US on sidelines of Trump-Kim summit Manafort's attorneys say he should get less than 10 years in prison MORE and Alabama GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore.
He added that more people need to be aware of Cernovich's tactics.
"If you decide to let this guy be the arbiter of what is and is not appropriate, understand who he is," Seder said earlier this week.'Packaged apps' for Google's Chrome browser — apps that behave more like native apps and run offline — will be the new standard app in the Chrome Web Store.
Read this Chrome launcher for offline apps comes to Windows Google's Chrome 'app launcher' for offline browser apps is coming to Windows, with Mac and Linux to follow in due course. Read More
Google has made changes to the developer edition of Chrome running on Windows, shuffling around categories on its Chrome Web Store. Now, the "Apps" category only means the new class of packaged apps that are installed in Chrome. Packaged apps are written in HTML5, JavaScript and CSS and designed to behave much more like native apps, most notably by having the ability to run without an internet connection.
Besides offline functionality, the apps can also interact with network and hardware devices like USB drives and Bluetooth speakers and, since they are loaded in an app container, are presented to the user without Chrome browser features such as the address bar.
The new category means users can now search for packaged apps, which previously could be uploaded to the Chrome Web Store but were only discoverable if a user had a direct link to the app.
The change is currently only for Windows and Chrome OS devices running the developer version of its browser, Chrome 28, which incidentally runs on Google's replacement to the WebKit browser engine, Blink.
Hosted apps and legacy packaged apps in the Chrome Web store will now just be labelled "websites".
Chrome users will able to pin packaged apps to Google's app launcher, a feature from Chromebooks that was made available this February for Windows machines running Chrome 28.
Google has not said when support for packaged apps is coming to Chrome for Macs and Linux, however it noted the app launcher would come to Macs and Linux soon.
Google notes that many of the packaged apps in store right now are still works in progress, but points out that it’s a good time get user feedback.
Packaged apps were announced to developers at the Google I/O conference last year, and Google plans to provide a roadmap for the apps at |
ane Blondon, closes: #543981 * po/sl.po: - updated, thanks to Matej Urbančič * take the "Origin" field from the release file into account when looking for supported packages -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:49:45 +0200 synaptic (0.62.7ubuntu3) karmic; urgency=low * common/rpackagelister.cc: - add prefixes for "name" and "section" in the quick search This allows "name:apt" or "section:devel" searches * debian/control: - recommends gksu|kdebase-bin (kdsu is fine too) closes: #442421 * add filter for manual installed packages (LP: #122047) * fix typo (thanks to Florentin Duneau), closes: #542122 * po/pt_BR.po: - updated translation, thanks to Sergio Cipolla (closes: #532473) * common/rpackage.{cc,h}: - fix potential segfault -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Fri, 04 Sep 2009 11:52:17 +0200 synaptic (0.62.7ubuntu2) karmic; urgency=low * common/rpackagelister.cc: - fixes in the xapian search (thanks to seb128) - more debug output with Debug::Synaptic::Xapian=true -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Wed, 15 Jul 2009 16:14:50 +0200 synaptic (0.62.7ubuntu1) karmic; urgency=low * merged from debian * debian/control: - add build-conflict against librpm-dev -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Fri, 10 Jul 2009 14:35:17 +0200 synaptic (0.62.7) unstable; urgency=low * show progress when searching and not not block the UI (LP: #24188) * gtk/glade/dialog_authentication.glade: - add two missing "translatable" entries, thanks to Daniele Forsi) * po/sk.po: - updated translation, thanks to helix84, closes: #532790 * po/it.po: - updated translation, thanks to Milo Casagrande, closes: #534351 * po/es.po: - updated translation, thanks to Francisco Javier Cuadrado, closes: #533322 -- Michael Vogt <mvo@debian.org> Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:17:56 +0200 synaptic (0.62.6ubuntu3) karmic; urgency=low * common/rpackagelister.cc: - remove all fuzzy matching in xapianIndexNeedsUpdate() * gtk/rgmainwindow.cc: - run update-apt-xapian-index --udpate under ionice, rebuild the index every time the timestamps do not match -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:00:47 +0200 synaptic (0.62.6ubuntu2) karmic; urgency=low * show progress when searching and not not block the UI (LP: #24188) -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Mon, 15 Jun 2009 17:17:28 +0200 synaptic (0.62.6ubuntu1) karmic; urgency=low * merge from Debian/unstable, remaining changes: - ubuntu icons for supported applications - launchpad-integration - ubuntu changelog download support - support section metapackages - merged ept branch - x-ubuntu-gettext-domain in desktop file -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Mon, 08 Jun 2009 10:47:19 +0200 synaptic (0.62.6) unstable; urgency=low * po/th.po: - updated Thai translation, thanks to Theppiak Karoonboonyanan, closes: #512605, #441571 * po/br.po: - updated breton translation, thanks to Denis ARNAUD * po/sk.po: - updated Slovak translation, thanks to Ivan Masár, closes: #531063 * po/es.po: - updated Spanish translation, thanks to Francisco Javier Cuadrado, closes: #500400 * po/tr.po: - updated Turkish translation, thanks to Mert Dirik, closes: #488995 * po/eu.po: - updated Basque translation, thanks to Piarres Beobide, closes: #476438 * po/ja.po: - updated Japanese translation, thanks to Kenshi Muto, closes: #455209 * po/ko.po: - updated Korean translation, thanks to Changwoo Ryu, closes: #416194 * po/fr.po: - updated French translation, thanks to Jean-Luc Coulon, closes: #406882 * po/sv.po: - updated Swedish translation, thanks to Daniel Nylander, closes: #384107 * gtk/rgdebinstallprogress.cc: - if forkpty() show a propper error message (thanks to Evan) * gtk/rgfetchprogress.cc: - if the ETA is huge report it as unknown (LP: #322871) * debian/control: - add depends to hicolor-icon-theme * common/sections_trans.cc: - updated for the new section (like httpd, vcs,...) -- Michael Vogt <mvo@debian.org> Fri, 05 Jun 2009 16:22:48 +0200 synaptic (0.62.5ubuntu3) jaunty-proposed; urgency=low * improve the logic when the xapian index needs rebuilding by checking the xapian document count against the available packages (LP: #365151) -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Fri, 17 Apr 2009 16:14:30 +0200 synaptic (0.62.5ubuntu2) jaunty; urgency=low * No-change upload to strip translations from.desktop files. (LP: #348225) -- Martin Pitt <martin.pitt@ubuntu.com> Mon, 30 Mar 2009 12:57:47 +0200 synaptic (0.62.5ubuntu1) jaunty; urgency=low * po/th.po: - updated Thai translation (closes: #512605) * gtk/rgdebinstallprogress.cc: - if forkpty() show a propper error message (thanks to Evan) * gtk/rgfetchprogress.cc: - if the ETA is huge report it as unknown (LP: #322871) * debian/control: - add depends to hicolor-icon-theme - rebuild against latest libapt/libept -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Mon, 09 Feb 2009 16:03:03 +0100 synaptic (0.62.5) unstable; urgency=low * gtk/rgsummarywindow.cc: - fix "Show details" button label (LP: #4055) * gtk/glade/window_summary.glade: - fix layout issues (LP: #314905), thanks to Gabor Kelemen * po/sk.po: - updated Slovak translation, closes: #500957 * po/br.po: - add Breton language * data/synaptic.desktop.in: - desktop file cleanups (thanks to Chris Coulson) LP: #298172 -- Michael Vogt <mvo@debian.org> Tue, 20 Jan 2009 09:45:41 +0100 synaptic (0.62.4) unstable; urgency=low * help/C/synaptic.xml: - "preferences" -> "settings", closes: #406430 * po/sk.po: - added Slovak translation, closes: #500957) * po/zh_CN.po: - updated translation, thanks to Deng Xiyue closes: #458423 * po/fr.po: - fixed typo, thanks to Philippe Cloutier closes: #440971 - fixed typo, thanks to Christophe Combelles closes: #357302 - fixed typos, thanks to Filipus Klutiero closes: #342643, #339134 * po/ca.po: - fix catalan translation, closes: #383450 * typo fix, thanks to Philip Miller, closes: #358694 * typo and de.po fixes (thanks to Jens Seidel), closes: #313831 * common/rinstallprogress.cc: - fix typo and incorrect message (LP: #139760) -- Michael Vogt <mvo@debian.org> Wed, 07 Jan 2009 20:17:12 +0100 synaptic (0.62.3) unstable; urgency=low * gtk/rgpkgdetails.{cc,h}: - download/show big image when clicking on the thumbnail * debian/rules,.bzr-builddeb/default.conf - bybye arch-build, hello "bzr-buildpackage" -- Michael Vogt <mvo@debian.org> Tue, 18 Nov 2008 20:35:18 +0100 synaptic (0.62.2ubuntu2) jaunty; urgency=low * gtk/rgpkgdetails.{cc,h}: - download/show big image when clicking on the thumbnail * debian/rules,.bzr-builddeb/default.conf - bybye arch-build, hello "bzr-buildpackage" -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Tue, 18 Nov 2008 19:21:16 +0100 synaptic (0.62.2ubuntu1) jaunty; urgency=low * Merge from debian, remaining changes: - ubuntu icons for supported applications - launchpad-integration - support section metapackages - x-ubuntu-gettext-domain in desktop file - support end time calculation -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Fri, 14 Nov 2008 12:42:42 +0100 synaptic (0.62.2) unstable; urgency=low * po/es.po: - updated spanish translation (thanks to Francisco Javier Cuadrado) * po/cz.po: - updated Czech translation (thanks to Kamil Páral) * gtk/glade/dialog_upgrade.glade: - provide a mnemonics in the upgrade dialog, closes: #491179 (thanks to Matt Kraai) * gtk/glade/window_fetch.glade: - dialog fix (thanks to Oded Arbel) (LP: #228127) * gtk/rgdebinstallprogress.cc: - intercept ctrl-c in the terminal window and ask if that is really the desired action - make sure that SIGCHLD is not blocked to work around kdesudo (LP: #156041) * gtk/rgmainwindow.cc: - fix "Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_tree_view_unref_tree_helper" assertion failure error (LP: #38397, closes: #341645) * common/rpackageview.cc: - add new "Missing Recommends" default filter * common/rpackage.cc: - fix code to get candidate origin - support getting the candidate release file name * common/rpackagestatus.cc: - support maintenanceEndTime() (if the distro supports that) * gtk/rgpkgdetails.{cc,h}, common/rpackage.{cc,h}: - add "Get Screenshot" button that talks to screenshots.debian.net -- Michael Vogt <mvo@debian.org> Fri, 14 Nov 2008 11:44:43 +0100 synaptic (0.62.1ubuntu10) intrepid; urgency=low * common/rpackagelister.cc: - add special handling for "-" char in the xapian search (thanks to kiko) - fix hang in quick search for huge result lists (like "li") LP: #282188 -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Tue, 21 Oct 2008 15:19:02 +0200 synaptic (0.62.1ubuntu9) intrepid; urgency=low * gtk/rgmainwindow.cc: - only xapian search when more than one char is used in the search querry (LP: #260739) * common/rpackagelister.{cc,h}: - expand partial strings in search as you type so that "ged" finds "gedit" (LP: #261423) * 10_ubuntu_maintenance_gui.dpatch: - make sure to look only for immutable release files when calculating the support time -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Mon, 22 Sep 2008 15:57:58 +0200 synaptic (0.62.1ubuntu8) intrepid; urgency=low * common/rpackageview.cc: - add new "Missing Recommends" default filter * common/rpackage.cc: - fix code to get candidate origin - support getting the candidate release file name * common/rpackagestatus.cc: - support maintenanceEndTime() (if the distro supports that) * 10_ubuntu_maintenance_gui.dpatch: - add support for displaying when the maintaince ends -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Fri, 22 Aug 2008 12:40:10 +0200 synaptic (0.62.1ubuntu7) intrepid; urgency=low * debian/control: - add apt-xapian-index to the recommends again, we have some space on the CDs again (thanks to Steve Langasek) -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Thu, 19 Jun 2008 14:45:42 +0200 synaptic (0.62.1ubuntu6) intrepid; urgency=low * gtk/rgdebinstallprogress.cc: - make sure that SIGCHLD is not blocked to work around kdesudo (LP: #156041) * common/rpackageview.cc: - add new "Missing Recommends" default filter - fix incorrect display of the "Community Maintained" filter -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Thu, 14 Aug 2008 12:01:56 +0200 synaptic (0.62.1ubuntu5) intrepid; urgency=low * debian/control: - make deborphan and apt-xapian-index suggests instead of recommends to save space on the CD - this means we loose the quick search feature in the default install * po/es.po: - updated spanish translation (thanks to Francisco Javier Cuadrado) * gtk/glade/dialog_upgrade.glade: - provide a mnemonics in the upgrade dialog, closes: #491179 (thanks to Matt Kraai) * gtk/glade/window_fetch.glade: - dialog fix (thanks to Oded Arbel) (LP: #228127) * gtk/rgdebinstallprogress.cc: - intercept ctrl-c in the terminal window and ask if that is really the desired action * gtk/rgmainwindow.cc: - fix "Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_tree_view_unref_tree_helper" assertion failure error (LP: #38397, closes: #341645) -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Fri, 01 Aug 2008 13:50:48 +0200 synaptic (0.62.1ubuntu4) intrepid; urgency=low * improve the search as you type to weight packagename in the search heigher -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Wed, 16 Jul 2008 16:00:26 +0100 synaptic (0.62.1ubuntu3) intrepid; urgency=low * do not run the index update when called in backend (non-interactive) mode -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Thu, 03 Jul 2008 21:58:28 +0200 synaptic (0.62.1ubuntu2) intrepid; urgency=low * added support for quick search using xapian (thanks to Enrico Zini for his help) -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Tue, 17 Jun 2008 14:37:19 +0200 synaptic (0.62.1ubuntu1) intrepid; urgency=low * merge from debian, remaining changes: - ubuntu icons for supported applications - launchpad-integration - build against latest apt in ubuntu - support section metapackages - x-ubuntu-gettext-domain in desktop file * po/es.po: - updated Spanish translation (thanks to Francisco Javier Cuadrado) * debian/control: - added "menu" to the recommends (closes: #478250) * gtk/glade/window_main.glade: - make the main vpane shinkable * gtk/rgmainwindow.cc: - do not loose the keyboard focus after a package action in the listview * debian/control: - switch bzr branch to bzr.debian.org -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:57:44 +0200 synaptic (0.62.1) unstable; urgency=low * po/es.po: - updated Spanish translation (thanks to Francisco Javier Cuadrado) * debian/control: - added "menu" to the recommends (closes: #478250) * gtk/glade/window_main.glade: - make the main vpane shinkable * gtk/rgmainwindow.cc: - do not loose the keyboard focus after a package action in the listview * debian/control: - switch bzr branch to bzr.debian.org -- Michael Vogt <mvo@debian.org> Tue, 18 Jun 2008 10:17:31 +0200 synaptic (0.62) unstable; urgency=low [ Michael Vogt] * debian/rules, debian/control: - use dh_icons and add appropriate b-d on debhelper * g++ 4.3 fixes (closes: #456044) * desktop-file-validate does not complain anymore (LP: #33598) * gtk/rgmainwindow.cc: - wording fixes (thanks to Matthew Paul Thomas) * po/he.po: - translation update (thanks to Lior Kaplan, closes: #461139) * po/pl.po: - translation update (thanks to Tomasz Argasiński) * po/cs.po: - translation update (thanks to Kamil Páral) * gtk/gsynaptic.cc: - fix typo (thanks to Sarah Hobbs) * gtk/rgsummarywindow.cc: - code cleanup and fix potential endless loop (thanks to Sebastien Bacher) [ Brian Murray ] * typo fixes (LP: #64482, LP: #157850, LP: #179914, LP: #179912, LP: #179909) -- Michael Vogt <mvo@debian.org> Sat, 26 Apr 2008 10:50:53 +0200 synaptic (0.61+nmu1) unstable; urgency=low * Non-maintainer upload. * Fix FTBFS with gcc-4.3. Thanks to Cyril Brulebois for the patch. (Closes: #456044) * Lintian cleanups: - Correct the format of the NEWS file. - Use su-to-root instead of gksu for the desktop file. - Remove the empty /usr/bin directory from synaptic.dirs. - Do not ignore errors from make clean. - Use Vcs-Bzr instead of XS-Vcs-Bzr. -- James Vega <jamessan@debian.org> Sat, 05 Apr 2008 18:58:52 -0400 synaptic (0.61ubuntu9) hardy; urgency=low * po/cs.po: - translation update (thanks to Kamil Páral) * rebuild for liblaunchpad-integration change -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Thu, 10 Apr 2008 16:25:00 +0200 synaptic (0.61ubuntu8) hardy; urgency=low * pixmaps/hicolor/16x16/package-purge.png: - make the icon different from the "remove" icon * gtk/rgsummarywindow.cc: - code cleanup and fix potential endless loop (thanks to Sebastien Bacher) -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Tue, 01 Apr 2008 14:39:18 +0200 synaptic (0.61ubuntu7) hardy; urgency=low * do not auto-close on package install errors when run with closeZvt=true (LP: #183209) -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Mon, 03 Mar 2008 15:05:55 +0100 synaptic (0.61ubuntu6) hardy; urgency=low * recommend software-properties-gtk -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Thu, 21 Feb 2008 11:33:11 +0100 synaptic (0.61ubuntu5) hardy; urgency=low [ Brian Murray ] * typo fixes (LP: #64482, LP: #157850, LP: #179914, LP: #179912, LP: #179909) [ Michael Vogt ] * add new RFilePackageFilter * added default custom filter that shows installed community software -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Tue, 12 Feb 2008 22:54:39 +0100 synaptic (0.61ubuntu4) hardy; urgency=low * fix incorect transient settings when run with --no-main-window (thanks to Robert Colins for reporting) -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Thu, 31 Jan 2008 10:51:31 +0100 synaptic (0.61ubuntu3) hardy; urgency=low * use new ListUpdate() code from apt -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Mon, 07 Jan 2008 21:20:49 +0100 synaptic (0.61ubuntu2) hardy; urgency=low [ Michael Vogt] * debian/rules, debian/control: - use dh_icons and add appropriate b-d on debhelper * g++ 4.3 fixes (closes: #456044) -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Thu, 13 Dec 2007 20:48:57 +0100 synaptic (0.61ubuntu1) hardy; urgency=low * merged from debian/unstable, remaining changes: - ubuntu icons for supported applications - maintained filed changed - launchpad-integration - build against latest apt in ubuntu - support section metapackages - x-ubuntu-gettext-domain in desktop file -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Thu, 13 Dec 2007 15:49:12 +0100 synaptic (0.61) unstable; urgency=low [ Michael Vogt ] * fix missing Basque translation (closes: #429460) * updatd Basque translation (thanks to mikel paskual) * update galician translation (thanks to Ignacio Casal) * updated Czech translation (thanks to Vit Pelcak) * updated Finish translation (thanks to Timo Jyrinki) * po/POTFILES.in, po/POTFILES.skip: - updated so that intltool-update -m is happy again (thanks to Nacho) * po/be@latin.po: - merged translation from Ihar H * po/cs.po: - bugfixes by Vít Pelčák * gtk/rgmainwindow.cc: - add missing space in the wget script (thanks to Avi Rozen) (closes: #435682) * make it build with g++ 4.3 * debian/synaptic.menu: - fix menu section (thanks to Bill Allomber, closes: #445025) * gtk/rgmainwindow.cc: - fix crash in cbInstallFromVersion() * gtk/rgfetchprogress.{cc,h}: - fix crash in download progress on theme changes * added XS-Vcs-Bzr header [ Diego Escalante Urrelo ] * The menu entry for Synaptic is back in System->Administration. It also removes the legacy Applications category. closes: #429895 [ Loic Minier ] * Set has_focus on the close button of the welcome dialog; closes: #148695. -- Michael Vogt <mvo@debian.org> Thu, 06 Dec 2007 16:00:51 +0100 synaptic (0.60ubuntu5.1) gutsy-proposed; urgency=low * gtk/rgfetchprogress.{cc,h}: - fix crash in download progress on theme changes (LP: #67995) -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Wed, 17 Oct 2007 11:14:03 +0200 synaptic (0.60ubuntu5) gutsy; urgency=low [ Loic Minier ] * Set has_focus on the close button of the welcome dialog; LP: #148695. [ Michael Vogt ] * gtk/rgmainwindow.cc: - fix crash in cbInstallFromVersion() (LP: #145685) -- Loic Minier <lool@dooz.org> Wed, 03 Oct 2007 22:33:28 +0200 synaptic (0.60ubuntu3) gutsy; urgency=low * build against latest apt -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Fri, 03 Aug 2007 21:15:40 +0200 synaptic (0.60ubuntu2) gutsy; urgency=low * debian/control: - added XS-Vcs-Bzr field -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Mon, 30 Jul 2007 15:04:48 +0200 synaptic (0.60ubuntu1) gutsy; urgency=low * merged from debian/unstable, remaining changes: - 01_ubuntu_changelog: + default to changelogs.ubuntu.com - 03_hide_browse_documentation: + don't show the dwww documentation button - 04_ubuntu_lpi: + launchpad integration added - 06_ubuntu_su_to_root: + use gksu instead of su-to-root - ubuntu branding icon -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Mon, 18 Jun 2007 15:08:09 +0200 synaptic (0.60) unstable; urgency=low * moved most icons use the icontheme * support repmod on rpm systems * when switching views, don't autoselect "AlL" * gtk/gsyncaptic.cc: - fix in the checking for already runing synaptic (lp: 62754) * gtk/rgfilterwindow.cc: - fix i18n problem in the filter settings (thanks to Alexander Bart) * help/sv: - added swedish manual (thanks to Daniel Nylander) closes: #384388 * added support for GUI configuraton of http proxy * translation updates: - cs.po: thanks to Vít Pelcak * debian/rules: - fix automatic version number generation * make description buffer dynamic (thanks to Benjamin Jacobs) * added component filter * added emblem in the description to show support status * move the desktop file out of settings because it does no longer fit there with the new control center in gnome 2.17 * build with gcc 4.3 (closes: #413419) * do not return a NULL pointer in name() * when generating the wget script, use wget -c * po/cs.po: - updated (thanks to Vit Pelcak) * gtk/rguserdialog.cc, gtk/rggladewindow.cc: - do not crash for invalid parent-window-ids * gtk/rgpreferenceswindow.cc: - overwrite the http_proxy environ when the user set the proxy explicitely (thanks to Berend De Schouwer) * common/rpackagelister.cc: - added "Volatile::SetSelectionDoReInstall" to support reinstalling from --set-selections too * common/rpackage.cc: - only show a package as supported if it is authenticated * po/eu.po: - updated (thanks to dooteo, closes: #368951) * merged gcc 4.3 compiler fix, closes: #413419 (thanks to Martin Michlmayr) * merged support for translated package description * merged support for automatic removal of unused dependencies * merged support for native apts install-recommends feature -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Tue, 6 Mar 2007 17:22:30 +0100 synaptic (0.57.11.1ubuntu15) gutsy; urgency=low * gtk/rgpreferenceswindow.cc: - overwrite the http_proxy environ when the user set the proxy explicitely (thanks to Berend De Schouwer, LP#105515) * common/rpackagelister.cc: - added "Volatile::SetSelectionDoReInstall" to support reinstalling from --set-selections too * common/rpackage.cc: - only show a package as supported if it is authenticated * po/eu.po: - updated (thanks to dooteo, closes: #368951) * gtk/rguserdialog.cc, gtk/rggladewindow.cc: - do not crash for invalid parent-window-ids -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Wed, 11 Apr 2007 11:16:31 +0200 synaptic (0.57.11.1ubuntu14) feisty; urgency=low * gtk/rgchangeswindow.cc: - fix crash in confirm changes (LP#80922) Thanks to John Millikin for the instructions how to reproduce the bug -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Wed, 4 Apr 2007 13:01:23 +0200 synaptic (0.57.11.1ubuntu13) feisty; urgency=low * when generating the wget script, use wget -c (LP#76462) * po/cs.po: - updated (thanks to Vit Pelcak) * gtk/rgpkgdetails.cc: - fix chinese descriptions display, thanks to Liu Qishuai (LP#102228) * fix drop down boxes in preferences (LP#100072) * fix terminal window (LP#99877) * show error and exit if opening the cache fails (LP#90016) -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Tue, 3 Apr 2007 22:23:48 +0200 synaptic (0.57.11.1ubuntu12) feisty; urgency=low * data/synaptic.desktop.in: - fix in the Category to make it show up in g-a-i (LP#88877) * common/rpackageview.cc: - fix in the getSections() code (LP##91888) -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Tue, 13 Mar 2007 20:18:09 +0100 synaptic (0.57.11.1ubuntu11) feisty; urgency=low * build with gcc 4.3 (closes: #413419) * do not return a NULL pointer in name() * remove unneeded pkgActionGroup that seems to cause havoc -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Tue, 6 Mar 2007 19:02:44 +0100 synaptic (0.57.11.1ubuntu10) feisty; urgency=low * debian/control: - changed ubuntu maintainer - added XS-Vcs-Bzr * gtk/rgpreferenceswindow.cc: - fix proxy authentication (thanks to Jan de Mooij) (LP#86769) -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Tue, 27 Feb 2007 12:34:12 +0100 synaptic (0.57.11.1ubuntu9) feisty; urgency=low * remove file descriptor resource leak * depend on latest apt (needs rebuild to fix resource leak) * fix crash in "Add downloaded packages" (LP#85934) -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Mon, 26 Feb 2007 14:31:31 +0100 synaptic (0.57.11.1ubuntu8) feisty; urgency=low * move the desktop file back into new control center as it confused too many people and we want to get rid of Applications/System Tools (LP: #84984) * fixed memory corruption problem on reopening the cache (LP#81624) -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Mon, 19 Feb 2007 10:33:32 +0100 synaptic (0.57.11.1ubuntu7) feisty; urgency=low * really use software-properties-gtk if available (LP#84248) * move the desktop file out of settings because it does no longer fit there with the new control center in gnome 2.17 (LP: #83658) * fix version number generation for the about dialog (lp: #84626) -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Mon, 12 Feb 2007 19:05:35 +0100 synaptic (0.57.11.1ubuntu6) feisty; urgency=low * use software-properties-gtk if available * rebuild against latest apt version -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Tue, 6 Feb 2007 16:37:48 +0100 synaptic (0.57.11.1ubuntu5) feisty; urgency=low * fix corner-case bug in --set-selections, --non-interactive (lp: #81428) -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Fri, 26 Jan 2007 10:41:48 +0100 synaptic (0.57.11.1ubuntu4) feisty; urgency=low * debian/rules: - fix automatic version number generation -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Mon, 22 Jan 2007 15:27:59 +0100 synaptic (0.57.11.1ubuntu2) feisty; urgency=low * added "Origins" view (AlwaysEnableUniverseMultiverse spec) -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Wed, 20 Dec 2006 19:05:08 +0100 synaptic (0.57.11.1ubuntu1) feisty; urgency=low * merged with debian -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Wed, 20 Dec 2006 17:30:46 +0100 synaptic (0.57.11.1) unstable; urgency=high * gtk/rgmainwindow.cc: - fix crash in "Lock package" * gtk/rgpreferenceswindow.cc: - add default font to fix crash -- Michael Vogt <mvo@debian.org> Mon, 18 Dec 2006 10:52:08 +0100 synaptic (0.57.11ubuntu13) edgy; urgency=low * gtk/rgmainwindow.cc: - fix crash in "Lock package" (lp: 64005) * gtk/rgpreferenceswindow.cc: - add default font to fix crash (lp: 65553) -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Mon, 23 Oct 2006 16:12:55 +0200 synaptic (0.57.11ubuntu12) edgy; urgency=low * gtk/gsyncaptic.cc: - fix in the checking for already runing synaptic (lp: 62754) -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Wed, 11 Oct 2006 18:09:16 +0200 synaptic (0.57.11ubuntu11) edgy; urgency=low * common/rpackagelister.cc: - use pkgActionGroup to fix performance regression in setSelection() * performance regression fixes (lp: #63171) -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Tue, 10 Oct 2006 13:57:42 +0200 synaptic (0.57.11ubuntu10) edgy; urgency=low * common/rpackagelister.cc: - run refresh() after re-adjusting the size of the packages (lp: #62298) -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Tue, 26 Sep 2006 17:33:28 +0200 synaptic (0.57.11ubuntu9) edgy; urgency=low * fix problem with pkgs disappering from the current view when certain auto-removable packages are marked for removal -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Thu, 21 Sep 2006 13:39:35 +0200 synaptic (0.57.11ubuntu8) edgy; urgency=low * redo the auto flag on "restoreState()" too -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Thu, 21 Sep 2006 00:55:16 +0200 synaptic (0.57.11ubuntu7) edgy; urgency=low * auto install/garbage filter added -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Wed, 20 Sep 2006 15:04:36 +0200 synaptic (0.57.11ubuntu6) edgy; urgency=low * fix mark/unmark auto -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Wed, 20 Sep 2006 14:18:43 +0200 synaptic (0.57.11ubuntu5) edgy; urgency=low * fix performance regression when canceling a operation -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Mon, 11 Sep 2006 11:52:30 +0200 synaptic (0.57.11ubuntu4) edgy; urgency=low * when switching views, don't autoselect "All" * support the "metapackages" section -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Wed, 6 Sep 2006 20:30:45 +0200 synaptic (0.57.11ubuntu3) edgy; urgency=low * make "Fix Missing" and "Set Selections" faster (thanks to seb128 for discovering this problem) -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Mon, 4 Sep 2006 15:59:20 +0200 synaptic (0.57.11ubuntu2) edgy; urgency=low * merged the ddtp support -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Mon, 14 Aug 2006 16:26:28 +0200 synaptic (0.57.11ubuntu1) edgy; urgency=low * merged with debian -- Michael Vogt <michael.vogt@ubuntu.com> Thu, 27 |
undocumented population. Since then, the numbers have leveled off. But this alone doesn’t explain the transformation. The number of undocumented people in the United States hasn’t gone down significantly, after all; it’s stayed roughly the same. So the economic concerns that Krugman raised a decade ago remain relevant today. Related Story What’s Wrong With the Democrats? A larger explanation is political. Between 2008 and 2016, Democrats became more and more confident that the country’s growing Latino population gave the party an electoral edge. To win the presidency, Democrats convinced themselves, they didn’t need to reassure white people skeptical of immigration so long as they turned out their Latino base. “The fastest-growing sector of the American electorate stampeded toward the Democrats this November,” Salon declared after Obama’s 2008 win. “If that pattern continues, the GOP is doomed to 40 years of wandering in a desert.”
As the Democrats grew more reliant on Latino votes, they were more influenced by pro-immigrant activism. While Obama was running for reelection, immigrants’-rights advocates launched protests against the administration’s deportation practices; these protests culminated, in June 2012, in a sit-in at an Obama campaign office in Denver. Ten days later, the administration announced that it would defer the deportation of undocumented immigrants who had arrived in the U.S. before the age of 16 and met various other criteria. Obama, The New York Times noted, “was facing growing pressure from Latino leaders and Democrats who warned that because of his harsh immigration enforcement, his support was lagging among Latinos who could be crucial voters in his race for re-election.” Alongside pressure from pro-immigrant activists came pressure from corporate America, especially the Democrat-aligned tech industry, which uses the H-1B visa program to import workers. In 2010, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, along with the CEOs of companies including Hewlett-Packard, Boeing, Disney, and News Corporation, formed New American Economy to advocate for business-friendly immigration policies. Three years later, Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates helped found FWD.us to promote a similar agenda. This combination of Latino and corporate activism made it perilous for Democrats to discuss immigration’s costs, as Bernie Sanders learned the hard way. In July 2015, two months after officially announcing his candidacy for president, Sanders was interviewed by Ezra Klein, the editor in chief of Vox. Klein asked whether, in order to fight global poverty, the U.S. should consider “sharply raising the level of immigration we permit, even up to a level of open borders.” Sanders reacted with horror. “That’s a Koch brothers proposal,” he scoffed. He went on to insist that “right-wing people in this country would love … an open-border policy. Bring in all kinds of people, work for $2 or $3 an hour, that would be great for them. I don’t believe in that. I think we have to raise wages in this country.” Progressive commentators routinely claim that there’s a near-consensus among economists on immigration’s benefits. There isn’t. Sanders came under immediate attack. Vox’s Dylan Matthews declared that his “fear of immigrant labor is ugly—and wrongheaded.” The president of FWD.us accused Sanders of “the sort of backward-looking thinking that progressives have rightly moved away from in the past years.” ThinkProgress published a blog post titled “Why Immigration Is the Hole in Bernie Sanders’ Progressive Agenda.” The senator, it argued, was supporting “the idea that immigrants coming to the U.S. are taking jobs and hurting the economy, a theory that has been proven incorrect.”
Sanders stopped emphasizing immigration’s costs. By January 2016, FWD.us’s policy director noted with satisfaction that he had “evolved on this issue.” But has the claim that “immigrants coming to the U.S. are taking jobs” actually been proved “incorrect”? A decade ago, liberals weren’t so sure. In 2006, Krugman wrote that America was experiencing “large increases in the number of low-skill workers relative to other inputs into production, so it’s inevitable that this means a fall in wages.” It’s hard to imagine a prominent liberal columnist writing that sentence today. To the contrary, progressive commentators now routinely claim that there’s a near-consensus among economists on immigration’s benefits.
(Illustration by Lincoln Agnew. Photos: AFP; Atta Kenare; Eric Lafforgue; Gamma-Rapho; Getty; Keystone-France; Koen van Weel; Lambert; Richard Baker / In Pictures / Corbis)
There isn’t. According to a comprehensive new report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, “Groups comparable to … immigrants in terms of their skill may experience a wage reduction as a result of immigration-induced increases in labor supply.” But academics sometimes de-emphasize this wage reduction because, like liberal journalists and politicians, they face pressures to support immigration. Many of the immigration scholars regularly cited in the press have worked for, or received funding from, pro-immigration businesses and associations. Consider, for instance, Giovanni Peri, an economist at UC Davis whose name pops up a lot in liberal commentary on the virtues of immigration. A 2015 New York Times Magazine essay titled “Debunking the Myth of the Job-Stealing Immigrant” declared that Peri, whom it called the “leading scholar” on how nations respond to immigration, had “shown that immigrants tend to complement—rather than compete against—the existing work force.” Peri is indeed a respected scholar. But Microsoft has funded some of his research into high-skilled immigration. And New American Economy paid to help him turn his research into a 2014 policy paper decrying limitations on the H-1B visa program. Such grants are more likely the result of his scholarship than their cause. Still, the prevalence of corporate funding can subtly influence which questions economists ask, and which ones they don’t. (Peri says grants like those from Microsoft and New American Economy are neither large nor crucial to his work, and that “they don’t determine … the direction of my academic research.”)
Academics face cultural pressures too. In his book Exodus, Paul Collier, an economist at the University of Oxford, claims that in their “desperate [desire] not to give succor” to nativist bigots, “social scientists have strained every muscle to show that migration is good for everyone.” George Borjas of Harvard argues that since he began studying immigration in the 1980s, his fellow economists have grown far less tolerant of research that emphasizes its costs. There is, he told me, “a lot of self-censorship among young social scientists.” Because Borjas is an immigration skeptic, some might discount his perspective. But when I asked Donald Davis, a Columbia University economist who takes a more favorable view of immigration’s economic impact, about Borjas’s claim, he made a similar point. “George and I come out on different sides of policy on immigration,” Davis said, “but I agree that there are aspects of discussion in academia that don’t get sort of full view if you come to the wrong conclusion.” None of this means that liberals should oppose immigration. Entry to the United States is, for starters, a boon to immigrants and to the family members back home to whom they send money. It should be valued on these moral grounds alone. But immigration benefits the economy, too. Because immigrants are more likely than native-born Americans to be of working age, they improve the ratio of workers to retirees, which helps keep programs like Social Security and Medicare solvent. Immigration has also been found to boost productivity, and the National Academies report finds that “natives’ incomes rise in aggregate as a result of immigration.”
The problem is that, although economists differ about the extent of the damage, immigration hurts the Americans with whom immigrants compete. And since more than a quarter of America’s recent immigrants lack even a high-school diploma or its equivalent, immigration particularly hurts the least-educated native workers, the very people who are already struggling the most. America’s immigration system, in other words, pits two of the groups liberals care about most—the native-born poor and the immigrant poor—against each other. One way of mitigating this problem would be to scrap the current system, which allows immigrants living in the U.S. to bring certain close relatives to the country, in favor of what Donald Trump in February called a “merit based” approach that prioritizes highly skilled and educated workers. The problem with this idea, from a liberal perspective, is its cruelty. It denies many immigrants who are already here the ability to reunite with their loved ones. And it flouts the country’s best traditions. Would we remove from the Statue of Liberty the poem welcoming the “poor,” the “wretched,” and the “homeless”? A better answer is to take some of the windfall that immigration brings to wealthier Americans and give it to those poorer Americans whom immigration harms. Borjas has suggested taxing the high-tech, agricultural, and service-sector companies that profit from cheap immigrant labor and using the money to compensate those Americans who are displaced by it.
Unfortunately, while admitting poor immigrants makes redistributing wealth more necessary, it also makes it harder, at least in the short term. By some estimates, immigrants, who are poorer on average than native-born Americans and have larger families, receive more in government services than they pay in taxes. According to the National Academies report, immigrant-headed families with children are 15 percentage points more likely to rely on food assistance, and 12 points more likely to rely on Medicaid, than other families with children. In the long term, the United States will likely recoup much if not all of the money it spends on educating and caring for the children of immigrants. But in the meantime, these costs strain the very welfare state that liberals want to expand in order to help those native-born Americans with whom immigrants compete. What’s more, studies by the Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam and others suggest that greater diversity makes Americans less charitable and less willing to redistribute wealth. People tend to be less generous when large segments of society don’t look or talk like them. Surprisingly, Putnam’s research suggests that greater diversity doesn’t reduce trust and cooperation just among people of different races or ethnicities—it also reduces trust and cooperation among people of the same race and ethnicity. Trump appears to sense this. His implicit message during the campaign was that if the government kept out Mexicans and Muslims, white, Christian Americans would not only grow richer and safer, they would also regain the sense of community that they identified with a bygone age. “At the bedrock of our politics will be a total allegiance to the United States of America,” he declared in his inaugural address, “and through our loyalty to our country, we will rediscover our loyalty to each other.”
Liberals must take seriously Americans’ yearning for social cohesion. To promote both mass immigration and greater economic redistribution, they must convince more native-born white Americans that immigrants will not weaken the bonds of national identity. This means dusting off a concept many on the left currently hate: assimilation. Promoting assimilation need not mean expecting immigrants to abandon their culture. But it does mean breaking down the barriers that segregate them from the native-born. And it means celebrating America’s diversity less, and its unity more. Writing last year in American Sociological Review, Ariela Schachter, a sociology professor at Washington University in St. Louis, examined the factors that influence how native-born whites view immigrants. Foremost among them is an immigrant’s legal status. Given that natives often assume Latinos are undocumented even when they aren’t, it follows that illegal immigration indirectly undermines the status of those Latinos who live in the U.S. legally. That’s why conservatives rail against government benefits for undocumented immigrants (even though the undocumented are already barred from receiving many of those benefits): They know Americans will be more reluctant to support government programs if they believe those programs to be benefiting people who have entered the country illegally. Liberal immigration policy must work to ensure that immigrants do not occupy a separate legal caste. This means opposing the guest-worker programs—beloved by many Democrat-friendly tech companies, among other employers—that require immigrants to work in a particular job to remain in the U.S. Some scholars believe such programs drive down wages; they certainly inhibit assimilation. And, as Schachter’s research suggests, strengthening the bonds of identity between natives and immigrants is harder when natives and immigrants are not equal under the law.
The next Democratic presidential candidate should say again and again that because Americans are one people, who must abide by one law, his or her goal is to reduce America’s undocumented population to zero. For liberals, the easy part of fulfilling that pledge is supporting a path to citizenship for the undocumented who have put down roots in the United States. The hard part, which Hillary Clinton largely ignored in her 2016 presidential run, is backing tough immigration enforcement so that path to citizenship doesn’t become a magnet that entices more immigrants to enter the U.S. illegally. Enforcement need not mean tearing apart families, as Trump is doing with gusto. Liberals can propose that the government deal harshly not with the undocumented themselves but with their employers. Trump’s brutal policies already appear to be slowing illegal immigration. But making sure companies follow the law and verify the legal status of their employees would curtail it too: Migrants would presumably be less likely to come to the U.S. if they know they won’t be able to find work. In 2014, the University of California listed the term melting pot as a “microaggression.” What if Hillary Clinton had called that absurd? Schachter’s research also shows that native-born whites feel a greater affinity toward immigrants who speak fluent English. That’s particularly significant because, according to the National Academies report, newer immigrants are learning English more slowly than their predecessors did. During the campaign, Clinton proposed increasing funding for adult English-language education. But she rarely talked about it. In fact, she ran an ad attacking Trump for saying, among other things, “This is a country where we speak English, not Spanish.” The immigration section of her website showed her surrounded by Spanish-language signs.
Democrats should put immigrants’ learning English at the center of their immigration agenda. If more immigrants speak English fluently, native-born whites may well feel a stronger connection to them, and be more likely to support government policies that help them. Promoting English will also give Democrats a greater chance of attracting those native-born whites who consider growing diversity a threat. According to a preelection study by Adam Bonica, a Stanford political scientist, the single best predictor of whether a voter supported Trump was whether he or she agreed with the statement “People living in the U.S. should follow American customs and traditions.” In her 2005 book, The Authoritarian Dynamic, which has been heralded for identifying the forces that powered Trump’s campaign, Karen Stenner, then a professor of politics at Princeton, wrote: Exposure to difference, talking about difference, and applauding difference—the hallmarks of liberal democracy—are the surest ways to aggravate those who are innately intolerant, and to guarantee the increased expression of their predispositions in manifestly intolerant attitudes and behaviors. Paradoxically, then, it would seem that we can best limit intolerance of difference by parading, talking about, and applauding our sameness. The next Democratic presidential nominee should commit those words to memory. There’s a reason Barack Obama’s declaration at the 2004 Democratic National Convention that “there is not a liberal America and a conservative America … There is not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there’s the United States of America” is among his most famous lines. Americans know that liberals celebrate diversity. They’re less sure that liberals celebrate unity. And Obama’s ability to effectively do the latter probably contributed to the fact that he—a black man with a Muslim-sounding name—twice won a higher percentage of the white vote than did Hillary Clinton.Discuss and learn Lisp programming of all dialects
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Total posts 9651 • Total topics 1896 • Total members 1158 • Our newest member macbugWASHINGTON — The Postal Service sank deeper into debt on Monday after the agency defaulted on a $5.6 billion payment due at the end of September, the second time it has missed a deadline this year to set aside money for its future retiree health benefits.
The agency said it expected net operating losses to be $15 billion for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. That loss includes the two missed payments totaling $11.1 billion for the agency’s future retiree funds. This month, the Postal Service also faces a $1.5 billion workers’ compensation insurance payment to the Labor Department. It said on Monday that it would most likely make that payment, but that it would be left with a cash shortage of about $100 million.
Postal Service officials said they expected the shipping of holiday packages and election mailings to help offset some of the losses. Patrick R. Donahoe, the postmaster general, said there would be no disruptions in post office operations. Mail will continue to be delivered on time, and employees and vendors will continue to be paid, he said.
“Customers can be confident in the continued regular operations of the Postal Service,” Mr. Donahoe said.
Advertisement Continue reading the main story
The agency had warned Congress for months that it would not be able to make the payments into the fund for its future retiree health benefits. The first $5.5 billion payment was due last September, but lawmakers allowed the service to push back the payment until August while they worked on postal legislation. The second payment was due on Sept. 30.
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The payments are required by a 2006 law and do not affect current retiree benefits.
Lawmakers left Washington last month without passing legislation that would have helped the Postal Service deal with its crippling debt and its operating losses.Image: Shutterstock
I'd seen this many times before: a generic travel poster promising jewel-toned, turquoise seas washing over dazzling coral-white sands. A pair of flawless sun-bronzed legs were framed by a cobalt-blue sky and lush, tropical foliage.
But the advertising slogan that dominated it was jarring.
"SUN SEA AND A NEW KNEE."
I was at Destination Health, a medical travel trade show recently held in Ottawa, Canada, standing in front of a sales booth for a clinic in the Cayman Islands. Aside from knee replacements, medical services on offer also included neural-spinal surgery, chemotherapy, and an extensive menu of other non-emergency procedures.
A poster seen at Destination Health. Image: Martin J. Smith
The booth was one of many representing clinics and medical travel services from places like Mexico, Costa Rica, Argentina, and Germany. While each clinic specializes in different areas of medicine, almost all promise the same thing to prospective customers: no waitlists.
Canadians take justifiable pride in their publicly-funded healthcare system, which promises free healthcare to all. It is fundamental to their cultural identity, founded on a deeply-held belief that access to primary care should be based on need—not on the ability to pay.
But instead of protecting the poor from the ignominy of preventable medical problems, B.C.-based orthopedic surgeon Brian Day, the former Canadian Medical Association president and one of the leading proponents for allowing pay-for-service healthcare options in this country, says that the much-revered Canadian system is not actually equitable at all. That's partly because wait times for some treatments are so long that it makes them effectively inaccessible. Unless, that is, you can pay to skip the line.
The story of a Quebec woman who waited nine years for an appointment went viral
According to a 2015 report by the non-profit think tank Fraser Institute, waiting for medical treatment is becoming a "defining characteristic" of Canadian health care. The story of a Quebec woman who waited nine years for a medical appointment recently went viral, partly because so many people can relate. The Canadian Institute for Health Information notes that in 2015, only 64 percent of Alberta patients had gotten cataract surgery within the targeted "benchmark" of 112 days. In B.C., 47 percent had received a knee replacement surgery within the target, 182 days.
182 days is a long time to wait—that's almost six months—and in B.C., it's worth emphasizing, most patients were waiting even longer than that for a knee replacement.
Medical tourism shows such as the one I attended could be symptomatic of a poorly performing system. Most of the target customers can afford the sometimes-hefty price tags involved in paying out-of-pocket to avoid waitlists, or are willing to go into debt to do so. Although foreign clinics might provide a timely service—one that comes replete with sun, sand, and surf—they might not offer the same degree of safety and oversight as what's available in Canada. Take the proliferation of clinics offering bogus, and often dangerous, "stem cell treatments": The New York Times recently featured the story of a patient who developed an aggressive mass after seeking stem cell therapies abroad.
Read More: Stem Cells Are Dangerously Overhyped, Warn Researchers
Day called me on a recent Friday evening, after spending the day in the B.C. Supreme Court, where he has launched a court challenge against the provincial government.
His challenge on behalf of five plaintiffs (the sixth has since died) is based on the idea that people should be allowed to privately pay for medically necessary services, if these services aren't available in a timely fashion within the publicly funded system.
Day argues that taking away the patient's ability to choose a private alternative—and thus forcing them to suffer and even die unnecessarily while they wait for treatment—is a violation of their constitutional rights. If he's successful, critics argue, it could signal the end of Canada's universal health care access by creating a two-tiered system.
The lowest access and the worst outcomes in healthcare in Canada are in the lowest socio-economic groups
But in practice, two tiers already exist. Even if patients can't pay within Canada for medical treatment, they can travel to another country to do so.
"The lowest access and the worst outcomes in healthcare in Canada are in the lowest socio-economic groups," Day argued.
Valorie Crooks, an expert on medical tourism at Simon Fraser University, said that this oversimplifies a complex issue.
"His suggestion that wealthy Canadians have, on average, better health outcomes because they can afford to travel elsewhere for care is ridiculous, as it ignores the social determinants of health that we all know about," said Crooks when I phoned her.
She said that people with low socioeconomic status have poorer health outcomes because they have poor housing options, greater exposure to environmental toxins and hazards, less education, fewer connections with people of power or influence, fewer financial resources, and poorer nutrition when compared to those with those who are relatively well-off.
"One [doctor] told me to stop asking why and learn to live with it"
Some Canadians go abroad for services because they are looking for procedures, such as stem-cell therapies, that are not approved in Canada. Others, such as Michael Jubenville, an optician who lives in Windsor, Ontario, say they can no longer bear the suffering that comes with long wait times. He explained to me that he has the financial means to go abroad for treatment, but he first put his faith in the local healthcare system when he started experiencing debilitating neck pain, about 19 years ago.
Jubenville told me he tried unsuccessfully to get a diagnosis for 15 years, sometimes waiting years for consultations. He explained that he was often told the pain was all in his head.
"One [doctor] told me to stop asking why and learn to live with it," said Jubenville.
Finally, out of desperation, he visited the offices of Kelly Meloche, head of International Healthcare Providers in Windsor, who specializes in helping Canadians find diagnostic consultations and treatments abroad.
At stake is the very foundation of Canada's public health-care system
"He walked into my office, in great pain," said Meloche. "He told me'my headache is bigger than this room'." She said she asked Jubenville what options had been offered to him so far. "He said, 'They are telling me to go to aqua aerobics.' "
Following an unsuccessful treatment in Florida, Meloche referred him to a specialist in the Henry Ford Medical Center in Michigan. "They diagnosed me with cervical dystonia literally within three minutes of arriving in the doctor's office," explained Jubenville.
Jubenville's experience presents a compelling case for having a hybrid model that compliments the public healthcare system with privately-funded alternatives. But at stake, as laid out by the B.C. government as it fights tooth-and-nail to keep the system as-is, is the "very foundation of Canada's public health-care system." Government lawyers told the court that if the plaintiffs succeed in their challenge, it would actually make the problems experienced by Jubenville and others worse.
This could happen, they say, by attracting doctors and other medical staff away from the public system, and drawing them to potentially more lucrative jobs in private clinics.
Following his diagnosis, Jubenville was able to get Botox treatment in the US for his condition, which causes muscles in the neck to contract painfully. "It was the first time I was myself in 15 years. It was wild. It just totally stopped," he said. But as he became increasingly resistant to the Botox dosages, his dystonia flared up again. He's currently unable to work, but is fortunate enough to be supported in part by the family business.
In Canada, Jubenville received a deep brain stimulation device (sometimes called a 'brain pacemaker'), which has helped manage his symptoms. In the US, an operation to implant the device would have cost in excess of $100,000, he told me. In Canada, the entire thing—surgery, device and all—was free.
Luxury Week is a series about our evolving views of what constitutes luxury. Follow along here.
Get six of our favorite Motherboard stories every day by signing up for our newsletter.WME/IMG has added another event franchise to its holdings, cutting a deal with Donald Trump to acquire the Miss Universe Organization. The sale follows the messy breakup in July of the 12-year partnership between Trump, now the front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination, and NBCUniversal in the beauty pageant business.
The company produces the the Miss Universe, Miss USA and Miss Teen USA pageants and related content. Financial details were not disclosed.
“Having worked closely with The Miss Universe Organization in the past, we understand the incredible potential of the events and the star-quality of the participants,” said Mark Shapiro, chief content officer of WME/IMG. “The global reach of The Miss Universe Organization and the content opportunities presented by the pageants make this a strong, strategic addition to our portfolio.”
Trump and NBCUniversal parted ways in the joint venture they established in 2002 after Trump made incendiary remarks in June about Mexican immigrants as part of his presidential campaign bid. Univision set a five-year, $13.5 million deal for the Spanish-language rights to the Miss USA pageant that was to begin this year with the July 12 pageant, but it dropped the telecast after Trump asserted that many Mexican immigrants were criminals and “rapists.”
Related Donald Trump Files $500 Million Lawsuit Against Univision Over Miss USA Contract
After Univision dropped out, the mounting pressure forced NBC to also scrap its broadcast. NBCUniversal is investing big in Spanish-language media, through its Telemundo and NBC Universo networks, and could not afford to alienate Latino viewers.
Trump sued NBCUniversal and Univision for breach of contract. But as part of the settlement with NBCU, Trump bought out the Peacock’s 51% share in the Miss Universe Organization, which smoothed the way for the sale to WME/IMG.
IMG had already worked with Miss Universe on licensing deals in the past. The pageants are a natural fit with IMG’s focus on owning event franchises that yield big media rights and sponsorship deals. The company earlier this year bought the Professional Bull Riders sports league for the same strategic rationale.
The value of the Miss Universe Organization undoubtedly was diminished by the upheaval surrounding this year’s Miss USA pageant, which probably made for an opportunistic buy on WME/IMG’s part. Trump bought the company in 1996 from ITT Corp. He struck a broadcasting partnership with CBS for a few years before cutting a joint venture with NBC in 2002. The Miss Universe business began in 1952 with a swimwear competition in 1952 in Long Beach, Calif., according to the company’s website.
“I have truly enjoyed owning the Miss Universe, Miss USA and Miss Teen USA pageants,” said Trump. “When I purchased the pageants many years ago, they were in serious trouble. It has been a great honor making them so successful and I have really enjoyed watching the pageants grow throughout the USA and worldwide. The pageants are now in the hands of a great company that will shepherd them to even greater levels of success.”
WME/IMG’s first order of business will be to find new domestic TV partners for the pageants. The July 12 telecast wound up airing on ReelzChannel after NBC and Univision pulled out. It’s unclear whether Univision will seek to restore its contract now that the company is in different hands. According to Trump’s $500 million lawsuit against Univision, Univision had planned to pay off the full value of the contract even as it dropped the program.Submitted by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,
The higher financial markets rise, the harder they fall. By any objective measurement, the stock market is currently well into bubble territory. Anyone should be able to see this – all you have to do is look at the charts. Sadly, most of us never seem to learn from history. Most of us want to believe that somehow “things are different this time”. Well, about the only thing that is different this time is that our economy is in far worse shape than it was just prior to the last major financial crisis. That means that we are more vulnerable and will almost certainly endure even more damage this time around.
It would be one thing if stocks were soaring because the U.S. economy as a whole was doing extremely well. But we all know that isn’t true. Instead, what we have been experiencing is clearly artificial market behavior that has nothing to do with economic reality. In other words, we are dealing with an irrational financial bubble, and all irrational financial bubbles eventually burst. And as I wrote about yesterday, the way that stocks have moved so far this year is eerily reminiscent of the way that stocks moved in early 2008. The warning signs are there – if you are willing to look at them.
The first chart that I want to share with you today comes from Doug Short. It is a chart that shows that the ratio of corporate equities (stocks) to GDP is the second highest that it has been since 1950. The only other time it has been higher was just before the dotcom bubble burst…
Does that look like a bubble to you?
It sure looks like a bubble to me.
In order for the corporate equities to GDP ratio to get back to the mean (average) level, stock prices would have to fall nearly 50 percent.
If that happens, people will be calling it a crash, but in truth it would just be a return to normalcy.
This next chart comes from Phoenix Capital Research. The CAPE ratio (cyclically adjusted price-to-earnings ratio) is considered to be an extremely accurate measure of the true value of stocks…
As I’ve noted before, the single best predictor of stock market performance is the cyclically adjusted price-to-earnings ratio or CAPE ratio. Corporate earnings are heavily influenced by the business cycle. Typically the US experiences a boom and bust once every ten years or so. As such, companies will naturally have higher P/E’s at some points and lower P/E’s at other. This is based solely on the business cycle and nothing else. CAPE adjusts for this by measuring the price of stocks against the average of ten years’ worth of earnings, adjusted for inflation. By doing this, it presents you with a clearer, more objective picture of a company’s ability to produce cash in any economic environment. Based on a study completed Vanguard, CAPE was the single best metric for measuring future stock returns.
When the CAPE ratio is too high, that means that stocks are overpriced and are not a good value. And right now the CAPE ratio is the 3rd highest that it has been since 1890. That only times it has been higher than this were in 1929 (we all remember what happened then) and just before the dotcom bubble burst…
The funny thing is that stocks have continued to rise even as corporate revenues have begun to fall.
According to Wolf Richter, in the first quarter of 2015 corporate revenues are projected to decline at the fastest pace that we have seen since the depths of the last recession…
Week after week, corporations and analysts have been whittling down their estimates. By now, revenues of the S&P 500 companies are expected to decline 2.8% in Q1 from a year ago – the worst year-over-year decline since Q3 of crisis year 2009.
This next chart I want to share with you shows how the Nasdaq has performed over the past decade. Looking at this chart alone, you would think that the U.S. economy must have been absolutely roaring since the end of the last recession. But what is really going on is rampant speculation. Some of the tech companies that make up the Nasdaq are not making any profits at all and yet they are supposedly worth billions of dollars. If you cannot see a bubble in this chart, you need to get your vision checked…
And this kind of irrational euphoria is not just happening in the United States.
For example, Chinese stocks are up nearly 80 percent over the past nine months.
Meanwhile, the overall Chinese economy is growing at the slowest pace that we have seen in about 20 years.
Right now, we are in the calm before the storm. We are right at the door of the next great financial crisis, and most of the people that work in the industry know this.
And once in a while they let the cat out of the bag.
For example, consider what Hans-Jörg Vetter, the CEO of Landesbank Baden-Württemberg in Germany, had to say during one recent press conference…
“Risk is no longer priced in,” he said. And these investors aren’t paid for the risks they’re taking. This applies to all asset classes, he said. The stock and the bond markets, he said, are now both seeing “the mother of all bubbles.” This can’t go on forever. Or for very long. But he couldn’t see the future either and pin down a date, which is what everyone wants to know so that they can all get out in time. “I cannot tell you when it will rumble,” he said, “but eventually it will rumble again.” By “again” he meant the sort of thing that had taken the bank down last time, the Financial Crisis. It had been triggered by horrendous risk-taking, where risks hadn’t been priced into all kinds of securities. When those securities – mortgage-backed securities, for example, that were hiding the inherent risks under a triple-A rating – blew up, banks toppled.
What Vetter is telling us is what I have been warning about for a long time.
Another great stock market crash is coming.The alleged former Soviet intelligence officer who attended the now-infamous meeting with Donald Trump Jr. and other top campaign officials last June was previously accused in federal and state courts of orchestrating an international hacking conspiracy.
Rinat Akhmetshin told the Associated Press on Friday he accompanied Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya to the June 9, 2016, meeting with Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort. Trump’s attorney confirmed Akhmetshin’s attendance in a statement.
Akhmetshin’s presence at Trump Tower that day adds another layer of controversy to an episode that already provides the clearest indication of collusion between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign. In an email in the run-up to that rendezvous, Donald Trump Jr. was promised “very high level and sensitive information” on Hillary Clinton as “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”
Akhmetshin, who had been hired by Veselnitskaya to help with pro-Russian lobbying efforts in Washington, said the Russian lawyer brought a folder of documents to the meeting, which he thinks she left at Trump Tower.
He said the print-outs detailed an alleged flow of illicit funds to the Democratic National Committee. According to Akhmetshin, Trump Jr. asked whether the lawyer had all the evidence to back up her claims and Veselnitskaya said the Trump campaign would have to do further research themselves.
In court papers filed with the New York Supreme Court in November 2015, Akhmetshin was described as “a former Soviet military counterintelligence officer” by lawyers for International Mineral Resources (IMR), a Russian mining company that alleged it had been hacked.
Those documents accuse Akhmetshin of hacking into two computer systems and stealing sensitive and confidential materials as part of an alleged black-ops smear campaign against IMR. The allegations were later withdrawn.
The U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., was told in July 2015 that Akhmetshin had arranged the hacking of a mining company’s private records—stealing internal documents and then disseminating them. The corporate-espionage case was brought by IMR, which alleged that Akhmetshin was hired by a law firm representing a fertilizer producer company called |
all this stuff in?'" she says, "I had to take a minute. But without those features, you don't get hand presence."
By June 2015, Oculus had turned the mockup into a usable prototype, known internally as Half Moon—brought it to the E3 gaming show, as well as an updated version of Toybox Zero, which was now just known as Toybox. For the first time in a Rift, people could look down and see their hands in virtual space; hell, they could use their hands. Pick things up, point, wave hello. The buttons and triggers were now capacitive, registering contact with your fingers, so when you gave a thumbs up in real life, the controller would translate that into a VR gesture. Granted, just because you take your thumb off a button doesn't mean you're trying to give a thumbs-up. To get a little more technical, the controller interpolates various hand poses over time in order to give what Binstock calls "our best approximation" of where your hands are. "Part of that is, if we've detected your finger comes up, we say that virtually should be your finger pointing, because that's what people are going to want to do with this," he says. Also, the triggers are pressure-sensitive, allowing for a range of hand openness; thus, if you want to wave, you release the triggers completely and wave.
More importantly, Toybox was more than a place to learn how to use your hands in VR. It was a place to learn alongside other people. Inside Toybox, you’d get a tutorial on how to do everything—play ping-pong, set off rockets, throw blocks—not from a friendly AI character, but from a real person who was also inside your toybox (but actually down the hall in a headset of their own). It was the first time Oculus had shown a glimpse of the interpersonal power of VR. “We hadn’t done a real demo where you had what we called ‘social presence’ ever before,” says Mitchell. “It went from ‘hey, I’m playing a game,’ to ‘oh, my God.’ That was mindblowing.” Other people thought so too; indeed, Zuckerberg started using Toybox to entertain visiting foreign dignitaries. The prime minister of Singapore, it turned out, particularly liked playing ping-pong.
Extending the Magic
Fast forward a year and a half, and the company’s bet on social presence has only intensified. When the final Touch arrives on people’s doorsteps this week, it will include Toybox, as well as a number of creative, and decidedly non-gaming, experiences (Medium allows you to create VR sculptures, and even 3-D print them; Quill is an animation tool from Oculus Story Studios, the company’s interactive filmmaking division). And many of the marquee games have a pronounced social component, whether it's the Old West-style, multiplayer shootouts of Dead & Buried or the collaborative construction made possible by Fantastic Contraption.
We want to see a future with even more tracked input. Nate Mitchell
Starting today, there are 50 Touch-enabled titles, with more to come. Now that the Rift has a way to bring your hands into VR, the company is looking to extend the magic of its technology to the millions of non-gamers who might have stayed on the sidelines until now. “I've brought people in who are not gamers to do demos,” says Kalinowski, “and it's incredibly fast. You're like, ‘here are your controllers, this is what this does, go!’”
Of course, in the eight months since the Rift first went on sale, the VR landscape has become a bit more crowded—and a lot more competitive. The HTC Vive and Playstation VR, both of which launched with wand-style controllers, are high-end alternatives to the Rift, while Google's new Daydream platform has made a splash in the world of mobile-driven VR. But while PSVR is poised to dominate holiday sales, Oculus has its sights set well past 2016. "Now we've got all the fundamentals in place," Mitchell says. "2017 is going to be an incredible year."
And while Touch is just the beginning of Oculus’ quest for the perfect human-VR interface—"we want to see a future with even more tracked input," Mitchell says—it’s far from the only option. Just yesterday, for instance, the gestural interface company Leap Motion announced a tiny new sensor that could give any headset the ability to track your hands in space, without controllers. (“I think it's going to enable a lot of interesting social experiences, but it's not the answer for interaction,” says Patel of hand tracking. “You really need to have that tactility.”) But for now, the company is doing what it’s done from the very beginning with the Rift: waiting to see what developers do with their new tools. And someone, somewhere, is sketching what the future might look like.Invasive species have made Saskatchewan their new home. The fast spreading species can be plants, animals, insects or fungus.
They pose a serious threat to the country’s native species and habitat. They’re also the second most common threat when it comes to species extinctions, habitat loss being number one.
Matthew Braun is the conservation science and planning manager for the Nature Conservancy of Canada’s Saskatchewan region. He said here in Sask. were mainly dealing with invasive plants and mussels in our lakes.
Seven of the 10 invasive species on the Conservancy’s list are found in Saskatchewan, which includes knapweeds, common tansy and purple loosestrife.
The invasive plants are generally from Europe. The plants can move into our land either through hay from different areas or ornamentals being brought into local garden centers. Braun said these plants then escape from the garden or wind up in the compost and then make their way out into the world.
“There’s a number of different methods that invasive species impact everybody around us,” Braun said. “The most abundantly clear one is the economics where an invasive species, a plant, will move on to your hay field and either reduce the quality or yield of that hay or your pasture lands, so you’re not getting as many bales so that hurts you economically.”
The economic cost, nationally, from invasive species is anywhere from $16 to $34 billion dollars a year because of its impact on Canada’s biodiversity. Braun said the cost is also high because of loss of productivity, constantly having to treat the plants and the toxicity can make people and live stock sick meaning there would be medical costs associated with that.
“The big one that has most people the most worried is zebra mussels that are moving from east to west by different lake systems,” said Braun. “(zebra mussels) kind of jump from lake to lake from boats that haven’t been properly sanitized, cleaned and inspected.”
Zebra mussels tend to clog up water pipes drawing water from the infected body of water. Braun added the cost to clean out these pipes can be extensive because their growth is so prolific. He said not only is it a massive annual cost but users also risk losing their source of water.
BIG IMPACT ON ECOSYSTEM
Invasive species tend to spread very rapidly. They also can be very dominate as they don’t have any of their natural enemies, as they normally would for where they came from, so there’s nothing keeping the species in check.
“That means your pushing out all the other plants that were originally there providing habitat for all the different birds, bugs and animals that needed them. You’re eliminating a more simple ecosystem so it’s not as able to withstand variability in weather or disturbance around it,” said Braun. “It’s just not as healthy when it has fewer species in there because they’ve been pushed out by these invasive species coming in.”
There are a number of ways to help keep these invasive species in check. Asking garden center staff if certain plants are considered invasive or reporting any invasive plant you see to the Saskatchewan Invasive Species Council are great ways at taking preventive steps Braun added.
For lake goers with boats, Braun said to empty out any water, clean the boat and then let it dry before moving it.You have a Smart Home using Z-Wave as a wireless technology for all these Internet of Things (IoT) devices to communicate with each other. But maybe things are not working quite as well as you expect. You press a button on your phone and 1… 2… 3… and then finally a light comes on or maybe it doesn’t come on at all! Another common problem is when a battery powered sensor was updating the temperature last week and this week it just doesn’t seem to be sending updates anymore or at best sporadically. As a Z-Wave expert I’ve built and rebuilt hundreds of Z-Wave networks and have come up with a few habits to make Z-Wave networks more reliable.
1. Minimize Polling
This is probably THE number one mistake new users of Z-Wave make. They figure Z-Wave is a high speed network so they can just poll a light switch every 3 seconds and then react to any change in the switch. Z-Wave and most other wireless networks work best when the network is highly available. If the network is busy, every device that needs to send a message has to wait its turn and then compete (and often collide) with all that polling traffic. Collisions slow everything down just like rubber-necking on the highway.
Polling used to be the only way to get around a patent that fortunately expired in February 2016. The patent forced many light switch manufacturers to not send a message when you flipped the switch. Several manufacturers found ways to get around this or they licensed the patent. But now that the patent has expired, you can get light switches that do send a report immediately when their state has changed.
So the primary way to minimize polling is to replace the few devices in your Smart Home that trigger an event (or SmartApp or Magic or whatever your hub calls it) with one that will instantly send an update. If you have some older switches but they’re not that important to instantly know their state has changed, you can still poll them but no more than once every few minutes. Remember that if you have 60 Z-Wave devices and you poll each one once/min then you are polling once/second and the network is hammered! So only poll a couple of nodes!
2. Have enough devices to create a mesh
I can’t tell you how many people I’ve worked with that had a door lock and a hub and nothing else, maybe a battery powered thermostat. And they wondered why the connection to the lock was unreliable when the hub was at the far end of the building! Z-Wave relies on Always-On (110VAC powered) nodes to build a “mesh” network. The mesh is the key to Z-Wave reliability. Every Always-On node acts as a repeater in the mesh and is able to forward a message from one node to another in the mesh. But only the Always-On nodes can forward a message. Battery powered devices like door locks and battery powered thermostats cannot forward messages. Only the Always-On nodes can.
Solution: If some devices are not reliable, add more Always-On devices. Add a Z-Wave repeater or any device like a lamp dimmer. Even if you don’t use the lamp dimmer it will act as a repeater and improve the network. I have a few lamp switches I use for my Christmas lights which I leave plugged in year round because they help the Z-Wave network since these nodes are at the periphery of my home.
Distance between nodes is not always the criteria for adding more nodes in a network. The Z-Wave radio signals may bounce off metal objects like mirrors or appliances and cause two nodes that are only a few feet apart be completely unable to talk to each other due to reflections of the radio signals. Adding more nodes in the mesh provide alternate routes to nodes that otherwise might be in a dead zone due to these reflections cancelling out the radio signals.
3. Place the hub in a central location
Putting the hub in a corner of the basement might be convenient, but its a terrible idea for Z-Wave. The hub is the most important node in the network and should have the best location possible. While Z-Wave is a mesh network and can route or hop thru other nodes in the mesh, each hop is a significant delay and chokes up the network with more traffic. Ideally the hub should reach 90% of the nodes in your Smart Home without relying on routing. If the hub has Wifi then putting it in a central location is easy, you just need a wall outlet to plug it in. I have my hub hung off the back of a TV cabinet in roughly the middle of the first floor of my home.
4. Heal the Network
Once a Z-Wave network is built, it has to be “healed” so every node can use all the other nodes in the network to route messages. This healing process can take many minutes to even hours depending on the size of the network. When you first build a Z-Wave network, the first node added only knows that the hub is in the network. When you add a second node, the hub knows that both the nodes are in the network but the first node you added has no idea that node 2 is there – unless you heal the network. So any time you add a node, you need to heal at least a few nodes in the network if not the entire network. Be cautious with the healing process – it uses 100% of the Z-Wave bandwidth during the process and every node will wake up every FliR node (door locks) at least once which will drain the batteries of the FLiR node. Generally only heal when nodes have been added or removed or if there seems to be a problem in the network.
Z-Wave is able to self-heal automatically. Z-Wave nodes will try various routes to get their message thru if at first it doesn’t succeed. The node will remember the Last Working Route and try that one first for the next message. But if the nodes have no idea there are other nodes in the network they have no way of knowing what routes to try so at least one full heal of the network is required.
HomeSeer
HomeSeer has several platforms so the precise method might be slightly different than shown here. From the web interface home page select the menu Plug-Ins->Z-Wave->Controller Management then select the Action “Fully Optimize a Network”. The network wide heal will take some time depending on the size of the network.
SmartThings
SmartThings user interface is thru their app which makes finding the network heal a bit of a challenge. Start from the dashboard and click on the three lines in the upper left corner. Your Hub should be the first choice in the menu that slides out, click on your hub. A new menu comes up, click on the last choice “Z-Wave Utilities”. The last choice on the next menu that slides in is “Repair Z-Wave Network” so click on it and then click on “Start Z-Wave Network Repair”. The repair will take from minutes to over an hour depending on the size of your network.
Vera
Vera has several versions of their UI but each of them has a similar menu structure so these instructions should work on any version. The Vera version shown here is UI7. Use a PC to log into GetVera.com and select your hub. From the Dashboard, select Settings->Z-Wave Settings and then click on the advanced tab. At the bottom of the advanced tab is the GO button to run the “Update Node Neighbors”. Depending on the size of the Z-Wave network this process will take several minutes to over an hour.
5. If a device doesn’t pair, first exclude it, then include it
You’ve taken the brand new Z-Wave IoT widget out of the box and you’ve tried to pair it (the Z-Wave term is “inclusion”) but it just won’t include! Arrrghhh! The first thing to try is to exclude the node first and then try including it. Any hub can “reset” or exclude a Z-Wave device even if that device was previously connected to another network. Some manufacturers occasionally fail to exclude the device during testing so the device may already be connected to their test network. Or you may have inadvertently included the device but the inclusion process failed somehow and the hub is confused. Excluding the node should reset it to the factory fresh state. Newer Z-Wave Plus devices (which have this logo on them) are required to have a way to reset them to factory defaults using just the device itself. Every device is different so you’ll have to refer to the device manual to perform a factory reset but if all else fails this should make the device ready to pair. Naturally having the hub physically close to the device being paired will also help though most devices can be paired from a distance.
Secure devices like door locks are particularly challenging to pair. First the secure device has to join the Z-Wave network, then the AES-128 encryption keys have to be exchanged and if that process fails (which it does on occasion), then you have to exclude and try the inclusion process all over again. Secure devices definitely want to be within a few feet of the hub during inclusion to ensure reliable and speedy Z-Wave communication.
6. Battery life and how to maximize it
When a battery powered Z-Wave device wakes up and turns on its radio, it uses 10,000 times more battery power than when it’s asleep. So the entire trick to making batteries last is to minimize the amount of time the device is awake. Some devices naturally have other battery draining activities mostly involving motors to throw a deadbolt or raise a window shade. Obviously any motor will use a lot more battery power than the Z-Wave radio but the radio will play a significant role in battery life.
When a battery powered device is added to a Z-Wave network the hub should do two things:
Assign the Association Group 1 NodeID to the hub Association Group 1 is the “LifeLine” in Z-Wave and devices use this lifeline to send all sensor data and alerts to this node All hubs are required to assign Group 1 but double check this assignment Set the Wake Up Interval to no more than once per hour and ideally only a few times per day Every hub assigns the WakeUpInterval differently and largely handles it behind the scenes so this may be difficult to verify or change If the device is waking up every few minutes and sends a sensor reading then its battery life isn’t going to be more than a few weeks The battery level of the device is usually reported at the WakeUpInterval rate
Many sensors have other Association Groups or Configuration Parameters that will let you specify the frequency of sensor readings. Realize that the more often the sensors report in, the shorter the battery life.
7. Dead nodes in your controller
One of the big problems in Z-Wave network maintenance is eliminating “dead” nodes. When a device fails or for whatever reason is no longer in use, then it needs to be removed from the controller. If it remains in the controller then the controller will try to route thru this dead node on occasion resulting in delays in delivering messages. Eventually the self-healing aspects of Z-Wave will make this less likely but various devices will on occasion attempt to route thru it. Since the node is dead, that wastes valuable Z-Wave bandwidth and potentially battery power of sleeping devices. Occasionally running a Heal on the network will remove the node from the routing tables but it will remain in the controllers routing tables. It is best to completely remove this dead node. Each hub has a different method for removing dead nodes and usually requires going into an advanced Z-Wave menu.
Following these guidelines will help your Z-Wave experience be more robust. If you have more questions please feel feel to reach out via email to drzwave at expresscontrols.com.Cartoon Brew: In a New York Times article from 1997 about Starship Troopers, Paul Verhoeven was quoted as saying, “I stipulated in my contract that I would not do the movie if Phil wasn’t available.” He goes on to talk about the poetic realism of the creatures you were behind, and also your lifelong observation of the animals. How far did your history go back with Paul?
Phil Tippett: Well, I met Paul shortly after [producer] Jon Davison hired him for RoboCop, and Jon had gone out to every single director in the director’s guide book, and everybody refused it. Then he finally got down to ‘V,’ and sent it to Paul, and Paul refused it. Then his wife, Martine, I think, talked him into it. That’s where I met Paul for the first time, but I had been a big fan of the movies that he made in Holland. So I decided to work with him.
We did RoboCop, and then I got a call from Jon and went out to lunch with he and [director] Joe Dante, because they were developing something, with [screenwriter] Ed Neumeier, that was about soldiers fighting bugs on some alien planet. They went to Sony, and Sony said, ‘We’ll give you money to make a movie like this as long as it’s called Starship Troopers,’ because they had the property. It just went on from there.
There’s a famous test done for Starship Troopers [view below], and Paul Verhoeven introduces it. Was it a test done to convince the studio to make the film?
Phil Tippett: Yeah, that’s exactly what it was. We went out to Vasquez Rocks and shot Olympic gold medalist Mitch Gaylord playing a soldier that was being chased and killed by a bug. Then Jon and Ed and I – Paul was shooting Showgirls – we went to pitch it and it went up the food chain at Sony, and showed them what we were doing.
They would worry about things like, ‘Where’s the mouth on the bugs?’ We’d go, ‘It’s that little hole there.’ They’d be like, ‘Well, how do they eat?’ We’d say, ‘Well, they eat sap from the queen back in the cave.’ They’re like, ‘Really? But if they don’t have mouths, they can’t kill people.’ I go, ‘No, they’ve got these big beaks that can chop people in half, and they’ve got these things that can skewer them, so they just kill people. They don’t eat people. They don’t care about people.’
Then we had to go through the hierarchy of screening for three different executives, and at that time Mark Canton was the head of the studio. He brought his entourage in, and they looked at it, and he turned around and said, ‘Well, is this movie going to be fun?’ We’re like, ‘Yeah. Sure, it’ll be fun.’ So he said, ‘Okay, go ahead and make it.’
There are a lot of bugs in the film, how did you work out how each should be animated?
Phil Tippett: It all began with the overarching concept of, what are the bugs? We laid all that out in terms of ‘the simplest ideas are the best ideas,’ so working from the position of the genre, the war movie, we just attributed various warlike, mostly World War II-like, values to the bugs.
The warriors were the infantry, and then there’s a big tanker bug that’s like a flame throwing tank, and then there’s the hoppers, the Stuka dive bombers, and then there’s the king and his entourage and all that. How things actually move, you just empirically determine. We did a lot of research with documentaries on bugs and that kind of thing. Paul and I had a very similar world view and mindset, and we both like to do things that are very sharp and kind of staccato, and this lent itself to that.
Recently you discovered some old video that shows a scout for the film and some on-set footage. It’s fantastic to see that process. Can you describe the scouting side of things?
Phil Tippett: Generally what we did back then was, I used a Hi8 camera to go on location scouts. When we were scouting on location, I used it as a notebook. I’d just hold up the camera and put my hand in the shot and say, ‘The bugs are out here and they’re running towards us. They come up over this hill and they get blown up.’
I could send that to the vfx studio in Berkeley from Wyoming where we were shooting, and then the guys back at the studio can get a better sense of what’s going on. Then for the actual shots, each of the setups, various people on the art crew would document it. All the setups and all the takes, there was something like 15 hours of material, and it got lost for 10 or 15 years, and someone discovered it under their staircase. We digitized it all and then I cut that down to about 40 minutes worth of material.
You were involved in Jurassic Park which had gone from a stop-motion project to cg, and Starship Troopers came out in 1997, but there had been talks about doing this film maybe starting in 1994. What was your own cg education between Jurassic and the first test that was done for Troopers, and how did you ramp up the studio to deal with cg?
Phil Tippett: There was really no other alternative to it. Both of those jobs just landed in my lap because there weren’t that many people that were doing that kind of stuff, so I never really had to know anything about computers. I gave it a shot once, and there was just too much information in the manual to do it. It’s just that the process is kind of antithetical to … I would go mad if I had to sit in front of the computer all day.
What I’m required to do, really all I need to know, is the basic principles of what you can do and what you can’t do, and what’s difficult and what’s not difficult. Most of my stuff is more in shaping the thing in pre-production with the team, with the director and DP [director of photography], and then going on location and making sure all that stuff is going to work, and then coming back and putting it together.
One of the bridges between stop-motion and cg was the Dinosaur Input Device or Digital Input Device (DID), which was made for Jurassic Park, but also used on Troopers. Can you talk about how that came into play?
Phil Tippett: Well, at that point in time, it was very hard to find good computer graphics animators. Pretty much all of the animators on Jurassic Park were Canadian, because they had schools that taught computer graphics there, but they had only done stuff like the so-called classic Disney animation, more cartoony squash and stretch type stuff, Pixar-y type stuff, and a lot of flying logos. But these kinds of things require a different kind of a mindset.
You’ve got to get a lot of things right, and so since there weren’t enough computer graphics animators, they put out a cattle call for stop-motion people. We put together a bug armature – [visual effects supervisor] Craig Hayes was a big part of that. It was just steel, and put him on the stage and just shot tests. Then I just picked two or three of the best ones, and then we duplicated the DID design, but configured like a bug.
Despite all the great cg work in the film, there’s still a very practical feel to it, either from practical bug pieces that were made, dummies that were used, or explosions on set. What do you remember about that mix of practical and digital?
Phil Tippett: We let the script and the needs of the script drive everything. Jon and I and Paul were big fans of mixing and matching practical stuff with the post-production stuff. We’d just get together and go over the script and storyboards, and say, ‘For this reason, all these need to be computer graphics, and for these other reasons, Amalgamated Dynamics was going to build those.’ Most of that centered around contact, like when you actually see a real person about to be chopped in half and the beak of a bug. That was a real human until the chomp happens, and then that’s a computer graphics thing, but you want to keep the computer graphics people off screen as much as possible, because they don’t look so good.
What direction were you, and Paul, giving the animators in general terms for the bug behavior?
Phil Tippett: All that stuff was laid out in the script and refined in the storyboards, and then there would be certain logistical things that would lend themselves to a more practical way of doing things, like the first time you see the bugs when the camera booms up over the wall of the fort, and you see this horde of bugs. Paul, in the storyboards and talking about it, said, ‘They’re just swarming everywhere. They’re like ants. They’re just climbing over the hills.’
When you get to the location and you look at it, and you go, ‘Well, the bugs wouldn’t do that. They would take the path of least resistance.’ That was laid out in the geology of the landscape, and so the bugs go where the water would go. They flow that way, so you get this kind of back up. There’s actually kind of an intelligence or a logic behind what they’re doing, but it’s kind of an unconscious thing.
This had to be one of Tippett’s biggest digital shows – how did the production go in post? Did it go smoothly? What was most challenging?
Phil Tippett: I think the worst part was realizing the enormity of the thing. In Jurassic Park, there was something like 50 shots, and we ended up doing 250 shots in Troopers. That was really daunting. One night I had a dream, and in the dream I had an 18-foot piece of bamboo, thick bamboo. On each end of the bamboo was a macramé seat, and Jon Davison got in one seat, and Laura Buff, the visual effects producer on the studio side, got in the other seat. I got in the middle, and I had to walk them up a very tiny path that went thousands of feet up over a sheer drop into the ocean. Then the path took a 90 degree turn, and it was like, ‘I don’t think I can manage it.’ Because I have a horrible fear of heights. Then the idea just dawned on me. It’s just like putting one foot in front of the other. Don’t think about anything else. I woke up and went, ‘Thank you, Lord.’
The film has definitely acquired a huge following, but do you think people missed the point of Starship Troopers when it was first released?
Phil Tippett: A lot of people totally missed the point, including us, because Jon Davison called me on opening weekend and said, ‘We tanked.’ He was like, ‘We only made 15 million dollars.’ We were like, ‘What do you think happened?’ He said, ‘What happened was we made an R-rated movie for kids, and they couldn’t get in.’ What was interesting about that, though, was we opened up against Mr. Bean, and Mr. Bean was the box office champ that weekend. We figured that was because all the kids were buying Mr. Bean tickets and sneaking into Starship Troopers.
Did you feel like it actually would have this extra life on vhs and then dvd?
Phil Tippett: I had my suspicions. In fact, after Starship Troopers, Paul was interviewed in Artforum. Ten critics had their best ten things that happened during the year, and almost all of them had placed Starship Troopers really high. Paul in that article, quoted me. He said, ‘Phil Tippett said that, ‘Paul, after this, no one will ever give us 120 million dollars to make an art film.’
That’s kind of what happened, because that’s how Paul approaches these things nowadays. Everybody hopes they’re going to make money, and I think that was the lag in the public perception of this stuff – sometimes those kind of ideas or experiences just take time to settle on people.
You directed the sequel to Starship Troopers. How did that come about?
Phil Tippett: That was Jon Davison’s idea. He said, ‘Okay, you’ve got to direct something.’ We went into TriStar and pitched doing a direct-to-dvd thing for about five-and-a-half million bucks, and it went back and forth. The studio wanted it to be Starship Troopers, and we just said, ‘Our approach is we can’t make a big spectacle war movie for five million bucks, but we can make a horror movie. If Starship Troopers was Aliens, this is going to be Alien. It’s going to be like Ten Little Indians in a haunted house.’ Bang. They bought into that.
On Reddit a few years ago, on one of those Ask Me Anything sessions, you talked about the way that people approach visual effects iterations these days. You mentioned something where it’s become, ‘Find what’s wrong with this shot.’ Someone re-posted that on Twitter recently, and it really blew up, perhaps mostly from visual effects artists who totally feel that pain. Can you elaborate on that comment?
Phil Tippett: That was more of a product of, well, stuff like that did not happen until the whole franchise thing went mad. Then everything became like everything else, more corporate in terms of interference by people that don’t know anything, but have to justify their miserable existences by saying stuff so that they’re ‘present.’ That’s just the way it is everywhere.
You know, we had to plead with George Lucas to do the retakes on things in Star Wars. He was, ‘No, it’s fine.’ And we were like, ‘No, please. Let me do it. I can do it better.’ And it was then, ‘Okay, you can do one more take.’ I was talking to [ILM visual effects supervisor] Dennis Muren about it a while back, and he went, ‘Yeah, it’s just we never talked about what was ‘wrong’ with the shot. You could see what was wrong with the shot. You didn’t need to talk about it, you just had to fix it.’ All we did was try and think of what would make it better, what would be more fun.
How are visual effects different now? It seems sometimes there are such long shots with cg creatures in them, and you see everything, whereas in the ‘old days’ things were much more hidden, sometimes by design because there were wires and things hanging out of them.
Phil Tippett: Well, again, I think it was Dennis Muren who mentioned, when Saving Private Ryan had come out, he said, ‘The mindset of the filmmakers in both Private Ryan and Troopers was the same.’ In a lot of ways, they were. Just by its very nature, Troopers is an action film, so there’s going to be more cuts, but you look at World War II footage, and there’s not a lot of long takes. People are ducking bullets.
It’s just both those pictures had this visceral war kind of thing going on, and on top of that, one of the aspects of the design that we wanted for the bugs, specifically those warrior bugs, was that they had a certain level of abstraction.
The first time you’re really going to get to see them for any length of time is at night, and they’re dark, and so your first visceral contact with these things is like, ‘What is that?’ I think that adds to the anticipation, and then the horror if you can’t grab onto something right away. You have to get to know it.Photo: AP
On Saturday, Ted Cruz polished off his domination of Colorado by collecting all 34 delegates available in the state, enraging the Trump campaign, which responded to the utter and total loss with its predictable amount of vehement vitriol. From The Guardian:
“You go to these county conventions and you see the Gestapo tactics, the scorched-earth tactics,” said Paul Manafort, Trump’s newly appointed “convention manager”, in an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday. Manafort was not specific about what Cruz, the Texas senator who is best placed to take on Trump, or his campaign had done to remind him of the Nazi secret police.
The Cruz win is essential because it drastically increases the likelihood of a contested convention—in that potential scenario, delegates would be free to select whichever candidate they wanted.
In addition, according to The Guardian, the Trump campaign made its unmistakable mark in Colorado by passing out mislabeled ballots with misspelled names and having delegates scream such fetching calls to arms as “Donald Trump! Buy Colorado weed!”Mankind has known of gold since prehistoric times. Ancient man would have found placer deposits in streams, possibly one of the first metals ever discovered. They would have admired its luster and unusual weight and worked it into crude trinkets. As time went on and our tools and understanding improved, so would our uses for gold and our ability to mold it. By the year 5000 BCE, goldworking was already a highly skilled art. Ancient Egyptian records depict gold being mined and wrought while ancient gold mines in that area can be dated back to at least 4000 BCE. Sumerian sun worshipers were excellent craftsmen with gold, as well silver and copper, constructing whole towers that were sheathed in precious metal. Gold was a highly prized commodity, even in ancient times, and something that quickly went beyond the reach of common men. It became a symbol of power and wealth, associated with spiritual leaders, kings, and conquerers.
The Egyptians were gold juggernaughts in the ancient world. They were the first people to organize extensive mining and refinement activies and their production was finely controlled. They were also great conquerers and often took gold from the Sumerians. To give scope to the Egyptian love of gold and their proficiency with it: King Tutankhamen's tomb, discovered in 1922, contained thousands of objects made from precious metal, including gilded chariots and a bejeweled gold and silver throne. Moreover, his sarcophogus, a lavishly ornamented nested tier of coffins weighing in at 224 pounds, had an innermost coffin made entirely out of gold. Ancient Egyptians knew how to hammer out gold sheets, making leaves of gold so thin that over 250,000 of them could be stacked one on top of another and form a pile only one inch in height. Scholars estimate that the ancient Egyptians produced, or took in conquest, nearly five million pounds of gold. Unfortunately, very little of it has survived in its original form to this day. The vast majority of Egyptian gold was placed in temples and tombs and these were systematically pilfered by organized robber bands.
Other ancient civilizations that made large use of gold were the Aegeans, Persians, and Etruscans. The Aegean civilization, which began on the island of Crete, was at a maritime crossroads. The island had no gold deposits of its own, yet the Aegeans acquired massive quantities of gold through trade alone. The Achaemenid dynasty had an opulent way with gold and was known for brib |
unusually large number of viewers.Tillier followed through on her promise and, during a segment on Wednesday night's edition of Le Grand Journal, she was shown reading the news while running - at a big distance from the camera - naked around a field.This survey of chiropractic research leaders sought to identify essential literature that every doctor of chiropractic and chiropractic student should read and reference to inform evidence-based clinical practice. Survey respondents identified 41 unique articles or books they considered key readings within the field of chiropractic or related disciplines. Essential literature included basic science and clinical research, health policy statements, education-based articles, and other types of evidence for the chiropractic profession. The majority of the recommended articles (n = 34) were published in the past 10 years, with no citations prior to 1995 offered by respondents. Two or more respondents recommended six journal articles as key pieces of evidence for doctors of chiropractic and chiropractic students [8, 35–39]. These articles offered evidence on the effectiveness of manual therapies [35, 38], the physiological underpinnings of spinal manipulation [36, 39], risks related to chiropractic care [37], and arguments for an expanded role for chiropractors within the health care system [8], all timely and important topics for the chiropractic profession. Thirty-four additional citations on a topics ranging from low back pain and neck pain, chiropractic side effects, biomechanical and physiological effects of chiropractic adjustments, research priorities, costs and access for chiropractic therapy, and evidence-based clinical practice also were identified.
Many articles selected by respondents as essential literature had achieved some degree of scholarly impact in that they were referenced by many researchers in multiple publications [35–37, 40–42, 46, 49, 50, 53, 54]. While the selection of scholarly literature is dependent upon the specific goals and interests of the reader, an argument is made that articles cited more often both within the profession and in disciplines with a shared scope are more essential for the chiropractic professional than articles not as widely referenced. A shared knowledge base will assist doctors of chiropractic to communicate with one another, our patients, and other healthcare professionals about the evidence underpinning various treatment approaches.
The scholarly impact and clinical importance of this essential literature for the chiropractic profession also may be influenced by the access clinicians have to scientific articles [25, 32–34]. Our secondary analysis found that articles published in open access journals generally had higher citation rates than journals where article access was limited to subscribers or by purchase. Clinicians may be prevented from accessing articles recommended as essential literature by costly fees, a concern identified in previous research [75]. Editors and publishers of chiropractic and spine-related journals may wish to reconsider their access policies in order to increase use of their articles by researchers and practicing clinicians.
Limitations Extremely low response rate, high rate of attrition, coverage and non-response survey errors, and self-report bias are limitations of this study. This extremely low response rate and high attrition rate were problematic. While 43 of 68 potential respondents agreed to participate, only 25% completed the survey. Of these 17 respondents, eight contributed only one piece of evidence, six contributed 2–5 references, and only three contributed more than five citations. This response rate is low by survey standards [76], including among surveys of doctors of chiropractic, which average about 53% for postal surveys [77]. The reasons for the sharp decline between respondents agreeing to participate in the study and their actual participation are unknown. While only four e-mails were returned undeliverable, it is unknown how many potential respondents may have not have received the initial e-mail due to spam filters. Future studies could be designed using a multi-modal approach. The attrition rate was high as respondents could re-enter the survey at any time during deployment if they left the session after agreeing to participate. Both of these issues potentially affect the quality of data, specifically coverage and non-response error. Coverage and non-response errors result from all members of a population not having a known, nonzero chance of being included in the sample and by non-respondents potentially differing from respondents [76]. The high attrition, both in terms of starting the survey and stopping after submitting only one recommendation might be attributed to recall bias and or source amnesia (e.g., inability to remember where, when or how one has learned prior information while retaining its factual knowledge) [78]. Respondents also performed mental work to complete this short-answer survey rather than answering discrete categorical questions, which also can result in increased attrition [76]. And yet, this survey was web-based. Respondents were not asked to recall references from memory nor were they restricted from using on-line databases to identify essential literature, which might suggest either low familiarity with the chiropractic literature or a disinterest in the survey topic among respondents. Varying degrees of self-report bias also are possible. Respondents may have entered socially desired responses (i.e., often-cited references or citations from well-known researchers) or responses that might benefit themselves or their colleagues (i.e., referencing articles that either they or their colleagues have published). An additional limitation is the potential geographic bias in the survey as the potential respondents for this study were recruited from North American institutions. Future surveys should include chiropractic colleges and programs internationally. It is suspected that the philosophy and scope of chiropractic education, research, and practice differs between regions and, consequently, affect (or enhance) survey responses. Lastly, in such a rapidly progressing subject, new impactful articles have undoubtedly been published that should be included as “essential,” prior to actual publication of this study. We should disseminate thoroughly yet quickly when compiling and distributing future study results. In spite of these limitations, we consider these responses a fruitful start to this initial investigation into a previously unexplored subject, essential literature for the chiropractic profession.I recently updated the firmware of my Amcrest IP2M-841 and IP3M-943 cameras to the latest version. Afterward I began noticing a constant connection to three separate, unknown servers.
I found this odd as I had not seen these connections prior to the firmware update. Performing a simple DNS lookup for each yielded the following:
ec2-52-90-88-253.compute-1.amazonaws.com
ec2-107-23-233-106.compute-1.amazonaws.com
ec2-52-91-65-92.compute-1.amazonaws.com
This clearly shows that all three servers are hosted on Amazon AWS. Unfortunately this tells us nothing about who is using Amazon’s infrastructure to talk to my cameras. So to investigate further, I went directly to ec2-52-90-88-253.compute-1.amazonaws.com in the browser, noting to use HTTPS since port 443 was being used.
This triggered a warning that the SSL certificate was not trusted and could not connect. The error message provided by Chrome was “ERR_BAD_SSL_CLIENT_AUTH_CERT” with no further details. I was not able to find out the certificate was self-signed by someone named “Dan Burkett” until I used Pale Moon. So who is Dan Burkett and why are my cameras using a self-signed SSL cert to speak to him?
According to CrunchBase, Dan Burkett is co-founder and CTO at Camcloud, based in Ontario, Canada, where he primarily focuses on platform architecture, mobile development and streaming media.
So is Dan watching me undress? Probably not, but let’s see how much bandwidth (traffic) my IP2M-841 camera is using to talk to Dan’s servers. This is accomplished with an SNMP sensor in PRTG once the SNMP option is enabled and the strings set in the camera configuration page.
Over the last two days the traffic has been constant, averaging about 14 kbit/s during the time period. Is this enough usage to be watching a secret live video feed of me? Not likely as that equates to a transfer rate of 1.75 kilobytes per second. At this level even a low resolution JPEG snapshot being taken at a reasonable interval would be near impossible.
So what is actually being disseminated to these mysterious cloud servers? The only way to find out would be to complete a packet capture with Wireshark and monitor the traffic in realtime.
Unfortunately the traffic to the mysterious cloud servers is encrypted, so without the server’s private key we will never known what is being transmitted.
However, we are able to find out the DNS names of the servers based on the queries sent from the camera. Finally the names were revealed when the DNS lookup answers came in:
Queries
ftps.hostedcloudvideo.com: type A, class IN
Answers
ftps.hostedcloudvideo.com: type A, class IN, addr 54.159.91.18
ftps.hostedcloudvideo.com: type A, class IN, addr 54.224.213.162
ftps.hostedcloudvideo.com: type A, class IN, addr 54.80.240.204
ftps.hostedcloudvideo.com: type A, class IN, addr 54.80.249.22
ftps.hostedcloudvideo.com: type A, class IN, addr 54.158.231.89
ftps.hostedcloudvideo.com: type A, class IN, addr 23.20.159.229
ftps.hostedcloudvideo.com: type A, class IN, addr 54.159.95.70
ftps.hostedcloudvideo.com: type A, class IN, addr 54.166.187.129
ftps.hostedcloudvideo.com: type A, class IN, addr 54.162.101.239
ftps.hostedcloudvideo.com: type A, class IN, addr 54.198.155.118
ftps.hostedcloudvideo.com: type A, class IN, addr 54.158.208.74
ftps.hostedcloudvideo.com: type A, class IN, addr 54.146.1.185
ftps.hostedcloudvideo.com: type A, class IN, addr 54.167.219.193
ftps.hostedcloudvideo.com: type A, class IN, addr 54.162.218.154
ftps.hostedcloudvideo.com: type A, class IN, addr 54.146.46.97
ftps.hostedcloudvideo.com: type A, class IN, addr 54.221.201.14
ftps.hostedcloudvideo.com: type A, class IN, addr 23.20.254.144 Queries
config.amcrestcloud.com: type A, class IN
Name: config.amcrestcloud.com
Answers
config.amcrestcloud.com: type A, class IN, addr 54.158.250.32 Queries
command-4.amcrestcloud.com: type A, class IN
Answers
command-4.amcrestcloud.com: type A, class IN, addr 52.90.88.253 Queries
media-amc-0.hostedcloudvideo.com: type A, class IN
Answers
media-amc-0.hostedcloudvideo.com: type A, class IN, addr 54.162.224.230 Queries
dh.amcrestsecurity.com: type A, class IN
Answers
dh.amcrestsecurity.com: type A, class IN, addr 54.84.228.44
This shows the constant connection to 52.90.88.253 is the “command server” command-4.amcrestcloud.com. Amcrest Support was not able to provide any reasons why is this connection necessary.
Bonus Notes
The last DNS query shows another connection the camera made to another server, dh.amcrestsecurity.com. This connection was not encrypted.
It appears the camera reads the file http://dh.amcrestsecurity.com/readbinfile.html as some sort of firmware check.
6/1/2017 — Update
After much discussion with Amcrest Support regarding this issue, the following update was received:
Hello Troy, I’m from Amcrest Cloud support. Sorry for all the back and forth. We’ve finally come to understand the situation. Thanks for all the feedback via email and your blog post (great analysis btw). A couple of points: 1 – All the traffic from camera -> cloud is expected and standard for this kind of device and matches what would be in our server logs, including pings to the cloud servers, certificate exchange/setup, etc. 2 – The problem you’ve identified is that the outbound communication is supposed to stop after 2 hours if a user has not attached their camera to a cloud account. We have finally reproduced this problem internally and you’re right, there is an issue in the firmware. We are working with the firmware team to ensure this traffic is halted after 2 hours, as intended. I’m currently testing a release that fixes this, so it shouldn’t be long before the new firmware is released. Once again, thanks for taking the time to dig into our product at this level of detail. Regards,
Alen
8/22/2017 — Update
Amcrest has fixed this issue for certain cameras / firmware versions. Read more in my update here.Why do we smile and even giggle when we're afraid? Are we trying to work things out? Or are we trying to convince everyone, even our attacker, that nothing's wrong? Here's what science has to say about "fear grinning."
One of the more ghastly human responses is the "fear grin." I automatically sink into it when things get socially awkward. Whenever people start sniping at their spouses or arguing who has to pay what on a restaurant bill, I lapse into a blank-eyed smile that implies that I'm just there to do a little dusting, and the dispute has nothing to do with me. But plenty of people smile to cover an awkward situation. They shouldn't smile when they're being mugged. Dial up the extremity of a situation, and fear should eliminate the smile, but some people, even when terrified, smile away. Why they do this is in dispute, but there are two general theories.
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Acknowledging the Fear
A dog baring its teeth is showing aggression. It's displaying its weapons. Monkeys, when they show off their teeth, aren't necessarily doing the same. Primatologist Signe Preuschoft studied rhesus macaques, and noticed a great deal of teeth-baring in their social interactions. It did not signal the beginning of a fight. Most often, it happened during moments of tension between more dominant and less dominant members of a group. The less dominant monkey was the one that smiled, and often, after the smile, the aggressor became more friendly. The macaques weren't showing off weapons. They were making a sort of display of submission to the more dominant member. When danger threatened, they smiled. This behavior has come to be called fear grinning.
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Preuschoft noted that the smile wasn't just used during crises. During friendly everyday activities, the monkeys smiled at each other readily enough. Humans, it seems, took that smile and adapted it to express approval, joy, compassion, or sympathy - they made it into a more expressive form of communication. But when we recognize a dangerous situation, a smile can still come out. We notice someone is dangerous, and try to appease them.
Denying the Fear
There is another possible reason for our frightened smiles. Perhaps we don't acknowledge the fact that we're in danger. Perhaps we deny strenuously that there's danger at all. The famous Milgram experiment made volunteers believe that they were giving painful - and sometimes fatal - electric shocks to an unseen fellow volunteer. The volunteers were pressured into it by an authority figure in a lab coat. As the shocks increased, and as the screams from the fellow volunteer got louder, many of the subjects began to laugh nervously. They weren't having a good time, but they didn't know how to protest other than laugh. Another experiment, in which volunteers were made to behead a mouse while their faces were photographed, produced ghoulish photos of people giving pained smiles as they were forced to do something they didn't want to do.
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V.S. Ramachandran, a neuroscientist, believed that laughter was a kind of signal to those around the laugher. Although a situation might seem frightening or threatening, the laughter might give surrounding people the all-clear. When we laugh under direct threat, or threat to the people around us, we might be denying that there's a danger at all. We might be trying convince the aggressor that everything will be all right.
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Why Do We Do It?
So why do we begin to smile, or laugh nervously, when we feel fear or uneasiness? If we look at our evolutionary history, we start smiling because we recognize that we're in a dangerous situation, and we want to signal the person who is dangerous that we have no wish for escalation. We are openly acknowledging fear. On the other hand, if we look at the work of psychologists and neuroscientists, we're denying danger so strenuously that we hope even the source of that danger will be fooled.
It could be something more basic. The book Laughing Screaming looks at the connection between the famous "low art" genres of gross-out comedy and schlock horror. The two are linked, according to author by the fact that, unlike almost any other movie, they attempt to evoke a bodily response from the viewer. We've seen that, under the right circumstances, weeping can sound like laughter and joy can look like fear. Perhaps there is just a limited number of physical responses that can be automatically produced via our emotional state, and it is only context that can make a grimace or a convulsion look positive or negative.
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Via Center for Nonverbal Studies, Psychology Today, Developing a Social Psychology of Monkeys and Apes, Laughing Screaming, Laughter and Smile in Barbary Macaques.11:23:46 am on February 3, 2011 |
This is a copy of an email I sent to the m2e-dev mailing list, reproduced here for visibility and because I used wordpress.com to draft this. The idea came out of a twitter discussion and a desire to create a list of dependencies appropriate for Android apps, and where the best place for such a “catalogue” of dependencies would be.
Problem: Thanks to the indexing remote repositories dependencies can be quickly searched and added to projects through M2Eclipse. However, normally developer’s still need to be aware that a particular dependency exists first before they can search for. It would be nice if developers had the ability to discover new projects or APIs in the Central repository.
Solution: I propose a Maven Catalogue GUI based on the iPhone App Store or Eclipse Marketplace. In addition to being able to search dependencies based on tags, descriptions, titles, etc., users could also order searches based on ratings. Alternative panes for “just in” dependencies, or “best rated” could also be included, allowing developer’s to find alternatives or discover new dependencies through the Eclipse IDE.
Other metrics for Maven dependencies could be included, such as file size and number of dependencies, etc. to encourage developer’s to minimise their dependencies.
Sub-catalogues: For example, while Android apps can use regular JAR files, there are now many Android-specific APIs packaged with fewer dependencies and minimalist coding. It would be nice to present an Android/Mobile sub-catalogue from which Android developers could select dependencies in the confidence that they would not bloat their apps. Other sub-catalogs could include reporting plugins and archetypes.
The Eclipse Marketplace points the way towards achieving this: we could leverage the UI code they have already written. Similarly the back-end web service/site was put together very quickly and simply using the Drupal content-management.
The last bit of good news is that many websites such as Ohloh, freshmeat.net, etc. already have ratings and comments/reviews for the various projects hosted in the Central Repository. Most of these sites already provide APIs. And of course there is lots of catalogue-friendly project meta-data already included in POM files.
Thoughts?
AdvertisementsThe BC Athletic Commissioner has released their post bout drug test results following UFC 174.
The Commission advises as follows:
VICTORIA – British Columbia athletic commissioner Dave Maedel has issued the following
statement about drug testing results received following the UFC 174 match on June 14, 2014,
at Rogers Arena in Vancouver:
“The focus of the BC Athletic Commission is to ensure fighter safety and maintain the integrity
of the sport so athletes are competing on a level playing field.
“There were eight UFC 174 competitors tested on June 14, 2014, for the presence of banned
substances, including the two flyweight title fighters and six random competitors. All
competitors’ test results complied with World Anti-Doping Agency Standards subscribed to by
the BC athletic commissioner, as well as our anti-doping policies.
“In addition to the June 14 tests, Mr. Ali Bagautinov – one of the two flyweight title fighters –
was tested out of competition on June 2, 2014.
“Results received by this office from the June 2 tests on Mr. Bagautinov were positive for
erythropoietin, or EPO – a substance banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency. These results
were not available prior to the UFC 174 event due to lab processing times.
“Mr. Bagautinov lost his bid for the flyweight title to Demetrious Johnson.
“I have suspended Mr. Bagautinov’s licence to compete in British Columbia for a period of one
year.”
The Province established the Office of the BC Athletic Commissioner in May 2013. The
commissioner oversees the conduct of professional boxing and mixed martial arts as well as
amateur mixed martial arts, kickboxing, muay thai and pankration events throughout the
province of B.C.
The athletic commissioner is committed to the safety and integrity of combat sports in the
province. Legislation guiding the athletic commissioner is the Athletic Commissioner Act.
AdvertisementsGet the biggest Manchester United 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
Manchester United are ready to hand David de Gea a £30million deal to keep him out of Real Madrid’s clutches.
The Spain keeper has been in outstanding form for Louis van Gaal’s side this season, prompting Madrid president Florentino Perez to start preparing a £25m bid to take him home.
But United chiefs are set to more than double his money to a whopping £120,000-per-week and offer him a five-year deal before Christmas.
De Gea is out of contract in 2016 and United are well aware of the interest from Madrid. But they will not let the 23-year-old enter the final 18 months of his contract without a new offer having been penned and want to tie him to a long-term deal in the next couple of months.
De Gea, voted Player of the Season by his United team-mates last term, has been one of the club’s most consistent performers in the turbulent time since Sir Alex Ferguson quit.
Already established as United No.1, De Gea has made his full debut for Spain and could also replace Iker Casillas as first-choice at Real with a move to the Bernabeu.
De Gea underlined his enduring value to United with two stunning saves in added time to earn Van Gaal’s side a 2-1 win over Everton before the international break.Komodo Investor Newsletter View this email in your browser Lootz from Core Radio interviewed jl777. They went into great technical details about Jumblr privacy protector and a new scalability solution called 'peerchains.'
Our scalability solution connects chains together with SuperNET's atomic swap protocol. On the core level, the funds can freely move from chain to chain with a lock/redeem system that is similar to how the Komodo Currencies work.
James envisions how each geographical location could be using a separate chain, but yet they would all be part of a global payment system. We don't know yet how things will exactly turn out, but it is interesting to try to picture the future.
We will be conducting a public stress test with our Peerchains solution. We are already making basic preparations for it, stay tuned for more info. Listen Interview Komodo Platform's marketing efforts are slowly ramping up, and the team has prepared a plan to get the message out there. This time it's Komodo's marketing manager Audo who joins Lootz for a live talk.
The goal of the coming investment report is to spread awareness about the Komodo Platform. We have many unique innovations and a long-term vision with a strong roadmap. The two primary goals are: Inform our current investors. We want to make sure everyone understand our platform's vision and potential. In short, Komodo is building a secure and private financial platform with smart contracts. Create an information source. The report will make it easier for various third parties to look into Komodo. With this package, we can approach different media outlets and let them know about our willingness to answer any questions and take part in possible interviews. Also, the interview touches on various other topics such as JUMBLR asset, liquidity provider nodes, and Peerchains. Listen Interview We are building a large financial platform, and we will be giving quick updates on the development progress and roadmap changes in this new newsletter section. Since the ICO we have successfully launched the dPoW security layer as well as the distributed Notary Node network. Much more is coming!Kevin Seraphin scored 16 points in a season-high 28 minutes off the bench. (John McDonnell/The Washington Post)
Wizards Coach Randy Wittman was searching for any kind of a spark Sunday. The Phoenix Suns were outhustling his Washington Wizards and overwhelming them physically. He found a spark from an unlikely source: Kevin Seraphin.
The backup center scored 10 of his 16 points in the second quarter while supplying exactly what Wittman needed: a physical and energetic interior presence. He was rewarded with a season-high 28 minutes in Washington’s 104-92 loss.
“I thought he was solid,” Wittman said. “Kevin was active. I thought he defended pretty well. He did a good job. That is why I went with him. I thought he was just more physical. I needed people that were going to match their physicality.”
The performance was a snapshot of Seraphin’s potential, but also one of his inconsistency.
Just two days earlier, during the Wizards’ win over the Miami Heat on Friday night, Wittman spent most of a timeout in the second quarter in Seraphin’s face after the 24-year-old completed a series of gaffes. He was then pulled for Drew Gooden III and played just 10 minutes in the Wizards’ comeback victory.
On Sunday, Seraphin was aggressive on both ends of the floor. Offensively, he took eight shots and four free throws in the second period. Defensively, he blocked two shots, including a thunderous swat of an Isaiah Thomas layup attempt. His teammates, however, did not follow suit.
“I was trying to get everybody in the game and involved, but everybody was rushing,” Seraphin said. “I think we just missed this game.”
PIERCE’S TOE STILL ‘DAY TO DAY’
Paul Pierce missed nine of his 13 shots, including four of five from behind the arc, in 27 minutes Sunday and indicated that the sore right big toe he has been dealing with remains a problem.
Pierce has played the last two games after missing Wednesday’s contest against the Minnesota Timberwolves, but when asked if the foot would require a period of time sidelined, Pierce was non-committal.
“Let’s see,” Pierce responded. “Like I said before it’s day to day.”
Pierce is 37 years old and in his 17th NBA season.
FOUL TROUBLE TROUBLES BEAL
Foul trouble immediately plagued Bradley Beal on Sunday. He picked up his first two fouls within seconds in the first quarter and played the last 5 minutes 29 seconds of the game with five.
He finished with 14 points on 4-of-11 shooting and seven rebounds in 26 minutes.
“I can’t use that as an excuse,” Beal said. “We still have guys that can come in and step in as well so I can’t use that as an excuse. I still got to step up and do what I do.”
NENE EMERGES WITH SWOLLEN EYE
Nene emerged from the loss with an unsightly stat line and a swollen left eye after receiving an elbow from one of the Suns’ Morris twins. After netting 20 points Friday, the Brazilian big man scored eight points on 1-of-8 shooting off the bench in 21 minutes.Soul Sacrifice Has Some Spells That Don’t Use Your Spine
By Spencer. May 28, 2012. 10:30am
Most of the discussion about Soul Sacrifice has been about spells that force players to sacrifice their body parts. You can gouge out your eye to create laser shooting eyes or explode with bones by casting Gungnir. Other spells aren’t nearly as painful!
In fact, you can create rock armor by "sacrificing" a stone. You can also create a golem or flame armor by transmuting lava.
If you really want enemies to burn Salamander is your spell. Cast this and flames ignite your body and engulf enemies. After the spell is finished, your wizard is left with severe burns.
Excalibur creates a deadly sword… from your organs and spinal cord. While you can rend enemies, the caster dies after invoking Excalibur since well you don’t have a spine.This self-portrait of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity combines dozens of images taken by the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager on Feb. 3, 2013. The portrait was taken at the rock target "John Klein," where the rover collected the first ever bedrock sa
WASHINGTON — NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has already achieved its main mission goals, just seven months after landing on the Red Planet, but the car-size robot has no plans to rest on its laurels.
Curiosity's chief task when it landed last August was to determine if Mars could have ever hosted microbial life. The rover's observations show that Mars was indeed habitable long ago, when the planet was warmer and wetter, scientists announced Tuesday (March 12).
Curiosity has also discovered an ancient streambed where water flowed for thousands of years at a time. And the rover has done all of this while putting only about a third of a mile on its odometer.
"The mission has accomplished its goals seven months into a two-year mission," Curiosity chief scientist John Grotzinger, of Caltech in Pasadena, said during a public lecture here Tuesday at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, just hours after the Curiosity team announced its latest discovery. [The Search for Life on Mars (Photo Timeline)]
But the mission isn't over yet. The Curiosity team intends to spend the remainder of the rover's time in search of other areas where ancient life could have thrived, if it ever evolved on Mars. In the meantime, the rover is taking a short break from science while it rests in safe mode following a minor computer glitch. Grotzinger said on Monday (March 18) that he expects Curiosity to be back to its science operations in a couple of days.
Landing the rover
During his talk, Grotzinger outlined some of the mission's highlights to a crowd of children and adults.
"[Curiosity] is built on the tradition of previous rovers," Grotzinger said as he reviewed the 10 different science instruments on the traveling laboratory.
As part of its "seven minutes of terror" landing inside Mars' huge Gale Crater, the rover's descent craft employed rocket thrusters to slow it from 13,000 mph (21,000 kh/h) to a hovering stop. A sky crane then lowered the rover to the ground to keep the thrusters from destroying the landing site or covering the craft with dust, which would have rendered Curiosity inoperable.
Despite these precautions, the force from the Mach 7 thrusters still showered a small amount of dirt and pebbles onto the rover, though Curiosity survived pretty much unscathed. (However, the debris did apparently damage one of the rover's two wind sensors). Grotzinger lauded the decision to use the innovative method, based on that bit of dirt.
"We're really glad we didn't land the rover without the skyhook," he said.
Once Curiosity touched down at Bradbury Landing, it was time to take a look around. Using its Mast Camera, the rover took images of the panorama on all sides, providing a stunning look at Mars.
"It's just a scenically beautiful field area, because wherever you look, you're surrounded by mountains," Grotzinger said. [Curiosity's Latest Mars Photos (Gallery)]
A new lifestyle
The distance to Mars means that NASA engineers can't control the rover in real time. It takes 14 minutes for signals to travel from Earth to the Curiosity rover, which means that the robot's team must plan all maneuvers in advance.
"The one thing we don't do is joystick it," Grotzinger said. "It's not an Xbox game."
Instead, the team sends two sets of instructions each day, one in the morning and one in the evening.
"We don't text, we email," Grotzinger said.
Nor do Curiosity's pilots send the directions blindly, with no idea of how the rover might respond. Engineers first perform a run-through on an Earthbound test version of Curiosity, nicknamed Scarecrow, Grotzinger added.
At 24 hours, 39 minutes, the Martian day is slightly longer than Earth's, presenting an additional challenge for those working on the expedition. The rover team initially had to adjust their schedules to work on Mars time.
According to Grotzinger, the ideal would be for everyone to stay up 39 minutes longer each day, gradually shifting their times to coincide with sunrise and sunset on the Red Planet.
"Nobody actually does that," Grotzinger said, explaining that most people would instead power through the longer schedules, then crash.
"You're like vampires," he added.
The shift schedule also complicates efforts to spend time with family and friends.
Gradually, the scheduled has shifted so that team members work 10-hour days instead. Sundays have dropped off the schedule, and Saturdays will soon follow, leaving Curiosity's team with a five-day work week.Art by Quirky-Middle-Child
It’s that time of year, isn’t it? The season of spooks and scares. Monsters and mayhem around every corner.
In preparation for one of the best holidays of the year, ZNN is teaming up with the Zootopians Facebook page to bring you a challenge!
To enter, you must draw a picture of your favorite canon character from Zootopia in some sort of Halloween-themed scene. They can be in costume, getting frightened, etc, so long as it’s halloweeny!
And, to spice things up a bit more, we’re making this a sweepstakes too! Everyone who submits an image gets a chance to win a brand-new, unopened copy of The Art of Zootopia!
The Rules:
– Must have some canon characters (Nick, Judy, Finnick, etc.)
– No NSFW/Suggestive/inappropriate art
– Due Sunday, October 30th
To enter, email your art to [email protected] with the subject “Halloween Drawing Challenge”. Include a link to where you originally posted it (Deviantart, Tumblr, Pixiv, etc.). You can submit more than one image, even if you didn’t draw it this week- it just has to be Halloween-themed.
Good luck everyone! Happy Halloween!Shahram Hadian, the Christian pastor and anti-Islam speaker who’s speaking in Sandpoint this morning, has released a three-page document headed “Concerns Regarding Idaho State Legislature Senate Bill 1067,” the child support enforcement bill that was killed by one vote in a House committee on the final day of this year’s legislative session. At the request of Rep. Luke Malek, R-Coeur d’Alene, the Idaho Attorney General’s office analyzed the document and issued a legal opinion, finding that the statements in the document were false, mistaken, or were criticisms of items that actually are in existing Idaho law, not changes proposed by the bill.
“I agree with the Attorney General’s letter,” Malek said. “I don’t like seeing issues manufactured at the expense of kids, let’s put it that way.”
You can read Hadian’s document here, and the Idaho Attorney General’s opinion here.Securityfest CTF - Coresec challenge writeup
This challenge was produced by Coresec Systems and was released during Securityfest. I would liked to have spent more time on it during the event but couldn't really find any time for it. Now the event is over and first year of university is completed, I decided to try to finish the challenge. It was quite tricky at some points but now when I think about it in hindsight, the challenge itself was actually fairly simple. Okey, nuff said let's boogie!
First thing was to download a 330 MB file called coresec-challenge.tar.gz. After downloading the file and unpacking its contents I was presented with a Coresec-CTF-SecurityFest2016.vmem file which is a memory dump of a system. In order to analyze the file I used the volatility framework which works great for memory forensics. I relied heavily on this cheat sheet to figure out how to solve some of the steps in the challenge.
First thing to do is to identify which system this memory dump belongs to:
$./volatility_2.4_x64 -f Coresec-CTF-SecurityFest2016.vmem imageinfo Volatility Foundation Volatility Framework 2.4 Determining profile based on KDBG search... Suggested Profile(s) : Win7SP0x64, Win7SP1x64, Win2008R2SP0x64, Win2008R2SP1x64 (Instantiated with Win7SP0x64) AS Layer1 : AMD64PagedMemory (Kernel AS) AS Layer2 : FileAddressSpace (/Users/michaeldubell/Downloads/volatility_2.4.mac.standalone/Coresec-CTF-SecurityFest2016.vmem) PAE type : No PAE DTB : 0x187000L KDBG : 0xf80002a450a0 Number of Processors : 1 Image Type (Service Pack) : 1 KPCR for CPU 0 : 0xfffff80002a46d00L KUSER_SHARED_DATA : 0xfffff78000000000L Image date and time : 2016-06-02 07:50:46 UTC+0000 Image local date and time : 2016-06-02 09:50:46 +0200
As we can see volatility suggest that we use the Win7SP0x64 profile which indicates that the system is probably a Windows |
100% real. In his videos he laughs, swears and goofs around. For a generation that is all too attuned to spin, Photoshopping and sponsored content, authenticity is particularly prized.
Kjellberg’s allure reveals something else about this generation: just how desperately they crave connection. “Many people see me as a friend they can chill with for 15 minutes a day,” says Kjellberg. “The loneliness in front of the computer screens brings us together.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘The loneliness in front of the computer screens brings us together’ … Felix Kjellberg AKA Pewdiepie. Photograph: IBL/REX Shutterstock
He’s on to something here: Generation K is far lonelier than we might realise and yearns for connection, virtual or physical. Surprisingly, despite (or perhaps because of) all the time they spend texting, gaming and on Snapchat or Tumblr, when asked which activities they most enjoyed, teenagers list those with an element of physical togetherness, such as gigs or trips to amusement parks. In a world in which virtual communication is now the standard, face-to-face interactions come at a premium. Eighty per cent of those I have surveyed prefer spending time with their friends in person rather than on the phone or online.
But authenticity and connection are not the only the only concepts at a premium. Members of Generation K increasingly value things they can actively co-create. It is a generation of makers, creators and inventors. From Sarah, who builds her own computers, to Jake, who loves making horror films with his pals on his iPhone, today’s teenagers don’t only want to buy stuff, they want to imprint their voice on products, services and media, and become part of the design and creation process. Producing something themselves has value for this generation. It resonates with their desire to be self-sufficient, and to have physical experiences in a digital world – as well as their desire to have agency and impact.
Starbucks has figured this out. Did you know that you can go into a Starbucks and order a mojito refresher? Without alcohol, of course. No? But it turns out British and American teenagers do. They’ve been going crazy for Starbucks’ “secret menu”, which allows them to create any concoction they can come up with in any branch of Starbucks. The cotton candy frappuccino is one of their favourite tipples. By tapping into the zeitgeist of co-creation, and helping teens amplify their inventions on social media, Starbucks has made a genius move – its fastest-growing market now comprises teenagers who don’t even drink coffee.
Selfie-taking yet unselfish, connected yet lonely, anxious yet pragmatic, risk-averse yet entrepreneurial, Generation K is a distinct cadre, a generation very different from those that preceded them. They know this already, and they’ve got the cotton candy frappuccinos to prove it.
Noreena Hertz is an economist and author. She sits on the Board of Warner Music Group. Twitter: @noreenahertzThis comic is based on (somewhat) real events. As I was driving the other day, I saw a man holding up what, at first, I thought was an iPad, asking for money. I soon realized it was just a very white piece of cardboard he had used to make a sign. I was then suddenly struck with the sad realization that had the man actually been holding an iPad he probably would have made a lot more money. Our society loves irony. The last line of this comic was originally “That reminds me, have you donated to Kayne’s Kickstarter yet?”
Drawing this comic also taught me how important it is to not get hung up on the little things while sketching, but rather to keep working and move on to the next comic. As you can see in some of the panels, I was having a real hard time with perspective and sizing. I really just wanted to get this comic out of my system. If I could redo one thing, it would be to work on the hipster panhandler in the first panel, as I feel he looks a little too much like a cartoon devil. There’s no subtext there. I was just rushed.Scientists have genetically modified tobacco plants to knock out a gene that helps turns nicotine into one of the carcinogens in cured tobacco.
The Philip Morris-funded North Carolina State researchers say the work could lead to less cancer-causing chewing tobacco. In large-scale field trials, they compared the levels of N-nitrosonornicotine, a chemical known as NNN, between GM tobacco plants and a control group. They found a six-fold decrease in NNN and a 50 percent overall drop in a whole class of nasty substances known as tobacco-specific nitrosamines.
The new work appears in Plant Biotechnology Journal. The researchers do not state how much the use of the tobacco could reduce the health risks from chewing tobacco. Given the other 15-odd carcinogenic substances present even in chew, they do note that the best way to avoid cancer from nicotine is not to use it.
Not oblivious to consumer opposition to many genetically modified crops, the researchers then created a line of tobacco plants missing the same gene they'd previously knocked out through conventional breeding techniques. They are currently trying to introduce that mutation into commercial tobacco lines, presumably avoiding a genetically modified organism label.
According to U.S. Department of Agriculture records, Philip Morris, a tobacco giant which had $66 billion in revenue last year, has run dozens of field trials for genetically modified tobacco varieties. All those studies beg the question: Can Big Tobacco genetically engineer the cancer out of the cancer stick? And if so, at what cost? (One can almost imagine an advertising slogan: New GM Chewing Tobacco – Now Lower in Cancer!)
We'll be trying to find an answer for you over the next week with a rolling investigation. UPDATE (3/20): The first post on my research is now up. The USDA says that Philip Morris has conducted 33 field trials of genetically engineered tobacco, more than twice as many as any other tobacco company.
Grist: Gene 'knockout' floors tobacco carcinogen.
Image: flickr/amareschal. *Tobacco drying.Introduction
November 13, 2015: This article has been updated.
Gaps in government transparency and accountability in Arizona over the past few years are not hard to find.
In late 2013, stacks of Child Protective Services files were found dumped in an alley in Phoenix, shedding light on an agency in meltdown. The 2014 Arizona elections saw unprecedented “dark money” spending, mostly going toward electing the governor and state utility regulators. And in early 2015, Arizona’s newly inaugurated governor, Doug Ducey, tried to establish a state inspector general, but failed after the plan was criticized harshly for creating a “secret police” that would operate with little transparency and answer only to the governor.
The Copper State ranked a little above average in a new State Integrity Investigation, a data-driven assessment of government accountability and transparency in all 50 states by the Center for Public Integrity and Global Integrity. Arizona received an overall score of 64 – a D grade – and ranked tied for 22nd among all the states.
Three years ago, Arizona’s State Integrity score was 68 for a D+, but it ranked 30th among the states. The two scores are not directly comparable, however, due to changes made to improve and update the project and methodology, such as eliminating a category for redistricting, a process that generally occurs only once every 10 years.
The latest report card shows strength, particularly in relation to other states, in a couple of categories: judicial accountability, where Arizona ranks 2nd in the nation with a score of 77 (C+), and internal auditing, where the state tied for 4th with a score of 87 (B+).
But Arizona earned an F in six of the 13 categories, getting failing grades in lobbying oversight, pension management, ethics enforcement, executive accountability, civil service protections and access to information.
Lobbying oversight still weak
This year’s State Integrity comes in the wake of a major lobbying scandal that rocked the state for years, after The Arizona Republic in 2009 revealed criminal wrongdoing involving officials of college football’s Fiesta Bowl, including a scheme to reimburse employees for their donations to politicians. Today, the state continues to receive bad marks for poor oversight of lobbying activity, financial disclosure loopholes and vaguely worded reporting statutes.
Despite past calls to improve on these weaknesses, nothing changed. State lobbying statutes remain the same as when lobbyists and legislators alike failed to report the free Fiesta Bowl junkets for those who went on to vote in favor of legislation helping the college football post-season game.
The secretary of state’s office collects reports of lobbying activity, but it is neither required nor authorized to perform compliance reviews. Such lax oversight has created a reporting regime that allows for tens of thousands of dollars to be reported erroneously in a single transaction.
Reporting exemptions allow about 90 percent of all lobbying dollars spent in the state to go reported without listing a beneficiary, either because a large group of public officials was invited to a lobbying event, or because the lobbyist reported spending less than $20 to promote his or her clients’ interests.
The county attorney who investigated the Fiesta Bowl scandal said the state’s statutes could be read different ways, leading to different interpretations of requirements. As a result, none of the lawmakers who failed to report the junkets in their financial disclosure forms were subject to criminal prosecution.
Sam Wercinski, executive director of the Arizona Advocacy Network, and Tim Hogan, executive director of the Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest, both favor a comprehensive ban on gifts for elected officials. They also said they think a current citizen petition drive, aimed at implementing a gift ban, may find enough to support to end up on the 2016 ballot.
Wercinski said polling shows a public willingness to go beyond even greater lobbying disclosure.
Not-so-public records
Almost across the board, Arizona agencies consistently fail to follow key principles for “opening up” government data, which the Sunlight Foundation, a nonprofit watchdog group, circulated in 2010 as a policy prescription to make information “open and accessible to the public.”
These include adherence to ideas like “primacy” — in which the government makes data available in its primary or most original form possible, with details on how that data was collected. That would apply to master files and raw data, not merely a summary file or descriptions of what is contained in that master file. This would enable the public to verify that the information was collected properly and recorded accurately.
Kathryn Marquoit, Arizona’s assistant ombudsman for public access, offers guidance and dispute resolution when there’s disagreement over how public records are being handled. She said original files fall squarely into the state’s public records laws.
“If a document exists, the public has a right to see the entire document or a redacted version,” she said. “I don’t think a summary is an acceptable substitute.”
Another common shortcoming involves data files that cannot be loaded into spreadsheet software, including “snapshot” versions of original spreadsheets captured in PDF files, which cannot be manipulated. Arizona agencies have expressed concern that data can be edited or altered if original data files are made available to the public.
Marquoit said the possibility that public records could be misused is not an acceptable reason for withholding them. “Anyone can misuse a public record,” she said, adding that not complying with public records laws based on those fears would “completely obliterate the public records laws.”
Court cases have touched on these issues with rulings that agencies do not have to create new files for public inspection, and that government documents and data are considered public records.
The open government prescriptions call for making data available online and at little or no cost. But in Arizona, large databases such as lobbying disclosure records and campaign finance reports are available only on compact disc for $25.
Trouble keeping up with technology
Despite shortcomings in making state information more accessible, Arizona is widely regarded as having a strong public records law that encompasses virtually all records of government business.
David J. Bodney, a First Amendment attorney with the Phoenix-based law firm Ballard Spahr, said the key question is about the purpose of the record.
“If the record involved public business or the transactions of public business, there is a strong presumption that the record is public,” Bodney said. “It’s up to the agency to demonstrate that it fits into one of the exemptions.”
The exemptions include confidential, privileged and private business information and content whose release would be contrary to the best interest of the state.
But recent records requests have led to confusion over how text messages and third-party messaging applications are to be treated by government agencies. In May, a Washington-based advocacy group asked the Arizona Corporation Commission to turn over a swath of text messages. But whether the records still existed, or were supposed to have been maintained, became a topic of disagreement between the commission and the group.
The issue remains unresolved, as the commission struggles to comply with requests to retrieve texts from the latest models of phones.
Marquoit said enforcement and application of public records laws when it comes to text messages is “very tricky,” mostly because of the way the technology works. Text messages or third party messaging apps are not easily backed up, the way government emails can be, she said, so if those in possession of a phone don’t physically provide access to it after a request has been made, the application of law is not clear.
Bodney and other political observers say they think there will be bills proposed in the coming legislative session aimed at changing state public records laws.
Update, November 13, 2015, 3:00 p.m.: This article has been updated to say Arizona is now tied for 22nd overall, with Maryland, due to a correction in Maryland’s report card that improved that state’s score. Arizona’s score has not changed.Image copyright AFP Image caption The Golden Temple is one of the holiest shrines for Sikhs
British military advice was given to India ahead of the 1984 deadly attack on a Sikh temple but it had only "limited impact", MPs have been told.
Foreign Secretary William Hague was delivering the findings of a review into claims an SAS officer helped Delhi plan the raid which killed hundreds.
The storming of the Golden Temple in the city of Amritsar was intended to flush out Sikh separatists.
Mr Hague said UK assistance was "purely advisory" and given months beforehand.
The inquiry was launched last month after declassified documents were said to suggest Margaret Thatcher's government was involved in planning the raid, called Operation Blue Star.
Official figures put the death toll at 575, but Mr Hague said other reports suggested "as many as 3,000 people were killed including pilgrims caught in the crossfire".
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption William Hague said a review had concluded British advice had "limited impact" on the Amritsar operation
"This loss of life was an utter tragedy," he said.
"Understandably members of the Sikh community around the world still feel the pain and suffering caused by these events."
Analysis The military commander who led Operation Blue Star, Lt Gen Kuldeep Singh Brar, has told the BBC that he had no knowledge of any advice from Britain to India. In 2007 a former Indian intelligence officer, B Raman, claimed agents from the UK's MI5 had visited the Golden Temple four months before the raid. The UK government review appears to corroborate the claim that a British adviser was sent. But it also appears that the British advice was limited to a few people and certainly not shared with military commanders. In India, Operation Blue Star has always been seen as a military disaster, which led to the loss of hundreds of lives - including those of civilians - and to the eventual assassination of the then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The latest revelations will only lead to more questions about the assault on the Golden Temple, why it was a disaster and if, in fact, it could have been averted.
Delivering his statement, Mr Hague set out the UK's involvement in planning for the raid.
He told the Commons that the British government had received an urgent request for help from Indian authorities who wanted to regain control of the temple from Sikh militants.
In response, an unnamed British military adviser was sent to India in February 1984, and he recommended any attack should be a last resort, MPs heard.
The adviser suggested using an element of surprise, as well as helicopters, to try to keep casualty numbers low - features which were not part of the final operation, Mr Hague said.
No equipment or training were offered, Mr Hague said, and the Indian plan "changed significantly" in the following three months, to cope with a considerably larger dissident force and extensive fortifications within the temple complex.
The investigation, carried out by Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood, involved searching 200 files and 23,000 documents.
Prime Minister David Cameron said: "I hope the manner in which we have investigated these dreadful events will provide some reassurance to the Sikh community, here in Britain and elsewhere."
He added: "A single UK military officer provided some advice. But critically, this advice was not followed, and it was a one-off."
Retired Lt Gen Kuldeep Singh Brar, who led Operation Blue Star, maintains he had no advice or support from Britain.
"If some things went around months earlier or weeks earlier with other agencies, intelligence agencies, I am not aware of them," he told the BBC.
"From the time I was given command of Operation Blue Star until I planned it and executed it, let me emphatically tell you that there was no involvement whatsoever as far as the British are concerned."
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Indian army soldiers moved to flush out Sikh separatists from the Golden Temple in June 1984
Paul Uppal, the UK's only Sikh MP, said many Sikhs would be "relieved that it was just purely advice that was given".
He praised the speed and thoroughness of the review and said it could be an "important step" towards "some closure" for Sikhs.
But Lord Indarjit Singh, director of the Network of Sikh Organisations, called Mr Hague's statement "smug and condescending".
On the claim that UK advice had a "limited impact" of the Golden Temple attack, Lord Singh said: "It is like saying that I had only a minimal involvement in a massacre or a holocaust."
He said the language in the documents was "insulting" to Sikhs - suggesting they were all extremists - and the UK's real motivation in assisting India was keeping its arms contracts.
But Mr Hague said the review had found "no evidence" UK military advice in February 1984 had been "linked to defence sales or any other policy issue".
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Lord Singh, Network of Sikh Organisations: "Why should Britain be involved in the attack on a religious minority"
Jasvir Singh, director of the City Sikhs Network, which represents Sikh professionals in the UK, said the information disclosed in the review "harks back" to colonial times.
"I think there are lots of people in the Sikh community who are upset that the British could be involved in this, even to a limited extent," he said.
Mr Singh said many details about British involvement in the 1984 attack were still unclear, and called for "transparency" from the authorities.
UK Sikh groups have said the government review should have looked not only at June 1984 but also the events that followed, and Mr Singh also criticised this "narrow scope".
Storming of the Golden Temple 1982: Armed Sikh militants, led by Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, take up residence in the Golden Temple complex
3-8 June 1984: The Indian army attacks the Golden Temple, killing Bhindranwale, his supporters and a number of civilians
31 October 1984: Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi who had given the go-ahead to Operation Blue Star, was assassinated by two Sikh bodyguards
November 1984: More than 3,000 are killed in anti-Sikh riots across India
The Indian government said the UK had kept it "informed on this matter".
"We have noted the report and the statement made," an Indian foreign ministry spokesman said.
Indira Gandhi assassinated
David Cameron ordered the review last month after Labour MP Tom Watson said he had seen papers from Margaret Thatcher "authorising Special Air Services (SAS) to work with the Indian government".
Mr Watson cited two letters released under the 30-year rule. He said a 1984 letter from the prime minister's office stated that a British adviser had "visited India and drawn up a plan" which had been approved by the Indian government.
Shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander said "serious questions" remained about British involvement, and called for all relevant documents to be released.
The Sikh separatists at the Golden Temple in 1984 had been demanding an independent homeland - called Khalistan - in Punjab.
In October 1984 Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards in what was thought to be a revenge attack for what happened at the Golden Temple.
A month later, more than 3,000 people were killed in anti-Sikh riots across India.If you’re sitting on a bunch of bitcoins that are burning a hole in your digital wallet, you now have another way to spend them. Today, mobile gift card company Gyft has partnered with BitPay to start accepting bitcoins within its app.
This is a big partnership for both, as BitPay’s CEO, Tony Gallippi, says that the company currently processes $5 million per month in bitcoin transactions for its merchants. Gyft allows you to purchase gift cards at more than 50,000 retail locations in the U.S., including Brookstone, Lowe’s, GAP, Sephora, Gamestop, American Eagle, Nike, Marriott, Burger King and Fandango. So, technically, you’ll now be able to use bitcoin to pay for a Whopper. That’s progress, right?
The new bitcoin payment option is only available on the Android version of Gyft, but is as easy as choosing your choice of payment once you’ve chosen the gift card that you want to buy. Simply pick bitcoin and then use your wallet to pay for it.
This means more purchase activity within Gyft, as well as setting itself up for the future, in case bitcoin were to go mainstream: “Gyft is proud to be a pioneer in the bitcoin universe and we are excited about the possibilities for further innovation on our platform,” said Gyft CEO Vinny Lingham.
I spoke with Gallippi about BitPay’s role in the future of bitcoin, and how long it might take consumers to jump on the train:
TC: Are these the types of deals that you’re focused on now to make bitcoin mainstream? Will there be more like the Gyft announcement coming?
Gallippi: We are looking for ways to increase business acceptance of bitcoin. Most retail point-of-sale systems are legacy, and so integrating bitcoin would take some effort. However, if we can easily convert bitcoin into a tender that business can already accept, that will help drive bitcoin adoption more quickly.
TC: How long do you suspect it will take until the average consumer gets educated on bitcoin and uses it?
Gallippi: Bitcoin is hard to use today, and that’s a good thing. There are still bugs and it is too risky for the average consumer. The infrastructure of bitcoin cannot handle hundreds of millions of users at this time, so a gradual adoption is better.
TC: What are some of the hurdles that stand in the way of mainstream bitcoin usage?
Gallippi: It still is difficult to purchase bitcoins. This would be easier if banks were more accommodating to let people choose what do to with their own money. Bitcoin is voluntary; you don’t have to use it if you don’t want to.
TC: Since this lets you convert into a gift card, how long do you think it will take to be able to make direct purchases using bitcoin?
Gallippi: E-commerce will adopt new direct bitcoin payments faster than retail, since e-commerce already has payment gateways in place for software-only payments.
TC: How do you feel about the recent stories of DDOS attacks that have affected bitcoin and how that’s perhaps scared some people away from the currency?
Gallippi: Bitcoin companies suffer from DDOS like all banks do. However consumers actually are inconvenienced less with a bitcoin wallet DDOS. With your online banking, if your bank is down, you cannot access your money. However with bitcoin, if you are in control of your private keys, if the wallet you use is down, you can upload your backup into a different wallet that is up, and have immediate access to your funds. That is possible with bitcoin, but not possible with any other type of traditional bank.
———–
The fact that it’s Android-only shows that we’re still a long way off for bitcoin in the mainstream. It’s going to take a lot for Apple to one day accept any type of wallet integration into its own apps.
For bitcoin, this is a big step forward, as real goods and services can now be purchased using them, even if it’s relying on a gift card as the middle man.German street food has made its way into Toronto’s Kensington market. Having opened this past summer and quickly placed in the #1 spot for best new cheap eats by blogTO, Otto’s offers döner kebab and German beer in a trendy, casual atmosphere.
The döner sandwich is based off of an originally Turkish dish made of meat cooked on a vertical rotisserie, which has been transformed into the most popular late-night snack in Berlin. At Otto’s the veal, lamb, chicken, halloumi, or gemüse (vegetables) fillings are held by a crispy panini-pressed flatbread (fladenbrot) and stuffed with lettuce, red cabbage, tomatoes, onions, cucumber and feta or fries (50 cents extra). Sweet and spicy sauces like creamy garlic aioli, yogurt sauce, and hot sauce are drizzled generously on top. At $6.95-8.95, the mammoth sandwiches are terrific value for the quality of ingredients you get.
Döner Sandwich
For a less messy option, you can get the sandwich in box form on a bed of fries (or salad, or cous cous). Fries are skinny and crispy, reminiscent of a poutine with layers upon layers of meat and sauces.
Sandwich in a box
The bratwurst pork sausage ($7.95) is well worth the visit. Sourced from Toronto butcher Olliffe, it’s served on fries, cut into slices and topped with their homemade tomato-curry sauce and garlic aioli. My favourite of the night, to my surprise, was the haloumi cheese which you can get in your sandwich, box, or on the side. Slices of it are fried for a golden crispiness to cover the outside, and inside it’s semi-firm, with a sharp taste: like a glorified cheese string for adults. To drink you’ve got nine German beers, three of which are on tap, cider, and three red and white wines.
Fried Haloumi
Service could be better: the server who took my order when I visited seemed disinterested and impatient. Since the restaurant is take-out focused, the mediocrity doesn’t affect your experience too much, but it inevitably takes away from the positive vibes.
The décor is definitely enticing: white brick walls opposite an abstract mural, with splashes of yellow throughout. The overall look is minimalist with ‘Otto’, the nerdy looking, presumably German, hipster, standing out on their menu artwork. Terrariums, neon lights, and geometric art decorate the small room, which holds about six tables.
If you visit the bathroom, don't be afraid to push the big buttons.
Otto's menu
Otto’s Berlin Döner is a welcome addition to Kensington market, where international foods are adored and late night munchies are prevalent. The food is fresh, price is right, and it fulfills a need for German street food that you may not even have known you had.
ES00SKYesterday afternoon, chief executives of 12 major health insurers—including Aetna, Humana, WellPoint, and Kaiser Permanente—trudged to the White House to “discuss…ongoing implementation of the Affordable Care Act.” The meeting was off the record, but we have a pretty good idea of what happened. Insurers were likely to urge the White House to delay the implementation of Obamacare’s exchanges until the website, Healthcare.gov, gets fixed. And it appears they got their wish. Last night, the White House confirmed that it intends to delay the enforcement of the individual mandate by as much as six weeks.
“The White House is meeting with insurance industry executives,” a consultant to insurers told Ezra Klein, “and I can tell you what they’re talking about. [They’re saying] you need to get this fixed, because you’re setting us up for a real fall with our customers. [Patients are] not going to blame Kathleen Sebelius if they walk into their doctor’s office and the doctor doesn’t know who they are. They’ll blame the insurance company. And I’m sure what the insurers are telling the White House today is we will not let you put us in that position.”
White House unilaterally delays individual mandate
So here’s what the White House did, according to Sarah Kliff of the Washington Post. Earlier, in response to an inquiry from tax-preparer Jackson Hewitt, the administration said that Americans needed to buy health insurance by February 15 in order to avoid the individual mandate’s fine against those who go without coverage. The “open enrollment” period in 2014, however, during which you can buy coverage and still gain access to Obamacare’s provisions regarding pre-existing conditions, ends on March 31.
So the White House decided that it would move the deadline for buying insurance back to March 31, even if that means people went without coverage through April, because it takes time for an “enrollment” to turn into actual coverage from an insurer. Some reporters are downplaying the importance of the delay. But it is a significant move by an administration that has aggressively defended the individual mandate against efforts by Republicans to delay it; the recent government shutdown was in part precipitated by this dispute.
It’s not clear what legal justification the White House is using for its unilateral delay of the individual mandate, but the Affordable Care Act contains many loopholes and exceptions that give the Department of Health and Human Services power to selectively enforce the law. Earlier this summer, the GOP-controlled House of Representatives passed a one-year delay of the mandate, but that bill died in the Democrat-controlled Senate.
Broussard: ‘The verdict’s out’ on healthy people signing up
I recently spoke to one of those CEOs, Bruce Broussard of Humana, at the Forbes Healthcare Summit. Broussard expressed optimism that the website would eventually get fixed. But he was more cautious about whether or not healthy and young people will pay lots more for health insurance in order to subsidize other people.
“The exchanges probably are a good thing,” says Broussard. “It’s expanding coverage for people, and we think that in the long run it will be the right thing to do. In the short run, it’s got some bumps, and the industry and the government expected that. But we are focused on fixing those bumps, and to work with the government to make it both a good experience [while] driving down health care costs and improving the quality.”
We know that sick people will sign up, because the law heavily subsidizes coverage for them. But will other people? “The verdict’s out on that, to be honest with you…the federal government and the states are trying to stimulate more and more people to sign up. I think as the penalty increases for not having insurance, probably you will see more people sign up. But in the short run, it could be [sicker] people that just need coverage.”
The website problems carry the risk of making this problem, called adverse selection, worse. People who really need coverage because they have health problems will put up with the hassles of enrolling in Obamacare’s exchanges. Younger and healthier people may not. If only older and sicker people sign up for coverage, the plans on the exchanges will end up becoming more expensive, and less affordable, for everyone else.
That’s why, among the major for-profit insurers, there has been a wide dispersion in participation in Obamacare’s exchanges. An analysis by Justin Lake of J.P. Morgan indicates that Aetna has most aggressively jumped in among the for-profit players; even then, Aetna’s products cover only 55 percent of the exchange-eligible uninsured population nationwide. Humana is second at 39 percent. At the other end is UnitedHealth, which has declined to participate in any of the exchanges.
Insurers want to strengthen the individual mandate
Insurers may be happy that forced enrollment in the exchanges is being pushed back for a bit. But over the long term, insurers actually want to strengthen the individual mandate, and have been lobbying the White House to that end. They’re concerned that the individual mandate is too weak.
At the Forbes Healthcare Summit, retired Aetna CEO Ron Williams forcefully made the case for a stronger mandate, because he thinks that healthy and young people will not otherwise be interested in buying the costly coverage that is on offer under Obamacare.
“I’m probably somewhat pessimistic,” says Williams. “I think that young people tend to believe that they are immortal and invincible at that stage of life, and I think its going to take a while to create that kind of societal norm and perhaps even a few stop lights here and there, that says, gee if you want a student loan, or you want to apply for this, you want to do that, you have to actually demonstrate that you actually have insurance. That’s a debate we haven’t had as to whether we think that’s an appropriate approach to move a little bit from a carrot to maybe a little bit of a frozen carrot.”
The mandate in its current form, Williams says, “really does not represent much of an incentive or disincentive for people to sign up.” In 2016 or 2017, he thinks, Congress will be forced to stiffen the mandate in order to combat the fact that only sicker and older people are signing up.
Why not try to make insurance affordable instead?
Here’s an alternative approach. Instead of forcing people to buy an unaffordable product that they don’t want, why don’t we instead allow insurers to sell coverage that people actually want to buy on their own? It wouldn’t be that hard. If you weed out all of the senseless bureaucratic directives contained in Obamacare, you could offer inexpensive plans that young and healthy people would be happy to buy.
But that’s not the Obamacare way. The Obamacare way is to empower the government to tell you what kind of insurance you have to buy, and then force you to buy it. And even after all of the glitches are fixed, and the crashes resolved, that fundamental aspect of the law’s design will remain.
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UPDATE 1: For those who are interested, here's the list of attendees at the insurer-White House pow-wow:
Mark Bertolini, CEO, Aetna
Bruce Broussard, CEO, Humana
Chet Burrell, CEO, CareFirst
Patrick Geraghty, CEO, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida
Jay Gellert, president and CEO, Health Net Inc.
Patricia Hemingway Hall, president and CEO, Health Care Services Corporation
Daniel J. Hilferty, president and CEO, Independence Blue Cross
Karen Ignagni, president and CEO, America's Health Insurance Plans
John Molina, chief financial officer, Molina Healthcare
Michael Neidorff, chairman and CEO, Centene Corp.
James Roosevelt, president and CEO, Tufts Health Plan
Scott Serota, president and CEO, Blue Cross Blue Shield Association
Joseph Swedish, CEO, WellPoint
Bernard Tyson, CEO, Kaiser Permanente
UPDATE 2: I received this comment from a health-insurance industry source about what took place at the White House meeting:
The aligning of the mandate and open enrollment deadlines was actually never discussed. The meeting was focused on the technical challenges and ways to mitigate those. Further we never asked for and would never ask for any thing that could be considered a "delay" of the mandate. We have always said the mandate is key to making market reforms like those in the ACA work. That is as true today as it has ever been. If there is a delay in the mandate then there would be serious implications for the future of the ACA.
INVESTORS’ NOTE: The biggest publicly-traded players in Obamacare’s health insurance exchanges are Aetna (NYSE:AET), Humana (NYSE:HUM), Cigna (NYSE:CI), Molina (NYSE:MOH), WellPoint (NYSE:WLP), and Centene (NYSE:CNC), in order of the number of uninsured exchange-eligible Americans for whom their plans are available." " The 2018 Mercedes-AMG G65 final edition engine delivers 621 hp and 738 lb-ft. of torque. Mercedes AMG
Have you ever opened the hood of your car and wondered what was going on in there? A car engine can look like a big confusing jumble of metal, tubes and wires to the uninitiated.
You might want to know what's going on simply out of curiosity. Or perhaps you are buying a new car, and you hear things like "2.5-liter incline four" and "turbocharged" and "start/stop technology." What does all of that mean?
In this article, we'll discuss the basic idea behind an engine and then go into detail about how all the pieces fit together, what can go wrong and how to increase performance.
The purpose of a gasoline car engine is to convert gasoline into motion so that your car can move. Currently the easiest way to create motion from gasoline is to burn the gasoline inside an engine. Therefore, a car engine is an internal combustion engine — combustion takes place internally.
Two things to note:
There are different kinds of internal combustion engines. Diesel engines are one type and gas turbine engines are another. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages.
external combustion engine. The There is also the. The steam engine in old-fashioned trains and steam boats is the best example of an external combustion engine. The fuel (coal, wood, oil) in a steam engine burns outside the engine to create steam, and the steam creates motion inside the engine. Internal combustion is a lot more efficient than external combustion, plus an internal combustion engine is a lot smaller.
Let's look at the internal combustion process in more detail in the next section.Preliminary investigations show the suspect could be linked to six cases where victims lost a total of S$126,000.
SINGAPORE: A 23-year-old man has been arrested for his suspected involvement in a "DHL" parcel scam, the Singapore Police Force (SPF) said on Tuesday (Jul 19).
In a news release, SPF said a 32-year-old woman lodged a report on Jul 4 regarding a call |
the daily agenda. Subsequently, the Senate passed a right-to-work law, reorganized the public school system with the Gilmer-Akin Laws, appropriated funds for higher education, including the Texas State University for Negroes (now Texas Southern University), and provided money for improvements of state hospitals and highways.
Governorship [ edit ]
Electoral history [ edit ]
When Governor Beauford Jester died on July 11, 1949, Shivers succeeded him—the only lieutenant governor in Texas history thus far to gain the governor's office through the death of his predecessor. In 1950, Shivers won election as governor in his own right, defeating Republican Ralph W. Currie: 355,010 votes (89.93%) for the incumbent Governor while Currie had garnered 39,737 votes (10.07%)
In 1952, Shivers proved so popular that he was listed on the gubernatorial ballot as the nominee of both the Democratic and Republican parties (Democrat Shivers handily defeated Republican Shivers). Between both parties Shivers garnered 1,844,530 votes (98.05%) to "No Preference" getting 36,672 votes (1.95%). Subsequently, Texas law was changed to remove the "No Preference" option and to prohibit an individual from being the candidate of more than one political party in any race.
Shivers then set the three-term precedent by running again and winning in 1954, he garnered 569,533 votes (89.42%) to Republican Tod R. Adams' 66,154 votes (10.39%).
Governance [ edit ]
He worked closely with his appointed Secretary of State John Ben Shepperd, who won election in 1952 and 1954 as state attorney general. Together Shivers and Shepperd tried to clean up corruption in the machine province of Duval County.
The Shivercrats were a conservative faction of the Democratic Party in Texas in the 1950s. The faction was named for Shivers, who was criticized by liberals within the party—particularly Ralph Yarborough—for his corruption and conservatism. The term was first used derisively by party liberals, who attacked Shivers and his allies in the party for backing Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower over the national party's chosen candidate Adlai Stevenson in 1952.
Corruption during the Shivers administration damaged his reputation and endangered his chances of reelection in 1954. Land Office Commissioner Bascom Giles was convicted of committing rampant fraud against Texas war veterans, and a disproportionate number of African-American veterans in particular, through the a veterans land program under the Texas Veterans Land Board of the Texas General Land Office. Giles was the only member of the Shivers administration to go to prison, but Shivers and the state attorney general, John Ben Sheppard, as ex officio members of the Veterans Land Board, were implicated in the scandal, which occurred during their watch.
The Shivercrats responded with a vicious negative campaign that tried to paint the party liberals as communists. Shivers also urged the Texas Legislature to pass a bill making membership in the Communist Party a death penalty offense, describing such membership as being "worse than murder",[1][2][3] although a less extreme version of the proposition finally passed both Houses.[4][5]
President Lyndon B. Johnson at first aligned himself with the Shivercrats (including John Connally), but after becoming president Johnson increasingly sided with Yarborough and the liberals on policy matters. Most of the Shivercrats either left public life or became Republicans after Johnson's presidency, as the liberal-moderate faction was in firm control of the state party after 1970.
In 1952, Shivers named the oil industrialist Bill Noël of Odessa to the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission. Noël was reappointed by the two subsequent governors.[6]
Trivia and miscellaneous [ edit ]
Shivers appeared as himself in the 1955 film Lucy Gallant starring Jane Wyman and Charlton Heston.
Shivers previously held the record for longest continuous service as Texas Governor at 7.5 years until June 2008, when Rick Perry surpassed Shivers's record for continuous service. (Bill Clements initially broke Shivers's total service record, having served eight years over two non-consecutive terms; Perry subsequently surpassed this record as well.)
Both Shivers and Perry are the only two Texas Governors to have been inaugurated four times.
Shivers disputed the Truman administration's claim on the Tidelands and disapproved of Truman's veto that would have vested tideland ownership in the states. Bucking the tradition of the "Solid South," Shivers delivered Texas in the 1952 presidential election for Dwight D. Eisenhower—only the second time that Texas had supported a Republican for president since Reconstruction. The state Republican Party reciprocated by nominating Shivers for governor; he thus ran as the nominee of both parties. It is believed that Shivers lost popularity with some voters over his disloyalty to the Democratic party. He also became less popular because of his opposition to the Brown v. Board of Education decision and his link to the Veterans' Land Board scandal.
Shivers did help enact laws raising teacher salaries and granting retirement benefits to state employees.
Post Governorship [ edit ]
Shivers did not seek a fourth term in the 1956 elections. He retired from politics on January 15, 1957, and went into business. In 1973, Democratic Governor Dolph Briscoe appointed Shivers to a six-year term on the University of Texas Board of Regents. He served as chairman of the board for four years. During this time he donated his Austin home, Woodlawn, the historic Pease mansion, to the University to help raise funds for its law school.
In 1980, Shivers was instrumental in securing a $5 million grant for the UT Austin Moody College of Communication, which soon thereafter established an endowed chair of journalism in his honor.
Finally, he served as a member of the University of Texas Centennial Commission, which oversaw the 100th anniversary celebration of the University's founding in 1883.
Death [ edit ]
Shivers died suddenly of a massive heart attack in Austin, Texas, on January 14, 1985. He was survived by his wife, the former Marialice Shary (1910–1996), a long-time regent of Pan American University in Edinburg, Texas, three sons, a daughter, and ten grandchildren. The Shiverses are interred at the Texas State Cemetery in Austin.
Elections [ edit ]
Gubernatorial election in Texas, 1950 [7] Party Candidate Votes Percentage Democratic Allan Shivers 355,010 89.93% Republican Ralph W. Currie 39,737 10.07% Totals 394,747 100.00% Democratic Hold
Gubernatorial election in Texas, 1952 [7] Party Candidate Votes Percentage Democratic Allan Shivers 1,375,547 74.60% Republican Allan Shivers 468,319 25.40% Total Allan Shivers 1,843,866 100.00% Totals 1,843,866 100.00% Democratic Hold
Gubernatorial election in Texas, 1954 [7] Party Candidate Votes Percentage Democratic Allan Shivers 569,533 89.42% Republican Tod R. Adams 66,154 10.58% Totals 636,892 100.00% Democratic Hold
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Bibliography [ edit ]Interactions between neurons involve both chemical and electrical signaling. For decades, neuroscientists have searched for a noninvasive way to measure the electrical component. Achieving this could make it easier to study how the brain works, and how neurological disease impairs its functioning.
Light up: Applying voltage to the neurons shown here caused an increase in fluorescence.
One promising approach is tracking neuronal electrical activity with fluorescence, which can be integrated into cells fairly easily through genetics or by being attached to antibodies, but which can be toxic and slow to work. Last week, researchers introduced a new candidate—a fluorescent protein from a Dead Sea microbe—that appears to be better equipped for the challenge.
The protein, called archaerhodopsin-3, or Arch, was discovered more than 10 years ago, but scientists are just now starting to realize its potential as a research tool. In a study published last year, researchers used light to trigger an electrical response from Arch that silenced overactive neurons—an approach that could lead to new therapeutics for epilepsy and other seizure disorders.
In this study, the researchers took the opposite tack and used electricity to elicit changes in Arch’s fluorescence. The approach could lead to more accurate methods for recording electrical signals from the brain.
The results, published in Nature Methods, indicate that Arch could be the noninvasive voltage sensor neuroscientists have been looking for: It’s not toxic to cells, and it’s sensitive and fast enough to pick up the rapid electrical changes that accompany neuronal activity.
“It looks order of magnitudes better than any of the other optical imaging methods I’ve seen before,” says Darcy Peterka, a neuroscientist at Columbia University who was not involved with the study.
The standard method for recording electrical activity in neurons in cell culture—which involves sticking an electrode into the cell—remains the most accurate for measuring voltage at a single point in the cell. But puncturing a neuron with an electrode eventually kills it, whereas Arch would let researchers follow the electrical signal as it propagates throughout the cell. It would also allow researchers to record from the same cell again and again, allowing for long-term experiments that would not be possible with the standard method.
“It really depends on what scientific questions you’re trying to answer,” says Adam Cohen, a biophysics researcher at Harvard University and the lead author of the new study.
The study was conducted in cultured mouse neurons, but Cohen and his colleagues plan to use Arch to measure neuronal activity in live animals, starting with simple organisms, such as the zebrafish and the worm C. elegans. One advantage of these animals is that they’re transparent, making it easy to see the fluorescent signal through a microscope.
Arch could also prove useful for imaging electrical signals in the mammalian brain, especially for experiments in mice, which could be genetically engineered to express the protein in specific neurons or at specific times in development, for example.
The challenge of transferring the approach to animals is making sure the fluorescent signal stays strong and consistent. “In the living brain, light gets absorbed—for example, by blood—so you lose light,” says Ed Boyden, the researcher at MIT who led the study that used Arch to silence neurons.
The fluorescence given off by Arch also isn’t as bright as some of the other available dyes, but its low toxicity makes this less of a concern, because researchers could compensate by using higher concentrations. “The fact that they got it to work well in mouse neurons bodes well,” says Peterka.Ethereum Crowdfunding Takes Center Stage With Movie
There is no doubt that crowdfunding is one area of the 21st century economy in which bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have become a particularly disruptive force. The magnitude of the disruption is not limited to the financing itself but it seeps into the very philosophical foundations of the projects that are looking for funding and of crowdfunding itself. Cultural paradigms shift, enabling crowdfunded, crowd-sourced, cryptocurrency powered cultural activity. From the production to the consumption of these services, The Pitts Family Circus movie is the embodiment of this particular shift, and its producers are crowdfunding through Ethereum. The choice of Ethereum over bitcoin is obvious, and it highlights potential changes in the crowdfunding industry as a whole.
Ethereum Crowd Funding Instead of Bitcoin for The Pitts Family Circus
Although bitcoin has played a role in cultural paradigm shifts, from tattoo art to blockchain inspired art expos, it is ceding ground to other blockchain and cryptocurrency projects in other areas. In terms of movies, shows and streaming, it seems that Ethereum is a better choice. The success of The Pitts Family Circus will serve to further cement Ethereum’s reputation in this area. Bitcoin could challenge the crowdfunding aspect of these projects, but it cannot overcome Ethereum on the crowdsourcing aspect.
The Pitts Family Circus Case Study
In the case of The Pitts Family Circus movie, in theory at least, it is possible that the producers could have gotten more people to participate in funding the movie through bitcoin than Ethereum. The nature of investor participation however, would have been different. With Ethereum, the producers of the movie have programed a token that will give the holders a dividend for the next 20 years. The following are some of the crowdfunding characteristics made possible by the use of Ethereum for The Pitts Family Circus project:
Programming smart contracts to pay a dividend to investors through 2036.
Creating a token through which project investors can claim their dividends.
Enabling investors to trade their tokens and effectively sell their token(s) and thus their investment off.
Moving away from the Kickstarter Crowd-Funding Culture
Apart from changing the way we produce movies and other cultural activities or services, the characteristics of this crowdfunding effort through Ethereum can change crowdfunding culture altogether. Bitcoin seems to be more suitable for the Kickstarter kind of financing, in which investors do not get a share of the business or royalties. This leaves the field wide open for Ethereum to change the essence of crowdsourcing and make every person a potential investor who will get dividends out of the investment, through the use of smart contracts.
The Cultural Aspect
This means that the success of The Pitts Family Circus can also serve to change the way society approaches crowdfunding in general. In this realm, bitcoin could well play the intermediate step between the Kickstarter crowdfunding culture and that of Ethereum. In terms of crowdfunding movies, shows and streaming services, it is clear that Ethereum has a great advantage because it can also serve to crowdsource the content, which constitutes a cultural shift in and of itself. This puts Ethereum in a unique spot to influence the way we do business in general, and the way we produce cultural services or products. Bitcoin’s future impact on future streaming or movie making projects could be limited.
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Click here to learn more about The Pitts Family Circus.In her new book, LaLa Anthony, wife of Carmelo, takes aim at those who still believe Kevin Garnett told her husband she tasted like Honey Nut Cheerios during a Celtics-Knicks game last season.
Also known as LaLa Vazquez, Anthony’s celebrity wife had never denied the incident occurred in a Garden game last January.
“I wasn’t ever going to bring up the Honey Nut Cheerios incident again. But, since I’m writing this book, I might as well set the record straight for good,’’ LaLa wrote in her book “The Love Playbook’’ released Tuesday. “Kevin Garnett in fact had never said that I tasted like Honey Nut Cheerios. I tried to figure out how this big lie was turned into a media firestorm. I still can’t answer that one. … Melo and Kevin are cool today. And now it’s nothing but a faint memory.’’
That said, Garnett’s trashtalking was damaging. LaLa revealed Anthony had choice words for Garnett on the court and then afterward when Anthony confronted him near the locker room area and by the Celtics team bus. (Anthony was suspended one game for the off-court confrontations.)
LaLa had attended the game.
“I did notice during the game Melo and Kevin were jawing a lot at each other,’’ she wrote. “But that’s basketball, the heat of the game. I really didn’t think anything of it. But when Melo went to have words with him, I knew it had to be more than an in-game beef.
“I asked Melo about it and all he said was that Kevin said things you shouldn’t say to a person you have a friendship with or respect for. [Melo] told him, ‘I’m not some rookie. We’ve been in this league a while together so don’t treat me the way you’d treat a rookie.’ I’m sure the words were a little stronger than that but that was the gist of what Melo said back to Kevin.’’
Days after the incident, Vazquez sent out a coy tweet that read, in part: “We ALL deserve free cereal 4all the publicity we’ve given Honey Nut Cheerios, #cantbelieveeverything.’’
“At first I was embarrassed and angry but then I just had to laugh about it,’’ LaLa wrote. “I mean, that was the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard and if Kevin Garnett had actually said that about me, what exactly did it mean? Because he and I were never more than passing acquaintances. It was just dumb.’
“While people had a lot of fun with the whole Honey Nut Cheerios thing, the truth is they couldn’t really take it much further than that because of how I carry myself.”
The book is billed as her guide on love, sex and relationships and LaLa admits to “difficulties in our relationship in 2012,’’ but is not specific. There were reports last season Anthony and LaLa were separated for a short time, but that was denied at the time.
There’s very little in the book on Anthony’s transition from Denver to New York or his free-agent future. (LaLa did say in a TV interview Monday he “definitely thinks’’ he’ll re-sign with the Knicks.)
But in one potential foreshadow, LaLa reveals their first real date occurred in Southern California where she was filming.
The couple have a place in Los Angeles and reports have Anthony considering the Lakers or Clippers this summer.
“I also knew that if I ever bought a house, it would probably be in L.A.,’’ she wrote. “It’s so different from New York and Atlanta. L.A. is like my chill place. I can be laid-back and relaxed there. I also could see myself eventually settling there, like my retirement spot.’’
The book also revealed some intimate details of the couple’s private life. Their son, Kiyan, when he was 2, had an emergency six-hour surgery on an ailing kidney. According to the book, Kiyan, now 6, occasionally gets bothered at school for the Knicks’ poor play.
La La wrote: “[Kiyan] came home one afternoon and asked me, ‘Mom why do they hate Dad? Some Kids at school said, Your dad sucks.’ ”
The book details how they first met in a Manhattan club, introduced by MTV’s DJ Clue. They were engaged for six years before their 2010 New York wedding.
Anthony was a rookie with Denver and LaLa writes she wasn’t interested at first because her father told her never to date an NBA player. LaLa also admits in the book she never would have gotten involved had she known the truth — that Anthony was only 19 years old when they met. (She was 22.)
LaLa also took issue with the wife of Andrei Kirilenko, of the Nets, who once was quoted saying she “allows her husband one night a year to do whatever he wants with whomever he wants.’’
LaLa wrote in the book, “By letting your man have “a free pass,’’ you’re opening the floodgates.’’Google Android device owners who have accounts from both Google Voice and Gizmo5.com may be able to make and receive phone calls even if they don’t have a SIM card in their device. An experimental app named GUAVA, which stands for GoogleVoice Unauthorized Android Voice Application, links Google Voice and Gizmo5 accounts, allowing consumers to make calls without using their network minutes or even a SIM card.
I’ve heard of Android users adding their GV number to T-Mobile myFaves for more free calls, but this is one of the first solutions I’ve found for non-myFaves subscribers. In fact, GUAVA bypasses carriers altogether by connecting to Wi-Fi networks and delivering contract-free communication to:
Cell phones and landlines
SMS messages
Skype users
GoogleTalk users
NOTE: I was able to receive several free calls and SMS messages while testing the app; however, outgoing calls require purchasing call-out credits from Gizmo5.
The GUAVA/Google Voice link may prove useful to travelers or people who cannot find access to their network. I have visited friends and family members in areas where T-Mobile connections were not present whatsoever. This may come in handy if I find myself in a similar situation and have an Internet connection available.
Download GUAVA for Android from Gizmo5 and follow this tutorial to get it running. PLEASE BE ADVISED that you must give GUAVA your Google credentials.
GUAVA SET-UP TUTORIAL
1. Sign-up for a Gizmo5.com account. Once you have completed the registration process, log-in to the members section and copy your Gizmo5 number, which should start with 747.
2. Log-in to your Google Voice page. Press “Settings” > “Phones”
3. Click the “Add another phone” link and enter your Gizmo5 number. Select “Gizmo” as number type and validate the new line
4. Download GUAVA from Gizmo5 and copy it onto your microSD card.
5. Use Astro or a file explorer to install guava.apk
6. Open GUAVA and enter all of the appropriate account information.
7. Turn on Wi-Fi and connect to a network
Once the yellow dot in your notification bar turns green, you should be ready to go.
[NoSIMCard.com]The San Francisco District Attorney's Office has filed charges against 30-year-old driver who struck two 12-year-old boys as they crossed the street in the city's Marina district Wednesday morning.Kristen Andereck, 30, of San Francisco, has been charged with one count of felony DUI with injury, one count of driving with a blood alcohol concentration of.08, and two counts of child endangerment with allegations of great bodily injury with enhancements, according to district attorney spokesman Maxwell Szabo.Andereck was arrested on suspicion of DUI after she struck the two boys at about 8:30 a.m. near Buchanan and Bay streets, according to police.The boys suffered life-threatening injuries, but are expected to survive, police said.Andereck was driving a white Volkswagen Tiguan SUV and stayed at the scene of the collision.According to yearbook records, Andereck attended St. Ignatius College Preparatory in 2001. in 2004, when Andereck was 19 years old, she was a debutante at a Cotillion event hosted by the Cotillion Club of San Francisco.Andereck also appears to have been a close family friend to the deceased comedian and Marin County resident Robin Williams, according to local media reports following his death by suicide last year.Andereck is currently out on $230,000 bail and will most likely appear in court on Tuesday at 1:30 p.m., Szabo said.The number of potentially habitable worlds circling red dwarf stars—the most abundant type of star in our Milky Way galaxy—may have just doubled to 60 billion, a new study suggests.
Using global climate models originally created for studying global warming on Earth, a team of researchers from the University of Chicago and Northwestern University created 3-D models of how large-scale cloud patterns affect atmospheric temperatures on Earth-size planets orbiting stars smaller and cooler than our sun. (See also: "'Shocking' Superstorm Seen on Exoplanet—A First.")
So what's new? Researchers found that the atmospheric circulation and cloud cover on these exoplanets meant these worlds could orbit their stars more closely than previously thought—expanding the habitable zone around red dwarf stars.
Computer simulations developed by Dorian Abbot, a planetary scientist at the University of Chicago, show that we should be looking at orbits much closer to red dwarfs than we've done in the past for worlds that can support liquidwater and, possibly, life. (Related: "Think Outside the Box to Find Extraterrestrial Life.")
And since red dwarfs are the most common type of star populating the universe, future searches for habitable planets may want to focus on them.
Why is it important? "While we don't have an accurate estimate because they are hard to see, we believe that there are roughly 100 billion red dwarfs in just the Milky Way galaxy alone," said Abbot, co-author of the new study published this week in the The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
"So with these cool dwarf stars being the most common in our galaxy, the closest habitable-zone planet we may find will most likely be orbiting this type of star."
What also makes red dwarf systems such a cosmic catch is that the stars are so small. That means the relative size of any orbiting planet will be larger.
This is a key factor when using the transit method—where a star's brightness dims when a planet glides in front of its host star—to search for exoplanets. (Related: "Bumper Crop of Habitable Worlds Discovered?")
And since red dwarfs are cooler than the sun, their habitable zone—where water can exist in liquid form—will be much closer in than the habitable zones of other types of stars. The result would be exoplanets that experience a year lasting only 30 to 40 days instead of 365 days like on Earth.
Exoplanets orbiting in such habitable zones are so close to their star that they are tidally locked, meaning that they always present the same face to their star.
Since the same face of the planet always points to the star, that half heats upquickly and air rises, creating a global atmospheric circulation and large-scale cloud cover.
The computer models show that these clouds would reflect much of the incoming starlight, thus cooling the planet.
What does this mean? "What this means for planet hunters is that we get to see more orbits, and obtain more measurements, so in the end our hunting techniques just work better," explained Abbot. "We can look for planets hugging their host red dwarf stars much closer than we previously thought was possible.
"Even though the planet is being exposed to twice as much solar energy, we now think there could still be plenty of liquid water on its surface," he said.Yesterday New Jersey's Department of Health started registering patients who will be allowed to use marijuana as a medicine. As Nick Vadala notes on Philadelphia magazine's website, "Jersey has one of the country’s strictest medical marijuana programs." It is open only to people with specified "debilitating medical conditions," does not permit home cultivation, caps THC levels at 10 percent, and confines distribution to six state-approved dispensaries. Those dispensaries—the first of which, Greenleaf Compassion Center in Montclair, plans to open "shortly after Labor Day"—are subject to numerous regulations:
"This is unlike any other business we’ve been involved with—the oversight and regulations are unbelievable. Guiding through those rules is difficult, but they keep everyone honest,” [CEO Joe Stevens] says. As a former funeral director and X-ray technician, the man knows something about the value of meticulous, heavily enforced medical industry rules.... Legitimate growers and salesmen are hard to come by. Couple that with the required background checks, fingerprinting and drug tests (yes, drug tests) for dispensary employment, and you can see how applications from pie-in-the-sky stoners might muddy the interview pool slightly. Applicants with "black market" experience, says Stevens, are a definite no-no as well.... It’s still somewhat difficult, even with the right staff, to sell a bud named something like Alaskan Thunder Fuck as a remedy to chemo-induced nausea and retain a modicum of medical legitimacy. Going the eponymous route, it would seem, flies a little lower under the countercultural radar. “We’re trying to stay away from genetic names because of the stigma attached to marijuana. We couldn’t be taken seriously otherwise,” says Stevens. Instead, GCC calls its three authorized cannabis strains "Greenleaf 1" and so on up the line.
Will this buttoned-down, anti-California approach protect New Jersey's dispensaries from federal harassment? Gov. Chris Christie, a former U.S. attorney who delayed implementing New Jersey's 2010 medical marijuana law because of concerns about the conflict with federal law, seems to think so. But state regulation has not stopped Colorado's U.S. attorney from threatening licensed dispensaries, and Vadala notes an aspect of New Jersey's program that could put state employees in legal jeopardy:
Other states test crops through independent commercial labs, thereby allowing for different percentage results based on marketing. Jersey, however, requires that medical cannabis be tested for THC and other cannabinoids by the Department of Health and Senior Services.
In other words, state regulators will not merely certify that suppliers have met the conditions necessary to avoid state prosecution. They will be handling marijuana themselves—not in the course of enforcing the ban on marijuana but in the course of facilitating its distribution. By contrast, the dispensary bill that Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire vetoed last year "was specifically amended...to remove any requirements that [state] employees come in contact with marijuana," according to Alison Holcomb, drug policy director for the ACLU of Washington. "All of the testing and handling and inspection was to be done by independent, private, third parties." That change was aimed at allaying concerns that the feds might prosecute state employees for executing the law. The scenario may seem unlikely, but if the DEA starts busting New Jersey's pot testers, it would set up an interesting confrontation between a conservative Republican who criticizes the war on drugs and a liberal Democrat who promised tolerance but delivered a crackdown.Katsuhiro Harada, the longtime producer of the Tekken series, revealed a new character for Tekken 7 during a live-streamed event from Tokyo Game Show.
Her name is Catalina, and she's described as a "sassy-mouthed talker" of Latin American ancestry. Harada said she "will be vocal in game."
Here's an uncropped look at her concept art.
No official gameplay footage was shown in the stream, viewable here (the 11:57 mark is where Catalina is announced.) She will join another unannounced character at location tests in October. In August, Harada posted on Facebook some concept art of a new Arab character.
Tekken 7, the first numbered new release in the fighting series since 2007, was announced at EVO 2014. At Comic-Con 2014, Harada said the game will feature "a very detailed background story," that concludes the Mishima clan saga.Video from Amsterdam showing a man breaking the windows of a Jewish restaurant and forcing his way inside has been aired by Dutch media.
Footage aired by AT5 shows the man, who has his head wrapped in a shemagh or similar Middle Eastern style headdress and carries a Palestinian flag, smashing the windows of a Jewish restaurant with a club. He then kicks his way through the front door of the restaurant to pull down an Israeli flag.
The attack in the district of Amstelveenseweg, which ended with the man being tackled to the ground by law enforcement officers on the street, was likely motivated by U.S. President Donald Trump’s official recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel, which has prompted a declaration of three “days of rage”.
Man aangehouden na vernieling ruit restaurant Amstelveenseweg. Nader onderzoek wordt gedaan. #Amsterdam — Politie Amsterdam eo (@Politie_Adam) December 7, 2017
Witnesses told AT5 the attacker shouted “Palestine” and “Allahu Akbar” — but the defiant owner insisted he would still open tonight, provided his windows could be boarded up in time for service.
“If we manage to close the windows today, even if it is provisional, we will serve our guests tonight. We just continue as otherwise,” he declared.
The son of the restaurant owner said they had been attacked before, but never with such violence.
“There is more frequent spitting. But never something like this. Everyone is terrified about it and that it happened one hour before opening time,” he said.
The Organization of Jewish Communities in The Netherlands condemned the attack as “an act of revenge, meant to instil fear, and is no less than an act of terror.”
Follow Jack Montgomery on Twitter: @JackBMontgomerySep 15, 2013; Dallas, TX, USA; Dallas Stars goalie Jack Campbell (1) faces the St. Louis Blues attack during the third period at American Airlines Center. The Blues defeated the Stars 6-5 in the overtime shootout. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
The Dallas Stars spent yesterday afternoon locking up two pieces of their future. This came off the heels of their first offseason move that happened on Monday when they handed a two-year contract extension to rookie defenseman Jyrki Jokipakka.
On Wednesday afternoon, the Dallas Stars came to terms with growing rookie defenseman Patrik Nemeth on a two-year extension. The majority of “Dallas” Stars fans focused on the future of #37 and how he would end up fitting in on the Stars roster come next year. Nemeth is a big piece of the future, no doubt.
But what many people, including a few sports apps, forgot to mention was the other contract extended today. That was the contract of Jack Campbell.
Jack Campbell, 23, is the definition of a homegrown player. After being drafted by the Dallas Stars in the 1st round of the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, he’s been the shadowed prodigy ever since. The guy that everyone was expecting to become the Dallas Stars’ number one goalie in a matter of a couple of seasons is still stuck in the AHL with little hope of moving up anytime soon.
But the American goaltender received a one-year extension to his current contract, with AHL and NHL salaries intact. So, with a new deal instead of just dropping him into free agency, is this a signal that Jim Nill is finally ready to bring him up as a full-time NHL goaltender?
This is a tough scenario to analyze, so let’s break it down piece by piece.
First off, Campbell has spent four seasons in the AHL. But it’s been a tough four years. With a mass of injuries intertwined in his career, Campbell has yet to be a proven starter in a given season. This past season, Campbell participated in 35 games, posting a record of 14-14-0, along with a save percentage of.907 and a goals against average of 3.03. These numbers aren’t spectacular, and simply border along average.
That alone may be enough to bury Campbell’s chances at least for this season. But there is a bright side. For one, Campbell knows the game well. He’s been tried through four years in the AHL, along with one NHL game. He knows his strengths, knows his weaknesses, and knows where he must improve.
This guy never quits, no matter what the obstacle. He’s been held back from consistent NHL play up until now, yet he continues to re-sign and ante up for another year of AHL play, with little hope for an NHL chance. Dallas continues to bring in new goaltending talent to test out that never ends up working, but they always find a way to cut him just short. Yet he’s just fine with that. He also finished the season by winning 11 of his final 14 games, which greatly helped the Texas Stars snag a playoff spot.
Honestly, Jack Campbell may be just what the Dallas Stars need. But it’s probably not going to happen this season. As much as we may want it to, he probably needs to take this one year to put on an injury-free, stellar performance for the organization, one that will make them seem ludicrous to NOT call him up.
Some have suggested that the Stars may be calling up Jack Campbell, trading Kari Lehtonen, and letting Jhonas Enroth move on. If Lehtonen weren’t traded for a goaltender such as Ottawa’s Robin Lehner or Craig Anderson, the Stars would then make a valiant push to sign one of the skilled goalies in the free agent pool. This could very well happen, and it would all work out rather well. But this move is a pretty big one, and would have probably already started developing by now.
But the NHL is strange, and we should always expect the unexpected. Nevertheless, Jack Campbell has a bright future in this organization. As long as he stays injury-free and continues to produce, his path to the NHL should be short and sweet.Taiwan’s president and the Chinese heritage
Taiwan’s president Ma often stresses that Taiwanese are ethnic Chinese, even though this cannot be said of all citizens. With his latest quote on the subject, he might cause new controversy.
Ma Ying-jeou recently gave an interview to several reporters working for foreign media. During this interview, he is quoted as having said:
All our efforts in Taiwan have aimed at showing ethnic Chinese societies around the world that the imported concept of democracy can take root, germinate, and grow into a big tree on purely ethnic Chinese soil.
This quote appears identically in at least two reports:
This could either mean that Ma answered in English and was quoted verbatim, but that is unlikely since he refrains from giving English interviews ever since feeling misquoted by AP a few years ago. Or it could mean that he answered in Chinese and both journalists quoted from the official English translation which is usually provided by the Presidential Office staff who record all interviews.
Who do you call Chinese?
It probably goes without saying that President Ma calling Taiwan’s society „purely ethnic Chinese soil“ has the potential to be highly controversial. After all, „less than 50 percent of Taiwan’s people recognized themselves as Chinese“, according to a recent CNA news item. At the same time, according to that survey, „80 percent of Taiwan’s people consider themselves as belonging to the Chinese race, even if they don’t consider themselves to be Chinese people.“
Does this strengthen or weaken Ma’s point? After all, he talked about „purely ethnic Chinese soil.“
Over 95 percent of Taiwan’s population is considered to be Han, which can probably be used synonymously for „ethnical Chinese.“
About two percent belong to the group of Indigenous Peoples, or Aborigines.
Then there is the growing group of „new immigrants“, mostly women from Southeast Asian countries like Vietnam marrying Taiwanese husbands.
Taiwan and its diversified ethnic makeup
The last printed edition of the government’s official Republic of China Yearbook, published in 2011, had this to say on the subject:
Since the late 1990s, an increased number of marriages between ROC citizens and foreign nationals has further diversified the nation’s ethnic makeup.
Diversified ethnic makeup? This does not sound like a „purely ethnical Chinese“ society to me.
The latest edition of the yearbook is only available online and dropped this passage, possibly because of a different chapter structure. There is this passage, however:
Several waves of settlement and shifts of sovereignty over recent centuries have bequeathed Taiwan a diverse cultural heritage. Such a pluralist culture not only makes Taiwan a hotbed for various art forms which coexist, blend with or influence each other, but also renders it very receptive to different thoughts
Different thoughts indeed.
Taiwanese Aborigines are no ethnic Chinese
Ma using the word „soil“ might cause some additional controvery because it can easily be (mis)read to refer not to Taiwan’s society, but to the land.
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The Doctrine of Abrogation in Islam
Faced with these contradictory verses from the Quran, and instead of explaining these contradictions, Muslim theologian started looking into another mechanism to solve these contradictions. They adopted a doctrine known as "the doctrine of abrogation", a legal method that allows annulment of seemingly contradictory verses from the Quran, without deleting them from the text.
When speaking in the West, Muslim commentators, deliberately hide this major Islamic doctrine, called in Arabic "Al-Nasikh wal-Mansoukh" (the abrogator and the abrogated). The Arabic etymology of the word is "naskh" means a legal method that allows annulment of certain verses from the Quran.
Abrogation is an integral part of Islamic Shari'a and is mentioned in the Quran. It simply means that in situations wherein verses conflict one another, the early verses are overridden by the latter verses. This means the abrogated verses remain part of the Quran, but are cancelled out by other verses; both, the abrogated verses and the abrogating verses are retained in the Quran. In Arabic the term used is: al-Nasikh wal Mansukh.
The concept of "abrogation" is stated in the Quran, it means that Allah chose to reveal verses that supersede earlier verses in the same Quran. The central Quranic verse that deals with abrogation is the following:
"None of Our revelations (verses) do We abrogate or cause to be forgotten, but We substitute something better or similar; knowest thou not that Allah hath power over all things? (Quran 2:106, Yusuf Ali translation). This means that when Allah decides to abrogate a verse from the Quran, He simply replaces the abrogated verse by a new and better one.
Since its inception, abrogation has been a central element in the Islamic religion. The Quran asserts the doctrine of abrogation in the following verses: "God abrogates or confirms whatsoever he will, for he has with him the Book of the Books (the Quran)" (Quran 13:39). The Quran further states that "If we [Allah] please, we could take away what We have revealed to you..." (Quran 17:86).
Apparently, Muslim theologians were unable to explain away the inconsistencies in passages from the Quran. Some believe that the language of the Quran is Aramaic, not Arabic. The earliest copies of the Quran were written, not in the modern Arabic script as most of the Arab speaking people believe, but were written in a script borrowed from the Aramaic script, and a language closely related to Eastern Syriac, the original language of Syria, Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and parts of Egypt. This means that the alleged contradictions, claimed by Muslim interpreters of the Quran, may not, after all, be contradictions, if these verses were interpreted in Aramaic rather than Arabic. (For more on this subject, see The Qur'an: Misinterpreted, Mistranslated and Misread. The Aramaic Language of the Qur'an by Gabriel Sawma, available on amazon.com. http://www.syriacaramaicquran.com.)
Aramaic, not Arabic, was the language of the inhabitants of the Middle East in the seventh century. Even the Arab kingdoms of Palmyra in northeast Damascus, and the Nabataean kingdom of Transjordan had all their literature and epigraphic material written in Aramaic and Greek; not a single inscription of those Arab kingdoms was written in Arabic. The classical Arabic language of the modern Quran did not exist in the seventh century. http://www.syriacaramaicquran.com
But Muslim theologians consider the verses revealed to Muhammad in Medina contradict those verses revealed in Mecca and as a result, they established the doctrine of abrogation, whereby those verses revealed in Medina, would abrogate those revealed earlier in Mecca.
Nevertheless, Muslim jurists insist that the language of the Quran is Arabic and that the Arabic interpretation of the Quran renders these differences, and consequently, they use the doctrine of abrogation to take away divine verses revealed to the Prophet of Islam during his missionary. Abrogation allows the verses, which came late, to annul earlier verses. (John Burton, The Encyclopedia of Islam, vol. 7, s.v. "Naskh," p.1010.)
In addition to the Quran, the Hadith (sayings attributed to the Prophet) confirms the use of the doctrine of abrogation in early Islam. We see this doctrine being applied during the time of the third successor of the Prophet of Islam, 'Uthman ibn 'Affan. The doctrine is recorded in the second divine book in Sunni Islam, Sahih al-Bukhari, written more than two hundred years after the death of the Prophet, reads the following: "I said to 'Uthman bin 'Affan (while he was collecting the Qur'an) regarding the verse:--Those of you who die and leave wives…" (Quran 2:240) "This verse was abrogated by another verse. So why should you write it? (Leave it in the Qur'an)? 'Uthman said: "O son of my brother! I will not shift anything of it from its place." (Sahih al-Bukhari, vol. 6, book 60, number 53 See, http://www.wikiislam.net/wiki/Abrogation_Naskh)
Abrogation is shown in the most important and reliable source of Islam, second only to the Quran, Sahih al-Bukhari (846AD); it reads: "They had a choice, either fast or feed a poor for every day… and added, "This verse is abrogated." (Sahih al-Bukhari, vol. 6, book 60, number 33. See wikiislam.net. Abrogation)
Abrogation is attested in another important and reliable source of Islam, Sahih Muslim; it reads: "The Messenger of Allah (Muhammad) abrogated some of his commands by others, just as the Qur'an abrogates some part with the other." (Hadith, Sahih Muslim, Book 3, number 0675). See also, Muhammad Abu-al-Hussain Muslim bin al-Hahhah al-Nissapuri, Sahih Muslim, International Islamic Publishing House, 1971, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, book 003, no. 0675.
More testaments to the existence of the doctrine in early Islam is attested by Sahih Muslim; it reads: "…I recited to him this verse of Sura al-Furqan…And those who call not upon another god with Allah and slay not the soul which Allah has forbidden except in the cause of justice…He said: This is a Meccan verse (i.e.verse came to Muhammad in Mecca) which has been abrogated by a verse revealed at Medina…" (Hadith, Sahih Muslim, book 43, number 7173).
Another Hadith book in early Islam, the Muwatta, confirms the use of the doctrine of abrogation in early Islam; it reads: "Yahya related to me from Malik from Abdullah ibn Hazm from Amra bint Abd al Rahman that A'isha, the wife of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "Amongst what was sent down of the Qur'an …--then it was abrogated by…" (Hadith al-Muwatta, book 30, number 3.17b).
The doctrine of abrogation was taught for the judges in early Islam. This is attested by 'Ali ibn Abi Taleb, son-in-law of the Prophet of Islam and cousin, who later declared himself the fourth successor of the Prophet. 'Ali talked about the doctrine of abrogation as a precondition for qualifying an individual to be an Islamic judge, (He said to 'Abdul Rahman, can you differentiate between abrogating and abrogated verses? 'Abdul Rahman said, "no." Thereupon 'Ali said "You are damned and cause others to be damned." (Annashikh wal-Mansukh by Abul Qasim, published by Hindia Press, Cairo, p. 6. A similar saying is found in Al-Nasikh wal Mansukh by Abu Ja'far al-Nahhas, Beirut, 2003, p. 9).
One saying attributed to the Prophet in particular addresses abrogation; it cites Abu al-A'la bin al-Shikhkhir, considered by Muslim theologian to be a reliable source of knowledge about the Prophet's life, as saying, that "The Messenger (Muhammad) of Allah abrogated some of his commands by others, just as the Quran abrogates some part of it with the other." The Prophet of Islam accepted that Allah would invalidate previous revelations, often making ordinances stricter. (Anwar al-Tanzil wa-Asrar al-Ta'wil by 'Abdallah Ibn 'Umar al-Baydawi, published by Dar al-Tiba'ah, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 1997, pp.116-7).
In his book, Tafsir: The Commentary on the Qur'an, Abu Ja'far al-Tabari (d.923) a distinguished authority on Islamic history and one of the early interpreters of the Quran, confirms that abrogation can be used in connection with "commands and prohibitions," (Tafsir: The Commentary on the Qur'an by Abu Ja'far bin Jarir al-Tabari, Oxford University Press, 1987, pp. 471-2).
In the eleventh century, Muslim theologians insist that verses from the Quran may substitute other verses, (See for example, Al-Naasikh wal Mansukh by Ibn Hazim, Dar al-Kutub al-'Ilmiyyah, Beirut, 1986). They also agreed that the Prophet changed his rules according to circumstances, (Sahih al-Bukhari by Muhammad al-Bukhari, vol 6, Kazi, Lahore, 1979, book 60, p. 31; See also, Al-Kashshaf 'an Haqa'iq al-Tanzil wa-'Uyun al-Aqawil fi Wujuh al-Ta'wil, Dar al-Kitab al-Arabi, Beirut, 1967, part I, pp 337).
Modern Muslim commentators confirm the doctrine of abrogation; they state that the laws might differ across time but that there should be no shame in the same lawgiver replacing temporary law with permanent ones (i.e. abrogating). (Tafsir al-Qur'an by Abdul Majid al-Daryabadi, Idara Islamiyyat, Lahore, 1985, p. 36).
Muslim theologian divide the Quran into verses revealed to Muhammad by the Angel Jibril in Mecca when his community of followers was weak and more inclined to compromise with Christians, Jews and the pagans of Arabia. It is during this period in Mecca that the earlier, peaceful, compromising, and lenient verses were revealed to Muhammad. But as his authority grew strong after he and his followers migrated to Medina, other verses came down to him; it is those defiant, insulting, attacking, and calling for jihad against non-Muslims verses that abrogate the previous verses.
Muslim theologians insist that anyone who studies the Quran without mastering the doctrine of abrogation would be "deficient" (See Al-Nasikh wal-Mansukh by Abu al-Kasim Hibat-Allah Ibn Salama, Dar al Ma'arif, Cairo, 1966, pp. 4-5. On page 142-3, he lists the abrogated verses. See also pp. 7, 11, 26-27, 37, 46.).
Western readers may not have heard with this fundamental doctrine in Islam. Muslim commentators refer to the peaceful, compromising, and tolerant verses from the Quran; they do not tell their Western audience that these verses have been annulled and have been replaced by verses which are defiant, insulting, attacking and calling for jihad against non-Muslims. So far this tactic, used by Muslim commentators, has been successful in the Western media. Western journalists and scholars, although--some of them studied Arabic--are not capable of understanding the old Arabic language, in which the Arabic literature and history is originally documented, and they may not have access to these books which deal with abrogation. Muslim commentators avoid any discussion of the abrogation in the Quran.
Al-Suyuti, (1445-1505), an authoritative Muslim scholar said in his Al-Itqan fi Ulum al-Quran that everything in the Quran about forgiveness and peace is abrogated by verse 9:5. The verse orders Muslims to fight the unbelievers and to establish Allah's kingdom on earth. Verse 9:5 reads the following:
"When the sacred months are over, slay the'mushrikoon' (those who associate gods with Allah) wherever your find them. Arrest them, besiege them, and lie in ambush everywhere for them. If they repent and take to prayer and render the alms levy, allow them to go their way. God is forgiving and merciful" (Quran 9:5).
Muslim theologians call this verse, "The Verse of the Sword." Some Muslim writers call it "the Ultimatum". Chapter 9 of the Quran, in which the Verse of the Sword is written, is the only chapter that does not begin "in the name of Allah, most benevolent, ever-merciful." All other chapters of the Quran begin with this opening statement. (See Al-Itqan fi 'Ulum al-Quran by Al-Suyuti, part 1, pp.60, 65, 164).
Muslim commentators confirm that the Prophet received this revelation (9:5) in the year 631, one year before his death, when he had returned to Mecca, triumphant. (See, The History of al-Tabari, vol. 8, pp. 160-87). The most reliable source in the Hadith collection of Sahih al-Bukhari, states that chapter 9 of the Quran was the last chapter revealed to Muhammad. (Sahih al-Bukhari, vol. 6, book 60, # 129).
Prior to receiving The Verse of the Sword, Muhammad had reached agreements with various pagan tribes of Arabia. But all these agreements were nullified after that verse. The Verse of the Sword creates license for Muslim extremists to kill non-Muslim, solely on the basis of their refusal to accept Islam.
Al-Dahhak Ibn Muzahim, an authentic transmitter of Hadiths, said that The Verse of the Sword "abrogated every agreement of peace between the Prophet and any idolater, every treaty, and every term. The Shafi'i School of Jurisprudence in Sunni Islam took this as a justification for killing anyone who abandoned prayer and for fighting anyone who refused to pay religious "Jizya" (head tax for protection paid to Muslims by non-Muslims)." (See Islamic Jurisprudence: Shafi'i Risalah by Khadduri, pp. 333-52, notes, pp. 33-9).
Muslim fundamentalists cite this verse to justify their violent jihad against non-Muslims. The Quranic term'mushrikeen' or "mushrikoon" means those who associate gods with Allah; this applies to the Hindus and Christians. Christians' belief in the Trinity implies that Jesus is God. This has been interpreted by Muslim theologians that Christians believe in two Gods: God the father and God the Son. Such a belief is called, in Arabic, "ishrak", the etymology of the Quranic word, "mushrikeen".
Since Chapter 9 of the Quran came late during the life of the Prophet, therefore, it abrogates previous peaceful verses of the Quran. According to Sahih al-Bukhari, Allah revealed this chapter to the Prophet in order to discard any restraint on Muslims, and to command Muslims to fight against all the pagans as well as against the People of the Book (i.e. Christians and Jews) if they do not embrace Islam, or until they pay the "Jizya" (which is a religious tax). The verse says: "But if they (non-Muslims) repent and establish worship and pay the alms to the needy…" This is an ultimatum to non-Muslims to convert to Islam.
Al-suyuti states that one hundred twenty four verses in the Quran have been abrogated by "The Verse of the Sword". According to Shaidalah, a Muslim source of jurisprudence, the Quranic verse that we mentioned earlier which states: "You have your religion and I have mine" (Quran 109:6), and "Let there be no compulsion in religion" (Quran 2:256), both verses have been abrogated, long time ago. (See al-Itqan fi 'Ulum al-Quran by al-Suyuti, cited earlier).
A contemporary, Muhammad Sa'id Ramadan Al-Buti, a PhD holder from al-Azhar University in Egypt, and dean of the Faculty of Religion at Damascus University, Syria, wrote the following commentary: "Verse 9:5 does not leave any room in the mind to conjecture about what is called defensive war. This verse asserts that holy war, which is demanded in Islamic law, is not a defensive war because it could legitimately be an offensive war. That is the apex and most honorable of all holy wars. Its goal is the exaltation of the word of Allah, the construction of Islamic society, and the establishment of Allah's kingdom on earth regardless of the means. It is legal to carry on an offensive holy war." (Jurisprudence in Muhammad's Biography by Muhammad Sa'id Ramadan al-Buti, Dar al-Fikr, Damascus, 2001, pp. 323-4).
Western readers, who read the Quran, will not notice this distinction between the abrogated and non-abrogated verses. The abrogated verses were kept in the Quran. So, Western readers do not know that those verses, which are considered nice, peaceful, reasonable, loving and tolerant toward non-Muslims, are in fact abrogated, i.e. overridden and annulled by later verses which validate such things as terrorism, hatred and violence toward other religions.
Muslim commentators, who appear on TV programs or write essays on this subject, do not disclose to their Western audience that these verses are in fact abrogated and could not be used as a reference of Islamic peaceful dealings with other religions. Only the remaining verses which have threatening tones against non-Muslims are not abrogated, because they came to the Prophet at a later time.
The current phase of Jihad against non-Muslims stems from the doctrine of abrogation, which commands Muslims to "Fight those who do not believe in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which has been forbidden by Allah and His Apostle, nor acknowledge the religion of truth of the People of the Book (i.e. Christians and Jews), until they pay the Jizya (head tax for protection) with submission and feel themselves humiliated" (Quran 9:29). "And those who disbelieve (non-Muslims) will be gathered unto Hell" (Quran8:36). "If thou couldst see how the angels receive those who disbelieve (non-Muslims), smiting faces and their backs and (saying): Taste the punishment of burning" (Quran 8:50).
The Verse of the Sword abrogates the following verse: "We believe in Allah and what has been revealed to us and what was revealed to Abraham and Ishmael, and Isaac, and Jacob and his children (i.e. the twelve children of Jacobs), and what is given to Moses and Jesus, and what was given to all other prophets from their Lord..." (Quran 2:257).
Abrogation has ramifications, one of which is manifested in the lack of condemnation by the Muslims in general to the persecution of Christians in Islamic countries. This explains why Muslims around the world have little or no enthusiasm to mobilize demonstrations in the streets of Washington DC, or Paris or London to condemn Muslim terrorists. The mild reaction by Muslims to the attack of September 11 on the United States is just one example of lack of interest in condemning Muslim terrorists. The attackers of September 11 did what they did in compliance with "The Verse of the Sword". The doctrine of abrogation drops any sense of remorse, or mercy by Muslim extremists towards non-Muslims. There is a popular saying in the Muslim world in Arabic: "You must defend your brethren (Muslim) under any circumstances, whether he is aggressor or victim" (Wansur akhaka idha kaana dhaliman aw madhluman).
The doctrine of abrogation creates hatred by Muslims towards non-Muslims. It is impermissible for a Muslim to attend the celebration of Christian festivals and congratulate them. Here is a Fatwa issued by Sheikh Muhammed Salih al-Munajjid; it reads the following: "…It is not permissible for the Muslims to attend the festivals of the mushrikeen (those who associate gods with Allah), according to the consensus of the scholars whose words carry weight...Do not enter upon the mushrikeen in their churches (i.e. Christians) on the day of their festival, for divine wrath is descending upon them...Avoid the enemies of Allah on their festivals...Whosoever settles in the land of the non-Arabs (non-Muslims) and celebrates their new year and festival and imitates them until he dies in that state, will be gathered with them on the Day of Resurrection" (http://islamqa.com/en/ref/11427) Last time viewed Jan. 5, 2011.
Treatment of Christians under Islam
The doctrine of abrogation gives license to Muslim extremists to persecute non-Muslims. From the beginning, Islam regarded both Christians and Jews as second-class citizens. Time and again, the Muslim texts, which are represented in the Quran and the second source of the Islamic law, known as the "Hadith" (sayings of the Prophet) and "Sunnah" (deeds of the Prophet), assert the intention of humiliating Christians and Jews. Never was a Christian or a Jew to be left in doubt about his inferior status. And it must be said that, on the whole, Christian communities were massacred and their churches were taken away and turned into mosques; to add insult to injury, Christian men and women were forced to wear special garments in order to identify themselves in public as "dhimmi", i.e. the insulted community.
History of persecutions of Christians and Jews under Islamic Sharia has been going on since the early Islamic invasion of the Middle East in the seventh century. During the reign of al-Mutawakkil (847-61), a wave of anti-dhimmi (anti-Christian) feeling swept the Middle East. The Calipha, Barhebraeus (d. 1286) reports, "was a hater of the Christians, and afflicted them by ordering them to bind bandlets of wool round their heads; and none of them was to appear outside his house without a belt and girdle. And the new churches were to be pulled down. And if they should happen to have a spacious church, even though it was ancient, one part of it was to be made into a mosque.
The Massacres of Armenians in 1915, which killed more than 1.5 million Christian Armenians in Turkey, in addition to half a million Syriac Orthodox, Syrian Catholics, Assyrians (i.e. the Church of the East), Chaldeans and other Christian minorities, who were massacred by the Muslim Turks and Kurds in the region of Tur 'Abdin in Southeast Turkey, is a reminder to what extent Muslim extremists can do to annihilate Christians, Jews and Hindus, if they have power and the upper hand.
In modern days, Pakistan's blasphemy law is one of the main causes of persecution against Christians and other religious minorities in that country. It was enacted into law during the Islamization process under the military dictatorship of General Muhammad Zia ul-Haq in the 1980s. Under the law, anyone who speaks ill of Islam and the Prophet Muhammad commits a crime and faces the death penalty. The law stipulates that "derogatory remarks, etc., in respect of the Holy Prophet either spoken or written, or by visible representation, or by any imputation, innuendo or insinuation, directly or indirectly shall be punished with death, or imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine." (See the Blasphemy Law in Pakistan; http://www.rationalistinternational.net/Shaikh/blasphemy_laws_in_pakista
Christians who make up 4 percent of Pakistan's population have been especially concerned about the law saying it offers them no protection. Convictions hinge on witness testimony and often these are linked to personal vendettas. Under this law, a Pakistani court sentenced in November, 2010, Asia Bibi, a Christian mother of four to death, in a case that has exposed deep rifts in the troubled Muslim nation of more than 170 million people. On Tuesday, January 4, 2011, the governor of the most populous state of Punjab, Salman Taseer, who had strongly opposed the law and sought presidential pardon for the 45-year-old Christian woman, was gunned down by one of his bodyguards.
In Sudan, it is estimated that more than 1.5 million Christians have been killed by the Janjaweed, the Arab Muslim forces in northern Sudan since 1984. (Source, Wikipedia).
In Ghaza, under the auspices of Hamas, Christian citizens, Christian establishments and religious institutions are singled out and attacked by Muslim extremists belonging to the Islamic Hamas movement.
In 1999, anti-Christian violence erupted by local Muslims in Indonesia. Tens of thousands died when Muslim gunmen terrorized Christians who had voted for independence in East Timor. (See The Faith: A History of Christianity by Brian Moynahan, Random House, 2003, p. 728.)
Saudi Arabia regularly imprisons Christians from other nations. Christians are arrested and lashed for practicing their faith in public. No one is allowed to be a citizen in this nation unless he or she is Muslim. Prayer services by Christians are broken up by the police, and people who convert to Christianity are often arrested and may be sentenced to death.
Confiscation of Churches
The spread of Islam was always associated confiscating churches and turning them into mosques. One of the major shrines in Eastern Christianity was the Church of St. John the Baptist in Damascus, Syria. Pope John Paul II visited the Great Mosque of Damascus) popularly known as al-Masjid al-Umawi) in 2001; he was aware that he was visiting the site of the Great Church of St. John the Baptist.
Muslim Turks annexed the great church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, which became the principal mosque of the Ottoman Empire. The Church of Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom), constructed between 532 and 537 on the orders of the Byzantine Emperor, Justinianus. It was a former patriarchal basilica, later a mosque. It was officially turned into a museum in 1935 by Ataturk.
The great Jacobite Church of Amida (modern-day Diyarbakr in Southeast Turkey, became the courtyard of the Great Mosque of Diarbakr.
The tomb of a Jacobite Patriarch at Niveveh, near Mosul in Iraq, was confiscated and turned into the mosque of Jonah (Nabi Yunis). (See the Decline of Medieval Hellenism, by Speros Vryonis, 1899, p. 197.)
Th e Ottoman Empire never stopped confiscating churches and converting them into mosques. When they occupied Budapest, all the churches but one became mosques. In Cyprus, the Gothic Cathedral of Famagusta became the Turkish mosque of Lala Mustafa Pasha. Originally, it was known as the Saint Nicolas Cathedral, and later as Ayasofya Mosque of Magusa, the largest medieval building in Gamagusta. Built between 1298 and 1400, it was consecrated as a Christian cathedral in 1328.
A significant surge in churches converted into mosques followed the 1974 Turkish Invasion of Cyprus. Many of the Orthodox churches in Northern Cyprus were confiscated, and many are still in the process of becoming mosques.
The Armenian Cathedral of Edessa, which was lost during the 1915 massacres of the Armenians, Syrians, Nestorians (modern day Assyrians), and Chaldeans, became a mosques, with a mihrab (direction of prayer to Mecca) punched into the south wall to indicate the direction of Mecca. There are no churches in Edessa in use today.
In Egypt, the columns of an older Christian Church was confiscated by the Muslims of Egypt and converted into Ibn Tulun Mosque; considered one of the world's largest mosques.
In many instances mosques were established on the places of Jewish or Christian sanctuaries associated with Biblical personalities. The second Calipha 'Umar, laid down the foundation of al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Temple Mount is the most sacred site in Judaism. Its location was the site where Abraham offered his son Isaac in sacrifice. It was built by King Solomon in the tenth century BC.
Conclusion
To make things worse for the Christian communities throughout the Middle East, every single state in the Arab League, except Lebanon, inserted in their constitutions provisions indicating that "Islam is the religion of the state"; or " the laws of the state must be based on Islamic Sharia"; or the "president must be Muslim". All these provisions in the constitutions of the Muslim countries demonstrate disrespect and discrimination against the original Christian inhabitants of these states. Such provisions encourage Muslim states and individuals to commit acts of violence and murder against the Christian minorities. Such constitutional provisions make it possible for fanatic parties to flourish and instigate riots and violence against the Christian minorities as we see in Iraq, Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Indonesia, and other Muslim nations.
As if these discriminating constitutions are not enough, the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), an international organization with a permanent delegation to the United Nations, with 57 member states is adding more troubles to the minorities in the Muslim states. While it attempts to safeguard the interests and ensure the progress and well-being of Muslims all over the world, not a single resolution taken by this organization addressed the status of the minorities in the Muslim states or condemning the massacres and violence against them. I might add that the U.S. has a permanent representative to this body. So far no meeting was held by the OIC to look into these massacres, or to condemn them.
The Arab league (consists of twenty-two Arab states) holds meetings to discuss issues related the Middle East, or involving Islam. The Arab league refuses to meet or discuss the execution of Christians and other minorities living in its Member States.
Arab Heads of States and their foreign ministers meet or a regular basis to discuss policies related to the Middle East. So far not a single meeting was held to discuss the persecution of the Christians living in their states.CHRIS WALLACE, HOST: But White House officials now say, and they really have been teeing this up, now it looks like the president will take some major executive action over the course of the summer or right after Labor Day and may even consider deferring the deportations of millions of more illegal immigrants. Congressman King, if he does that, if he goes ahead and unilaterally decides to defer deportations of millions of immigrants, what are you going to do about it?
REP. STEVE KING (R-IOWA): None of us want to do the thing that's left for us as an alternative but if the president has decided that he simply is not going to enforce any immigration law or at least not against anybody except the felons which potentially he has done already. This is broader group of people. I think Congress has to sit down and have a serious look at the rest of this constitution and that includes that "i-word" we don't want to say. And I only say that now on this program because I want to encourage the president please don't put America into a constitutional crisis. Please don't do that. There's too much at stake in this country to be decided that you can take over the constitution and write it at will.
WALLACE: But you're saying if he were to do that then impeachment would be on the table?
KING: I think that we have to start, sit down and take a look at that. Where would we draw the line otherwise? If that's not enough to bring that about then I don't know what would be. We've never seen anything in this country like a president that says I'm going to make up all the immigration laws as I choose and drive this regardless the resistance of the Congress. That's why I tried to get the DACA language out of this legislation that we just passed. It says, Mr. President, you can't do this, it's unconstitutional and you know it. We want to stop the funding for DACA. That's the message.With the void left by the trade that sent Eloy Jimenez and Dylan Cease to the White Sox, Isaac Paredes, an 18-year-old shortstop from Mexico, is now likely the most promising prospect in the Cubs farm system. The stout middle infielder’s future is so bright that KATOH, the minor league statistical projection system, ranked him No. 50 among the most valuable prospects mostly off of rookie ball play.
It’s easy to compare Paredes to another former international free agent, Gleyber Torres, because both thrived as 18-year-olds against competition well above their age. Like Paredes, Torres made an appearance on KATOH’s top prospect list, ranking 10th going into high-A ball. Today, the Yankees farmhand is considered one of the top prospects — if not the best prospect — in all of baseball.
But similarities in age, position, and jersey number is where the direct comparison between the international signings end. Paredes profiles as a much different hitter than Torres, and, surprisingly, is performing better than his predecessor did against the same competition.
Paredes is six months younger than Torres was prior to embarking on his first full season in the Midwest League. The two players’ wOBA numbers look similar in different sample sizes, but Paredes is generating run value in a much different manner, smacking homers at three times the rate and striking out 34 percent less. Power and contact is the name of Paredes’ game, making his future incredibly appealing.
Prospect Age PA BB% K% HR ISO AVG wOBA Torres 18 yr, 7 m 514 8.4% 21.0% 3.093.293.345 Paredes 18 yr, 1 m 326 8.6% 14.1% 7.149.270.354
The Mexican native is playing against pitchers who average three years older than him, too. That alone is impressive. When further comparing how Paredes rates against other Midwest League 18-year-olds, who make up some of the best of the youngest bunch in baseball, his numbers become even more eye-opening. Homers are jumping off his bat at a greater rate, contributing to a better ISO, and he’s doing all of this while striking out 37 percent less frequently.
Prospect HR/PA ISO K% BB/K Paredes 2.14%.149 14.1%.61 18 yr AVG 2.03%.125 22.3%.48
“Paredes has a thick frame and below-average speed, leading many scouts to think he may move to third base, second base, or even move behind the plate in the future,” wrote 2080 Baseball’s John Arguello, one of the most insightful prospect writers in the game. “His arm strength is above average to plus, and at the plate he is an aggressive hitter who attacks the baseball and has good feel for the barrel.”
A thick frame is probably the first trait that jumps out at you when watching the shortstop. He doesn’t look like your typical 18-year-old, and his peers sure don’t take pitches with as much poise. His propensity for power is enough to make you salivate, but just watch the balance with which he takes pitches.
Expect to see Paredes fly up the prospect rankings when the season ends. I wouldn’t be surprise if he’s a top 30 KATOH player going into 2018 and a top 100 prospect on a few scouting lists. Although Theo Epstein said after trading for Jose Quintana that “the best farm system in the world is when they’re on your big league team,” Paredes will lead the next wave of talented Cubs prospects.
And the waves will keep coming.CLOSE The Sand Shore Road tap room will be open for business starting Friday. 4/12/16 Staff video by Michael Izzo
Buy Photo Head brewer Jodi Stoudt, on left, and cellarman Chris Pszonek check the brewing at Jersey Girl Brewing in Mount Olive. (Photo: Alexandra Pais/ For The Daily Record)Buy Photo
MOUNT OLIVE – After about a year in their 10,000-square-foot Sand Shore Road building, Jersey Girl Brewing owners Charles Aaron and Mike Bigger are thrilled to take the “Coming Soon” sign off their front door.
“We’re very excited for the weekend,” said Aaron. “The outpouring we’ve received on social media has been huge. For months we kept getting the same question – when are you going to open? And now that people know the date and have seen our progress, they’re as excited as we are.”
It took a year and a half for Jersey Girl Brewing to go from idea to its Friday opening. The brewery was first incorporated in November 2014, and Flanders residents Aaron and Bigger began scouting locations in early 2015, landing on their Sand Shore site in the spring of last year.
From there came a lot of waiting before everything was approved and in place – from a use variance to a brewing license – and brewing began about three weeks ago. The 30-barrel brewhouse can produce more than 900 gallons per batch. The brewery is not allowed to sell food but anyone taking a tour of the brewery can purchase a flight of beers to sample or a pint of any one particular beer. The brewery sells beer in 64 ounce growlers, 1/2 kegs or 1/6 kegs for take-away consumption.
Jersey Girl will be the second brewery to open in Morris County following High Point Brewing in Butler. The Long Valley Brew Pub also serves its own beer, but as |
make the layout modifications you specified in your XAML code whenever it detects that it is running on an Xbox One console.
Another way you can check whether your app is running on Xbox and then make the appropriate adjustments is through code. You can use the following simple variable to check if your app is running on Xbox:
bool IsTenFoot = (Windows.System.Profile.AnalyticsInfo.VersionInfo.DeviceFamily == "Windows.Xbox");
Then, you can make the appropriate adjustments to your UI in the code block following this check. An example of this is shown in UWP color sample.
Summary
Designing for the 10-foot experience has special considerations to take into account that make it different from designing for any other platform. While you can certainly do a straight port of your UWP app to Xbox One and it will work, it won't necessarily be optimized for the 10-foot experience and can lead to user frustration. Following the guidelines in this article will make sure that your app is as good as it can be on TV.
Related articlesAround 100 guests attended a wedding ceremony of a 9-year-old school boy in South Africa who married with a 62-year-old woman.
According to reports, the 9-year-old, Sanele Masilela, has tied knot with the 62-year-old Helen Shabangu for the second time, claiming that he had been told by his dead ancestors to do so.
“Sanele was fine and he was happy about the ceremony last year and it what he wanted – he was not shy,” Sanele’s 47-year-old mother quoted by The Daily Mail said.
She said, “He was just happy to get married, very excited and was not embarrassed about it. So much so he wanted to do it again.”
“By doing this we made the ancestors happy. If we hadn’t done what my son had asked then something bad would have happened in the family,” she added.
The bride, Helen is a mother of five children who are aged between 38 and 28. “I am very happy that the boy chose me and my family support and understand that it is part of making ancestors happy,” she said.
She also added that the ceremony was for making ancestors happy and hoped that one day Sanele would grow normally and have family of his own and get married one day.
The couple have faced questions like like will they live together, sleep together, have babies. But Sanele’s mother says both have them have gone back to their normal lives.
Sanele has reportedly has moved to Venda not long after the wedding to continue to his studies. He said he hopes he would have a proper wedding to a woman his own age when he was older.A few weeks ago, I shared details about using the free Shop Disney Parks mobile app to search, locate, and purchase thousands of merchandise items offered in Disney-operated retail stores at Walt Disney World Resort. Today, I’m excited to announce some additional enhancements to the app will soon make the shopping experience even better.
Free Shipping Limited Time Offer*
Free shipping will be offered for a limited time now through November 22, 2015 on all Shop Disney Parks standard ground Home Delivery purchases.
New Delivery Options
Once the app update is released, guests visiting Walt Disney World Resort can choose Resort Hotel Delivery, Park Gate Pick-Up or Home Delivery from the Delivery Options on the Review & Purchase screen.
If you choose Resort Hotel Delivery on purchases, you need to have a current Disney Resort reservation linked in My Disney Experience. Resort Delivery is a delivery option for guests until 3:00 p.m. each day. Items will be ready for pick-up at your resort the following day after 12:00 p.m.
If choosing Park Gate Pick-Up as a delivery option, you need to be physically present in a theme park and the item must be available for purchase in that park. Park Gate Pick-Up orders are ready for retrieval at Park Package Pick-Up locations three hours after purchase.
Disneyland Resort Diamond Celebration Products
Finally, I’m happy to report that select products created for the Disneyland Resort Diamond Celebration will soon be available via Shop Disney Parks. Additional products from Disneyland Resort may be added at a future date.
This free app is available for iPhone and smartphones for Android. Visit this page for more details how to download the app.
*Free shipping offer expires 11:59 pm Pacific Time, November 22, 2015. Free shipping applies only to Ground Delivery on orders sent to a single shipping address and does not include shipments to Alaska, Hawai’i, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands or other U.S. territories and possessions. Offer valid on orders placed on the Shop Disney Parks app. Not valid on purchases from DisneyStore.com and Disney Store and Disney Baby Store locations. We reserve the right to cancel or modify this offer at any time. Void where prohibited.The Federal Trade Commission is not messing around when it comes to #sponsored posts.
As previously reported, the FTC sent out over 90 letters to celebrities and social media influencers last month as a not-so-subtle reminder to clearly state when a sponsored social media post has been paid for. Letters were also sent to the stars' agents, and the various brands they were being paid to promote, including Chanel, Adidas, Johnson & Johnson, and more.
On Monday, WWD released a list of the over 45 celebrities and influencers who received these letters, as well as the corresponding brands they were promoting.
"The FTC’s Endorsement Guides state that if there is a ‘material connection’ between the endorser and the marketer of a product — in other words, a connection that might affect the weight or credibility that consumers give the endorsement — that connection should be clearly and conspicuously disclosed, unless the connection is already clear from the context of the communication containing the endorsement," each letter read. "Material connections could consist of a business or family relationship, monetary payment, or the provision of free products to the endorser.”
"If you write about how much you like something you bought on your own and you’re not being rewarded, you don’t have to worry," the letter continued.
A full list of the celebrities and influencers who received these letters from the FTC can be found below. For which brands also received these letters, you can head over to WWD right here.
Jen Selter Nicky Jam Sean Combs Shay Mitchell Ciara Dorothy Wang Luke Bryan Kristin Cavallari Lucy Hale Naomi Campbell Giuliana Rancic Sofia Vergara Heidi Klum Rach Parcell JWoww Jamie Lynn Spears Maci Bookout McKinney Nicole Polizzi Tiona Fernan Amber Rose Vanessa Hudgens Valentina Vignali Lilly Ghalichi Caroline Manzo Allen Iverson Behati Prinsloo Anna Petrosian Victoria Beckham Chelsea Houska Troian Bellisario Nina Agdal Emily Ratajkowski Ashley Benson Denice Moberg James Harrison Scott Disick Lindsay Lohan Kourtney Kardashian Zendaya Bella Thorne Sophia Bush Massy Arias Farrah Abraham Lisa Rinna Akon Jennifer Lopez Vanessa Lachey
Follow Gina on Twitter.Oh, holy cow!!!! I never expected anything this so amazing from this polish exchange! My Santa went way above and beyond anything I even imagined! 12 totally amazing and gorgeous colors! I can't decide which one to wear first. There is a gorgeous orange color that I'm thinking for Halloween, but then there is a metallic green... how will I decide? I am going to ask my nail tech to paint every other nail green and orange! Hey, just cause I'm in my 40's doesn't mean I can't have some fun! ;-)
Oh, and what about those blues? And the sparkly black? AND... the white glitter sparkles? UGH!!!!!! I am in LOVE!!! Oh, and if I had to pick a favorite... that pinkish rosey red... man, oh, man!
Thank you Santa! Oh, and as an aside... Santa, your first name...? That was my beloved late grandma's name! It is such a beautiful name and I get very excited when I see it! Thank you again!Here’s some food for thought: The largest cross-campus study to date has discovered that nearly 40 per cent of Canadian students are food “insecure.” The report, called Hungry for Knowledge, was released last week by Meal Exchange, a national charitable organization. It surveyed 4,500 students across five Canadian campuses over the course of 16 months to fill the gap in data on the issue.
Tori Maas is a fourth year student at OCAD University who has been living below the poverty line and has struggled to pay for groceries. 'I would say it's not so much the cost of food but the cost of everything else,' she said. 'Students prioritize (tuition, rent and textbooks) before self care.' ( Tori Maas )
“This needed to surface, to bring attention to a problem that’s hidden on campuses,” said Anita Abraham, executive director at Meal Exchange. “(This research has) affirmed what we thought we knew.” Meal Exchange can now point out that 39 per cent of students are going without nutritious food, and that more vulnerable demographics, including Aboriginal students, students of colour and student parents, reported higher degrees of food insecurity. The number of campus-based hunger-relief programs across Canada has doubled since 2004.
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These facts do not surprise Ronnie Cruz, community services coordinator with the George Brown College Student Association. She said the number of students using the food banks at the Casa Loma Campus, St. James and Waterfront locations has increased by 30 per cent from last year, and that they’ve had 10,000 visits from students already this semester. “This (problem) is visible on campus,” said Cruz. “Food-bank use is increasing each year because it’s getting harder for students to afford to go to school.” The food-insecure students who were surveyed in the study indicated that the cost of food, tuition fees and housing costs were the most common contributors to their situation. One of the biggest takeaways from the report is that “food insecurity is actually about students’ financial need,” said Drew Silverthorn, a master’s student in social work at Ryerson University, who was the primary researcher in the study. “There are a lot of assumptions and rhetoric about who students are,” Silverthorn continued. “This data will hopefully help to reflect what the actual student experience is.
“The costs of living and tuition has risen dramatically, making university a very different experience than it was 15 or 20 years ago.” Tuition fees are outpacing inflation. The study pointed out that the average cost of tuition per semester for an undergraduate degree in 1993 was $3,192, compared to $6,191 in 2015.
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Hungry for Knowledge found that 46.2 per cent of the students surveyed were employed during the school year, but almost all (96 per cent) were working a low-skill, low-income service sector job. Tori Maas is a fourth year student at OCAD University who has spent her entire education living below the poverty line. Despite working for the student union and three other jobs, she’s just getting by, Maas said. “I’ve been in situations where I haven’t been able to afford groceries,” said Maas. “I’ve personally accessed (OCAD’s) student pantry and had to make decisions about purchasing food versus other necessities.” Maas says she’s not alone. “It’s become the norm for students to talk about how broke they are all the time.... I would say it’s not so much the cost of food, but the cost of everything else.” She also says students, especially in art programs, must pay for extra materials for their projects and “a lot of unfortunate stereotypes like we’re starving or tortured or entitled.” This “dismissive attitude” about student life takes away from a “bigger picture of asking for funding and tuition reform,” she said. The reality is that students don’t have money, so they have to choose between food, housing and textbooks, said Abraham. “To get to the systemic roots of this problem (would be to) provide access to better jobs, financial aid and tuition help.” Facts about food insecurity on campus Hungry for Knowledge, the largest cross-campus study on student food insecurity in Canada, found that: 39 per cent: Nearly two in five of students surveyed experienced some form of food insecurity across Canada 23.7 per cent: Percentage of food-insecure students who reported that their physical health was affected 20.1 per cent: Percentage of food-insecure students who reported that their mental health was affected 49.5 per cent: Percentage of surveyed students who reported that they had to sacrifice buying healthy food to pay for expenses such as rent, tuition and textbooks 75.3 per cent: Percentage of African students found to experience some form of food insecurity 56.4 per cent: Percentage of Aboriginal students who experienced food insecurity 53.3 per cent: Percentage of Caribbean students surveyed who experienced food insecurity 104: Number of campus-based hunger relief programs across Canada in 2016. (n 2004, there were 51 campus-based hunger relief programs.)David Cameron Working To Stop UK Press From Publishing Anything More From Snowden Leaks
from the no-free-press dept
David Cameron threatened on Monday to act to stop newspapers publishing what he called damaging leaks from former U.S. intelligence operative Edward Snowden.
"If they don't demonstrate some social responsibility it will be very difficult for government to stand back and not to act," Cameron told parliament.
"I don't want to have to use injunctions or D-notices (publication bans) or the other tougher measures. I think it's much better to appeal to newspapers' sense of social responsibility," he said.
It looks like Glenn Greenwald picked the right time to leave the UK's The Guardian newspaper. Last week, we noted that David Cameron was pushing for an investigation into the paper for publishing stories based on Ed Snowden's leaks, and now Cameron is going even further in his attempt to stomp out any sense of a free press in the UK, threatening to make moves to block UK publications from writing anything else new about as-yet-unreleased Snowden documents. Because that'll stop the outrage.I love that phrase "social responsibility." Because an awful lot of people would argue that the Guardian has demonstrated a hell of a lot more "social responsibility" in publishing the stories they have, revealing the massive overreach of the NSA, GCHQ and others in violating the civil liberties of people around the globe.Later in his talk, Cameron suggests that he doesn't want to have to take direct action -- which is an implication that he might do exactly that:There's that "social responsibility" phrase again. I don't think it means quite what Cameron seems to think it means. Social responsibility is not being stenographers for the government's point of view. Quite the opposite. You'd think that someone in Cameron's position would understand that.
Filed Under: david cameron, gchq, nsa, press freedom, social responsibility, super injunctions, surveillance, ukThe iPad as accessory. Photo by CARL DE SOUZA/AFP/Getty Images
Alyssa, you’re right that we’re past the point where it makes any sense to complain about news aggregation. Twitter churns out its 140-character info pellets; web mags shower us in cutesy bullet points; blogs vie daily to out-SparkNote each other, offering shorter and smarter takes on the same silage. I’m looking forward to the day when reporters are forced to sum up entire articles in a single word, maybe an invented one, like Rompollbad or UseSpuds. And yes, we’re all busy (or fake-busy), so these abridged data feeds can help us stay current when the alternative is living in ignorance. But still: A line exists between conceding to reality and reveling in the superficiality of your interest in the rest of the world, and theSkimm crosses that line.
I don’t object to the fact that the newsletters’ creators, Danielle Weisberg and Carly Zakin, live in New York and are young and attractive. But I think their mission statement—“[simplifying] the headlines for the educated professional…breaking down what you need to know to start the conversation”—is revealing. Weisberg and Zakin seem to consider informed chitchat the goal and teleological endpoint of news consumption. They offer a section called “Repeat After Me,” with subheads like “What to say on a date,” “What to say to your boss,” “What to say while getting your nails done,” “What to say while at drinks with your girlfriends.”It all unfolds in a quippy voice that would make sense coming from Hannah Horvath on Girls.
theSkimm wants to reach professional women in their twenties and thirties. Its creators (quite sensibly) seem to think the best way to do this is to trade on stereotypes that reflect “our” aspirations. But according to them, what are these aspirations? To say all the right things in all the relevant social scenarios. To fake it, if necessary. To appear rather than to be. Somehow this is all summed up in the newsletter’s logo: a super-skinny woman in pearls and expensive-looking heels, gazing nonchalantly into an iPad.
I understand the value of coming prepared to a social exchange, but would it kill theSkimm’s writers to at least pretend that we’d spend more time on news stories if we could, perhaps by hyperlinking to longer articles? And do they have to couch items in the kind of arch, self-conscious patter that implies we care more about impressing a date than understanding what’s going on in the world?
Finally, I agree that “It’s not only busy professional women who could stand to get breakdowns of issues and downloads of gossip.” Alyssa, you write that “theSkimm may be oriented toward women, but it’s just a repackaging of the gender-neutral act of headline scanning that most people do every day.” It’s this gendered repackaging of a perfectly normal act that I think bugs me most about theSkimm. The newsletter seeks to appeal to women, specifically, by playing up social performance. Another site might emphasize “the ability to ask decent questions” for learning’s sake; Weisberg and Zakin are writing for those ladies (they’re always ladies) who lack “the time or interest.”
I wish I got the sense that theSkimm wanted to help us “get more out of our conversations” with “people who know more…than we do.” But I suspect it really exists so that we can cover our butts and make a good impression. That may be a useful service, but it’s not a journalistic one.1 of 1 2 of 1
A high-profile U.S. academic says that western governments are ramping up the use of police power against people who are trying to exercise their right to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly.
Judith Butler, a renowned feminist thinker and professor in the rhetoric department at the University of California at Berkeley, told the Georgia Straight by phone that this is evident in recent police responses to anti-NATO protests in Chicago and student demonstrations in Montreal. She cited it as the fallout of the intensification of neoliberal capitalism.
“At a certain point, we have to ask whether security has become an alibi for state violence of various kinds,” she said shortly after arriving in Vancouver to give a free public lecture.
Butler, who is the author of several books, pointed out that people are taking to the streets because they’re excluded from established areas of influence, including the electoral system, corporate power, and the media. She noted that these protesters often don’t come from communities based on a common identity, language, or even nationality, and they don’t agree with each other on many issues.
“Their bodies are their last resource and their most important resource—and it is the power they have,” she said. “So bodies in the street can stop traffic or bring attention that [there are] very basic needs to be satisfied, including shelter, food, employment, and freedom of mobility and freedom of expression.”
In her view, the worst examples of police violence in western countries have occurred in Greece. But she expects police violence to escalate as security forces are being trained in new military-style methods of crowd management.
Butler mentioned that new laws—such as Quebec’s Bill 78—are often justified by authorities in the name of security for dignitaries and the global economy. She highlighted the fact that many protesters are in the streets to demonstrate about their lack of “security” over such basic needs as shelter, employment, and health care.
“Wealth is accumulating at accelerated speed for fewer and fewer people,” Butler stated. “And conditions of precarity are being intensified at an accelerated speed for more and more people. It’s not exactly the traditional conception of class warfare, but it is our very contemporary version.”
Under Bill 78, police must receive eight hours’ notice of any demonstration involving more than 50 people. Authorities can order demonstrators to move their protest to a different location. Encouraging someone to protest is illegal, and people can be fined up to $5,000 for preventing someone from entering an educational institution. For these actions, student leaders face fines of up to $35,000, and student federations face maximum fines of $125,000.
“I think if those demonstrations can bring the routine operation of a university to a halt, that means they are exercising quite a bit of power,” Butler declared. “I actually think the Montreal students’ strikes have been among the most powerful.”
Butler stated that in Berkeley, a legal case has been made that demonstrating students pose security risks for the university. She added that sometimes, the law works to “shore up military and police power”.
“The more we see courts and judges accept that kind of argumentation, the more serious this conflict will become because there is no recourse even to basic classical liberal precepts of freedom of speech and freedom of assembly under those conditions,” Butler said. “That is very, very frightening. Some would even say that those kinds of laws that prohibit assembly and free speech on grounds of state security are emblematic of fascism. I’m not saying we live in a fascist society, but I am saying those are the hallmarks. So it’s extremely important that these kinds of legal decisions not become normalized or accepted as reasonable. And it does mean that extra-legal forms of resistance will become more and more important.”
Judith Butler will deliver UBC’s Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies free spring lecture at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday (May 24) at the Vogue Theatre.
Follow Charlie Smith on Twitter at twitter.com/csmithstraight.We’re now two weeks away from Fortune Brainstorm Tech, our annual gathering of the world’s top tech executives, investors and thinkers at the Aspen Institute in Colorado.
Most of our participants had been previously announced, including the CEOs of such companies as Airbnb, Cisco, Disney, Dropbox, DraftKings, Fitbit, Girls Who Code, Google Ventures, Flex, Hyatt Hotels, Intel, Koch Industries, Magic Leap, PayPal, Twilio, Toys ‘R Us, WeWork and Wealthfront.
Today we’d like to reveal some exciting new additions to our line-up:
Thomas Tull and Mary Parent: Legendary Entertainment
Thomas Tull is chairman and CEO of Legendary, the entertainment studio behind such hits as The Dark Knight Trilogy, The Hangover, Steve Jobs and Straight Outta Compton and The Nerdist podcast. Mary Parent recently joined Legendary as vice chairman of worldwide production, after having produced films like The Revenant, Pacific Rim and Godzilla.
Haley Van Dyck, Co-founder, U.S. Digital Service
Haley Van Dyck co-founded the U.S. Digital Service, which works as a quasi-startup inside the White House, helping to bring top tech talent into the government to fix high-impact services and reform how government operates in the digital age. She has been serving in senior government tech roles since the election of President Obama, during whose 2008 campaign she served as deputy director of mobile platforms.
Halt and Catch Fire
The Brainstorm Tech audience will be treated to the Season 3 premiere of AMC’s Halt and Catch Fire, a drama set in the 1980’s PC industry. We’ll also have a conversation with show co-creators Christopher Cantwell and Christopher Rogers, executive producer Melissa Bernstein and cast member Toby Huss (who plays John Bosworth).
What I Learned from Bill Campbell
Silicon Valley lost its master coach in April, when longtime executive mentor Bill Campbell passed away. We’ll be closing out Brainstorm Tech with memories of and lessons learned from Bill, with help from some of those who knew him best: Shellye Archambeau, CEO of MetricStream; John Doerr, chairman of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; and Brad Smith, CEO of Intuit.
Other notable additions include:
Christa Quarles, CEO, OpenTable
David Stern, NBA Commissioner Emeritus
Shane Wall, CTO, HP Inc.
Gretchen West, Senior Advisor on Drones, Hogan Lovells US
Fortune Brainstorm Tech kicks off on Monday, July 11, and the livestream will begin on Fortune.com at 2pm Mountain Time. You can view the full agenda by going here.A black man is accusing Laval police of racial profiling after he says he was pushed and handcuffed at a gas station and had video of the incident deleted from his cellphone.
Pradel Content, 39, filed a complaint against Laval police with the police ethics committee alleging racial profiling, excessive use of force, an unjustified fine and negligence regarding his disability.
He has also filed a complaint with Quebec's Youth and Human Rights Commission for racial profiling and discrimination due to race and disability.
Content walks with a cane and says he has a number of health problems related to a car accident in 2001.
"It affected me mentally more than anything," said Content at a news conference on Saturday. "If the officer deleted the only evidence I have, that could acquit me or show what he did or what's going on, I don't feel safe."
"Anything could happen to me and I don't want that to happen. I want to live," he said.
Content was driving his Cadillac Escalade on des Laurentides boulevard the morning of May 14 and going to buy cigarettes, according to Montreal's Center for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR).
"Anything could happen to me and I don't want that to happen. I want to live." - Pradel Content
According to a police report filed by Laval police officer Michael Boutin, he and another officer were driving in the opposite direction to Content when they decided to U-turn to get his licence plate number. The report does not specify why they did this.
Boutin said he spotted an object sticking out of the truck and noticed it appeared to be a fake hand. Content said the it is a Halloween prop he likes to put on his truck.
Pradel Content said he started filming his interactions with police because, "anything could happen to me and I don't want that to happen. I want to live." (Matt D'Amours/CBC)
Boutin's partner ran the plate number and then wrote that he noticed Content was filming them with his cellphone.
Dispute over when cell was used
Content said he did not use his cellphone while he was in his car and only started filming police once he was parked and standing outside it at a nearby gas station.
Content said police slammed the phone from his hand and pushed him.
"Since when it is illegal to videotape somebody if you're scared for your life?" Content said.
According to police, Content parked rapidly, quickly got out of his vehicle and kept filming them, while yelling and gesturing.
Content obtained surveillance video from the gas station. Content is on the left of the circled area, standing on his truck, while police officer Michael Boutin is visible at the right edge of the screen. (Provided by CRARR)
"We approach him, he is arrogant and mentions that we are harassing him," Boutin described in his report in French.
Content says that Boutin also yelled to the other officer to prevent anyone else from recording what was happening.
In his police report, Boutin said that Content "had to be handcuffed" and put in the police cruiser.
Content said he was violently pushed into the police car and he told police to be careful because he was disabled.
While Content was in the cruiser, Boutin writes, the video was deleted from Content's phone.
Illegal to delete cell videos
"This year there have been two court decisions that clearly state that it's illegal for police officers to erase private citizens's video, when that citizen is under arrest or detention," said Niemi.
"One can search a phone, one can check a phone, one can seize a phone, but one cannot abusively erase the content of the video in the phone," he said.
Eventually Content was let go, and Content says that while Boutin was removing his handcuffs the officer said, "You're lucky you live in Quebec because you know in the States what they would do to people like you."
Boutin wrote in his report that once he let Content go, Content said he had lived in Florida and that while police shoot black people there, police also get shot at in return.
Content was issued a ticket for $127 dollars for using a mobile device while driving. He contested the ticket and got the police report from the court at the end of June, said Niemi.
Content said that he started making videos of his interactions with police in June of 2016.A juxtaposition of the apparent diameters of the supermoon of March 19, 2011 (right) and of an average full moon on December 20, 2010 (left), as viewed from Earth
A supermoon is a full moon or a new moon that nearly coincides with perigee—the closest that the Moon comes to the Earth in its elliptic orbit—resulting in a slightly larger-than-usual apparent size of the lunar disk as viewed from Earth.[1] The technical name is a perigee syzygy (of the Earth–Moon–Sun system) or a full (or new) Moon around perigee.[a] The term supermoon is astrological in origin and has no precise astronomical definition.[2]
The real association of the Moon with both oceanic and crustal tides has led to claims that the supermoon phenomenon may be associated with increased risk of events like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, but no such link has been found.[3]
The opposite phenomenon, an apogee syzygy or a full (or new) Moon around apogee, has been called a micromoon.[4]
Definitions [ edit ]
The name supermoon was coined by astrologer Richard Nolle in 1979, in Dell Horoscope magazine arbitrarily defined as:
... a new or full moon which occurs with the Moon at or near (within 90% of) its closest approach to Earth in a given orbit (perigee). In short, Earth, Moon and Sun are all in a line, with Moon in its nearest approach to Earth. Richard Nolle[5]
NASA image showing comparison of a supermoon (left) and a micromoon (right)
He came up with the name while reading “Strategic Role Of Perigean Spring Tides in Nautical History and Coastal Flooding” published in 1976 by NOAA Hydrologist Fergus Wood.[6][7] Nolle never outlined why he chose 90%,[2] but explained in 2011 that he based calculations on 90% of the difference in lunar apsis extremes for the solar year. In other words, a full or new moon is considered a supermoon if l d s ≤ l d p + 0.1 ∗ ( l d a − l d p ) {\displaystyle ld_{s}\leq ld_{p}+0.1*(ld_{a}-ld_{p})} where l d s {\displaystyle ld_{s}} is the lunar distance at syzygy, l d a {\displaystyle ld_{a}} is the lunar distance at apogee, and l d p {\displaystyle ld_{p}} is the lunar distance at perigee.[8][9]
In practice, there is no official or even consistent definition of how near perigee the full Moon must occur to receive the supermoon label, and new moons rarely receive a supermoon label. Sky and Telescope magazine refers to full Moon which comes within 223,000 miles (359,000 km), TimeandDate.com prefers a definition of 360,000 kilometres (220,000 mi). EarthSky uses Nolle's definition comparing their calculations to tables published by Nolle in 2000.[10][11]
The term perigee-syzygy or perigee full/new moon is preferred in the scientific community.[12] Perigee is the point at which the Moon is closest in its orbit to the Earth, and syzygy is when the Earth, the Moon and the Sun are aligned, which happens at every full or new moon. Astrophysicist Fred Espenak uses Nolle's definition but preferring the label of full Moon at perigee.[13] Wood used the definition of a full or new moon occurring within 24 hours of perigee and also used the label perigee-syzygy.[7]
Wood also coined the less used term proxigee where perigee and the full or new moon are separated by 10 hours or less.[7]
Occurrence [ edit ]
Of the possible 12 or 13 full (or new) moons each year, usually three or four may be classified as supermoons, as commonly defined.
The most recent full supermoon occurred on February 19, 2019, and the next one will be on March 21, 2019.[13] The one on November 14, 2016 was the closest full supermoon since January 26, 1948, and will not be surpassed until November 25, 2034.[14] The closest full supermoon of the 21st century will occur on December 6, 2052.[15]
Supermoons will be the marked points nearest the bottom of the graph.
The oscillating nature of the distance to the full or new moon is due to the difference between the synodic and anomalistic months.[13] The period of this oscillation is about 14 synodic months, which is close to 15 anomalistic months.
Occasionally, a supermoon coincides with a total lunar eclipse. The most recent occurrence of this was in January 2019, and the next will be in May 2021.[13]
Appearance [ edit ]
The supermoon of March 19, 2011 (right), compared to an average full moon of January 18, 2011 (left), as viewed from Earth
A full moon at perigee appears roughly 14% larger in diameter than at apogee.[16] Many observers insist that the moon looks bigger to them. This is likely due to observations shortly after sunset when the moon is near the horizon and the moon illusion is at its most apparent.[17]
While the moon's surface luminance remains the same, because it is closer to the earth the illuminance is about 30% brighter than at its farthest point, or apogee. This is due to the inverse square law of light which changes the amount of light received on earth in inverse proportion to the distance from the moon.[18] While a typical summer full moon at temperate latitudes provides only about 0.05-0.1 lux, a supermoon directly overhead in the tropics could provide up to 0.36 lux.[19]
Effects on Earth [ edit ]
Claims that supermoons can cause natural disasters, and the claim of Nolle that supermoons cause "geophysical stress", have been refuted by scientists.[20][21][22][23]
Despite lack of scientific evidence, there has been media speculation that natural disasters, such as the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami and the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, are causally linked with the 1–2 week period surrounding a supermoon.[24][25] A large, 7.5 magnitude earthquake centred 15 km north-east of Culverden, New Zealand at 00:03 NZDT on November 14, 2016, also coincided with a supermoon.[26][27]
Scientists have confirmed that the combined effect of the Sun and Moon on the Earth's oceans, the tide,[28] is greatest when the Moon is either new or full.[29] and that during lunar perigee, the tidal force is somewhat stronger,[30] resulting in perigean spring tides. However, even at its most powerful, this force is still relatively weak,[31] causing tidal differences of inches at most.[32]
Total Lunar Eclipses [ edit ]
Total lunar eclipses which fall on supermoon and micromoon days are relatively rare. In 21st century, there are 87 total lunar eclipses, of which 28 are supermoons and 6 are micromoons. Almost all total lunar eclipses in Lunar Saros 129 are micromoon eclipses.[33]
Notes [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Media related to Supermoon at Wikimedia CommonsA Scottish newspaper has teased the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump by publishing a spoof TV listing.
The event scheduled for Friday 20 January will confirm Trump as the 45th president of the United States but is instead described by Scotland's Sunday Herald as a return of ''The Twilight Zone".
In a preview that went viral on social media Sunday, the presidential crowning is called the "most ambitious, expensive and controversial productions in broadcast history."
The listing, written by Damien Love, unveiled Trump as some sort of lead horror character.
"The story begins in a nightmarish version of 2017, in which huge sections of the U.S. electorate have somehow been duped into voting to make Donald Trump president."
Love described "The Inauguration" as a flawed but disturbing opening episode of a series which offers a glimpse of trouble ahead.
One fan of the listing is star of the original Star Trek series George Takei.The Central Board of Film Certification has been living up to its reputation as the moral guardian of the nation. In recent months, the CBFC has bleeped out swear words from several Hindi and English movies, ordered vast cuts to the adult-rated sex comedy Mastizaade, made three unnecessary cuts to the squeaky clean Prem Ratan Dhan Payo, reportedly asked for a kiss between Deepika Padukone and Ranbir Kapoor in the upcoming Tamasha to be severely curtailed, and most recently trimmed two liplocks in the new James Bond adventure Spectre.To be precise, each of the minute-long Bond kisses has been trimmed by 50%.Bond is one of cinema’s most cherished Lotharios. Gender relations have changed in Hollywood and elsewhere, often for the better, but Bond retains the license to move on any woman who catches his fancy. The encounter inevitably proves irresistible to his partners and has always been depicted tastefully. There is a smooch, followed by scenes of Bond bare-ch |
’ that allowed tyrannosaurs to rise to the top of the food chain when evolution presented an opportunity.”
The fossils also suggest that the T. rex grew in size suddenly, at the end of the dinosaur age.
But there are also key differences — like the teeth.
“Timurlengia had blade-like teeth. They’re almost built like the dinosaur-version of a steak knife,” Sues says.
“Nice, serrated edges. Very flat. These were teeth that would cut through meat. By comparison, the T. rex tooth basically looks like a banana on steroid. It’s a tooth that punctures through meat and bones.”
The smaller species also weighed much less — 600 pounds compared to the 7-ton T. rex.
Brusatte says advanced technology, like the 3-D printers, are painting a more complete picture of the prehistoric time.
“It’s not just dusty bones anymore. We really try to understand how these animals lived and how they evolved over time,” Brusatte says.
A spokesperson for the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History says the fossils are in the museum’s collections for research purposes but will not be available for public viewing at this time.
The new study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.
Follow @WTOP on Twitter and like us on Facebook.
© 2016 WTOP. All Rights Reserved.Former White House staffers Sebastian Gorka and Steve Bannon spoke at the Family Research Council’s annual Values Voter Summit (VVS) today, where they delivered speeches intended to galvanize the Religious Right against the establishment Republican Party to elect politicians who will support President Donald Trump’s campaign agenda.
Gorka spoke about his time as an advisor to Trump and discussed his latest efforts to help the “Make America Great Again” agenda from outside the White House. Part of that effort, Gorka told the crowd, is unseating Republican congressmen who oppose Trump and fighting back against what he claimed is a dishonest mainstream media that aims to destroy Trump.
“2018 will be the crucial year. This is the year Steve has declared war on the RINO class, as have I, and we must tell them we have had enough,” Gorka said. Gorka also claimed that the founding fathers wouldn’t have “bothered to fight the British” if they imagined senators and representatives would stay in Washington for decades at a time.
Gorka also alluded to the possibility that he and Bannon still communicate with Trump.
“Does anybody in this room think that the only people that the president talks to are people who have a government ID badge?” Gorka said. “I can tell you he doesn’t just talk to those people.”
Bannon followed Gorka, recruiting the Religious Right to aid his agenda to dismantle the establishment GOP. Bannon told the audience at VVS that ensuring the president’s success was not his war, but rather “our war.”
“You all didn’t start it. The establishment started it,” Bannon said. “But I will tell you one thing: You all are going to finish it.”
As part of Bannon’s appeal to the Religious Right, he credited the movement as the “key that picked the lock” to Trump’s success in many battleground states in the 2016 election. Bannon told the crowd that evangelical and Catholic turnout in key districts was “the difference in victory.”
“There’s a time and season for everything. And right now, it’s a season of war against a GOP establishment,” Bannon said, to the applause of the VVS audience.
If the Religious Right helps his push, Bannon said, members of the movement will be “the folks who saved the Judeo-Christian West.”The Hawks’ 96-86 victory over the Grizzlies Wednesday night recorded the second-highest rating for a game on SportSouth this season. The game did a rating of 2.65.
The top three games for viewership this season are:
1. vs. Clippers (Dec. 23):.2.78
2. vs. Grizzlies (Jan. 7): 2.65
3. at Rockets (Dec. 20): 2.16
The Hawks game did better locally than both games of the ESPN NBA doubleheader of Rockets vs. Cavaliers and Suns vs. Timberwolves.
According to the network, the ratings for Hawks games are up 29 percent year-to-year over 32 games.
In other news, SportSouthhas picked up Sunday’s Hawks-Wizards game. The game was previously not scheduled to be aired. Also, the network has picked up the Jan. 14 game against the Celtics that was orginally scheduled to air on ESPN. The network switched coverage to the Hawks-Nets game on Jan. 28 and moved the game time to 8 p.m.
Check out this Vine of the reaction of the Hawks bench to Kyle Korver’s game-clinching 3-pointer last night.It remains to be seen whether Gov. Bob McDonnell will end up on the Republican ticket this fall, but it appears at least one Virginian has decided to run for president.
Virgil H. Goode Jr. -- the former Virginia congressman and state Senator who switched from Democrat to Independent to Republican during his time in office — is apparently interested in the nation’s top job. Goode filed papers with the Federal Election Commission last week to create the Virgil Goode for President Campaign Committee.
The form does not specify which party’s banner Goode will run under, but in 2010 he was named to the executive committee of the Constitution Party, and last year the party unanimously adopted a resolution calling on Goode to run for president. He said at the time he would “consider it.”
Goode had not responded to an e-mailed request for comment as of this posting.By Catherine Winters
MyHealthNewsDaily
Plenty of smokers swear they’ll quit. But nagging concerns about post-smoking weight gain, and perhaps the effect it'll have on their risk for cardiovascular disease, may prompt some to put their plans to quit on the back burner. Now, a new study suggests that post-smoking weight gain won't raise people's risk for cardiovascular disease or death even if they have diabetes.
Researchers found that people without diabetes who stopped smoking reduced their risk for heart attack, stroke or cardiovascular death by about 50 percent. Gaining weight didn’t change that reduction in risk. People with diabetes — a group that has to be especially careful about weight gain — had the same reduction in risk regardless of how much weight they gained.
During the study, researchers analyzed data on 3,251 people enrolled in the Offspring Cohort of the landmark Framingham Heart Study. That study was desgined to identify the causes of heart disease. People in the Offspring Cohort, which began in 1971, underwent regular physical examinations. During these visits, study participants were weighed; their body mass index, or BMI, was calculated; their cholesterol and blood glucose levels were measured; and their smoking habits were recorded.
The researchers found that on average, smokers, nonsmokers and long-term quitters —those who had been smoke-free for four or more years — gained an average of one to two pounds between study visits, which occurred every four years. Recent quitters — those who had quit within the previous four years — gained much more weight, about five to 10 pounds. At their first examination, 31 percent of people in the study smoked. By the fourth examination, about 20 years later, just 13 percent did.
Among people without diabetes, recent quitters gained much more weight —nearly six pounds — than long-term quitters and smokers, who each gained about a pound, and nonsmokers who gained about three pounds. Among people with diabetes, recent quitters gained nearly eight pounds on average; smokers, nearly two pounds; long-term quitters, zero; and nonsmokers one pound.
Typically, people who quit smoking gain between about seven and 13 pounds within the first six months, a gain that lingers over time. Death from cardiovascular disease increases by 40 percent for each five-unit increase in body mass index, or BMI. In a person who is 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighs 180 pounds, that's the equivalent of a 30-pound gain, according to the researchers.
During about 25 years of follow-up, the researchers found that 631 cardiovascular events had occurred. Of these, 337 (53.4 percent) were heart attacks and 147 (23.3 percent) were strokes.
Among people without diabetes, recent quitters were 37 percent less likely to have a heart attack; long-term quitters were 68 percent less likely; and nonsmokers were 81 percent less likely. Among people with diabetes, recent and long-term quitters were 60 percent less likely than smokers to suffer a heart attack; and nonsmokers were 85 percent less likely.
"We knew people gained weight after they stopped smoking," said senior study author researcher Dr. James B. Meigs of the general medicine unit at Massachusetts General Hospital and an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. "We didn't know if that would impact the size of the benefit of stopping smoking."
The findings suggest that the benefits of quitting trump weight gain. "From a public health perspective, people who stop smoking will gain a little weight, but it doesn't mitigate the benefits," added Meigs. "This study allows doctor to say to patients, 'If you stop smoking, within a few years, you'll have the same chance of dying from a heart attack as you would if you hadn’t smoked.' Stopping smoking is really beneficial and again, we can say this with certitude."
Of the major risk factors for cardiovascular disease — namely diabetes, smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and age — weight gain usually influences only three of those, Meigs said. "In people who gain weight, their blood pressure tends to go up and their cholesterol and blood sugar levels tend to get a little worse."
As it turns out, "in our study, the weight gain wasn't so big that people were going from Twiggy to Jumbo," Meigs said. "They were gaining a few pounds in the middle distribution of weight from kind of heavy to a little heavier."
Indeed, the most overwhelming risk factor for having a heart attack or stroke is cigarette smoking. "A little weight gain that raises blood pressure, blood glucose or cholesterol isn’t nearly harmful enough to overcome the benefits of not smoking," Meigs said.
The study is published today (March 12) in the Journal of the American Medical Association.I just want to let you know up front that this may be a little longer of a read than my normal length blogs based on the sensitivity of the subject. But please…please…read it all the way through.
My wife and I have shied away from Section 132 for awhile now. A surface reading of it just doesn’t sit well with most people…but the research my wife has put in on this subject over the last two weeks has blown my mind. She went to God in prayer and analyzed every verse in that section. I wanted to get her feelings, her perspective, her thoughts before I published anything else on this subject.
I published an article called “It’s Time To Stop Hating on Mormons About Polygamy” a few weeks ago in response to the collective media’s commentary on Joseph Smith and polygamy. That piece was more of a reaction on my part. This piece is the result of serious study and pondering and is meant to bring peace to those that might be struggling with the concept.
While my wife was doing her own research…I was busy asking respected friends and knowledgeable church members (many of whom I would consider scholars) one question. “Do you believe that polygamy is a celestial law that will be required in the celestial kingdom?” The almost unanimous answer was “Yes”.
My immediate follow up question and response is this; “Ok…so who taught you that?”
A puzzled look always follows as they say…”well…well…I’m not sure. That’s just what I’ve always heard.”
“Heard it where?” I’d ask.
“Well…I don’t know. That’s a good question”
I’ve been trying to figure out where, how, and why I’ve been taught that plural marriage is an eternal celestial principle. I can’t for the life of me remember why I think that. Is it just Mormon folklore or something someone extrapolated from the Doctrine and Covenants or some Journal of Discourses quotation? Many Mormons will say the same thing…that they’ve heard plural marriage is an eternal principle. But my question is…where did they hear it? Who taught it? And why do so many Mormons believe it?
Maybe it’s time to NOT believe that.
Trying to figure out why Mormons used to practice polygamy is important to a lot of members of the church. It’s been especially difficult for women over the years which is understandable. Valerie Cassler Hudson once wrote that “no woman who has ever felt pain about polygamy is satisfied until her concerns about the hereafter are at least addressed. No woman who has felt pain about polygamy can honestly strive for a place in the celestial kingdom unless she feels that that kingdom is a place in which she would actually want to live.” (Women in Eternity, Women of Zion,)
It’s painful enough to think about in mortality…but to think that it might persist in the eternities is faith shattering for some people. We’ve got to acknowledge that fact and discuss it.
The first thing we need to establish is that when you hear something about polygamy from media outlets or even from other members of the church, you’ve got to keep in mind that they might not know what they’re talking about. Hey! I may not even know what I’m talking about. There are stories, interpretations, and opinions from so many different people that it makes it difficult to know what really happened…and why it really happened.
Here’s what I believe: Plural marriage is NOT a celestial law and it’s NOT required in the celestial kingdom. It’s a temporal, earthly law given as an exception to the spiritual celestial law of monogamy. I feel like it can proven according to the scriptures.
The Lord rips polygamy in the Book of Mormon. There were a few guys in Book of Mormon times that were trying to take multiple wives using David and Solomon as justification for their actions.
“for they seek to excuse themselves in committing whoredoms, because of the things which were written concerning David, and Solomon his son.”
“Behold, David and Solomon truly had many wives and concubines, which thing was abominable before me, saith the Lord.” (Jacob 2:23-24)
The Lord is stating that having many wives was “abominable” to Him…and yet the Bible is clear that David was justified in having many wives when He spoke through His prophet Nathan to David.
“And I gave thee thy master’s house, and thy master’s wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things.” (2 Sam 12:8)
God was not condemning polygamy in David’s day…He was endorsing it. David only got himself in hot water when he went after Uriah’s wife (Bathsheba) and then arranged for Uriah’s death to cover up the baby growing in Bathsheba’s womb.
Again in 1 Kings 15:5 it says that,
“David did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.”
Polygamy was “right in the eyes of the Lord” (1 Kings 15:5) and yet simultaneously “abominable” in the sight of Lord. (Jacob 2:23)
At first glance it looks like an obvious contradiction between the Bible and the Book of Mormon…but we’ve got to ask ourselves if there are any other scriptural instances in which God is commanding or allowing mankind to do something that that is “abominable” but at the same time temporarily accepted or required.
After studying D&C 132 in depth, polygamy…to me… has become less about sex and more about sacrifice. This principle in all actuality requires the ultimate emotional sacrifice. To those required to live this principle…this sacrifice was worse than death. The emotional pain surpassed anything they could have suffered physically.
Good men hated it. (Yes…they did)
Women hated it. (Of course they did)
Joseph Smith hated it and ran from it. (This…he stated over and over again) Then he told others that it would be one of the most challenging thing the saints would ever face.
It is compared with only one other type of sacrifice in all of scripture. The Abrahamic sacrifice. Why?
Most of us have heard of an Abrahamic sacrifice but few understand what it really means. I had no idea how important understanding this doctrine would be to understanding plural marriage.
The Abrahamic sacrifice has a few significant attributes that set it apart from any other kind of sacrifice.
For some reason, God sometimes requires people to contradict and disobey a general commandment that has been given. For instance, a general commandment that has helped people and civilizations for years has been the commandment “Thou shalt not kill”. To “not kill” is the general law that is calculated to bring happiness for following it in this life. But then at times God has required people to break that law in order to follow a temporary law that is an exception to the general law.
Remember the time when God commanded Israel to go after the Amalekites, and “utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.” (1 Sam 15:2-3) Can you imagine how those Israelites felt as they had been taught their entire lives that they “should not kill”.
I can’t imagine how Nephi must have felt when he was commanded to kill Laban. Nephi said, “never at any time have I shed the blood of man. And I shrunk and would that I might not slay him.” His entire life of righteousness seemed to hang in the balance as he was faced with this decision to break a commandment that he knew was right and good. He “shrunk” at the idea.
And then there’s Abraham.
Consider what Abraham was commanded to do to his son Isaac. He was commanded to take his and Sarah’s only son Isaac and sacrifice him in cold blood. Imagine the vice that must have crushed Abraham’s heart as he was commanded to do this thing. They waited years and years for that kid and now this seemingly pointless journey to Mt. Moriah is taking place. Abraham knew that one of the most severe commandments was “thou shalt not kill”…and yet here he was raising the knife to his pride and joy. It was the most strenuous test of faith.
God required these people to follow an exceptional law that is temporary in order to accomplish his purposes even though those purposes were not made known to them at the time. It’s the most spiritually excruciating sacrifice anyone can experience. The general commandment brings happiness and the exceptional commandment brings temporary misery.
I believe that polygamy is one of those exceptional commandments given to men and women at various times for specific purposes. The Lord tells Jacob that he will institute plural marriages for one purpose.
“For if I will saith the Lord of Hosts, raise up seed unto me, I will command my people: otherwise they shall hearken unto these things”. Jacob 2:30
Between reading this verse and the previous verses in Jacob…it becomes clear that the general law is monogamy. Monogamy is never restricted in the scriptures…but polygamy is always restricted unless God needs to “raise up” a righteous seed to fulfill his purposes.
And then we run into Section 132 where the Lord draws an interesting comparison between Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac and Abraham’s willingness to enter into plural marriage. In verse 34, it says that God commanded Abraham to enter into plural marriage. It appears that Abraham was commanded to do this in order to “raise up seed”. Sarah was the one that gave Hagar to Abraham and in doing this…Sarah was conforming to the law that was given to Abraham. In this regard…Sarah was enduring an Abrahamic sacrifice of her own. In verse 36 the Lord draws an instant comparison between Abraham being required to offer Isaac and Abraham being willing to enter into plural marriage. In both cases here…the Lord is saying that it “was accounted unto him for righteousness ” for being willing to depart from the general law to obey the exceptional law as the Lord commanded it.
Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar did not enjoy the exceptional commandment to create a plural family. The Bible makes that really clear. This was the first major test that Abraham had in order to prove that he was willing to do anything that the Lord commanded him. Abraham didn’t want to marry Hagar and have a child with her or else he would have done so sooner. He wanted to be married to Sarah and have a child with her but the Lord prolonged that event in order to test their faith and teach them about sacrifice. As a result of their obedience…they were blessed with Isaac in miracle like fashion.
Unfortunately…Abraham and Sarah were not yet done being tested. Abraham was once again being asked to disobey a general law in order to obey an exceptional law. The Lord tells him to take his son Isaac to Mt Moriah, to bind him, and to sacrifice him. You’ve got to be kidding right?!
Abraham goes as far as to raise his knife and as he does so…the Lord provides an escape. A ram is offered in Isaac’s stead and Abraham’s happiness is restored to him.
As we go back into Section 132 and in verse 50…the Lord tells Joseph Smith that He’s seen his “sacrifices and obedience to that which He had commanded him” in reference to plural marriage. “Therefore” says the Lord, “I make a way for your escape…as I accepted the offering of Abraham of his son Isaac.”
Why does the Lord use the word “escape” here? That means that the sacrifice that is being required of Joseph Smith will come to an end.
Now this is where people may think I’m completely insane for believing such a thing. Most people would never dream or think that a guy would consider marrying multiple women to be a sacrifice…but to a good man that loves his wife…this would indeed be a sacrifice.
If the Lord is calling plural marriage an “Abrahamic sacrifice” then it will bring comfort to someone that has been required to live the law of plural marriage to know that the final attribute of an Abrahamic sacrifice is the eventual release…or…an “escape” as the Lord put it.
If plural marriage is a painful sacrifice for all of the good parties involved…then why would the Lord require it to continue in the Celestial kingdom. Why would God condemn the practice of plural marriage so strongly…even calling it “abominable” if it was in fact a celestial law. Because based on these scriptures…the “sacrifice” is eventually brought to an end so that happiness can be restored as it was with Abraham.
In no place in the scriptures do I see the Lord eluding to a polygamous requirement in the next life. I see Him condemning it in this life except for at times in which He has needed to raise up seed for His own purposes as a bonafide sacrifice and departure from the general law of monogamy.
Too many people believe that the entire section of 132 is about polygamy and mistakenly attribute the first half about the new and everlasting covenant of eternal marriage to plural marriage when in fact the topic of plural marriage is not even discussed until the second half of the revelation. I believe it is eternal marriage (monogamy) that is required in the celestial kingdom, not plural marriage.
But you’re probably concerned about all the people being sealed to each other right?
All of the reasons someone might bring up as a logical reason to practice polygamy in heaven is complete speculation. There is no doctrine about more women being in heaven or there not being enough time to make babies. No doctrine. Actually…most of the explanations aren’t even logical.
God promised Joseph Smith an “escape” from that exceptional law…so why would it be required in heaven?
Why this type of thinking continues on in the Church is a mystery to me. Heck…I’m grateful for all the media coverage because it’s forced my wife and I to consider this principal carefully and prayerfully.
I think people try to come up with whatever they can think of in order to rationalize why they might have to practice polygamy in heaven without ever realizing that it might not even be required in heaven after all. That it was an exception to the celestial law of monogamy in which husband and wife look forward to being with one and other and only each other in the eternal worlds.
But what about men that have been sealed to more than one woman? Why was Joseph Smith and others sealed to so many women including a 14 year old?
Some of the sealings and marriages that took place during the early days of the church were for assuring familial bonds in eternity and did not involve sex, but then other marriages appear to have taken place in order to “raise up a righteous seed”. That raising up a righteous seed portion is where I believe men and women were put to the Abrahamic test. That must have been insanely difficult for men and especially for women. It’s understandable that those affected by this principle reacted so harshly to it.
Even Joseph Smith says in a very candid way that “I don’t blame any man for not believing my history. If I had not experienced what I had…I could not believe it myself.
In the early days…the church was still trying to wrap their heads around sealings. The restoration took place over time and was difficult to understand. Many of the sealings that took place were done as “proxy” or “stand-in” marriages. You had people being sealed to general authorities in every direction to assure their exaltation. Sometimes you had “widows get sealed to general authorities whose husbands had died before receiving the gospel and then the husband sealed to that same general authority as a child” in order to “keep him in the family”. (The Law of Adoption, Gordon Irving, BYU Studies 14 no. 3)
To quote Vallerie Cassler Hudson:
Many women becoming plural wives because of the mistaken understanding that they could not be sealed to their dead husbands and could not gain their exaltation unless sealed to someone as a wife. For example, women who had never even met Joseph Smith while he was alive were sealed to him after his death; also, one woman had her aged mother sealed to her (the daughter’s) husband shortly before the mother died so that the mother could receive her exaltation. Wilford Woodruff had over 400 of his dead female ancestors sealed to him as wives. These practices seem to indicate that the parties involved understood that the man in question was more of a stand-in or proxy so that the woman could receive the marriage ordinance and thus her exaltation, than an understanding that these women were married in some meaningful sense to these particular men for all eternity. For example, what can it mean to have a dead woman sealed to you, whom you have never met in this life, whose will on the matter you cannot possibly know, and who is in fact one of your great-great grandmothers? Or to have your own mother-in-law sealed to you as a wife? Or, in the case of a woman, to be sealed to a dead man whom you have never met, and whose will on the matter you cannot possibly know? These marriages make sense best as proxy marriages. Indeed, when President Wilford Woodruff announced in 1894 that women could be sealed to their dead husbands (and children to their dead parents) even if the deceased had not been baptized before their deaths, many thousands of sealing transfers took place to rightfully reorganize family lines.
Hudson also points out that from a church manual it appears that there is also a doctrine of “transferability”.
When a man and a woman are married in the temple for time and all eternity and then separate, the children will go with the parent who is justified and who has kept the covenants. If neither of them has kept his covenants, the children may be taken away from both of them and given to somebody else and that would be by virtue of being born under the covenant. A child is not to be sealed the second time when born under the covenant, but by virtue of that birthright can be transferred. (Questions Frequently Asked About the Temple and the Endowment (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1981), 10
This appears to to be what is happening with all of these sealings. Heavenly Father’s goal is to seal every man and women from “Adam…down to the last man or woman” back to God. The important seal is that of one being sealed back to God as opposed to the devil “sealing you his”. Once a woman is sealed back to God through the new and everlasting covenant, then her ordinance can be transferred to another worthy priesthood holder of her choice. It makes sense. If she doesn’t want to enter into a polygamous relationship…then there will be someone for her to form a monogamous relationship with and she will be happy. How else could it be?
Someone might say that things will be different in heaven and polygamy might not be a big deal when you get to heaven. That might be true…but if “that same sociality which exists among us here will exist among us there” (D&C130:2) then many of the saints will not be desirous of living that exceptional law.
I’m not saying polygamy cannot exist in the Celestial kingdom. I’m just saying that I don’t believe that it’s required in the Celestial kingdom. I don’t believe it is the de facto standard in the Celestial kingdom or that it will be commanded of any exalted individuals. In everything that I read in the scriptures and from the teachings of the prophets and general authorities…I see the teaching that if one man and one woman enter into the new and everlasting covenant of marriage…then they have the opportunity to receive their exaltation. Nowhere does it say that I am required to take another wife for exaltation. I believe a husband and wife can rest assured that if they prefer…then they are perfectly justified living the eternal and generally acceptable law of monogamy.
That brings comfort to me. It brings comfort to my wife. I hope it brings comfort to you.
What I have written here is my opinion. It’s not official doctrine…and I don’t speak on behalf of the church. I love the church and am grateful for the church. My only goal in writing this is to help those that might be struggling with this topic to consider every angle before becoming irritated or depressed about the subject.
I’m sure someone will find some sort of quote to try and prove me wrong or something. That’s alright! Like I said…I may be wrong. I’m like you. Seeking to learn. Seeking to grow. I love to see different angles and I’m happy to always consider additional light and knowledge even if it contradicts what I believe. I don’t know every single quote that was ever made on the subject. All I know is that I’ve found peace through my recent studies and that those studies appear to jive with the scriptures.
For the Church’s official releases on the subject you can visit https://www.lds.org/topics/plural-marriage-and-families-in-early-utah?lang=eng and https://www.lds.org/topics/plural-marriage-in-kirtland-and-nauvoo?lang=eng and https://www.lds.org/topics/plural-marriage-in-the-church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day-saints?lang=eng
You should also read Women in Eternity, Women of Zion by Alma Don Sorensen and Valerie Hudson Cassler. This book contains some of the best explanations on the subject that I’ve seen yet and is the source from which we were able to see the connection between Abrahamic sacrifice and polygamy. This find was a hidden gem to us.
I believe in my heart that polygamy is a temporal exception to the general and eternal law of monogamy. That it was that way in the Old Testament and that it was that way in the early days of the LDS Church. That it was a sacrifice to those involved and that in relation to the Abrahamic sacrifice, those involved will be offered an “escape” from it if they so desire.
Additional thoughts to consider that don’t necessarily fit within the point I’m trying to make in the above article:
1. Something similar happened to Adam and Eve. The were commanded to not partake of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and yet at the same time they were commanded to multiply and replenish the earth. You can almost feel how painful it was for them to make the decision to partake of the fruit on that tree. They didn’t want to disobey. It was a carefully thought out decision for them to eat that fruit. It wasn’t a mistake. They were breaking one commandment and knowingly bringing great pain upon themselves in order to follow another commandment. They broke that commandment so that each of us could come into the world. It was a sacrifice to them…and there was an eventual “escape”. That escape consisted of the Savior coming into the world to reverse the effects of the fall.
2. You can argue that since Christ had power over his own life and could have summoned “legions of angels” to save him that He actually transcended one general commandment in order to keep His Father’s exceptional commandment to give his life. It isn’t lawful for one to “sacrifice” one’s self but because the Father commanded His innocent son to give His life…He was justified and did not commit sin in following that command. His “release” or “escape” came on the third day as he was raised from the tomb.
3. I’ve always been bored by the seemingly endless genealogies that are placed into the very first chapters of the Bible in Matthew. But then someone pointed out that if you look at the genealogies of Christ, you’ll see that He descended from the “House of David”. Did you realize that the “House of David” was one of the largest polygamous “houses” in recorded history. Interesting that Christ would descend from a polygamous heritage.
4. I don’t know what Joseph Smith’s motives were. How can anyone know? All I’m saying is that people condemn Joseph Smith for the same things they should be condemning the prophets of the Bible for. No one can know of the intentions of the old prophets and yet we seem to just let them slide because of a “cultural acceptance” in their day. What wrong is wrong…and what’s right is right in any period of time regardless of culture.
5. If you believe the Bible then you can’t rule out Isaiah’s prophecy of the last days when he said that “in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.” (Isa 4:1) What does that scripture mean to the Christian world?
6. Joseph Smith said, “ I have constantly said no man shall have but one wife at a time, unless the Lord directs otherwise.” and Bruce R. McConkie said “According to the Lord’s law of marriage, it is lawful that a man have only one wife at a time, unless by revelation the Lord commands plurality of wives in the new and everlasting covenant.”
These quotations reinforce that plural marriage is a an “exception commandment” for specific earthly purposes of raising up seed unto God in this life only. In the next life…we’ll be in no rush to “raise up seed” because there will be no time constraints.
7. There’s is no evidence of Heavenly Father having multiple wives in heaven.
8. If you think polygamy is weird…consider the incest that must have had to occur during the time that Adam and Eve were raising their families. Again…if you believe the Bible…you believe that this happened.
9. James E. Talmage was one of the churches greatest theologians. He said in “The Story and Philosophy of ‘Mormonism'”. pg 88: that “The Latter-day Saints were long regarded as a polygamous people. That plural marriage has been practised by a limited proportion of the people, under sanction of Church ordinance, has never since the introduction of the system been denied. But that plural marriage is a vital tenet of the Church is not true. What the Latter-day Saints call celestial marriage is characteristic of the Church, and is in very general practice; but of celestial marriage, plurality of wives was an incident, never an essential. Yet the two have often been confused in the popular mind.”
Polygamy is such a tough topic. It’s tough for anyone that truly seeks to understand it. We may not ever fully understand it but hopefully some of the things in this article help people to look at this topic in a different light.Even the conversation about fixing the web’s harassment problem is not immune to the destructive power of online harassment itself. At the popular interactive media convention South by Southwest this week, a summit dedicated to discussing harassment wound up provoking the same sort of behavior it hoped to stop.
It started when porn star Mercedes Carrera took to Twitter and YouTube to talk smack about the video game developer and anti-harassment activist Randi Lee Harper. Harper had been a speaker over the weekend during It started when porn star Mercedes Carrera took to Twitter and YouTube to talk smack about the video game developer and anti-harassment activist Randi Lee Harper. Harper had been a speaker over the weekend during a controversial summit about online harassment, while Carrera was slotted as a speaker Tuesday on a panel backed by the Gamergate movement about the gaming industry’s cultural landscape. Both panels had previously been canceled due to violent threats, but then reinstated by SXSW after criticism of its bowing to internet bullies.
When SXSW organizers were made aware of the smack-talking, they asked that Carrera hold her tongue. Carrera deleted the YouTube video. Those who saw it before it was deleted, say it spoke poorly of Harper and blamed her for igniting the controversy surrounding both panels. But Carrera refused to delete derogatory tweets, telling her followers she would rather step down from the panel than be censored.
Even the presence of police at the Even the presence of police at the harassment summit, it seems, could not stop harassment from overshadowing its message. Harper complained that Carrera’s statements online violated the SXSW conference’s code of conduct, though the conference’s terms and conditions doesn’t address speakers’ behavior toward one another
SXSW confirmed that the panel, “SavePoint: A Discussion on the Gaming Community,” continued as scheduled on Tuesday but would not comment on |
asked me who he was and if he should be trusted since he had never done a show this big. But at that point he was trustworthy among his friends.”
[pullquote align=”right”]“We want that money to go to the victims ASAP,” says Robin Goodhue, “and we also want people to remember their time at that show together as something positive.”[/pullquote]By October, Bannon’s hectoring led to Slapshot band member Craig Silverman getting involved — at this point, the One Fund had yet to receive any money from the event. The show had sold 525 advance tickets online, at $20 each; that money, minus the venue’s expenses and security, had been sent via check to Eleftheratos by James Pansullo, owner of the South Shore Music Hall. But the check languished, undeposited, for months, until Pansullo, in early November at the urging of Silverman, Bannon, and others, cancelled the check and issued a new one directly to the One Fund. That deposit, for $8,675 is to date the only verified amount that the event has given the One Fund.
“I went to the Prudential Center,” verifies Pansullo, “to the One Fund, on November 4, 2013, and I gave them a check made out to the One Fund Boston Inc. for $8,675. Now, I also wrote a check on June 7 for the exact same amount, and I handed it to the promoter, Mike Eleftheratos. The pre-sale tickets were sold through our ticketing company, TicketFly, which sold out, 525 tickets, $10,500. If you deduct the $1,600 venue fee, an additional $225 for broken equipment that night, it came out to $8,675.”
The rest — some 150 day-of-show tickets sold, raffle proceeds, t-shirts, and posters — was all raised as cash at the show, and by several accounts was all taken after the show by Eleftheratos to be tallied and deposited. “He accepted the check,” explains Pansullo, “and that, I figured, was the end of that. Come September, that check still had not been cashed.”
Although it took everyone involved awhile to figure out that something was amiss, hindsight seems to leave little doubt as to who is to blame; Eleftheratos explained to numerous parties that he was getting the totals and then donating it to One Fund. He assured Silverman that the money had been sent, anonymously, via Western Union. “All I asked was that he get us some kind of proof, some kind of receipt,” says Silverman. “It’s pretty simple!”
According to Silverman, Bannon, Goodhue, Laskey, and others, Eleftheratos eventually just cut off all communication, ceasing to be part of his own promotion company in the process, and alienating the very community that he helped unite for the One Fund cause. (Multiple efforts to reach Eleftheratos to confirm or deny the statements made by people interviewed for this piece were to no avail.) Friends, ex-friends, and acquaintances alike all speculate as to whether he left town or not, or what might have been the motive. Some says he’s still working in town, at a Back Bay coffee shop.
“None of us knew he had this in him,” explains Goodhue. “There is no way to prove that the money isn’t sitting in Western Union either and he is too dumb to get a refund.”
Bannon reached out to multiple agencies to get some kind of help or intervention. “I contacted the One Fund, and the Attorney General’s office. The One Fund did confirm the payment [of $8,675 made by Pansullo in November 2013], and said that they would bring this to the Attorney General’s office. I also left a message with the Quincy Police Department, to see if I could get any legal support, whether it was law enforcement or otherwise. No one ever called me back.”
In the absence, then, of any official investigation, it has been left to the bands, supporters, attendees, and organizers to figure out an appropriate reaction to this situation. “There’s a lot of people that this has upset,” Bannon adds, “that are just beside themselves. I mean, this show, this event, it personally made me feel like a kid again, and for someone to exploit that, and to exploit the positive aspects of this community that we love, to exploit the generosity of others, just really makes me sad.”
Goodhue concurs. “We want that money to go to the victims ASAP,” he says, “and we also want people to remember their time at that show together as something positive.”
Laskey, attempting to navigate his own feeling of betrayal at the hands of his one-time partner, is dumbfounded when remembering how the event was conceived of: “I remember when the marathon bombings happened, [Mike] pitched the idea of doing a benefit on one of [our usual DJ nights at O’Brien’s]; I was all for it. I mean, I worked on Boylston Street, literally a block from where those bombs went off, so it was really personal for me.”
In the end, it’s clear that people aren’t just saddened about the money, but about the unconscionable breach of the metal/hardcore community’s sense of trust that this represents. “$14,000 may not be a lot of money in the grand scheme of things,” says Silverman. “But we raised it, you know? And it’s sad that it didn’t get where it’s supposed to go.”
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[hr]Via Telephone
9:35 A.M. EDT
Q I am Trey Ware, joined now by Vice President Mike Pence on the Stephens Roofing Newsmaker Hotline. Mr. Vice President, thank you, it’s an honor to visit with you this morning, sir.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Good morning, Trey, and thanks for everything you’ve done from San Antonio to help bring relief and comfort and support to all of those affected by Hurricane Harvey. I can speak on behalf of the President, our entire administration — we’ve been deeply moved by those that have been suffering under this hurricane since it made landfall and now the historic flooding. And, frankly, we’ve also been deeply inspired by the people the people of Texas, by your first responders, by neighbors who are coming alongside people in the midst of this hardship. And just know all of our hearts are in Texas, from all across America and from here at the White House.
Q Thank you very much, sir. You know, we have a great Governor here who is doing a wonderful job. He has stepped up to the plate. We’ve had a number of local officials — it’s the local officials who really lead the charge in something like this.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: That’s exactly correct. And we commend Governor Abbott and local officials for just an extraordinary effort. You’re absolutely right. I remember this during my days as governor of Indiana, Trey, that when the rain comes down and beats against the house, and the flood waters rise and the wind blows, states are in the lead and your local first responders and local emergency managers.
But the federal government has a vital role in providing support. And from even before landfall, President Trump directed the full resources of the federal government to support the people of Texas and, as of this morning, the people of Louisiana, in the midst of this storm.
As I speak to you, we have some 8,000 federal officials working through FEMA on the ground in Texas and Louisiana. We have dozens of fixed-wing and helicopter aircraft with the Coast Guard that are supporting National Guard efforts.
There have literally been thousands of rescues by air and shallow water. And also, the people of Texas should know as well that there literally have been several dozen task forces deployed under FEMA from states around the country. We have first responders from around the country that are on the ground — in many cases, at risk of their own personal safety — that have been involved in the rescue effort. And that’s where our focus is right now, Trey. It’s at 100 percent on rescue, on lifesaving efforts.
Recovery will come, but as the flood waters continue to rise, the rain continues to fall, our focus is on saving lives and supporting the efforts of the state of Texas and local emergency personnel to accomplish that mission. And our only message, if your listeners are talking to neighbors and friends across the affected areas in southeast Texas, is just listen to local officials. That is the standing order. Everyone should continue to follow the instructions of state and local officials, whether that’s shelter-in-place, or evacuate. And especially if there’s a life-threatening situation or health situation, people can call 911 and get the assistance that they need.
But the most important thing is that people listen — listen to local officials about how to respond. And we’ll get through this and the federal government will be there for the long haul to help rebuild Texas and all the affected areas from Hurricane Harvey.
Q I’m going to get into that federal government response in just a minute. I am visiting with Vice President Mike Pence. Trey Ware here on KTSA, talking about these local officials and your great advice there. There’s millions of people listening to us right now. The amazing thing about this, Mr. Vice President, is the fact that the loss of life — right now the numbers are at five. Now, that number could change, but it certainly is far less than what was anticipated in a storm of this magnitude, and I think that’s a credit not only to local officials but the public responding and doing what they needed to do.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, look, Texans are tough and —
Q (Laughter.) That’s true.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: And, look, in Texas you’ve dealt with a lot of hardship, you’ve dealt with hurricanes in the past that have come through. We grieve for the loss of life. And as rescue operations go forward and our first responders continue to get into these affected areas. We hope and we pray that those numbers will not increase.
But is a testament to local officials. It’s a testament to people responding to the direction that they receive from their state and local government. But people should know within the sound of our voice, particularly if they have families and friends across the area, Trey, is just, we are 100 percent now focused on rescue efforts. There will be disaster assistance available for businesses. There will be small business loans available. There will be plenty of time, once the flood waters begin to recede, for us to begin to deploy those resources.
But right now is on lifesaving efforts — getting people out of harm’s way and also making sure — the federal government has already shipped more than a million meals, more than a million liters of water with millions more on the way, cots, blankets, medical supplies —
Q Generators.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: That’s right. And the response from the Red Cross, by faith-based organizations that already have been on the ground since this weekend has been deeply inspiring.
Q Before I let you go, I know the President is planning a trip here tomorrow. Do we know when and where specifically?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Those details will be forthcoming, Trey. I know the President and the First Lady have been very anxious to come to the area to see firsthand the efforts that are underway and to come alongside. I know in San Antonio you have more than a thousand people in shelters already. But the President wants to be there and make sure the families and all of those affected and our first responders know that we are with you.
I can tell you, having spent a good part of the weekend with the President in Cabinet meetings called on Saturday and on Sunday, the President has been continuously updated, fully engaged, he’s deployed the full resources of the national government. He’ll reflect on that tomorrow, and people can just be confident that as we move through this rescue operation that we’re there for the long haul. We’re there for the long haul with Texas through the recovery efforts.
But now is the time to focus on lifesaving efforts. And if I have one message for your millions of listeners is just make sure they tell folks to listen to local emergency managers and officials. This continues to be a very dangerous storm, and we’re not out of the woods. And life-threatening flooding will continue to occur, and people just simply need to continue to heed the direction of local officials. And we’ll continue to lean into this effort with our support.
And, of course, you all should know that the prayers of millions of Americans, including our families here at the White House, are all with the people of Texas.
Q It means everything in the world to us, sir. I appreciate your time, and when we get through this and get to the other side, you are welcome here anytime. I’d love to sit down and have you on the show and let’s just shoot the breeze and talk a little bit.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thanks, Trey. We’ll make a point of it. Thanks for all you’re doing to help the people of Texas through this very difficult time.
Q Thank you, sir. We’ll visit again soon.
END
9:44 A.M. EDTUnique Feature: Coded Neural Signals
How the Retina Works
Scientists hope that artificial retinas could be used to treat human blindness within a decade. Scientists hope that artificial retinas could be used to treat human blindness within a decade.
Why Current Prosthetics Can't Do the Full Job
How They Made the Discovery
Next Step
And they have already worked out a way to make a similar device for monkeys, which they hope to quickly redesign and test for human use.Artificial retinas are not a new invention, however, the ones produced so far only produce rough visual fields where the user sees spots and edges of light to help them navigate.But the one Sheila Nirenberg and Chethan Pandarinath at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York have developed allows animals to detect facial features and track moving images.They report their breakthrough online in the 13 August issue of theTheir artificial retina is different because it incorporates a unique feature: the neural code that the retina cells use to communicate the visual information to the brain. Combining the code with the ability to stimulate a large number of light-sensitive cells produces a system that gives the brain the correct amount and type of information in order to "see".Lead author Nirenberg, a computational neuroscientist at Weill Cornell, told the press she thinks one day blind people will be able to wear a visor, similar to the one Geordi La Forge wears on the television show Star Trek. The visor will have a camera that takes in light and a chip that turns that light into a code that the brain uses to recreate the image."It's an exciting time.," said Nirenberg, a professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics and in the Institute for Computational Biomedicine at Weill Cornell.Normal vision is where light enters the eye and falls on photosensitive cells that lie on the surface of the retina. The "circuits" in the retina convert the light into a series of coded electrical signals or neural pulses, and pass them onto output cells called ganglion cells that transmit the coded pulses to the brain via the optic nerve at the back of the eye.The brain understands the stream of coded neural pulses and translates it into meaningful images.A common cause of blindness is when the retina is damaged by diseases that kill the photoreceptors, and/or destroy the circuits that create the coded neural pulses. But often, these diseases don't damage the output cells.Current prosthetics work by using electrodes that are implanted into the blind patient's eye, to drive the surviving cells: they stimulate the ganglion cells with electrical current.Scientists are working on various ways to improve on this approach. For instance one way is to have more stimulators in the implant, in the hope that with more stimulation, the image will improve.Another approach that is being tested is using gene therapy to generate light-sensitive proteins in the retina to stimulate the ganglion cells.But the invention that was "waiting to happen", as Nirenberg explains, is one that not only stimulates large numbers of cells, but also stimulates them with the right code, the same one the retina uses to communicate with the brain.Nirenberg had the idea that any pattern of light falling on the retina has to be converted into equivalent patterns of neural impulses via a general code or set of mathematical equations.She said people have been trying to find the code for simple patterns. But she was convinced the code had to be generalizable for any type of stimulus, simple and complex, whether it be for faces, landscapes, anything that the eye looks at.The actual "aha" moment came when she was working on the code for a different reason, said Nirenberg. She realized what she found could work on a prosthetic.So she and Pandarinath put the equations they were working on onto an electronic chip, and combined it with a mini-projector.The light pulses stimulate the light-sensitive proteins which have been inserted in the ganglion cells, and the result is the brain receives coded neural pulses.They tested the method in mice. They made and compared two versions of the prosthetic: one without the code, and one with the code.Nirenberg said the effect was dramatic. When they put in the code, the system's performance "jumped" to near normal levels, that is:"... there was enough information in the system's output to reconstruct images of faces, animals-basically anything we attempted," said Nirenberg.They did some rigorous tests to establish that the patterns made with the help of the prosthetic in blind mice's retinas matched the ones produced by retinas in seeing mice.The study shows that the critical components for making a highly effective retinal prosthetic, the retina's code and a high resolution method of ganglion cell stimulation, are now more or less in place, said Nirenberg.The new device offers hope for the 25 million people around the world whose blindness is due to retinal diseases. Drugs can help a small percentage of this population, but their best chance of restoring sight is with a prosthetic.However, Nirenberg suggests the gene therapy part will prove to be safe because it is the same type of therapy that has been tested for treating other retinal diseases.She said the whole process has been "thrilling" and that she can't wait for testing to be done so patients can start benefiting as soon as possible.Grants from the National Institutes of Health and Cornell University's Institute for Computational Biomedicine helped finance the study, and both authors have filed for a patent on the device.Written by Catharine Paddock PhDA deluxe, limited-edition, slip-cased version of the handwritten manuscript of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby has been recently published by Editions des Saint Pères (SP Books). The actual manuscript, housed at Princeton University, is in pencil and rarely examined except by scholars, so the mere chance of seeing it is a coup for Fitzgerald fans. But the extraordinary designers at SP Books have taken such pains with the reproduction that reading the manuscript is an esthetic thrill all in itself. As we study the author’s emendations, his crossouts and adds and relentless, perfectionist revising, it’s almost like watching Fitzgerald create his masterpiece in real time.
Baz Luhrmann, the film director whose version of The Great Gatsby reached screens in 2013, has contributed a preface to the new edition, which is reprinted here.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald was published in 1925, before its author was even thirty years old. In the book, Fitzgerald more or less predicts the Stock Market Crash of 1929. After a summer of wild parties and booze-soaked soirées, a drunken Daisy runs down Myrtle, killing her in the road, and on that night Gatsby’s dream dies too. Fitzgerald once said of the 1920s that he was pretty sure “living wasn’t the reckless, careless business these people thought.” He knew something was fundamentally wrong with the moral fabric of society and he predicted that it was only a matter of time before the whole “bonanza” came tumbling down. And it did. “As if reluctant to die outmoded in its bed, the decade leapt to a spectacular death in October 1929.” The morning after Daisy kills Myrtle, her long-suffering husband [George] Wilson kills Gatsby as he finishes taking a swim in his spectacular pool.
Now, in our own time, we see a similar sense of moral unease about the way people are making money, the way the American Dream is being realized. That was true when we made the film a few years ago and I think it is still true now, maybe even more so. Certainly, the bankers, the politicians, and the real-estate moguls, the very same ones who would have attended Gatsby’s glittering parties almost a century ago, are still the ones running the show. Maybe they never stopped. Either way, critics tend to say that The Great Gatsby is the Great American Novel of the 20th century—I would proffer that it is looking pretty prescient of the 21st century as well. You certainly could not get a better reflection of the period we are in currently, for my money, than Nick Carraway's observation the first time he attends one of Gatsby’s parties: “It’s like an amusement park.”
When I was a very young boy, growing up in a small town in Australia, my father ran the local cinema, down the road. Naturally, I saw a lot of movies. But from the moment I saw Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, I knew what I wanted to be. I wanted to be Robert Redford. To a kid like me, a dreamer growing up in the middle of nowhere, he was the coolest. And so I guess it makes sense that I can still remember when, a few years later, I went to see his 1974 version of The Great Gatsby, full of excitement; after all, this was “the new Redford film.” I remember, when the final credits rolled, that I sat there in the dark thinking, “Wow, that was really, really beautiful, but I don’t ‘quite get it’”—to be honest, I left the cinema with no clear idea of who this Gatsby character was. Had he killed a man, or hadn’t he? He sure looked great in his pink suit and flashy yellow sports car, but was I even supposed to like him?
A few years after that, in high school, I read the book, as do most kids. But, like most kids, that didn’t help at all. Probably, it made things worse. As time passed, Redford, of course, stayed cool as hell in films like All the President’s Men, Three Days of the Condor, The Natural—the list goes on and on and on—and I started to gravitate more and more towards theater and the many other creative aspects of my life. For a long time, I confess, I gave no further thought to the perennially mysterious Jay Gatsby.
Whenever I finish any long project I like to go off on what I call “a debriefing adventure”—to rest and to get my “imaginator” running again. In 2001, I’d just finished Moulin Rouge and I decided that this time I would take the Trans-Siberian Express across Russia, from Beijing through Manchuria and Irkutsk and on to Moscow. Alone. I suppose I thought this would be romantic. A first-class cabin was reserved and off I went. And, well, my cabin was a sardine tin, with a rackety air conditioner and an old babushka handing me a hose and yelling ‘This! You go! Now! Shower!” I quickly realized that this was not going to be the great poetic experience I’d had in mind—it was going to be more like Crime and Punishment.
Luckily, I’d packed a generous supply of Australian red wine, plus a few audiobooks on this new contraption called the "iPod." One of those books just so happened to be The Great Gatsby. A few hours into the trip and already feeling sorry for myself, I succumbed to temptation, uncorked the wine, put in my headphones, poured, and, as I lay back and began to listen—“In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since”—watching the birch trees rush by through the darkening window—“‘Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,’ he told me, ‘just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had’”—feeling the rhythm of the train, the power of Fitzgerald’s storytelling, his incredible poetry, suddenly I found myself hearing and understanding Jay Gatsby for the first time.
I spent the whole next day waiting for night to fall so I could have the same experience all over again. And when I finally did get to those immortal finishing words—“Tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther... And one fine morning—So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past …”—There I was, alone, racing across the plains of Siberia and, suddenly, I was gripped with an overwhelming passion to make a movie of the Great American Novel.
“ Gatsby is the hero, the only really and truly good person in the whole story, because he is the only one who aspires to a purpose higher than himself. ”
For my wife, Catherine Martin, and me, part of our creative joy is immersing ourselves in and living the life of whatever project we’re doing. Once we are committed, we take all our creative collaborators into that world with us. For Moulin Rouge we moved to Paris and steeped ourselves in the world of the fin de siècle and the Montmartre of the 1890s. For Gatsby, we followed in Fitzgerald’s footsteps, arriving in New York City by ocean liner, as Fitzgerald once had, to glimpse that “Incalculable city … built on a wish … a miracle of foamy light suspended by the stars … this was the greatest nation and there was gala in the air!”
Soon, there wasn’t an inch of Long Island that we hadn’t covered. Or a fingerbowl of champagne we hadn’t drunk. And on the way back into Manhattan, yes, we too put the top down and absolutely: “The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of all the mystery and the beauty in the world.” With our team, we went on to read all of Fitzgerald’s love letters and short stories, and we met with the leading scholars, and were very fortunate to have their help, especially the wonderful Anne Margaret Daniel and James L. West III, who edited Trimalchio, the early galley version of The Great Gatsby, as well as Don C. Skemer, the curator of rare books at the Princeton Library. We even had the good fortune of spending one warm summer afternoon amid the campus ivy, thumbing through the original handwritten manuscript of the book that you now hold in your hands.
Of course, we couldn’t help but also experiment with F. Scott and Zelda’s infamous passion for alcohol … Did I mention that? Maybe we went a bit far with that one … To quote him: “One’s perfect, two’s too much, and three is never enough.” Sadly, we were never arrested for dancing in the fountain outside the Plaza Hotel, but writing this reminds me … Jokes aside, I can say honestly that I feel like I did come to know F. Scott.
One thing I learned, and this was a major signpost for both me and my co-writer and longtime collaborator Craig Pearce, as we worked on the screenplay, is that Fitzgerald was a great fan of Joseph Conrad’s work, especially Heart of Darkness (1899). Francis Coppola’s Apocalypse Now, which is a retelling of that book, is one of my all-time favorite films; and, like the book, the film is built on the Orphean myth of an innocent who journeys into an underworld, a place of lost souls, encountering an iconic, demonic figure. In Apocalypse Now this is Marlon Brando’s Walt Kurtz. What is interesting about these characters is that while they at first appear to be the main characters, they don’t actually transform or evolve at all as the story progresses, as we might expect of a protagonist. Instead, Kurtz dies the same man he was on the day Willard finds him, with “the horror” on his lips.
Gatsby, another of these characters, we realized, dies the same “elegant roughneck” that he was on the night Nick first meets him at one of his parties, with “Daisy” on his lips. In Apocalypse Now it is Willard, the narrator, who is transformed, through his encounter with Kurtz. And in Gatsby it is Nick Carraway, also the narrator, who is transformed through his encounter with Jay. While the novel is named for Mr. Gatsby, the truth, we realized, is that this is Nick’s story.
Fitzgerald is very deft at this: Nick is actually writing his own book, within Fitzgerald’s book, about the strange, slightly ominous neighbor he just so happens to have moved in next door to. In the early pages, he tells us about “Gatsby, the man who gives his name to this book.” In Chapter 3, he reflects, “Reading over what I have written so far …” In other words, Nick is using the process of writing to chart the course of his changing feelings for Gatsby. At the outset he confides to the reader that Gatsby “represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn,” but by the end, the last thing he calls out to Gatsby before he dies is, “They’re a rotten crowd … You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together.” It is Nick who is transformed by his journey into and then out of disillusionment.
When Jay-Z, with whom I worked on the music for the film, first saw a rough cut, he said “It’s aspirational. This isn’t about whether Jay Gatsby is a criminal or not. The question we’re talking about is, is he a good person or not?” Near the end of the book, Gatsby reveals to Nick that he is, in fact, a lie, a self-invention. His real name is James Gatz, and he is a poor boy from nowhere, North Dakota, who was born with nothing save a grand vision for himself, “an instinct toward his future glory.” Gatz runs away from home at age 16 and works and apprentices and scrapes his way across America, from North Dakota until he lands in Louisville on the eve of World War I. There, he enlists in the army and meets a beautiful, rich girl named Daisy. He can’t tell her he’s penniless, and luckily, his uniform hides the truth. Instead of telling Daisy who he really is and where he’s from, he makes up a new name for himself: and Jay Gatsby is born.
They fall in love, but then he must go off to the war. While he is away fighting (and becoming a war hero), Tom Buchanan, the richest man in America, swoops in and steals Daisy away. Gatsby spends the next five years, and indeed the entire book, trying to get back to that point where his American Dream all went wrong, to make Daisy love him again, for fear that unless he does so, unless he erases her love for Tom, he will never attain his “future glory.”
Now, when Gatsby reveals this to Nick, Nick realizes that “oh no, that way lies madness …” He senses that Gatsby is so romantic, so aspirational, has such impossibly high ideals, that his dream cannot possibly end well. “It had gone beyond [Daisy], beyond everything. [Gatsby] had thrown himself into it with a creative passion, adding to it all the time, decking it out with every bright feather that drifted his way.”
And of course it all ends tragically. Gatsby is too romantic to survive—he dies in pursuit of his “incorruptible dream.”After seeing this tragedy unfold, what is Nick left with? The tabloid press and the summer’s revelers write Gatsby off as a climber, a bootlegger, and, finally, a murderer—but in Nick’s estimation, Tom and Daisy are the real villains. “They were careless people,” he tells us, “they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.” After all, they can afford it. They were born with it. “It’s in our blood,” says Tom. The only vision he and Daisy have to offer the world is one of loveless self-preservation.
Gatsby, on the other hand, is the hero, the only really and truly good person in the whole story, because he is the only one who aspires to a purpose higher than himself. He believes in love. He’s willing to take the rap for Daisy. He has “an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I shall ever find again.” Yes, Gatsby has impossible ideals: Daisy is the physical realization and the green light the metaphysical symbol, both always just out of reach. But Gatsby keeps reaching. That’s why he’s “Great.” And in the end, his tragedy inspires Nick to pursue his own ideals, his own purpose, to live for his art—Nick confesses in the opening pages that he has always wanted to be a writer—and that journey begins with him going back to his hometown of St. Paul, Minnesota, after Gatsby’s death, to write down the story of his friend …
“ Fitzgerald became the torchbearer for his generation because his work, all of it, expresses something visceral that the youth know, but can’t quite articulate. ”
It is a story Fitzgerald was familiar with, because he lived it. There’s a moment in 1919, after he’s flunked out of Princeton, after he’s fallen madly in love with a girl who is just a bit “too good” for him (Zelda, the Daisy to his Gatsby), when he runs off to New York City to be a writer, an “ad-man” in this brand-new thing called “advertising” by day, an artist by night, promising Zelda that he’ll be a big success and that he’ll send for her and everything will be amazing. But he fails. And the girl doesn’t come. And so he’s forced to go back home to St. Paul, Minnesota (sound familiar?), his tail between his legs, destined, he thinks, to fade into obscurity.
But instead, in drunken desperation driven by mad love, he drops his youthful pretension and starts to reveal his true self by chopping up all his bits of writing—his poems, lists, love letters, songs—and he sticks all of these disparate elements together with no fear of what this new form will be, or whether anyone will accept it—after all he has nothing left to lose—and he calls this crazy boozy collage of a mash-up This Side of Paradise. For what it’s worth, when we made the film, we tried, in style and in gesture, to keep this 23-year-old madness and lack of self-consciousness alive.
When Fitzgerald’s manuscript is finished, he sends it to his publishing friend, Maxwell Perkins, and although the powers that be don’t really understand it, Max does; he senses in it something new, a modern idea, a fresh, vital form, and he wins his colleagues round, after they reject it outright, by offering his resignation: “If we’re going to turn down the likes of Fitzgerald, I will lose all interest in publishing books.” In the blink of an eye, Fitzgerald wakes up famous, and he and Zelda get married, and before they know it they are back in New York, this time riding on top of taxi cabs and splashing in fountains and across the front pages of this other new thing called “the tabloid media” as the flesh-and-blood embodiments of the Jazz Age, the “youthquake” and “the Metropolitan spirit,” terms Fitzgerald coins in this moment when “gin was the national drink and sex the national obsession.” In the years that followed, he became the torchbearer for his generation because his work, all of it, expresses something visceral that the youth know, but can’t quite articulate.
Perhaps the success of Gatsby as a snapshot of its age also damned it to be frozen in time, neatly framed and hung up on a wall in the years that followed. What I mean is, even those who love the book may have convinced themselves that it is merely a beautiful object, to be handled with care, a poetic internal narration of a time gone by, one that we have convinced ourselves that we have left behind—when in fact what is so energetic about Fitzgerald’s book is that it is a living, breathing creature, its fundamental reflections of our society apply as much to now as to the Roaring Twenties.
But what is most powerful to me about The Great Gatsby is not its critique—it is its prescription. Jay may wear a bright pink suit and drive a flashy yellow sports car, but he shows us that the way to make the world great again is to live not for ourselves but for those ideals that are grander than ourselves. Yes, live for the green light, even though it is and always will be just out of reach. Fitzgerald liked to say, and I think he’s right, that the test of a keen intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in your mind, at the same time, and know that both are true. In other words, of course the green light is impossible to attain, and yet, it is all we have. And we must protect it. I think that if we can hold those two thoughts, if we can recognize just how confused everything is and still pursue art and purpose, as Gatsby inspires Nick to do, as Fitzgerald did and challenges us to do, then we will be all right in the end. I may have missed this the first few goes around, but I know now that this work is more necessary than ever.
F. Scott Fitzgerald died of a heart attack on December 21, 1940, while eating a chocolate bar in his apartment in Hollywood. He was 44 years old and had spent his last few years writing mostly unsuccessful screenplays for MGM Studios. He’d also completed 44,000 words of an unfinished novel, The Love of the Last Tycoon. Some people say that his books were out of print, but they’re wrong—that year Fitzgerald sold nine copies of Tender is the Night and seven copies of The Great Gatsby, earning royalties of $13.13. The rest of his books were sitting in a warehouse at Scribner’s or gathering dust on the shelves of book |
duplicate samples for each assay was 2.36%, 4.39%, and 4.35%, respectively, and the inter-assay CV was 7.23%.
Acute- and chronic-treated MDMA and saline rats were euthanized by carbon dioxide asphyxiation 7 days following the final treatment. Brains were removed and one half of the preoptic area - anterior hypothalamus (POA-AH), which contains the majority of GnRH cell bodies, was dissected out on wet ice, and snap frozen within 2 minutes of removal on dry ice and stored at −80°C until RNA extraction. Terminal blood samples were taken, and serum was separated by centrifugation at 6000 g and stored at −80°C until further processing.
All experimental procedures were carried out in accordance with the National Institute of Health Guide for Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, and performed following protocols approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee at the University of Texas at Austin. Adult male (250 – 300 g) Sprague-Dawley rats Charles River Laboratories, Inc. Wilmington, MA) were used in this study. The experimental model used herein was to train rats to level press for 45 mg sugar pellets (Bio-Serv, Frenchtown, NJ) on a fixed ratio 1 schedule for a minimum of 8 days, as part of a separate study seeking to enable rats to self-administer either MDMA or vehicle [published in 8 ]. Additional details on animals, surgeries, and procedures, are reported in that paper. In brief, rats self-administered saline or MDMA either once (acute) or for 20 days (chronic), and were euthanized 7 days following last administration, for a total of 4 treatment groups ( ). All administration occurred intravenously, via a chronically implanted jugular catheter (see [ 8 ] for details). The acute MDMA experimental group administered a single 3 mg/kg dose of MDMA, chosen to mimic a recreational MDMA “binging” experience with the drug, when a large dose of the drug is ingested in one session. This dose was selected upon results of preliminary microdialysis experiments in one of our labs (C.L.D.; data not shown), which demonstrated significant increases in serotonin and dopamine in the nucleus accumbens at this dose. The chronic MDMA experimental group was designed to mimic long-term heavy use of MDMA among young people at dance clubs or “raves,” where repeated doses are taken intermittently in the same evening. Male rats administered unit doses of MDMA (or saline control) ad libitum for five consecutive days for a period of 4 weeks (2 hour sessions, 5 days on, 2 days off each week for the 4 week period). During Days 1–10 the unit dose was 1 mg/kg per injection, and during Days 11–20 the unit dose was 0.5 mg/kg per injection [ 8 ] to optimize self-administration behavior [ 29 ]. Average daily MDMA intake for chronic MDMA animals was found to be 4 mg/kg body weight. The number of animals per experimental group were as follows: acute saline: 5, chronic saline: 6, acute MDMA: 5, chronic MDMA: 9. In the results section, any deviation from the number of animals per group noted here represents a lost data point due to experimental error or tissue loss.
Paired testes were removed and weighed, with Acute-Saline, Chronic-Saline, Acute-MDMA and Chronic-MDMA groups having weights (g) of 2.66 ± 0.72, 3.37 ± 0.25, 3.79 ± 0.96 and 3.25 ± 0.46, respectively (mean ± SEM). Although there was no effect of treatment or duration, there was a significant interaction of these two variables (p < 0.05), attributable to differences between Acute-MDMA and Acute-Saline.
Serum estradiol and progesterone concentrations were measured to further assess the effect of systemic MDMA on steroid hormones. For progesterone, two-way ANOVA revealed no significant main effects of drug (p = 0.62) or duration (p = 0.11), nor were any interactions between drug and duration observed (p = 0.29; ). For the estradiol assay, a high percentage of samples had a large assay CV, and a lack of serum for repeating the assay resulted in a very small sample size that did not provide adequate statistical power for analysis. For those animals with detectable estradiol concentrations, preliminary results suggested that there were no differences among any of the groups. Estradiol concentrations (pg/ml) for the Acute-Saline, Chronic-Saline, Acute-MDMA and Chronic-MDMA groups were 10.0 ± 4.1, 7.1 ± 4.5, 9.3 ± 1.9 and 10.3 ± 4.1, respectively (data are presented as mean ± standard deviation due to small N’s).
A significant main effect of drug treatment was found for serum testosterone concentrations, with decreased levels in the MDMA compared to the saline group (F = 33.23, p < 0.0001; ). A significant main effect of duration (F = 5.15, p < 0.05) on serum testosterone levels was also found, with chronic rats having higher testosterone levels than acute ( ). There was a non-significant trend for an interaction of treatment with duration (p = 0.054), and results suggest that effect of duration is largely due to differences among the saline treated animals. Nevertheless, MDMA significantly suppressed serum testosterone levels at both durations compared to respective saline controls.
GnRH gene expression was measured using real-time PCR in POA dissections. Two-way ANOVA revealed a significant main effect of drug treatment upon GnRH mRNA levels, with overall lower levels of GnRH mRNA expressed in MDMA compared to saline rats (F = 8.584, p < 0.01; ). No significant main effect was detected for duration of treatment (chronic vs. acute), nor were any significant interactions between the two variables observed.
DISCUSSION
The present study demonstrates that MDMA administered at dosages relevant to human intake [36–38] causes a significant disruption of hypothalamic and gonadal function. Specifically, and as discussed in more detail below, rats taking MDMA had significantly lower GnRH gene expression and lower serum testosterone concentrations compared to their saline control counterparts. Because rats were euthanized seven days after the last MDMA administration, these findings further suggest that both acute and chronic MDMA use has lasting endocrine disrupting actions on the HPG axis. Although we recognize that metabolism and secretion of MDMA varies between species [10], these results showing that MDMA disrupts reproductive neuroendocrine function in healthy adult male rats has potential relevance to humans who use MDMA even once.
The results show that MDMA administered either acutely or chronically resulted in a significant, approximately 50% decrease in GnRH mRNA levels seven days later compared to saline administered rats. Pituitary LH levels were slightly lower in these same MDMA animals but this latter result did not attain significance [e.g. 31]. Because we do not know when during the LH pulse a rat was euthanized, it is possible that more careful analyses of effects of MDMA on LH pulsatility would reveal differences between the treatment groups. In addition, our current observation that serum testosterone was profoundly suppressed in MDMA rats is consistent with decreased drive upon the testes by the serum gonadotropins. Therefore, our results showing significant decreases in GnRH mRNA and serum testosterone concentrations, together with the non-significant decrease in serum LH, is consistent with diminished drive from hypothalamic GnRH neurons upon the rest of the HPG axis. Moreover, we speculate that the GnRH neurosecretory system is the primary target for HPG axis disruption by MDMA. If the gonad were the primary target of the MDMA suppression, thereby resulting in decreased testosterone concentrations, we would predict that negative feedback upon the hypothalamus would be reduced, resulting in an increase in GnRH gene expression, as reported in other experimental models [39]. As this was not the case, the suppressed testosterone levels are likely due to decreased feed-forward input from the hypothalamus, and subsequently the pituitary, upon the testes.
In addition to androgens, the male adrenal and testes also produce substantial levels of progesterone [40, 41], a hormone that plays a role in the sexual behavior of male rodents [42]. This hormone was assayed in the current study, with no effects of drug treatment found. We also assayed serum estradiol, and although our sample sizes were too small to perform statistics, the preliminary results suggest that there was no apparent effect of any MDMA treatment. Therefore, effects of MDMA on steroid hormones measured thus far appear to be specific to testosterone.
Although it was beyond the scope of the current study to determine which neurotransmitter systems mediate the effects of MDMA on the hypothalamic GnRH system, these are likely to be similar to those that underlie MDMA’s other central nervous system actions. The two most plausible candidates are serotonin and dopamine, as they have been reported to be the primary targets of MDMA in other regions of the brain [8; reviewed in 10]. Serotonin and dopamine neurons innervate the hypothalamus, and receptors for both these neurotransmitters are expressed in the preoptic area, the location of the GnRH cell bodies [43, 44; reviewed in 28]. Serotonin agonists have been reported to be either stimulatory or inhibitory to GnRH neurons depending upon the experimental model [26, 45, 46]. A similar finding has been made for dopaminergic actions on GnRH cells [47, 25, 48]. Although it is difficult to reconcile both stimulatory and inhibitory effects of these neurotransmitter systems, they are probably best explained by there being a permissive window of normal functional activity of serotonin or dopamine, manipulations above or below which cause disruption of GnRH function. It is possible that through alterations in hypothalamic monoaminergic receptors, MDMA can influence these inputs into the GnRH neurosecretory system, either directly or indirectly.
This study was conducted to evaluate the impact of MDMA on the HPG axis of rats. However, we would like to note that the model of MDMA self-administration in rats is a topic of considerable controversy [49]. Several laboratories [50, 29, 51] including one of ours (C.L.D., [8]), but not others [reviewed in 49], have shown that rats and mice self-administer MDMA. Although acquisition occurs at a slower rate and supports fewer lever responses compared to other psychostimulants [49, 50; 52–55], the salient point is that our rats in the current study administered MDMA at levels comparable to voluntary human intake. Thus, we were able to make comparisons between animals given MDMA versus saline to determine specific effects on the reproductive axis.
The major novel finding of this study is that, to our knowledge, it provides the first evidence that MDMA disrupts the HPG axis of adult male rats, and even more specifically, that the mechanism for this effect involves the targeting of the hypothalamic-preoptic GnRH system. Our results are consistent with observations that environmental or pharmaceutical substances that disrupt monoaminergic neurotransmitter functions in the hypothalamus, including pesticides [56, 57] and PCBs [58, 59], affect GnRH and LH release. The popularity of MDMA among humans has increased in recent years [1], leading to concern over the potential health hazards associated with recreational drug use. The results of this study suggest that dosages approximating the recreational use of MDMA may impact the male reproductive axis.About one-in-ten mothers with a Master’s degree or more are staying at home in order to care for their family, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of census data. Among mothers with professional degrees, such as medical degrees, law degrees or nursing degrees, 11% are relatively affluent and are out of the workforce in order to care for their families. This is true for 9% of Master’s degree holders and 6% of mothers with a Ph.D.
These so-called “opt-out moms” (roughly 10% of all highly educated mothers) make up just 1% of the nation’s 35 million mothers ages 18 to 69 who are living with their children younger than 18. For our purposes, “opt-out moms” are mothers who have at least a Master’s degree, an annual family income of $75,000 or more; a working husband; and who state that they are out of the workforce in order to care for their family.
Lisa Belkin first coined the term “opting out” in 2003, to describe highly educated, high-achieving women who seemingly chose to “opt out, ratchet back, and redefine work” after becoming mothers. Ever since then, the phenomenon of “opt-out” mothers has been a subject of much media fascination—the idea that such ambitious, professionally-successful women would put their careers aside, for the opportunity to focus exclusively on their families seemed to really strike a chord.
And yet, when examining the total population of mothers who stay at home with their children, these so-called “opt-out moms” make up a very small share (4%). Most of the recent growth in stay-at-home moms has been driven by those with less education, according to a recent Pew Research Center report.
Affluent, highly educated women who exit the workforce may not be “opting out”. Some suggest that they are being pushed out, due to the difficulties of balancing work and family in the U.S. Indeed, a 2009 Center for Work-Life Policy surveyof “highly qualified” women (with advanced degrees, or with high-honors undergraduate degrees), found that among those who had stepped away from their careers, fully 69% said they would not have done so if their workplace offered more flexible work arrangements.
Leaving the workforce is not necessarily a permanent step. In that 2009 survey, fully 89% of those highly qualified women who had left their careers (the plurality of whom did so to care for family) reported that they did plan to return to work. Seventy percent did so, typically after about two and a half years out of the workforce. Furthermore, Pew Research Center analyses indicate that the likelihood of being a stay-at-home mother is higher for those with preschool-aged children— presumably because many moms return to work once their kids are in school.
In families with these highly educated, affluent non-working moms, it may be the husbands who are bringing home the bacon, but in 37% of the cases, it is the stay-at-home wives who actually have a higher level of education. In 45% of these families, the spouses have equal educational attainment, and in about 18% of the cases, the husbands have more education than their wives. An estimate using a slightly different methodology suggests that the share of all U.S. married couples where the wife has more education than the husband is about 21%.
Looking at these elite stay-at-home moms a bit differently—fully 69% identify as white. A disproportionate share (19%) is Asian, while 7% are Hispanic, and 3% are black. They tend to be a bit older than other moms; about eight-in-ten are ages 35 to 69. Their median annual family income is well over $100,000.
While a relatively small share of all mothers has a Master’s degree or more, the educational attainment of all mothers has been growing steadily in recent decades. This trend has been driven by both the increasing educational levels of all women, and the fact that fertility rates for the college-educated have not fallen as much as rates for the less educated.
Topics: Work and Employment, ParenthoodTHE operator of the stricken Fukushima Daiichi plant has unveiled a surprisingly optimistic timeline for resolving the nuclear crisis at the facility in which a "cold shutdown" would be achieved in six to nine months.
TEPCO announced at a press conference in Tokyo yesterday it aimed to restore stable cooling of the four damaged reactors and spent fuel pools within three months and begin the task of significantly curbing radiation emissions from the plant.
Initial estimates suggested it could take years to achieve a cold shutdown -- where fuel temperatures within the damaged reactors are reduced sufficiently to re-establish stability -- at reactors 1 to 4.
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The Fukushima crisis, the world's worst nuclear incident after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, has led to radiation being emitted into the air, soil and sea from the plant, 250km northeast of Tokyo.
Since the March 11 tsunami cut cooling functions, emergency crews have been dousing overheating reactors and fuel rod pools while working in a highly radioactive environment to prevent full meltdowns.
Stable cooling will help TEPCO further reduce radiation emissions, while a cold shutdown will help the utility begin to eliminate emissions altogether.
"As the short-term targets, we have set two steps," TEPCO chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata said. "Step one is to steadily reduce the amount of radiation. In step two, we aim to control the release of radioactive substances and greatly control the amount of radiation.
"There are various risks ahead," he added. "But we aim to complete step one in about three months and step two in another three to six months."
TEPCO also plans to put special covers on the buildings of the reactors 1-3, to protect the reactors and spent fuel pools from damage from a typhoon.
TEPCO has also been ordered to check and strengthen buildings to protect against aftershocks. Mr Katsumata said he would consider resigning over the disaster.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton yesterday visited Tokyo and met Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan and Emperor Akihito. "Japan will recover and will be a very strong economic and global player for years and decades to come," she told Mr Kan.
Additional reporting: agenciesPlease note: The Otterbox Defender Series for iPhone 5 is not compatible with TouchID for the iPhone 5s. This is due to the piece of protective silicone that covers the iPhone’s home button for maximum protection.
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Senator Hanson and two of her colleagues travelled to Great Keppel Island last Friday to hit out at "untruths" told by green groups about the reef's health.
She was photographed holding up a piece of coral while snorkelling, which was not allowed under a zoning plan unless a research permit had been granted, a spokesman for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority said.
"We understand one of the parties involved has an existing research permit, which outlines conditions for coral collecting, including species, size, location and equipment," the spokesperson said in a statement.
"We are seeking further information on the activities - and reviewing the conditions of the permit - to determine what follow up action, if any, is required."
Senator Hanson also faced criticism for holding her media event far from where the worst of the coral bleaching has occurred.
Conservationists said Senator Hanson should have instead travelled to Lizard Island, more than 1000km away, where the worst of the bleaching is located.
© AAP 2019Image copyright PA/Getty Images Image caption Boyega (left) will co-produce the film under the banner of his company Upper Room Productions
Star Wars actor John Boyega is to star in the sequel to Pacific Rim, playing the son of the character whom Idris Elba played in its 2013 predecessor.
Boyega, 24, confirmed his involvement on Twitter, saying he was both "very excited" and "so happy" to be on board as both an actor and producer.
Steven S DeKnight will direct Pacific Rim: Maelstrom, which will follow on from Guillermo del Toro's original.
Del Toro said he "couldn't think of a better man for the job (than Boyega)".
"I am very proud and happy to welcome John into a fantastic sandbox," said the Mexican film-maker, who is also among the new film's producers.
"The Pacific Rim universe will be reinforced with him as a leading man as it continues to be a multicultural, multi-layered world."
Elba played officer Stacker Pentecost in the original film, which told of a war between giant monsters and the giant robots man builds to defeat them.
Fellow Londoner Boyega is best known for his role as stormtrooper Finn in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, a sequel to which is currently in production.
DeKnight is best known as the creator of the US TV series Spartacus.
Legendary Pictures will produce Maelstrom with Upper Room Productions, the company Boyega set up earlier this year with agent Femi Oguns.From yesterday’s North Dakota Supreme Court decision in Keller v. Keller:
Karen Keller is married to Chad Keller. Chad Keller previously was married to Nichole Keller and they had three children together. According to Nichole Keller, she emailed Chad Keller on August 14, 2016, stating she would like to pick up the two youngest children. Chad Keller responded that the children did not want to go with her. Nichole Keller sent another email later in the day saying she would come at 5:00 p.m. to see the children. On August 14, 2016 Nichole Keller, accompanied by Rachel Parker, went to Chad Keller’s home to see her youngest daughter. Nichole Keller arrived at Chad Keller’s rural property around 5:00 p.m., but stayed at the end of the property line. According to Nichole Keller, when she arrived Karen Keller came outside with her hands behind her back. Nichole Keller and Karen Keller were about 200 feet away from each other. Rachel Parker asked Karen Keller to get Nichole Keller’s daughter. When Karen Keller turned to get the child they noticed Karen Keller was holding a handgun behind her back. Nichole Keller and Rachel Parker asked Karen Keller why she was carrying the handgun and Karen Keller responded she did not know the person Nichole Keller was with and did not trust her. Nichole Keller testified that Karen Keller did not point the gun at her or make any threatening or violent statements. According to Nichole Keller, she is fearful for her life and the safety of her kids because of the August 14, 2016 incident. Nichole Keller and Rachel Parker left the residence and called the police. A deputy arrived and interviewed the parties.
This led to Nichole Keller getting a “disorderly conduct restraining order,” based on a finding that there was “reasonable grounds” to believe that Karen Keller’s actions were disorderly conduct. North Dakota law defines disorderly conduct as “intrusive or unwanted acts, words, or gestures that are intended to adversely affect the safety, security, or privacy of another person,” but expressly excluding “constitutionally protected activity.” The trial court concluded:
“[T]here was a gun. She brought it out on the property. And it’s obvious that Nichole was very scared. And she testified that she is still scared. And to me, that is the definition of gestures that are intended to adversely affect the safety, security, or privacy of another person. That’s the definition of disorderly conduct. Seems plain and simple to me….”
No, said the North Dakota Supreme Court, reversing the order:Does this change anything? Not legally, I think, but maybe it’s another dent in Snowden’s image for some people like me and Michael Moynihan who were favorably disposed to him initially and whose feelings have grown more … nuanced ever since.
For the first time, Snowden has admitted he sought a position at Booz Allen Hamilton so he could collect proof about the US National Security Agency’s secret surveillance programmes ahead of planned leaks to the media. “My position with Booz Allen Hamilton granted me access to lists of machines all over the world the NSA hacked,” he told the Post on June 12. “That is why I accepted that position about three months ago.”… He also signalled his intention to leak more of those documents at a later date. “If I have time to go through this information, I would like to make it available to journalists in each country to make their own assessment, independent of my bias, as to whether or not the knowledge of US network operations against their people should be published.”
Michael Tomasky reads that and dismisses Snowden as “nothing more than a spy.” Wasn’t he a spy when he made the decision to lift data off of NSA’s servers, though, irrespective of whether he took the job at Booz in the first place to gain access? This is news less because it affects his legal status, I think, than because it complicates the public sense of Snowden as some sort of total naif who may have decided to do all this relatively quickly, flush with indignation at what he suddenly learned about PRISM. Not so. He planned it for months, using false pretenses to get close to the material he wanted. It was a true intelligence operation, worthy of the CIA. it’s not even clear from the article, in fact, if he took the Booz job because he already knew what was going on at NSA and wanted more evidence or because he wanted to take a fishing expeditions of NSA’s servers. (Probably a combination of both.) The more interesting question, as Erick Erickson’s noted on Twitter, is whether this complicates the Guardian’s and WaPo’s roles in working with Snowden. Glenn Greenwald’s said before that his Guardian team was in touch with him in February, before he took the Booz job. That doesn’t prove anything; maybe Snowden never told them or WaPo of his plan to infiltrate Booz and tap the servers there. But obviously there’s a difference between (a) a source acting on his own initiative to lift government data and then dumping it on a reporter and (b) the source and the reporter planning together on how to lift that data. The feds are probably going to look at that now, if they haven’t already, but there’s no evidence of collusion as far as I know and the feds would probably be reluctant to prosecute in any case because of the horrible PR they faced after l’affaire Rosen.
Meanwhile, a tidbit from today’s NYT:
Albert Ho, one of Mr. Snowden’s lawyers, said that before the dinner began, Mr. Snowden insisted that everyone hide their cellphones in the refrigerator of the home where he was staying, to block any eavesdropping. Then began a two-hour conversation during which Mr. Snowden was deeply dismayed to learn that he could spend years in prison without access to a computer during litigation over whether he would be granted asylum here or surrendered to the United States, Mr. Ho said. Staying cooped up in the cramped Hong Kong home of a local supporter was not bothersome to Mr. Snowden, but the prospect of losing his computer scared him. “He didn’t go out, he spent all his time inside a tiny space, but he said it was O.K. because he had his computer,” Mr. Ho said. “If you were to deprive him of his computer, that would be totally intolerable.”
He took on the U.S. government and fled to China — and then, allegedly, Russia, Cuba, and Ecuador — all the while feeling that life would be intolerable if he had to go without using a computer for awhile? Maybe he is a total naif after all. Speaking of which, more from the Times:
Two Western intelligence experts, who worked for major government spy agencies, said they believed that the Chinese government had managed to drain the contents of the four laptops that Mr. Snowden said he brought to Hong Kong, and that he said were with him during his stay at a Hong Kong hotel. If that were the case, they said, China would no longer need or want to have Mr. Snowden remain in Hong Kong.
I can’t tell from the way that’s worded if they have reason to believe it’s true or if they’re just making a safe assumption. The assumption is safe: I keep seeing Snowden defenders arguing that there’s no proof that he’s hurt national security even though, rationally, there’s no way a government like China (or any adverse power, really) would let an intelligence plum as prized as Snowden get away without shaking him down for something. Either they’re going to lift his hard drives or, if he’s encrypted them somehow, they’re going to get rough with him to decrypt them. (That may in fact be why he’s momentarily disappeared in Russia.) By his own previous admission, he’s chosen to hold plenty of damaging material back because he’s interested, supposedly, only in vindicating civil liberties in the United States. We know by now that that’s not true — some of the stuff he’s leaked is aimed simply at embarrassing the U.S., not at protecting Americans’ rights — and, in any event, many of his supporters seemed to take the position yesterday on Twitter that the ends kinda sorta justify the means when the feds are after you. If the only places he can hide are authoritarian states like Russia and Venezuela, even though they’re complete anathema to the civil libertarian ideals Snowden claims to hold, so be it. A man’s gotta protect himself, right? Wouldn’t that same logic justify giving sensitive U.S. info to whoever’s holding him, though? If the alternative is a federal pen, hey.
Via Mediaite, here’s Jay Carney grumbling about Russia and China. Between this fiasco and the war in Syria, the “reset” with Russia these days seems to amount to Putin kicking Obama in the stones every week or so.After sources in the Obama administration said Israel was responsible for Wednesday’s attack on a Syrian missile base, an Israeli analyst warned that the US risks starting ‘a very major flare-up.’
The Israeli Air Force struck a military base near the Syrian port city of Latakia, targeting Russian-made SA 125 missiles that Israel claims were set to be transferred to Hezbollah in Lebanon, a security official told AP.
A White House official confirmed the attack happened overnight Thursday, but provided no additional information.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss details of the attack.
However, neither Israel nor Syria confirmed that a military strike of any sort had occurred.
Israel abides by a policy of never commenting on such incidences; rather, Tel Aviv reiterated that Israel will not allow advanced weapons to pass into the hands of Hezbollah via Syrian territory.
The accusation prompted a harsh rebuke on Friday night from Israeli Channel 10, which called the American leak “scandalous,” adding that it was “unthinkable” for Israel’s ally to be acting in such a way.
Israel’s Channel 2, as quoted by the Times of Israel, said the leak “came directly from the White House,” and noted that “this is not the first time” that the Obama administration has pointed the finger at Israel, following a number of raids on Syrian targets.
The channel went so far as to suggest that consideration had been given to establishing a panel to investigate the sources, believed to be inside the Pentagon, although it gave no indication as to how a foreign government could possibly invoke such a measure against another country’s military command center.
Channel 2′s military analyst, Roni Daniel, said Israel’s policy of remaining silent on whether it carried out such attacks permitted it to maintain plausible deniability, so that Syria’s President Bashar Assad did not feel compelled to respond to the attacks.
However, this seems to have been a large leap of faith on the part of the Israeli government, since Syrian Foreign Minister, Walid Moallem, warned at the end of May “if Israel attacks again, we will retaliate immediately."
The Israeli political pundit argued the White House, by publicly leaking news of Israel’s actions, “are pushing Assad closer to the point where he can’t swallow these attacks, and will respond.” Daniel concluded: “Then perhaps the US will clap its hands because it will have started a very major flare-up.”
This is not the first time Israel has been accused by the United States for carrying out attacks on Syrian territory. On July 5, 2013, the Israeli Air Force was suspected of targeting a military installation in Latakia that allegedly housed Russian Yakhont anti-ship missiles, an advanced weapon that Israeli officials previously said they would not allow to reach Syria.
News of Israel’s purported attack comes amid the Syrian civil war that nearly attracted US military intervention, following a mysterious chemical weapons attack on August 21 in the suburbs of Damascus that resulted in hundreds of deaths and injuries.
With military action looking imminent, Russian President Vladimir Putin succeeded in advancing an agreed plan that would have Syria destroy all of it chemical weapons, under the auspices of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
Thus far, the Syrian government has been cooperating with the investigators amid a tense atmosphere both inside the country, and, as indicated by Israel’s apparent actions, outside as well.Update: Looks like the discount is gone folks! This puppy is back up to $12,000.
Those looking to drop several grand on a 35mm film camera for your favorite purist this Holiday season need look no more. Introducing the Nikon FA Gold limited edition camera: a 24k gold-plated camera with lizard skin accents that is currently going on eBay for the relatively low price of $4,800.
To clarify, when we say “relatively low,” we mean relative to what you would have spent on the same camera yesterday when it was listed for a whopping $12,000.
To be fair, this is a beauty of a film camera that many a collector would probably enjoy having on his or her shelf. It’s one of only 2,000 produced in 1984 in commemoration of winning the “Camera Grand Prix” prize. According to Nikon:
It was a limited edition housed in the box of paulownia wood and priced at 500,000 Japanese Yen, even the coupling ring of the barrel of AI Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 normal lens attached was gold-plated and Nikon logotype on its lens cap was also gold-plated… such an elaborate work.
500K Yen by today’s conversion rate actually translates into about $4,800 US, but we don’t suggest you hurry to put in your PayPal info right away. As Nikon Rumors astutely points out, there are several more of this model for sale on eBay, most of them going for between one and two grand.
(via Nikon Rumors)In an age of mechanically demanding champions, Warwick is looked at as being pathetically weak, and while his pick/win rate is pretty average. A quick investigation shows that he is highly picked at low ranks, and has consistent falloff in pick rate as you go up the ladder, despite having a relatively consistent (and above average) win rate regardless of league.
The Concepts
Warwick is a champion that at first seems binary, making him extremely hit or miss, but when closely examined actually displays an incredible amount of versatility, making him a rather reliable pick. To understand why, we must examine the 5 ways a champion can scale:
1. With gold: you maximize items well, which usually means having good ratios.
2. With Experience: the more useful leveling up your skills actually is, the better you scale with level. If you’re just getting higher base damages off of an ability, it’s probably not scaling super well with levels, but if you get higher base damage AND something else (longer CC, shorter CD, etc.) it probably is.
3. With the map: Globality (a global or near-global ability, like a TF ult), even if it’s just sending an ability, like Jinx ult, gets increasingly useful as towers go down and people have more room to roam in exposed spaces. Globility (extremely sustained/spammable mobility), seen in Warwick, Singed, and CDR Riven, also take advantage of wide open spaces, which means they get better the more turrets go down, regardless of which team they go down for.
4. With others: %hp abilities, CC, etc. Anything that does more as the target gets more stats. Tryn does 10k dps with autos? Not when he’s blind he doesn’t, which means the CC from blind scales with him. This is where supports typically excel, because a 1.5 second AOE stun will prevent those stunned from dealing their scaled up damages, and allow the stunner’s teammates to use their scaled up damages more.
5. With time: people with infinite stacking- Thresh, Sion, Nasus, etc.
The Execution
Let’s look at the first scaler- gold. While Warwick’s kit is often looked at as confusing and backwards, Darien’s Magic Damage Warwick shows forth a great way to maximize WW’s kit with items. Because he uses a magic penetration build based heavily on Wit’s End, he is able to get tanky off of the damage he does because of all the built-in heals. That means that he gets more multipliers than your average fighter, since his heals are plentiful and effective enough to let him rely on them as a primary source of durability, and building damage where you would normally itemize health, and maximizing the heals with resistances, since WW doesn’t directly benefit from health in any way. That also means that he can deal more damage than your average fighter, and be just as durable. What’s more, dealing all this extra damage almost guarantees that targets will fall low enough to activate blood scent, which makes his problem with being kited significantly less pronounced. I think its important to note that while Darien builds GA here, Thornmail, Frozen Heart, and BoRK (along with Visage) are all potentially good items to build after finishing Sunfire and Witsend.
Warwick’s passive scales magnificently with levels, especially considering the fact that he gets an attack speed buff, and the way that it interacts with his ult, making his kit perfect for maximizing it. Don’t forget either that it’s scaling two ways- with damage and with durability.
Considering the fact that I used Warwick as an example for scaling with the map, its no surprise that he is best-of-class in this area because of his blood scent. Unlike other forms Globility, it can’t run out, so, fully maxed, you can even chase down that pesky C |
and bus drivers take at least part of their license tests in languages other than English. But the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has proposed rules requiring anyone applying for a commercial driver's license to speak English during their road test and vehicle inspection. The agency wants to change its rules to eliminate the use of interpreters, and congressional approval isn't required.
Drivers could still take written tests in other languages in states where that is allowed, and they wouldn't have to be completely fluent during the road test, said Bill Quade, an associate administrator with the agency.
"Our requirement is that drivers understand English well enough to respond to a roadside officer and to be able to converse," said Quade, who heads enforcement. Drivers need to be able to communicate with authorities about their loads and their vehicles, he said.
A handful of states and organizations are supporting the change, and no one opposed the new rule in comments submitted to the agency. The rule change, which Quade said would probably take effect next year, could particularly affect the nation's fast-growing Spanish-speaking population.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated last year that more than 17 percent of the nation's 3.4 million truck drivers were Hispanic, as were more than 11 percent of its 578,000 bus drivers. It's unknown how many speak both Spanish and English.
The issue of English-speaking drivers also could become larger if the Bush administration succeeds with efforts to make it easier for trucks to enter the United States from Mexico. Trucks already are allowed to enter border areas under a pilot program.
Heading home from Georgia
An Alabama state trooper thought Castillo, 50, couldn't speak English well enough to drive an 18-wheeler when he was headed back to California from picking up onions in Glennville, Ga. A driver for 20 years, Castillo was stopped in west Alabama for a routine inspection.
Castillo, who says he speaks English at roughly a third-grade level, said he understood when the trooper asked him where he was heading and to see his commercial driver's license and registration. He said he responded in English, though he speaks with an accent.
Castillo wasn't speeding, and the inspection and computer check turned up no offenses, so he was surprised to get a ticket for being a "non-English-speaking driver."
"I had heard that Congress had passed that law, so I knew people were getting tickets," he said in an interview in Spanish. "But it didn't seem fair to me because I was communicating fine with him. I don't know a lot of things, but when it comes to my work, I understand everything people say to me."
Castillo, a permanent U.S. resident who lives in a farming community near Fresno, said he took his California license test in Spanish because it's the language he's most comfortable speaking.
'A safety requirement'
Jan Mendoza of the California Department of Motor Vehicles said the state gives the written test in both English and Spanish, but the roadside portion of the exam is in English only because of the federal rule.
Limiting the road portion of the California test to English-only conversation would help eliminate drivers who don't speak English well enough to talk to an officer on the roadside, Quade said. He sees no conflict in continuing to let applicants take the written test in languages other than English.
English-only testing for commercial licenses is limited to just seven states, according to the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, which tracks the issue. Those include Maine, New Hampshire, Oregon, South Dakota, West Virginia, Wyoming and Missouri, according to the group.
The association supports the English-language rules for commercial drivers, as does the American Trucking Association, said spokesman Clayton Boyce.
"It doesn't require them to be super fluent, just to follow road signs, directions and be able to comply with an officer," said Boyce. "It's not a cultural requirement, it's a safety requirement."Activists started a hashtag, #NoQueerNoGame, to show solidarity with lesbian athletes at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, an elite school.
A group of mothers of gay students at the school took to the streets with a banner of their own. “Don’t let homophobes hurt our children!” it said. They called on the university to investigate the incident.
The women’s basketball team at Huazhong University of Science and Technology had a history of harassment against lesbian players, according to students. Ling Bing, a coach of the team, posted anti-gay rants on his social media accounts.
Even after the photo of the banner drew widespread criticism, Mr. Ling posted again to say it was a “double standard” that gay students could hold a rainbow flag at graduation but the banner held by the basketball team members was considered unacceptable.
“What a pity that the great Chinese Communist Party and the great people of China won’t give you a chance to do that,” he wrote in a public post on QQ, a messaging platform.
University officials declined to comment.
Mr. Luo said he had been heartened to see straight people stand with gay and lesbian students in denouncing the banner. Still, he said, the reaction on campus had been mixed.
“Some think views like this are appalling, and some say it’s not worth talking about,” he said.
But the conversation online was largely critical of the banner and the university’s handling of the situation. Several people, for instance, took issue with the banner’s suggestion that socialism was at odds with homosexuality.Tel Aviv University researchers have developed a computer algorithm that predicts which genes can be “turned off” to create the same anti-aging effect as calorie restriction*. The findings, reported in Nature Communications, could lead to the development of new drugs to treat aging.
“Most algorithms try to find drug targets that kill cells to treat cancer or bacterial infections,” says Keren Yizhak, a doctoral student in Prof. Eytan Ruppin’s laboratory. “Our algorithm is the first in our field to look for drug targets not to kill cells, but to transform them from a diseased state into a healthy one.”
Ruppin’s lab is a leader in the growing field of genome-scale metabolic modeling or GSMMs. Using mathematical equations and computers, GSMMs describe the metabolism, or life-sustaining, processes of living cells. Yizhak’s algorithm, which she calls a “metabolic transformation algorithm,” or MTA, can take information about any two metabolic states and predict the environmental or genetic changes required to go from one state to the other.
“Gene expression” is the measurement of the expression level of individual genes in a cell, and genes can be “turned off” in various ways to prevent them from being expressed in the cell. In the study, Yizhak applied MTA to the genetics of aging. After using her custom-designed MTA to confirm previous laboratory findings, she used it to predict genes that can be turned off to make the gene expression of old yeast look like that of young yeast. Yeast is the most widely used genetic model because much of its DNA is preserved in humans.
Some of the genes that the MTA identified were already known to extend the lifespan of yeast when turned off. Of the other genes she found, Yizhak sent seven to be tested at a Bar-Ilan University laboratory. Researchers there found that turning off two of the genes, GRE3 and ADH2, in actual (non-digital) yeast significantly extends the yeast’s lifespan.
“You would expect about three percent of yeast’s genes to be lifespan-extending,” said Yizhak. “So achieving a 10-fold increase over this expected frequency, as we did, is very encouraging.”
Hope for humans
Since MTA provides a systemic view of cell metabolism, it can also shed light on how the genes it identifies contribute to changes in genetic expression. In the case of GRE3 and ADH2, MTA showed that turning off the genes increased oxidative stress levels in yeast, thus possibly inducing a mild stress similar to that produced by calorie restriction.
As a final test, Yizhak applied MTA to human metabolic information. MTA was able to identify a set of genes that can transform 40 to 70 percent of the differences between the old and young information from four different studies. While currently there is no way to verify the results in humans, many of these genes are known to extend lifespan in yeast, worms, and mice.
Next, Yizhak will study whether turning off the genes predicted by MTA prolongs the lifespan of genetically engineered mice.
One day, drugs could be developed to target genes in humans, potentially allowing us to live longer. MTA could also be applied to finding drug targets for disorders where metabolism plays a role, including obesity, diabetes, neurodegenerative disorders, and cancer.
* Restricting calorie consumption is one of the few proven ways to combat aging. Though the underlying mechanism is unknown, calorie restriction has been shown to prolong lifespan in yeast, worms, flies, monkeys, and, in some studies, humans.
Abstract of Nature Communications paper
The growing availability of ‘omics’ data and high-quality in silico genome-scale metabolic models (GSMMs) provide a golden opportunity for the systematic identification of new metabolic drug targets. Extant GSMM-based methods aim at identifying drug targets that would kill the target cell, focusing on antibiotics or cancer treatments. However, normal human metabolism is altered in many diseases and the therapeutic goal is fundamentally different—to retrieve the healthy state. Here we present a generic metabolic transformation algorithm (MTA) addressing this issue. First, the prediction accuracy of MTA is comprehensively validated using data sets of known perturbations. Second, two predicted yeast lifespan-extending genes, GRE3 and ADH2, are experimentally validated, together with their associated hormetic effect. Third, we show that MTA predicts new drug targets for human ageing that are enriched with orthologs of known lifespan-extending genes and with genes downregulated following caloric restriction mimetic treatments. MTA offers a promising new approach for the identification of drug targets in metabolically related disorders.Back in 2014, a cyclist in Central Park struck and killed a pedestrian. He was on a bike with aerobars and he appeared to be using Strava at the time. This only reaffirmed my hatred for the popular performance-tracking app, which I'd long derided as the equivalent of riding with your head up your own ass while masturbating.
Of course it's easy to hate something if you have no actual first-hand experience with it. This is the driving force behind Internet commentary, organized religion, and Donald Trump's presidency. Plus, when you hate something, you have to ask yourself why you hate it, and more often than not the answer is because you kinda want to try it.
So in the spirit of loosening up, I finally opened myself a Strava account. Would my new relaxed attitude toward data and social networking enhance my riding enjoyment or would I merely join the ranks of the many data-obsessed cyclists plumbing the depths of their own lower intestines?
I've only been Strava-ing (Straving? Striving?) for a couple weeks now, and I have yet to do any "big" rides, but here's what I've observed so far:
I Suck
Don't get me wrong, I knew this already. What did surprise me though was that seeing my suckiness quantified on such a granular level is strangely comforting. After all, it's human nature to want to know where you stand. That's why most of us would rather be dumped than ghosted.
It Doesn't Motivate Me to Ride...
"I like Strava," people have told me. "It movitates me to ride."
To this I've always thrown back my head and cried "Ha!" as they slowly back away from me. What kind of cyclist needs motivation to ride? If anything I need motivation not to ride, such as hearing the phrases, "Yeah, that leg is broken" or "If you go out on that ride then don't bother coming back."
Certainly now that I'm on Strava this remains the case. I'm not compelled to ride any more now than I was when I eschewed it. What I do find, however, is that Strava allows me to sort of prolong the enjoyment of the ride by admiring its contours and drilling down into the data, even if it's telling me stuff I already know. And I suppose hoarding data so you can fondle it later is a form of motivation.
Still, in a way Strava is more like those Nashbar catalogs I used to get in the mail: I know all this stuff already and I don't really need any of it, but I still can't help poring over it on the toilet.
...But It Does Motivate Me to Run
As a lifelong cyclist and recovering bike racer I don't need an app to tell me how far I'm going, how hard I'm working, or where I stack up among my peers.
However, as a once-in-a-blue-moon runner, I'm completely in the dark.
It hadn't even occurred to me to turn on Strava and go for a run until I saw the little toggle switch, though now that I have it's motivated me to want to do it again, even if the duration and intensity of my typical run is the equivalent of trotting to catch the bus.
So if you like an activity but don't love it with your heart and soul I see how Strava can be the difference between doing it and succumbing to a Netflix binge instead.
I Am Not Alone
I live in New York City, where the most popular cycling routes are so heavily trafficked that you feel like you're in a Gran Fondo. (The fact that everyone's wearing the jersey from the last Gran Fondo they did doesn't help.) This has compelled me over the years to seek out the roads less travelled, and when I head out on a typical ride these days I often won't see another cyclist.
As a result, I've been laboring under the delusion that I'm some sort of pioneer. It feels good to ask yourself, "I wonder where this road goes?" and discover a new climb or an untrammeled set of rollers. And when you never see another rider on it you figure it's just your little secret.
Well, now I know there are no secrets and that whether I've seen them or not my fellow cyclists have had their grubby little mitts all over my favorite backroads.
So if you enjoy the sense of solitude that comes from solo cycling, Strava is as disconcerting as shining a blacklight on a hotel bedspread.
It Probably Won't Turn You Into an Asshole, But It Might Help
At this point in my cycling career I have nothing to prove on the bike. If I'm stuck behind a slower rider, I relax and wait for a good moment to pass. If I see a rider with a mechanical issue, I slow down and see if I can provide some assistance.
With Strava switched on I still did these things, but I also caught myself thinking about how doing so would look later when I went over the data on the toilet.
Then there's cycling in the city. Riding the very crowded Hudson River Greenway in Manhattan on a recent weekday evening I marveled at the heedless doofus on a triathlon bike, splayed out on his aerobars with his head down as he attempted to lay down a personal best. The busiest commuter routes contain some of the most popular Strava segments and anyone trying to light them up during rush hour is an idiot.
So if you're already predisposed to being an asshole it's not hard to imagine Strava pushing you over the edge. Then again, an asshole is an asshole, and I suppose blaming Strava for that is as dumb as blaming Ozzy Ozbourne for teen suicide like they did in the '80s.
This Is the Future and I Might as Well Embrace It
So was my suspicion that Strava can turn you into a self-absorbed data weenie correct? Of course it was. I'm reliving my rides on the toilet for chrissake! But it turns out I'm okay with that, much in the same way I'm okay with the confirmation that I suck, because clearly that's who I was anyway.
The real revelation was that I was avoiding Strava out of obstinence rather than indifference. And while I may very well grow indifferent to this digital novelty, at least it will be genuine indifference and not the kind that's borne of ignorance.
True aloofness is like a KOM: you've got to work for it.What was it he had seen? A fire burning on an uninhabited island in the South Pacific? The next day, the captain of the Duke, an English buccaneer ship, sent an armed party to the island to investigate. When the men returned to the ship, they brought along two surprises: large numbers of spiny lobsters and a shaggy creature.
The figure that climbed on board the Duke on Feb. 2, 1709 was apparently human, but wild as an animal, barefoot and covered in goatskin. The creature, extremely agitated, was only able to stammer a few barely comprehensible words at first, but they were enough to become immortal.
In his novel, first published in 1719, Daniel Defoe named the islander "Robinson Crusoe." But the real Robinson was a man named Alexander Selkirk. He was a Scotsman, the seventh son of a shoemaker from the village of Lower Largo, near Edinburgh. He had spent four years and four months on Más a Tierra, a windswept island in the Juan Fernandez archipelago, 650 kilometers (404 miles) off the coast of Chile. He was as alone as a human being can be. For Selkirk, there was no "Man Friday," a character Defoe created for his novel.
Unlike his literary equivalent, Selkirk was also not shipwrecked. Instead his captain had simply left him stranded after a longstanding quarrel. He must have looked on in disbelief as his ship sailed away over the horizon. Among the few items he had been left were some articles of clothing, a knife, an axe, a gun, navigation devices, a cooking pot, tobacco and a bible.
On the 300th anniversary of his return to human society, scientists can now paint a clear picture of Selkirk's island existence. They believe that they now know how and where he lived, partly through some of his personal effects that have now been discovered. His life after being rescued can also be reconstructed, providing a portrait of the real Robinson that is not always flattering -- and yet typical of the type of rogue who took to the seas in those days.
Selkirk the sailor was a pirate, a drinker and a short-tempered ruffian. Born into a troubled family, he fled to sea when he was barely 17. Working on privateer ships in the Mediterranean and Caribbean, he robbed Spaniards and Frenchmen. Although he was not unintelligent, even working his way up to the position of navigator, his temperament was precarious. Selkirk had apparently always had trouble getting along with other people, which was perhaps precisely why he endured his solitary confinement on the island so successfully.
David Caldwell, 57, is an archeologist at the Scottish National Museum in Edinburgh. Ordinarily, his field is Scottish history, which he usually studies from the comfort of his office. But when Daisuke Takahashi, a Japanese Robinson Crusoe fanatic, asked Caldwell to travel with him to the castaway's island, it was an offer he couldn't resist.
Enthusiast Takahashi had obtained funding for his expedition from the National Geographic Society, but he needed a real academic as his partner. Caldwell was certainly qualified. Two of the better Selkirk relics are in his museum's collection: a drinking vessel that the pirate may have carved himself, and a sea chest of northern Italian origin, which Caldwell believes Selkirk captured in the Mediterranean.
The men spent more than a month on the island, which was officially renamed Robinson Crusoe Island in 1966. It is still a quiet place, home to about 600 people today, most of them spiny lobster fishermen. It has two unpaved roads and barely two dozen vehicles. There is no restaurant or even a bar. Cruise ships occasionally drop anchor at Robinson Crusoe en route from the Galapagos Islands to Tierra del Fuego.
The Spanish threat
Caldwell and Takahashi recently described their findings in Post-Medieval Archaeology, an academic journal. They excavated at a site where Takahashi, who had traveled to the island before, believed Selkirk's camp might have been, a well-protected clearing on a volcanic hillside, almost 300 meters (980 feet) above sea level, surrounded by brambles. Selkirk chose not to live on the beach, because it was too dangerous. Although he had no cannibals to fear, as Robinson did in the novel, the Spaniards were a threat. They would have killed him on the spot or turned him into a slave.
The team soon discovered the remains of a Spanish ammunition chest. The Spaniards had reoccupied the island in 1750 to prevent their enemies from continuing to use it as a safe haven. But Caldwell found two older fire sites underneath the chamber -- and the charred remains of bones in them.
Around the site, the scientists discovered holes in the ground that had apparently once accommodated posts. Perhaps Selkirk had built a hut there, they conjectured. When Caldwell sifted through the excavated dirt, he discovered the strongest evidence of Selkirk's presence: an angular, pointed piece of bronze, 1.6 centimeters long. He assigned no importance to the find at first, until he realized that the shape of the metal piece matched that of the lower arm of a divider, which was known to be part of Selkirk's navigation equipment.
Caldwell believes that the castaway had used his divider for crafts and damaged it in the process. A metallurgical test revealed that the metal could have come from Cornwall. "This," says the historian, "is the kind of strong evidence one rarely gets in archeology."
From his campsite, Selkirk faced a steep ascent of another 300 meters to his observation post at the top of the mountain, where he probably spent several hours every day. If he spotted a sail, he had to decide whether it belonged to friend or foe. Should he light a signal fire or remain concealed? He sighted a few ships, and two, both of them Spanish, even landed on the island -- but he managed to escape detection.
The first eight months were a struggle for Selkirk: a pirate hungry for gold and adventure, he fell into a depression. But over time he began to make a home for himself.
Of all the islands Selkirk could have ended up on, this one was practically tailor-made for a castaway. His life soon improved, so much so that he may have been better off than ever before or would ever be again in the future. He was a prisoner, and yet he was freer than ever.
The climate was mild almost all year and usually dry, there were no poisonous or dangerous animals and there were freshwater streams. Fat seals lounged on the beach, spiny lobsters and many varieties of fish populated the lagoons, and edible plants thrived on land, including wild berries, watercress, a form of black pepper and a plant that tasted like cabbage. The only thing he lacked was salt, as he later told his rescuers.
Goats, cats and rats
Selkirk was not the first person to live there. In 1575, Spanish explorers brought goats to the island, and subsequent ships brought cats and rats, as well as radishes and parsnips. Selkirk tamed feral cats so that they would defend him against the rats that nibbled on his feet at night. But a herd of wild goats became his greatest source of amusement.
Hunting goats became a sport for Selkirk. He learned to outrun them and throw them to the ground while running. He released many of them but, as he told his rescuers, he killed 500 goats for their meat and skins. He even recorded each goat he killed.
He must have satisfied his sexual urges through masturbation, although there is some debate among experts as to whether he might have had sex with goats. To satisfy his need for communication, Selkirk read the bible, prayed, meditated and sang psalms. He confided in his rescuers that he had never been as good a Christian as he was on the island, and that he doubted whether he would ever be one again.
Selkirk, in his early 30s, was in much better health than the sailors who rescued him. Half of the crew had contracted scurvy after a miserable voyage from England. But Selkirk moved with ease. The soles of his feet had become so calloused that he could outrun the ship's dog on the sharp terrain of his volcanic island. He was unable to wear shoes at first -- or tolerate rum.
For almost three years, Selkirk sailed around the world with the buccaneers who had rescued him. They fought, robbed and extorted their enemies, and all with the blessing of the Crown, because their victims were the enemies of their country. At the end of 1711, Selkirk returned to England with a sizeable fortune. He became an instant celebrity, trading his stories for food and drink in pubs. Archeologist Caldwell speculates that this is where Daniel Defoe may have met him.
But Selkirk was unhappy in the civilized world, and he longed for his island. A journalist quoted him as saying: "I now have 800 pounds, but never again will I be as happy as I was then, when I had not a single quarter penny." He drank and fought and was married to two women at the same time. But eventually he fled back to the sea, this time as a lieutenant in the navy.
His life came to an abrupt end at 45. On Dec. 12, 1721, he died of yellow fever off the coast of West Africa and was buried at sea. Robinson Crusoe was already a groundbreaking success by then. Today Defoe's work is celebrated as the first novel in the English language.
There is one Selkirk mystery that remains unsolved. According to the accounts of his travels, the castaway kept a diary of sorts on Más a Tierra. The diary is also mentioned in a letter from one of his widows. But what happened to his notes?
Archeologist Caldwell has a theory. Shortly after Selkirk's death, his writings fell into the hands of the Duke of Hamilton, the richest nobleman in Scotland. When his descendants needed money, in the 19th century, they auctioned off paintings and collections at Christie's in London. The nascent German Empire was a major buyer at this auction.
Caldwell's theory suggests that if the diary of the real Robinson Crusoe still exists, it could be somewhere in Berlin today. "I would speculate that it is most likely on a forgotten shelf in the Berlin State Library - Prussian Cultural Heritage," says Caldwell.ENID, Okla. – Authorities are investigating after a newborn was found dead inside an Oklahoma dumpster.
Around 2:24 a.m. on April 9, Enid police were called to reports of a decomposing odor coming from a roll off container at a home in the 1600 block of 2nd.
When police arrived, they found a deceased newborn male infant inside the container.
The State Medical Examiner’s office was notified and arrived on scene and took custody of the infant’s body. The body was then transported to Oklahoma City for examination.
Investigators are working to identify the mother and identify anyone who many have been involved in disposing the body into the roll off container.
Anyone having information that will lead to the arrest or prosecution of this or any crime is urged to call Crime Stoppers at (580) 233-6233.
You can also text a tip from a cell phone by texting to 274637.
Be sure to type “Enid” in the subject field.
Tips can also be submitted via the internet by going to tipsoft.com.
You can earn a reward up to $1,000.00.
You will not be required to testify and will not be identified.
Callers may also contact the Enid Police Department with information.As part of its busy upfront presentation day, Freeform on Thursday announced summer premiere dates for seven shows, including Season 7 of flagship drama “Pretty Little Liars.”
The network kicks off its summer season on Wednesday, June 1, with the return of half-hour comedies “Young and Hungry” and “Baby Daddy.” This will be the start of the second half of season three for “Young” and the launch of the back half of season five for “Baby Daddy.”
On Monday, June 13, the soapy drama “Guilt” premieres at 9 p.m. ET. The story revolves around an American student in London whose roommate is murdered, and the mystery twists through many layers of London society — from a posh but depraved sex club and all the way up to the Royal Family itself. The series, which hails from Lionsgate TV and Thunderbird Films, stars Billy Zane, Emily Tremaine, Daisy Head, Cristian Solimeno, Naomi Ryan, Kevin Ryan, Zachary Fall, Simona Brown and Sam Cassidy.
“Guilt” will be joined on Mondays starting the following week by the Season 4 premiere of “The Fosters.” The new season picks up immediately from the March 28 cliffhanger finale with Mariana’s emotionally devastated boyfriend Nick bringing a gun to school.
Related Freeform's Karey Burke on Being Part of the 'Gayest Network on Television' Freeform to Develop 'Make Your Home Among Strangers' Series (EXCLUSIVE)
Starting Tuesday, June 21, at 8 p.m., the PLLs band together to unearth answers to the last remaining secrets and take down “Uber A” for good in what the network is calling the most romantic season of “Pretty Little Liars” to date.
New drama “Dead of Summer” bows Tuesday, June 28, at 9 p.m., following the second week of “Pretty Little Liars.” The series is set in the late 1980s at Camp Stillwater, a seemingly idyllic Midwestern summer camp, where what was supposed to be a summer of fun soon turns into one of unforgettable scares and evil at every turn.
“Dead of Summer” comes from ABC Signature Studios and executive producers Adam Horowitz, Edward Kitsis, Ian Goldberg and Steve Pearlman. It stars Elizabeth Mitchell, Elizabeth Lail, Zelda Williams, Mark Indelicato, Alberto Frezza, Eli Goree, Ronen Rubinstein, Amber Coney and Paulina Singer.
The final series set to roll out on Freeform this summer is “Cheer Squad,” which follows the two-time World Cheerleading Champions on the long road to defending their title as they try to balance life off the mat with the all-consuming battle to stay on top. It premieres Monday, Aug. 22, at 10 p.m. and will air nightly as a two-week programming event.
Looking ahead to early 2017, Freeform will roll out new drama “Beyond,” new alternative series “The Letter,” Season 2 of drama “Shadowhunters” and the final season of “Switched at Birth.”
“Beyond” is about Holden (Burkely Duffield), a young man who wakes up from a coma after 12 years and discovers new abilities that propel him into the middle of a dangerous conspiracy. “The Letter” is a relationship show that asks the simple question: If you could, without identifying yourself, would you tell your best friend what he or she really needed to hear?
FREEFORM SUMMER PREMIERE DATES
Wednesday, June 1
Young & Hungry (season 3B), 8 p.m.
Baby Daddy (season 5B), 8:30 p.m.
Monday, June 13
Guilt (new series), 9 p.m.
Monday, June 20
The Fosters (season 4), 8 p.m.
Tuesday, June 21
Pretty Little Liars (season 7), 8 p.m.
Tuesday, June 28
Dead of Summer (new series), 9 p.m.
Monday, August 22
Cheer Squad (new series), 10 p.m.7 years ago
Washington (CNN) - Mitt Romney's unfavorable rating is up, most Americans think the Republican presidential challenger favors the rich, and it appears the number of people who believe that the economy will not get better if Romney is elected has edged up slightly, according to a new national poll.
But a CNN/ORC International survey released Thursday also indicates that Romney's supporters are increasingly getting behind the presumptive GOP nominee.
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It all adds up to a seven point advantage for President Barack Obama over the former Massachusetts governor, with 52% of registered voters questioned in the survey saying that they'd vote to re-elect the president and 45% backing Romney.
"Among independent voters, the poll indicates President Obama has a 53%-42% lead," CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said. "The president holds a nine point advantage among women voters and a smaller six point edge among men."
The good news for Romney: Four months after he wrapped up the race for the GOP nomination, 56% of Romney voters say they strongly support him, up from 47% in May. Sixty-one percent of Obama voters say they strongly support the president.
Since the start of the general election in April, the Obama campaign and Democratic groups have launched attacks on the presumptive Republican nominee, and the survey indicates that they appear to be working.
While Romney's favorable rating has remained steady (47% now compared to 48% in July), his unfavorable rating has jumped from 42% last month to 48% now. The president's 56%-42% favorable-unfavorable rating now is little changed from July.
Among independents, the poll indicates Romney's image has taken a beating. In May, only 40% of independents had an unfavorable view of Romney. Now, 52% of independents have a negative view of him.
Other findings: Sixty-four percent of all Americans, and 68% of independents, think Romney favors the rich over the middle class. And 63% of the public thinks Romney should release more tax returns than he has already made public, a figure which rises to 67% among independents.
"These are all signs that a summer of negative campaigning on the part of the Democrats seems to be taking its toll on the presumptive GOP nominee," says Holland.
Most significantly, it appears that Romney's image as a can-do guy on the economy may have also been hurt. In May, 50% of all Americans said that the economy would get better if Romney were elected. That's now down to 45%, two points below Obama's number. It's likely that all of this is the result of the Democrats' efforts to paint Romney in an unflattering light, but so far Obama has avoided any blowback from that strategy, as evidenced by no rise in his unfavorable rating.
Who do Americans think will win the election?
Regardless of which candidate they support, 63% think Obama will win re-election, with one third saying Romney will win.
"That may not translate directly into votes, but it is worth noting that in August of previous election years, the public accurately predicted the winner in 1996, 2000 and 2008, and in 2004 George W. Bush and John Kerry were tied," adds Holland.
Control of Congress is also up for grabs in November. According to the survey, 45% say the country would be better off if Congress were controlled by Democrats, with 39% saying things would be better if the GOP ran Capitol Hill.
The CNN poll was conducted by ORC International Tuesday and Wednesday (August 7-8), with 1,010 adults nationwide, including 911 registered voters, questioned by telephone. The survey's overall sampling error is plus or minus three percentage points.
CNN Political Editor Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report
- Check out the CNN Electoral Map and Calculator and game out your own strategy for November.NEW DELHI: India is expanding a covert uranium enrichment plant that could potentially support the development of thermonuclear weapons, a defence research group said on Friday, raising the stakes in an arms race with China and Pakistan.
The revelation highlights a lack of nuclear safeguards on India under new Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while sanctions-bound Iran faces minute scrutiny in talks with world powers over its own nuclear programme.
New units at the Indian Rare Metals Plant would increase India's ability to produce weapons-grade uranium to twice the amount needed for its planned nuclear-powered submarine fleet, IHS Jane's said.
The facility, located near Mysore in southern India, could be operational by mid-2015, the research group said, basing its findings on analysis of satellite imagery and public statements by Indian officials.
“Taking into account all the enriched uranium likely to be needed by the Indian nuclear submarine fleet, there is likely to be a significant excess,” Matthew Clements, editor of IHS Jane's Intelligence Review said.
“One potential use of this would be for the development of thermonuclear weapons.” No comment was available from the Indian government press office or the foreign ministry.
Unlike Iran, India is not a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. New Delhi tested its first nuclear weapon in 1974, provoking international sanctions that barred it from importing nuclear technology and materials.
It conducted tests again in 1998 that drew a quick response from Pakistan, triggering an arms race between the neighbours, who have fought three wars since independence in 1947.
A civil nuclear cooperation deal with the United States, sealed in 2008, gave India access to know-how and fuel in return for a pledge - so far unfulfilled - to bring in U.S. firms to expand India's nuclear power generation capacity.
The pact exempts military facilities and stockpiles of nuclear fuel from scrutiny by the International Atomic Energy Agency, a United Nations watchdog. The Mysore plant is not subject to IAEA safeguards.
The exemption, granted by the administration of President George W. Bush, faced opposition from China and Pakistan, India's regional rivals, and European nations who said it would undermine efforts to control the spread of nuclear weapons.
Satellite view
Based on its analysis of commercial satellite images, IHS Jane's has identified what appears to be a new uranium hexafluoride plant that would increase the uranium enrichment capacity of the Mysore facility.
The plant would be able to produce a surplus of around 160 kilos a year of uranium enriched to 90 percent purity, IHS Jane's reckons. That is roughly double the needs of the nuclear submarine fleet India is developing to supplement its land-based missile arsenal - and enough to make five atomic bombs.
By blending the uranium with its existing stock of plutonium, India could develop thermonuclear weapons that have a complex detonation process and have a bigger impact than simpler weapons.
“We aren't suggesting that this action alone will create an immediate |
40% of the hands in the 500k sample were played at 50NL and the buy-in levels with the fewest hands are the very first levels. Since I was able to beat 50NL at around the 400k hands mark, my focus has been on moving up in stakes and beating the 100NL level. As you can see in the 100NL row I still have some work to do.
The 500k hands were played over 699 hours which comes to around 715 hands per hour. On average I see around 65 hands per table at full ring which means that on average I’ve been playing 11 tables simultaneously which sounds about right. Initially I played 4-6 tables and April was the first full month that I played 24 tables. I have since gone down to 12 and even 6 tables while trying to beat 100NL.
The table below shows the distribution of the 500k sample by day of the week. You can clearly see that I play the vast majority of my hands over Friday and Saturday (my weekend).
These 500k hands were racked up in 201 different sessions. During these 201 sessions I lost money 75 times (37%) with my longest loosing streak being 6 sessions. My longest winning streak was 15 sessions (unfortunately this was at 2NL:)). The lesson here is that even winning players loss one in 3 sessions on average. During these sessions I’ve paid $10,012 in rake. Unfortunately I haven’t recorded the money I’ve earned from bonuses.
The law of diminishing win rates
One of the most obvious concepts of poker is that the game gets tougher to beat the higher you go up in stakes. An interesting question though is by how much does one’s win rate go down the higher he climbs in stakes. Before we look at my data to get some sense of the drop, it is important to understand that the shape of the graph of someone’s win rate as you go up in stakes will be very different on a player-by-player basis. The main reason for this is because most players don’t stick to a level they can beat long enough to determine their true win rate. This effect can be catastrophic to some players who move up in stakes too quickly after running hot at a new buy-in level. Ask two poker players how many hands you should play to determine your true win rate and you will get three answers. Later in my analysis you will see that the real number is much higher than what most people think.
Do you notice the different between by actual win rate and my EV adjusted winrate at 2NL and 5NL? The reason for this is because my sample sizes for these buy-in levels are small which means I was running very hot (at 5NL) and very cold (at 2NL). In the long run your actual winrate and EV adjusted winrate will match.
The plight of the break-even periods
Below are three graphs of periods within my 500k hands sample which almost drove me mentally insane. Let’s look at each one on their own and lets see what we can learn from the horror.
The first graph shows a period of roughly 166,000 hands where I broke even at 25NL and 50NL. Before embarking on my challenge to beat 50NL I knew I could beat 10NL but always got stuck at 25NL so when I finally reached 25NL I was ready for the challenge. About 2 month into playing 25NL I took my first shot at 50NL and it went badly. After dropping $1,000 dollars I went back down to 25NL expecting to continue to beat the level like I was doing before taking the shot at 50NL. Not only did I not sustain my earlier win rate at the level but my confidence took a big knock and my volume suffered. I knew I could beat the level and that my failed shot at 50NL was mostly as a result of run bad (more on this later) so I held firm and pushed through it, 40,000 hands later I saw the light and continued to build the mountain (you know, the shape of my graph:)).
The second break-even period is a bit different from the first. The main difference here is that instead of experiencing an extended period of time where I failed to maintain a positive win rate, I ended up wiping out 5 months of positive results in a mere 33 hours. My first shot at 100NL was so devastating financially in comparison to my positive results over the months that in a mere 12,784 hands I wrote off the winnings I had accumulated over the first 7 months of 2013. The way I got through this blow was by understanding the big picture and that if I can wipe out so much money so quickly, the opposite is also true when positive variance is on your side. Losing $500-$1000 or 5-10 buy-ins over a period of 12k hands isn’t unheard of. It is very important to keep things in proportion and to remember the final goal.
The final break-even graph shows all the hands I played at 50NL in the 500k sample. Do you notice what happened during the first 80,000 hands? The first 80k hands was a special type of hell but when I finally got through it and I broke even at the level something happened, I started to beat the level and haven’t looked back. I think a very important lesson can be learnt from this graph. 80k hands is a hell of a lot of hands for someone who plays this game on the side and I know there are many players out there who couldn’t handle going through so many hands without showing a profit for their work. The reality is that if I decided to call it quits after 80k hands at 50NL I would have cost myself thousands of dollars and perhaps even tens of thousands of dollars if I successfully beat 100NL. The lesson to be learnt here is that it can take you tens of thousands of hands to beat a level so keep your head up and don’t quit.
Your aces will break 10 percent of the time and you should fold 9 2
Did you know there are 169 different hands you can be dealt in a Texas Holdem hand? I know what you’re thinking, there are a lot more than 169 different combinations of hands that someone can be dealt. You’re right, there are actually 1,326 combinations but if you had to group those into suited combinations and unsuited combinations you would get 169 different combinations. Don’t believe me, just look at the table below. 13 hands per row, times 13 rows equals 169.
Now that we have determined that there are 169 different hand strength combinations that you can be dealt, lets have a look at how each one fairs.
There are a number of very interesting things we can gather from this table:
Even the strongest hand in poker loses 1 in 10 times.
You will flop a set 11.7% of the time (1 in 8.5).
On average you will be flipping (50-50) when all in pre-flop.
Even though 500k hands is a large sample size, when you are breaking it down by 169 different hand combos, there will still be variance on a hand per hand basis. This explains why pocket 3s is my biggest losing hand when looking at dollars won and lost and why I’ve lost more money with QJs vs 82o.
I’ve mis-click folded AA or timed out when I was dealt them 5 times (whoops!!).
One stat which I find very interesting is the fact that I’ve lost money with 130 of the 169 hand combinations shown in the table above, that’s a majority of 77%. I’m beating 50NL for over 3bb/100 and I’m still losing money with 77% of my hands. If you are struggling to beat this game then most likely you are still playing a number of unprofitable hands on a constant basis. Understand that there are hands which can’t make you money in the long run and that you need to cut them out of your game.
How tight is the competition?
Something which was extremely obvious to me when I was moving up in stakes was the increase in the number of regs at my tables. The first level where I noticed this was at 25NL which seems ridiculously reg infested (50 and 100NL aren’t much better). I decided to dive into my data and see the difference in the tightness level for each buy-in level. Check out the pie charts below which show the percentage of players with certain VPIP ranges per buy-in level.
I was surprised by these results because from the 4 pie charts above it seems 10NL is tighter than 25 and 50NL which wasn’t my experience. One of the issues with this data is that we don’t necessarily know the true VPIP of many of the players in the sample. Check out the table below to see the average number of hands for players based on their VPIP. You can clearly see that the tighter players have a much higher average number of hands which makes sense because these are the regulars which are multi-tabling and putting in a lot of hours. We can also clearly see that players which play above 25% of their hands don’t last.
Final thoughts
There is an almost unlimited number of analyses I could add to this post but I’ve decided to stop here. I think there is enough here for now and I hope that even the most seasoned professional will find something in this post which will help them improve their game. I would love to hear your thoughts on this post and what you would like me to include in my analysis.
If you enjoyed this post and want to learn how to analyze your own poker stats then check out this detailed guide on the poker stats which matter at 2NL. You can also subscribe to this blog or follow me on Twitter by clicking on the follow button below.
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Good luck at the tables.For those among us who groan every time a new saccharine sweet romantic comedy comes out, Valentine’s Day is sort of the worst. Suddenly every television channel is playing Bridget Jones’s Diary, and even worse, the people who love that garbage come crawling out of whatever heart-shaped rock they normally live under to sing the gospel of love. Ugh, yeah, we get it.
But the thing is even cynics need love — just not bullshit, set-to-a-montage, John-Cusack-holding-a-stereo “love.” The 50 books below are filled with love, but a kind far more legitimate than what’s in your typical rom-com. They might not always be fun, and they might not always be sweet — in fact, the realistic depictions of romantic relationships in these 50 books will probably break your icy heart. So happy Valentine’s Day, and happy reading.
Oh, and don’t forget to get your candy on sale on February 15.The U.S. Coast Guard suspended the search for a plane that went missing after departing Sunday from Santa Catalina Island en route to Van Nuys Airport with a student pilot and instructor on board. Toni Guinyard reports for the NBC4 News at 11 a.m. on Tuesday May 31, 2016. (Published Tuesday, May 31, 2016)
A pilot-in-training and flight instructor went missing in a single-engine Cessna 172 after departing from Catalina Island airport over the weekend.
The Coast Guard and Federal Aviation Administration launched a search Monday after the four-seater plane did not land at the Van Nuys Airport as scheduled. The Coast Guard suspended its search Tuesday.
Family members hired two helicopters to join the search.
The small plane took off from Catalina Island and was expected at Van Nuys Airport Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m.
The FAA said in preliminary reports that two people were aboard.
The training pilot's family identified him as Edmond Haronian. They said he was to arrived at Van Nuys Airport with his flight instructor from Encore Flight Academy.
Haronian posted pictures to social media on Saturday, the day the plane went missing.
"Since Saturday, which is May 28, we have not had any news from him. We have not heard from him — no calls, no texts. We are very worried," Saeed Majdipour, the pilot's brother-in-law, said.
Haronian's brother-in-law said the family became worried when Sunday came, and no one had heard from the pilot.
They contacted the flight academy, and employees confirmed that Haronian and his instructor were missing.
The family was upset as the academy did not contact them right away.
Haronian's Mercedes remained in the parking lot over the weekend.
Encore Flight Academy did not immediately return calls for comment.
The U.S. Coast Guard released photos as the team searched Monday evening. The team spent 10 hours searching around Catalina Island, and didn't find any signs of wreckage or debris.
Haronian's last call was to his sons shortly before 1 p.m. when he told them he would be taking off.
The U.S. Coast Guard suspended its search and said it would resume if wreckage from the plane was discovered.
Haronian's family said it hired private helicopters to assist with the search.Image by Gabby Bess
Sometimes a thing does not need to be another thing. Perhaps the Platonic form of this sentiment is the Original Peter Piper Pecker Puffer glass pipe dildo, a tool that brings to form two types of transcendence but nevertheless begs the question: Why?
The hybrid weed pipe and sex toy is exactly what it suggests. In the quintessentially American tradition of the "two-in-one" (sometimes regionally known as a "twofer"), the Peter Piper is simply a dildo attached to a bowl. It is forged by the understanding that pleasure should be both maximum and efficient, as well as the fact that cannabis tends to tempt the erotic. Research suggests that "the results of taking cannabis are considerably influenced by the individual's expectations or by the social or cultural setting," and the smokable dildo certainly does set the tone.
The dildo pipe promises to deliver on the promise that sex raises but can hardly ever fulfill, but the device's packaging doesn't appear to be going for sultry. Peter Piper's branding leads at once with its straightforward utility and its strong suit: puns. In fact, Peter Piper almost appears to have spontaneously reverse-engineered itself from the rhyme, "Smoke it then poke it!" More exclamations follow. "Yes," the package smugly adds in an all-caps serif font, "we did!"
Photo via Amazon
They did, indeed. "They" are an online sex toy company called Pipedreams. On the company's blog, Pipedreams describes their brand as "bold, edgy, and aggressive." Now a purveyor of sex toys, the company initially started out as a pipe and paraphernalia wholesaler, but were shut down by the FBI. Needing to diversify their business, Pipedreams got into gag gifts and soon started developing and manufacturing their own sex toys. As such, the Original Peter Piper Pecker Puffer is a glimmering beacon of the company's past, present, and future. Tragically, however, it has been discontinued without explanation and is no longer available on Pipedreams's site, though it's still available on Amazon (four-and-a-half stars) and other online sex toy shops with web 1.0 aesthetics.
The company also owns Jimmyjane, an upscale sex toy brand that has been called "the Apple of sex toys." Jimmyjane sells a 24-karat gold vibrator of which Kate Moss is supposedly a fan, but it's hard to image the Peter Piper in the same league. At first glance, a glass dildo that can be smoked like a pipe seems ridiculous. At second glance, it seems seriously unsafe. "I feel a little concerned putting anything made of glass deep into an orifice," wrote "Ira Glass" in a preemptive review of the product. This is an intuitive worry, not to mention that the glass will also be frequently heated.
Read More: How Marketers Are Capitalizing on Pot's New Lady Demographic
Upon purchasing my "Original" Peter Piper Pecker Puffer glass dildo for $49.95 plus shipping from a Canadian website whose domain ended in.net, my colleagues and loved ones expressed grave concern for my vagina. "Be careful," was a frequent response. But—a little disappointingly—the smoke does not fill the entire eight-inch phallic extension like a chamber. So, as a dick, the Peter Piper is more legitimate than expected. This runs contrary to the prominent copy that reads, "Suck both ends!" on the back of the package that makes the Peter Piper appear to be a Spencer Gifts bargain bin find.
Smoke it then poke it!
The dildo is made of solid, sturdy glass, and it stays cool to the touch while smoking. Glass is a common material for sex toys, it turns out—especially in the realm of butt plugs and dildos. Hardened glass is durable and non-porous. In contrast to the low expectations it set up for itself, the Peter Pecker's quality is stunning, especially to a really stoned person. The dildo is weighty and substantial, but the bowl is impossibly light.
Which brings me to my next point: Another aspect of the Peter Piper is that it got me really stoned. As it must fit snugly against a large dildo, the glass pipe is fairly large, deep, and not at all unpleasant to smoke out of. Certainly, one does not look "cool" while doing it, but it works—and, obviously, the more I used it, the more I liked it. As we spent the night together, Peter Piper won me over, living up to its own hype. ("It's the magical glass you'll never want to pass!") I slowly came to realize that when we ask "Why?" the dildo pipe answers, "Why not?"Children have their own world, their imagination is the most important thing. Their mood is still unstable, one way to keep the mood and spirit is to decorate their bedroom with a design that suits their character, color and layout of the room is also designed so that it supports all the activities of the children in the room.
The modern design with small size is a challenge for parents, with limited space, parents need to make your stay comfortable bedroom kids occupied.
There are several things that can be tricked to get comfortable small kids bedroom:
– Use e compact shelves and cabinets
– Use a folding table attached to the wall
– Use a combination of colors between the walls
– Folding bed can also be used if possible
– Use a large enough window in order to get a view of the outside
Please look at the pictures of modern small kids bedroom below, click to enlarge.When do two negatives make a positive?
When you are dealing with film – that tricky stuff that used to be in all our cameras. Every so often I come across a forgotten roll in a box somewhere, but I haven’t used it for years. Recently, however, I met a man who still shoots – and develops – film.
It was Jaipur. Mid-morning. Nine photography-enthusiasts were seated on a bus which was stop-starting its way through the crowded streets.
Photo-guide Karl Grobl and local guide DV – Digvijay Singh were at the front, alternating between conspiratorial whispers together and animated telephone conversations in Hindi. Finally, the good news: “We found him! He’ll see us.”
Somehow, our driver turned the bus around in the busy, narrow streets, and we tumbled out into the Hawa Mahal district of Jaipur with all our whiz-bang digital camera equipment in tow.
A short walk up a road with market shops on one side and street vendors on the other, and we found the “studio” of Mr Tikam Chand, grandson of the man who was the official Royal Photographer for the Maharaja of Jaipur in the 1800s.
As we count down the days, looking forward to the new year, it is worth looking back as well, back to how things once were, and to preserve the knowledge, skills, and traditions of the past.
For it is “the old way of doing things” that has given us something to build on.
Wishing you a Happy Holiday Season.
Photos: 15November2013Share. Start playing this October. Start playing this October.
At today’s behind-closed-door session for Rain, the PlayStation Network-exclusive game from PlayStation CAMP and Acquire, the release date for the downloadable title was confirmed.
Rain will be available in October 1st in North America, October 2nd in Europe, and October 3rd in Japan. It will cost $14.99/€12.99.
Exit Theatre Mode
The team behind the game has also revealed a slew of pre-order bonuses. If you pre-order the game on PlayStation Store before it launches, you can receive three different perks: a music montage called “Melody of Rain,” an avatar pack called “Reflections of Children” that features five different avatars, and a dynamic theme called “Lost in the Night.”
Keep it tuned to IGN in the coming weeks for our full review of Rain.
Colin Moriarty is IGN’s Senior Editor. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN and learn just how sad the life of a New York Islanders and New York Jets fan can be.Russia and Turkey cannot agree on how to respond to the Syrian conflict, Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is in Istanbul for talks with the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has said.
"Russia and Turkey for the moment cannot find a mutual approach on the methods of how to regulate the situation in Syria. But our assessment of the situation completely coincides," said Putin during a press conference with Erdogan on Monday.
Erdogan told Putin that Russia should stop supporting the regime of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, a claim Putin denied.
"We are not defenders of the existing regime in Syria, I have already stated this, we are concerned about something else, we don't want to repeat the mistakes of past."
Russian-Turkish tensions came to a head in October when Turkey intercepted a Syrian plane en route from Moscow to Damascus on suspicion that it had military cargo, drawing an angry response from Russia.
Erdogan says the Turkish and Russian foreign ministers will work together more intensively on the Syrian problem.
Patriot missiles
Russia also objected to Turkey's request to NATO for the deployment of Patriot missiles on its volatile border with Syria.
It warned that such a move could spark a broader conflict that would draw in the Western military alliance.
Putin told the joint press conference that the deployment of US-made Patriot missiles with war-ravaged Syria would worsen tensions.
"Creating additional capabilities on the border does not defuse the situation but on the contrary exacerbates it," said Putin.
But Turkey insists the US-made Patriots would be used for purely defensive purposes.
Dimitri Peskov, who is Putin's spokesman, told Al Jazeera that there were differences over Syria between the two men.
"Turkey says Assad’s regime should go. We say if Assad leaves, the tens of thousands of refugees in Turkey right now will increase to hundreds of thousands. There will be a gap in the government and there will be lots of blood on the streets. This is what we say".
Protesters had chanted anti-Putin slogans outside Erdogan's office and another demonstration was staged outside the Russian consulate in Istanbul before the two leaders began their meeting on Monday.
Trade links
Despite their differences on some thorny political issues, Russia and Turkey enjoy growing trade and energy links.
The trade volume between the two countries is expected to reach $35bn by the end of this year.
Turkey depends on Russia for most of its natural gas and oil supplies.
In 2010, Ankara struck a deal with Moscow to build the country's first nuclear power plant at Akkuyu in the southern Mersin province.
Putin told the press conference that his country would finance the total cost of the plant.
Russian state company Rosatom is set to construct the $22bn plant. It is expected to be completed by 2022.
It is Putin's first trip outside Russia since he visited Tajikistan on October 5 and follows speculation that the normally globe-trotting leader is having health problems.While the royal is aware of the "significant curiosity about his private life," a rare statement from his communications secretary on his love life emphasizes: "This is not a game — it is her life and his."
Prince Harry, via a statement issued by his communications secretary on Tuesday, made rare comments on his relationship status, confirming that U.S. actress Meghan Markle (Suits) has been his girlfriend for a few months, and criticized "a wave of abuse and harassment" that she has experienced.
"The past week has seen a line crossed," the statement said. It spoke out against "the smear on the front page of a national newspaper; the racial undertones of comment pieces; and the outright sexism and racism of social media trolls and web article comments."
British papers have been full of reports about the relationship between the royal, 32, and the actress, 35, who lives in Toronto. A U.K. media observer said that The Sun, the tabloid that is part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, in particular featured stories on its front page last week.
The statement also highlighted non-public showdowns with the press, such as "the nightly legal battles to keep defamatory stories out of papers; her mother having to struggle past photographers in order to get to her front door; the attempts of reporters and photographers to gain illegal entry to her home and the calls to police that followed; the substantial bribes offered by papers to her ex-boyfriend; the bombardment of nearly every friend, co-worker, and loved one in her life."
The royal palace has been trying to focus Prince Harry's interactions with media on his various initiatives and other things rather than his personal life. "He feels lucky to have so many people supporting him and knows what a fortunate and privileged life he leads. He is also aware that there is significant curiosity about his private life," Tuesday's statement said.
But it concluded that "Prince Harry is worried about Ms. Markle’s safety and is deeply disappointed that he has not been able to protect her," adding: "It is not right that a few months into a relationship with him that Ms. Markle should be subjected to such a storm."
His communications secretary said in the statement that Prince Harry "knows commentators will say this is ‘the price she has to pay’ and that ‘this is all part of the game’," but highlighted that the Prince "strongly disagrees." Concluded the statement: "This is not a game — it is her life and his."
Markle, whose mother is African-American and whose father is Caucasian, recently wrote an essay for Elle UK describing her experience as a mixed race actress.
Read the statement in full below:
Since he was young, Prince Harry has been very aware of the warmth that has been extended to him by members of the public. He feels lucky to have so many people supporting him and knows what a fortunate and privileged life he leads.
He is also aware that there is significant curiosity about his private life. He has never been comfortable with this, but he has tried to develop a thick skin about the level of media interest that comes with it. He has rarely taken formal action on the very regular publication of fictional stories that are written about him and he has worked hard to develop a professional relationship with the media, focused on his work and the issues he cares about.
But the past week has seen a line crossed. His girlfriend, Meghan Markle, has been subject to a wave of abuse and harassment. Some of this has been very public — the smear on the front page of a national newspaper; the racial undertones of comment pieces; and the outright sexism and racism of social media trolls and web article comments. Some of it has been hidden from the public — the nightly legal battles to keep defamatory stories out of papers; her mother having to struggle past photographers in order to get to her front door; the attempts of reporters and photographers to gain illegal entry to her home and the calls to police that followed; the substantial bribes offered by papers to her ex-boyfriend; the bombardment of nearly every friend, co-worker, and loved one in her life.
Prince Harry is worried about Ms. Markle’s safety and is deeply disappointed that he has not been able to protect her. It is not right that a few months into a relationship with him that Ms. Markle should be subjected to such a storm. He knows commentators will say this is ‘the price she has to pay’ and that ‘this is all part of the game’. He strongly disagrees. This is not a game - it is her life and his.
He has asked for this statement to be issued in the hopes that those in the press who have been driving this story can pause and reflect before any further damage is done. He knows that it is unusual to issue a statement like this, but hopes that fair-minded people will understand why he has felt it necessary to speak publicly.Hidden deep within a press release from Major League Baseball on Thursday morning was one interesting bit: Umpire Angel Hernandez has been tabbed as the first base umpire for Tuesday’s MLB All-Star Game.
Normally, that wouldn’t even be news; the All-Star Game is once again an exhibition and the game’s umpires are rarely even noticed. But the announcement comes less than a week after news broke that Hernandez filed a racial discrimination lawsuit against commissioner Rob Manfred, alleging that he has been passed over multiple times for the chance to work a World Series and has not been promoted from temporary to permanent crew chief.
For some, the appointment mixed with Hernandez’s well-documented on-field struggles may cause the first thought to be that the league allowing Hernandez to work a major event is an olive branch in the midst of an ongoing legal battle. One could argue that the decision looks like Major League Baseball is throwing Hernandez a bone, rewarding his 24 years of service with his third All-Star appointment.
That doesn’t appear to be the case.
First, league rules state that “umpires assigned to work the Mid-Summer Classic shall be notified of their assignment not less than 30 days prior to the game,” meaning Hernandez learned of the assignment in mid-June. According to USA Today, the league received a summons this Wednesday about the issue, making it unlikely that the decision has anything to do with the suit.
A likely explanation for Hernandez’ appointment is a continuation of Major League Baseball’s pattern of assigning All-Star Games to umpires with ties to the host city. Mike Winters, the crew chief for the 2016 edition in San Diego, attended San Diego State, while James Hoye in 2015 (Ohio State graduate), Jeff Nelson in 2014 (Minnesota native) and John Hirschbeck in 2013 (southern Connecticut native) each worked games in places they previously called home.
Hernandez is one of three Florida natives (and two Hispanics) working this year’s game in Miami, joining Mike Estabrook and Venezuelan-born Manny Gonzalez. Giving umpires the chance to work events like the All-Star Game in their home state is a nice gesture by Major League Baseball, especially in a time when the dialogue has been opened about diversity in the umpiring pool.
Though the Cincinnati Enquirer estimated that only about 10 percent of the league’s umpires are African-American or Hispanic, the decision that the roster of six umpires includes two Hispanics in a city with as rich of a Latin American history as Miami does not seem like a coincidence.
Hernandez, who was born in Cuba, moved to Hialeah, Fla. (about 30 minutes from Miami) at 14 months and is part of a well-known baseball family in the Miami area. According to the Miami Herald, Hernandez’s father, Angel Hernandez Sr., ran a local baseball league for nearly 35 years and even has a street named after him in town. The younger Hernandez himself was rewarded for his work with youth programs with a key to the city of Hialeah.
So while some conspiracy theories on Twitter have made Hernandez’s appointment seem like a shady, under-the-table move for Major League Baseball to get back in the umpire’s good graces, it’s probably not. Lawsuit or not, the league is letting the veteran ump work on a big stage at home.Researchers at the University of Washington have successfully created a prototype of a system that uses Wi-Fi — and only Wi-Fi — to detect gestures. Called "WiSee," the system cleverly measures the Doppler shifts created by human movement on regular Wi-Fi signals. That means that the system doesn't require line of sight for gesture detection and, the researchers claim, it could work with off-the-shelf Wi-Fi systems. If using Wi-Fi to detect gestures isn't wild enough, the researches claim that "The average accuracy is 94% with a standard deviation of 4.6% when classifying between our nine gestures."
What sets WiSee apart is that it's able to detect gestures in the next room, and the prototype was tested in a two-bedroom apartment to prove it. A Wi-Fi base station with multiple antennas and MIMO support would be able to distinguish between multiple humans, though the researchers also suggest that piggybacking off a solution used in many Kinect games would work better: having each user perform an identifying gesture before performing the controlling gesture.
Obviously the technology is still in its infancy, but the researchers foresee the ability to control any sort of electronics in the home, from appliances to televisions. It's not the only new way that Wi-Fi is being used in innovative new ways, earlier research utilized the wireless technology for in-building location.DUCHESNE — A judge has ordered two Duchesne men to serve jail time for vandalizing an LDS meetinghouse.
Tristan Joseph Peterson Hirst was sentenced Monday by Judge Samuel Chiara to serve 60 days in jail, while Denver Timothy Bell was ordered to serve 30 days in jail. Each man must also pay a $900 fine and they are jointly responsible for $10,000 in restitution to repair the damage they did, according to Chiara's order.
Hirst, 19, pleaded guilty in November to burglary, a third-degree felony, and theft, a class A misdemeanor. Bell, also 19, pleaded guilty to burglary, a third-degree felony, and theft, a class B misdemeanor.
Hirst, Bell and a 17-year-old boy caused extensive damage to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints meetinghouse, 181 N. 200 West, on Oct. 15. Charging documents state that doors were kicked in, a filing cabinet was pried open with a hammer and screwdriver, and several areas of the church were tagged with red spray paint and permanent marker.
Church medallions and pins, along with about $500 of tithing money, were taken from offices, investigators said. Anarchy symbols were spray painted on a portrait of Jesus Christ, the door to the bishop's office and the front wall of the chapel.
A Duchesne County sheriff's deputy recalled seeing the same anarchy symbol painted inside Hirst's home during a prior investigation, which led authorities to Hirst. Detectives also found shoe prints around the building and on the doors that had been kicked in, which matched Hirst's shoes.
The 17-year-old boy involved in the incident entered admissions in juvenile court earlier this month to allegations of burglary and theft, according to deputy Duchesne County attorney Anthony Wilcox. The teen is also responsible for paying a portion of the restitution.
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Related StoriesIf you’ve heard Brenda Tracy speak before, you know the story she opened with at last week’s AFCA Convention. Gang-raped for hours as a 24-year-old in 1998. Going in and out of consciousness. Two of her attackers were Oregon State football players. Tracy says she read then-Beavers coach Mike Riley’s comments, saying the players were good guys who made a mistake.
That, Tracy said, stayed with her longer and pained her worse than the actual rape. “I didn’t understand why I meant so little that what happened to me was just a bad choice,” Tracy said.
The comment followed Tracy for 16 years, boiling into a toxic rage. She began to hate Riley more than her abusers. “I didn’t think anything about me,” she said before a pin-drop Opryland grand ballroom. “I wanted to die.”
Then, 16 years later, Tracy and Riley agreed to meet. Tracy was going to speak to Riley’s team at Oregon State, but he left Corvallis for the head job at Nebraska. She followed him there, speaking to the Cornhuskers over the summer. There, Tracy said, she unloaded 18 years of frustration, anger, hurt and frustration on Riley, then told the team her story, with Riley’s part included. “He didn’t flinch,” Tracy said. “I knew in that moment he got it, he understood. And that has meant everything for my recovery.”
Tracy now travels the country speaking to college athletes about sexual assault, the horrors it causes and their power and responsibility to prevent it. (In fact, she’s back at the Gaylord Opryland speaking to the NCAA Convention as I type this.) She tells players her story, but also a story of hope. “I don’t talk about how I think they’re the problem, I think they’re the solution,” Tracy said. “I’m here today because you are the solution to this epidemic.
“If I could go to every college and mobilize a little army of every football team, we would see swift change,” she said. “I believe football is the answer.”
The answer, Tracy said, starts with installing a written zero-tolerance policy toward violence against women, with each player required to sign a statement of understanding. “What would happen if every player from junior high on up knew if he hit a woman he wouldn’t play football, wouldn’t go to his dream college?,” she asked.
The market is already moving toward this direction. Bob Stoops, who hosted Tracy in August, admitted as much when video of former Sooners running back Joe Mixon punching a female OU student in 2014 went public in December. “The way things have gone in the past two-and-a-half years, really the only thing that’s ever acceptable anymore is dismissal,” Stoops said.
Football was the beginning of Tracy’s 18-year crisis. She says football can be the end of it, too. “We can change the culture of the entire nation, just in this room,” Tracy concluded. “I think we can do it within football. It’s an epidemic, and we can stop it.”I bet you are more blessed than you realize.
I know at times life can be difficult,
Even painful.
But how lucky you are to still be alive,
And to still have choice.
Because no matter how young or old you are,
Or how much you suffer,
That choice is still there.
And it is what makes you alive,
And who you are.
I appreciate these things now,
Only because I no longer have them.
Once you’re dead,
All pain and |
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Tehran will refuse permission for a reformist opposition rally in support of the uprising that toppled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, a government official was quoted as saying Saturday.
“These people are fully aware of the illegality of their demand and they know they will not receive a permit for staging a riot,” Mehdi Alikhani-Sadr, deputy director of the Interior Ministry’s political bureau, was quoted by the semi-official Fars news agency as saying. It had always been highly unlikely the government would permit the rally organized by groups it considers seditious.
Mehdi Karoubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi, who lost a disputed 2009 presidential election, had applied for permission to stage a rally Monday in support of revolts in Egypt and Tunisia.
Tehran has presented the Egyptian uprising as an “Islamic awakening’ similar to Iran’s 1979 revolution. Thousands turned out Friday to mark the 32nd anniversary of the revolution in a Tehran rally promoted by the Iranian clerical establishment as a show of solidarity with “Islamic” protesters in Cairo.
Most opposition groups in Egypt have stressed the secular nature of their protests.
June 2009 saw mass protests in Tehran against the Iranian leadership following the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The movement was subsequently quelled, but critics of the government had seen events in Cairo as a possible stimulus for a revival of protest in Iran.BANGKOK/COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh (Reuters) - Rohingya insurgents declared a month-long unilateral ceasefire, starting on Sunday, to enable aid groups to help ease a humanitarian crisis in northwest Myanmar.
Rohingya refugees stretch their hands to receive food distributed by local organizations in Kutupalong, Bangladesh, September 9, 2017. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui
Nearly 300,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh and 30,000 non-Muslim civilians have been displaced inside Myanmar after the military launched a counter-offensive following attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) insurgents on 30 police posts and an army base on Aug. 25.
“ARSA strongly encourages all concerned humanitarian actors resume their humanitarian assistance to all victims of the humanitarian crisis, irrespective of ethnic or religious background during the ceasefire period,” ARSA said in a statement.
The impact of the move is unclear. The group does not appear to have been able to put up significant resistance against the military force unleashed in Myanmar’s northwestern Rakhine state. In the last two weeks, thousands of homes have been burned down, dozens of villages uprooted and thousands of people are still on the move toward the border with Bangladesh.
The wave of hungry and traumatized refugees pouring into Bangladesh has strained aid agencies and local communities already helping hundreds of thousands displaced by previous waves of violence in Myanmar.
In its statement, ARSA called on the military to also lay down arms and allow humanitarian aid to all affected people.
Myanmar says its security forces are carrying out clearance operations to defend against ARSA, which the government has declared a terrorist organization.
Rights monitors and fleeing Rohingya say the army and Rakhine Buddhist vigilantes have mounted a campaign of arson aimed at driving out the Muslim population.
HELP FOR BANGLADESH
On Friday, the United Nations in Bangladesh found tens of thousands of refugees who had not been counted before, raising the count to 270,000 from some 164,000 the day before. On Saturday, that jumped by another 20,000 to 290,000.
On Saturday, thousands of Rohingya were milling on the road near the camp of Kutapalong, carrying bamboo and tarpaulin to build shacks. Children and women flocked to every stopping vehicle, begging.
Aid workers say a serious humanitarian crisis is also unfolding on the Myanmar side of the border.
Red Cross organizations are scaling up their operations in Rakhine after the United Nations had to suspend activities there following government suggestions that its agency had supported the insurgents. The United Nations evacuated non-critical staff from the area.
Thousands of displaced people in Rakhine have been stranded or left without food for weeks. Many are still trying to cross mountains, dense bush and rice fields to reach Bangladesh.
“The U.N. and INGOs have not been very welcome in Rakhine and...they are not able to operate and ensure the safety and security of their staff and volunteers,” said Joy Singhal of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).
The government had invited the Red Cross to assist them, he said.
Aid workers worry many Rohingya had been left without food since mid-July, when the World Food Programme (WFP), which had been providing food and cash assistance, was unable to operate.
The government said it would set up camps for internally displaced people in Rakhine but the move could draw opposition from U.N. humanitarian experts.
(This story corrects to change “she” to “he” in 14th paragraph)This guest post written by Amy C. Chambers originally appeared at The Science and Entertainment Laboratory and an edited version appears here as part of our theme week on Women Scientists. It is cross-posted with permission.
One of my major issues with the most recent addition to the Planet of the Apes franchise, Dawn of the Planets of the Apes (2014), were the roles available to women – both human and ape. In an article I wrote about the film, immediately after its release, I noted that (the very few) female characters were only “represented as child bearers and care takers.” The fabulous Judy Greer, a former dancer who studied simian movement and motion-capture for months in preparation for the role, gets barely any screen-time playing the wife of Caesar (Andy Serkis). Cornelia doesn’t actually get referred to by name so you have to look to the posters or IMDb if you want to know it; interestingly her name is a reference to Cornelius the male chimpanzee from the first three Apes films released in the late-1960s and 1970s (Planet of the Apes, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, and Escape from the Planet of the Apes). The female human, Ellie (Keri Russell) is the only scientist in the film. She is revealed to have worked for the CDC as a research scientist and medic, but in the film she is only given the opportunity to use her medical skills to treat Cornelia’s post-natal complications after she births another boy for Caesar. Ellie’s medical intervention essentially diffuses male aggressiveness and reinforces lazy stereotypes. The women are background characters, barely involved, and overshadowed by their male companions.
I am interested in thinking about how women have been represented in recent Hollywood/American science-based fiction cinema and whether we have really moved beyond relying on stereotypes, sex, and spectacle. Female scientists are increasing in frequency in Hollywood, but they are not being given adequate representation – they are often secondary to their male partners. Any discussion of women in science fiction will often look to the 80s hero, engineer Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) in Alien (1979). Ripley wields her guns, her attitude, and her brains with pride and power, and she blurs the boundaries between feminine and masculine character traits and stereotypes. She has no love interest, she doesn’t need rescuing, and makes better decisions than her male counterparts. She is a young, educated woman, a survivor, and a hero – her gender is not the most important or interesting thing about her. Ripley was originally conceived and scripted as a male character and some of her strength and progressive nature may be attributed to that. But despite the gender-swap history of character, Ripley is still one of the strongest female characters in a science-based movie. I think it is absurd that a character created before I was born is still considered the strongest female character in a science-based movie; it’s 2016, not 1986.
Female scientist characters are often defined by their relationships to men – as a daughter, a girlfriend, a wife, an assistant, or a colleague. Women are rarely presented as having achieved their scientific status and agency without the aid or inspiration of male character. For example, recent blockbuster Interstellar (2014) included two major female scientist characters Dr. Amelia Brand (Anne Hathaway) and ‘Murph’/Murphy Cooper (played as an adult by Jessica Chastain) both of whom are manipulated and inspired by their fathers. Brand is the daughter of the orchestrator of the film’s central mission, Professor Brand played by Michael Caine. But in addition to this relationship, Amelia Brand is willing to sacrifice herself, the mission, and potentially the future of humanity to be reunited with her boyfriend – Dr. Wolf Edmunds. Interstellar’s male lead ‘Coop’/Joseph Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) abandons his daughter Murph and for much of the film she is shown as a woman consumed with anger towards her father. She holds a grudge that spans decades, seemingly unable to appreciate that her father left on a mission to save humanity. Her scientific career and brilliance is apparently driven by her emotion, rather than her own ambition.
I have lots of issues with the Star Trek reboot, and it seems vaguely unfair to pick on just one of them. But let’s talk very briefly about Dr. Carol Marcus (Alice Eve), a Star Fleet Science Officer with a PhD in applied physics and a specialism in advanced weaponry who features in Star Trek Into Darkness (2013). Marcus is ultimately defined by her position as the daughter of Admiral Alexander Marcus – the head of Starfleet. She initially hides her true identity by using her mother’s maiden name: Wallace. Yes, Carol does indeed do some science and saves Kirk, but in one scene this potentially brilliant female scientist is simply, and frankly unnecessarily reduced to a sexual object. It’s a short scene played for laughs, but when one of only two major female characters in a huge science fiction franchise — the other being Zoë Saldana’s Uhura, now in a relationship with Spock — is shown in her underwear (for no reason) you have to wonder about how and why filmmakers incorporate female scientists, and female characters more generally, into their films. This brief sequence feels as similarly out of place as the scene at the end of Alien when Ripley strips down to her underwear. As Xan Brooks comments in an article about Ripley as a revolutionary heroine: “It is as though the makers were so alarmed by what they had unleashed that they tried to rein her back at the last minute.” It was out of place in 1979, and it is unacceptable now.
These are just a few poor examples that caught my eye and they are based upon my own viewing, so I asked my social media hive-mind to help me with producing a list of female scientists in Hollywood films released since 2000. It was not extensive. Interestingly, I could find far more female scientists in films released during the 1990s. We will have missed some, but it should not be that difficult to come up with a list of female characters that took on prominent scientist roles in the last 5, 10, or 15 years.
Excluding Brand and Murph from Interstellar, Carol Marcus from Star Trek Into Darkness, and Ellie from Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, we came up with: evolutionary biology student Karen (Brit Marling) in I Origins (2014), archaeologist and paleontologist Dr. Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) in Prometheus (2013); medical engineer Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) in Gravity (2013), geneticist Dr. Marta Shearing (Rachel Weisz) in Bourne Legacy (2012), astrophysicist Dr. Jane Foster (Natalie Portman in Thor (2011) and Thor: The Dark World (2013), veterinarian Dr. Caroline Aranha (Freida Pinto) in Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), xenobotanist (studying alien plant life) Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) in Avatar (2009), genetic engineer Dr. Elsa Cast (Sarah Polley) in Splice (2009), and botanist Corazon (Michelle Yeoh) in Sunshine (2007). Of the women listed here few are, besides Elizabeth Shaw in Prometheus and Ryan Stone in Gravity, their film’s central protagonist. For example, in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Caroline Aranha is a thinly drawn scientist character and love interest who assists Will Rodman (James Franco), and in Bourne Legacy, Marta Shearing is a brilliant but dangerous geneticist working in a secret lab who becomes a love interest and damsel in need of rescue for/by Aron Cross (Jeremy Renner).
In Thor (2011), Jane Foster is an astrophysicist rather than a nurse, as she appeared in Marvel’s Thor comics. She is apparently given an intellectual upgrade and a sassy non-scientist female intern named Darcy (Kat Dennings). Jane was changed from a nurse to a research scientist following discussions between science advisors provided by the Science and Entertainment Exchange and the filmmakers, who wanted to update the character for a 21st-Century audience. Portman prepared for the role by reading the biographies of women scientists and was interested in creating a female scientist that could extend beyond the clichés of what a female character could be and do.
“I got to read all of these biographies of female scientists like Rosalind Franklin who actually discovered the DNA double helix but didn’t get the credit for it, the struggles they had and the way that they thought — I was like, ‘What a great opportunity, in a very big movie that is going to be seen by a lot of people, to have a woman as a scientist.’ [Jane]’s a very serious scientist. Because in the comic she’s a nurse and now they made her an astrophysicist. Really, I know it sounds silly, but it is those little things that makes girls think it’s possible. It doesn’t give them a [role] model of ‘Oh, I just have to dress cute in movies.” – Natalie Portman
The decision to make Jane Foster an astrophysicist was motivated by a desire to incorporate references to ‘real’ science and to incorporate a female scientist who might act as inspiration for future female scientists. It is indeed great to see a major female character in a blockbuster movie franchise as a scientist. But in the presence of Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Jane just goes googly-eyed and her scientific career and research become secondary to this new love interest (who just happens to literally be a god). She accepts his framing of science as magic without questioning (as any leading scientist would) and her research seems to ultimately become about finding him after the Bifröst Bridge is destroyed at the end of the first movie. In a great scene from Thor: The Dark World (2013), Jane is on an awkward blind date that she cuts short when Darcy crashes the date with new findings and readings that had previously preceded the arrival of Thor. Jane was framed as “the woman of science” in the film’s 2010/2011 marketing campaign, but in the film itself, her scientific prowess has NO influence upon the plot. Jane’s advanced understanding of astrophysics and her research is seriously under-used and so is the character who given little chance to develop beyond being Thor’s human love interest.
For a genre that is defined by its futuristic otherworldly framework and its potential to imagine alternate societies and power relations, the cultural politics of the science fiction genre have been consistently Earthbound. Movies reflect the period in which they are created and they often present both hopes for progress as well as revealing deep-seated prejudices. Filmmakers often fail to fully realize their attempts at progress – although this can be due to a number of reasons across the production process, including interference from the studio, and in the reception of the film that is outside of the director’s control. As feminist science fiction writer and critic Joanna Russ famously noted, science fiction narratives present a type of “intergalactic suburbia,” where Western society is presented with only a few futuristic additions, tending towards showing “an idealized and simplified” past that retains traditional power relations. The world has undergone huge advances across STEM but traditional, binaristic gender relations remain in tact. Russ’s comments criticize not only gender representation but also race and class by recognizing the preservation of traditional structures in futuristic and near-future narratives.
Is it possible to change perceptions of women in STEM through better and more pervasive representation of women in science-based popular cinema? Would more female scientists in popular cinema help to encourage young women to pursue STEM careers? Several groups are working to improve the representation of science, and women of science in the film industry. For example, The Science Entertainment Exchange “is a program of the National Academy of Sciences that connects entertainment industry professionals with top scientists and engineers to create a synergy between accurate science and engaging storylines in both film and TV.” They work to create a stronger relationship between the industry and experts in order to present a more realistic image of science and scientists, both women and men, on-screen. The Scirens promote the need for increased science literacy in the general public and consider how women can be ambassadors for this cause. One of the Scirens, Taryn O’Neill, wrote an interesting piece on this subject called “Actresses for STEM“ that inspired the project; it is worth a read. They have all worked to improve representation by encouraging a movement away from clichés in order to engage and retain audiences.
A study published in 2005 by Jocelyn Steinke looked at female scientist representation between 1991 and 2001. She found that about 30% of scientists in the movies released in her survey time-frame were female and that those women tended to be sane, eschewing the “mad evil scientist” stereotype, and tended to avoid questionable scientific experiments. Although in more recent cinema, Elsa in Splice and Marta in Bourne Legacy do use science in an ethically problematic fashion, with Elsa splicing together the DNA of different animals to create new hybrids for medical use, and Marta experimenting upon and maintaining genetically altered super assassins. Despite these two recent examples, women scientists on-screen are generally positive figures. At least until you consider how restrictively they are packaged – as Eva Flicker notes in her Public Understanding of Science article “Between Brains and Breasts“:
“[The female scientist] is remarkably beautiful and, compared with her qualifications, unbelievably young. She has a model’s body – thin, athletic, perfect – is dressed provocatively and is sometimes ‘distorted’ by wearing glasses.”
An interesting example of this from recent TV is computer scientist Felicity Smoak in Arrow (2012-) – she wears glasses in the lab and removes them when she goes undercover as ‘the beautiful woman’ allowing her to slip into venues unnoticed. She’s more than just a bit of sci-candy as her abilities are integral to the mixed gender team she works with, but it is intriguing that she still falls into a visual classification that can be applied to the representation of female scientists since the 1930s. Although arguably, female scientists and highly-intelligent female characters should be allowed to be both beautiful and brainy, shifting away from the idea that beauty and brains are mutually exclusive, Hollywood is still offering a restricted image of the gifted woman. Science can be as the European Commission recently campaigned ‘a girl thing!’ – but there must be scope to communicate the notion that science is for everyone regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation, age, disability, or class (Alice Bell wrote a brilliant response to the European Commission campaign).
Some major future-dystopia film franchises have shown the potential for multifaceted female characters. The Hunger Games and Divergent do provide smart female protagonists: Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Tris (Shalene Woodley). But these women are fighters and leaders, not women of STEM. Both of these franchises are based upon young adult (YA) novels and therefore do not necessarily work well as comparisons to the adult science-based narratives I have been discussing. The rules are different for YA adaptations; since the immense success of The Twilight Saga teenage girls have become a major market for Hollywood and films are made to specifically cater for this influential and profitable group. The problem seems to be adult women. The idea that women, and perhaps even some men, might want to see a film with a female lead and a cast with more than a few token women is seeming incomprehensible for contemporary Hollywood. The desire for big opening weekends and early high profits has possibly created a culture of stereotypical gender representation, and a tired narrative cinema that relies upon reboots, sequels, and reaffirming traditional structures. Rise of the women? Not really.
See also at Bitch Flicks: Women in Science in the Marvel Cinematic Universe; The Women of ‘Interstellar’; ‘Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’: My Dear Forgotten Cornelia; Does Uhura’s Empowerment Negate Sexism in ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’?; Did Gender Alter the Tone of the ‘Alien’ Series?; The Women of ‘Thor: The Dark World’; ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’: Where Are the Women?
Amy C. Chambers is a postdoctoral researcher at Newcastle University in the UK researching the intersection of science and entertainment media. Her newest project explores the representation and the projected futures of women within scientific cultures in science fiction. She blogs about her research and interests at the Science and Entertainment Laboratory and The Unsettling Scientific Stories Project, and you can follow her on Twitter at @AmyCChambers.Editor’s note 2: We have opened a fresh liveblog page to cover any potential rioting tonight, and it looks like the capital’s set for a third day of disturbances. Click on over to stay updated.
Editor’s note: if you’re clicking onto this page now, why not read our roundup of last night’s events? This page is no longer being updated – we will start a fresh liveblog if anything else happens. Stay tuned!
0435: And there we are, the bottom of the hour. I’m glad I was able to keep so many people informed – what started as a proof of concept test on a news site that hasn’t even launched yet ended up outdoing the mainstream media! My heartfelt thanks to all those who tweeted updates and pictures – special mention to @seanjcameron and @rickycompton for sorting through Twitter feeds and for the graphics respectively. I’ll be back tomorrow afternoon covering anything new. Goodnight and good luck.
0429: Westfield shopping centre should be opening as normal – no indication that any shops will be shut despite heavy police presence and barricading.
0424: Guardian reporting that the violence was pre-planned, with police aware of that as early as 2pm.
0421: Latest is that the Vodafone shop in Brixton was looted earlier. Still nothing new emerging so I’ll be packing up at 0430, unless something new happens. Looking unlikely though.
0417: Rumours emerging that rioters and looters may be planning to attack Catford and Bromley tomorrow. Probably worth steering cleer and/or battening down the hatches just in case.
0415: A few more snippets about the Chingford looting: it seems that Curry’s there withstood the onslaught of looters but Halfords was less lucky.
0413: At last, a fresh picture! Courtesy of Alex Brandler, view from his bedroom window in Brixton.
0411: More on Westfield. It wasn’t evacuated, but police are taking no chances at all with the place.
0407: Brixton High Street sealed off. Reports of people looting local off-licences as well as big shops.
0406: Sky News reporter live on scene now.
0405: Nothing new emerging now. Sky News segment showing good blend of yesterday’s riots in Tottenham and today’s all over the capital. Brixton seems to have quietened down now – has everyone gone to bed? (I know I want to!)
0401: Pictures of Tottenham on Sky News honestly look like scenes from the Blitz!
0357: I think that’s sorted out the formatting. The police helicopter is back and circling over Lewisham, but there haven’t been any reports of violence or looting there this morning.
0349: WordPress’ formatting isn’t behaving itself, may be a slight delay while I sort that out. Meanwhile fire crews are leaving Brixton town centre and Sky News are due to show their latest footage at 4am. Dare I get up for long enough to switch on the telly?
0345: Westfield shopping centre in Shepherd’s Bush is apparently quiet and peaceful despite (because?) of the heavy police presence there. Meanwhile reports are coming in that Halford’s in Chingford was attacked, as well as the Curry’s there. Both shops are close to the A406 North Circular.
0342: VIDEO: Fire at Footlocker in Brixton.
0339: Argos in Tottenham Hale was apparently looted as well. The main focus of the riots appears to have been an easy opportunity to smash into shops and steal consumer goods rather than attack the police.
0335: BBC staff have apparently been told to avoid Westfield (Shepherd’s Bush). Seems that police are expecting a concerted attack on the shopping centre, judging by earlier reports of barricades, dogs and armed police being deployed there.
0334: LBC radio is reporting that Argos in Streatham has been hit by looters.
0332: False reports by Twitterers that the army’s been called in. They haven’t. Neither has a curfew been imposed. And there isn’t a news blackout either. Where do people get these ideas from?
0327: Coldharbour Lane in Brixton has apparently calmed down as well, with the only people present being bored policemen and cars driving away from the area.
0324: Just had a look at the comments on this page. Apparently Croydon pubs and bars were closed earlier in case the rioting and looting spread to there.
0322: Small groups of looters are running rings around the police in Brixton. Three police carriers sped up to Aldi before driving off abruptly.
0319: Courtesy of @subedited on Twitter, a picture from outside Morley’s (Brixton High Street), not Coldharbour Lane as originally thought:
0316: Westfield staff member says that police escorted staff out of the building and to the local taxi rank; nobody was allowed to leave alone. Warnings also given out about possible attacks.
0315: Police helicopter has apparently moved away from Brixton – not heard for about quarter of an hour now. Possibly gone to refuel.
0312: Another mini-map courtesy of Ricky Compton, pinpointing the buildings in Brixton that were attacked:
0311: Apparently youths DID start causing disorder in Oxford Circus earlier. A police windscreen was smashed in Islington as well.
0310: Update from the Met Police:
“Police are tonight responding to copycat criminal activity across London and are deploying officers to tackle it.
There has been looting in a number of boroughs in north, east and south London by small and mobile groups. Groups of youths continue to attack police officers and a number of police vehicles have been damaged.
Three officers have been taken to hospital after being hit by a fast moving vehicle at approx 00:45hrs. The officers were in the process of making arrests in Chingford Mount, Waltham Forest, in connection with youths looting a shop. Two officers are believed to have superficial injuries and the other has an injury to his knee.”
0309: More news from Westfield shopping centre: police have erected semi-permanent barricades and deployed armed officers and dogs. What are they expecting there?
0305: Brixton looters reportedly stealing goods from each other now the shops are empty.
0302: Edmonton Green is now reported to be all quiet, with late-night shops reopening and police regrouping at the police station. Add that to Enfield – two of the original flashpoints have now calmed down. All is quiet at Southgate after the rumoured bomb scare earlier.
0301: Police outside Bodyshop in Brixton.
0259: Report in from Westfields, apparently police there are erecting barriers by the entrances.
0257: Much better. Right. Latest update from Brixton Curry’s is that police pushed rioters away from Brixton station up Effra Road towards Curry’s.
0250: Back in five minutes, I need a coffee. Looks like I’ve accidentally reposted a few pictures from earlier without realising.
0246: No more reports from Southgate – apparently the area is back to its usual calm.
0242: Lots of people on Twitter claiming that there’s a media blackout. This is just a rumour; the Met Police have confirmed that there is no news blackout on tonight’s events. If Sky and the BBC want to be behind the curve, that’s their lookout 😉
0241: Police have said that rival gangs are now starting fights at King’s College Hospital after two gang members were admitted with minor wounds.
0239: Solid line of riot police still sealing off Coldharbour Lane/Atlantic Road crossroads in Brixton.
0237: Effra Road, Brixton, is now clear of crowds, reports Sean Cameron. Situation at Curry’s still fluid – police in the area and lots of looters still walking off with stuff.
0235: Enfield town centre now deserted except for police and fire crews, plus TV crews with bodyguards. A far cry from the rioting which sparked off tonight’s mayhem.
0234: Police reinforcements arrive at Curry’s, and the crowd of looters scatter:
0228: VIDEO: Police helicopter flying very low over Brixton. Other reports have come in that the helicopter was flying as low as 100ft.
0226: Yet more from Currys in Brixton. Where are the police? Not long ago they were reported to be there and clearing away the looters.
0222: Brixton Currys latest. Looks like the police may need to return there and post a few bobbies to keep an eye on the place.
0219: Sky News is showing footage of the Footlocker fire in Brixton.
0216: Detailed map showing locations of buildings hit in the inital rioting yesterday evening in Enfield. Sterling work by Ricky Compton on the graphics!
0214: Curry’s in Brixton a few minutes ago. Much calmer than earlier although police efforts to disperse the rioters hasn’t quite worked just yet.
0212: Kemshott School on Markhouse Road, Walthamstow, has been damaged by rioters – latest. Police are reportedly moving rapidly into the area.
0210: Police helicopter in action over Brixton Curry’s a minute or two ago.
0208: Yes, the kissing couple picture was from Vancouver, thanks to all pointing it out via Twitter – my fault for not checking it first!
0206: Police helicopter above Brixton now, reports Sean Cameron. Thanks also to Ricky Compton for supplying the map graphic below.
0205: Dalston unrest has subsided, police are now on the streets stopping, searching and arresting suspects.
0202: Graphic of tonight’s violence so far. Red spots denote areas hit by rioting and looting.
0200: Interesting picture, supposedly from Brixton earlier. Strange choice of time and place!
(edit – not an actual picture from today at all. Hey ho, I’m just a bloke sitting in my living room)
0158: Person in Brixton says hes seen two young people carrying a stolen television down his street, with one claiming to be scared about what was going on.
0157: VIDEO: Rioters fighting over stolen goods at Brixton Curry’s. (external)
0154: VIDEO: Police being driven back at Brixton. (external link again)
0152: New update from Walthamstow: BHS is now being attacked by looters.
0152: Large police presence still on the ground at Edmonton Green – riot police, riot vans, the whole works. No indication of further violence/looting/arson there as yet.
0149: Sports Direct at Green Lanes shopping centre is apparently being looted. The rioters are spreading faster than police can respond now, it seems. Indications from Brixton are that some riot police have been redeployed elsewhere.
0148: AUDIO – Brixton man describes the scenes on the ground. (link to Audioboo page because wordpress won’t let me embed this one)
0145: Police have now cordoned off Brixton Curry’s and are attempting to regain control there. Looters are spilling away down back streets.
0141: Dedication to duty in Brixton McDonald’s as an employee wipes down the tables following rioters’ attempts to smash the place up!
0139: Scratch my last – police are still very much on the Brixton scene, in Atlantic Road. Meanwhile heavy rain is putting out fires in commercial waste bins on Coldharbour Road.
0137: Police in Brixton have packed up and left about twenty minutes ago, leaving locals wondering what’s going on. There is no sign of rioters there now so perhaps the rain drove them back home?
0134: Seems the lack of news from Walthamstow was misleading. McDonald’s, the Small and Market shops have been smashed and Chingford Morrisons is alight as well.
0131: Reports coming in of meyhem from Leyton. Situation in Brixton is still fluid – just waiting on pictures from our man on the ground, Sean Cameron.
0126: Curry’s in Brixton a few minutes ago:
0123: Yobs are rampaging through Leyton – apparently a bike shop has just been smashed up there. Anyone else in Leyton and can provide updates?
0121: Reports coming in of a bomb threat at Southgate tube station, supposedly 100+ police in the area. This might be more trouble-makers trying to spread police resources; why would you place a bomb in a closed train station?
0118: Mcdonald’s in Holloway is being stormed by people in hoodies:
0112: Sean Cameron reports that webcams along Brixton High Street have been blocked from public view.
0108: Sky News reporting that 6 fire engines are attending the burning Footlocker store in Brixton.
0106: Updates from the comments: Tesco’s in Bakers Arms, Leyton, is being ransacked by youths – thanks to Lauren for that snippet. Meanwhile, Westfields shopping centre seems to have warmed up considerably – seeking confirmation.
0103: Heavy rain now falling in Brixton. The BBC’s man on the ground says that small groups of rioters are now moving away from the area. No new pictures for a little while – tweet me @gazthejourno if you have anything to contribute.
0102: Iceland on Calley Road, Brixton, has apparently had a window smashed.
0100: Situation on Brixton High St becoming calmer, apparently because the rioters have heard that Curry’s has been broken into. Looting has happened in Enfield, Edmonton and Brixton so far tonight.
0055: People on the ground in Brixton and Edmonton Green (south of Enfield, where tonight’s riots started) are complaining that it’s raining. Historically, poor weather tends to make rioters disperse quicker.
0053: Marks and Spencer (M&S) in Brixton has been set alight as well. These rioters seem remarkably well equipped with arson equipment.
0050: Curry’s in Brixton now coming under attack.
0047: “Police are responding to a significant amount of criminal activity across London and are deploying officers to tackle it.”
Official Met Police tweet just now. Good to see they’re keeping themselves up to date…
0046: the Metropolitan Police press people have finally woken up and tweeted, denying that there is a media blackout on the riots. Thank goodness, or I’d be in a lot of trouble!
0044: Fluid crowd apparently gathering around Brixton tube station and defying efforts by police to disperse them.
0043: Someone in Enfield claims to have heard a gunshot. Unconfirmed – am checking. Likely to be something cooking off in a fire rather than firearms discharge.
0040: Apparently looters are still hard at it in Brixton despite police efforts to clear them out.
0038: ‘Admiral’ in the comments to this post says he might know who the idiot in the picture below is. Apparently his first name may be Rhodes – does anyone know any more?
0035: Reports of youths now throwing more stones and bottles at police in Brixton. No news from elsewhere at the moment – Enfield seems to have calmed down or dissipated. Walthamstow hasn’t had any new activity in a little while either … meanwhile, if you’ve any fresh updates, do tweet: @gazthejourno
0032: Matthew Taylor of the Guardian reports that police are now moving to clear Brixton town centre of rioters. Someone else just said that the police drew batons after an object was thrown at their lines.
0029: Remember how youths were throwing stones at Westfield Shopping Centre in West London? Here’s a recent pic from the ground there, and it’s as busy as you’d expect at half past twelve on Monday morning.
0027: Neil Henderson, BBC Home News editor, is on the ground in Brixton and reports that hundreds of people are waiting around corners for the police. Their line doesn’t look too strong:
0025: … and here’s a picture:
0023: Footlocker on Brixton High St is reported to be ablaze. There’s an awful lot of arsonists out tonight.
0022: More of Coldharbour Lane in Brixton, police have most definitely got it sealed off. Not many actual updates coming in from Enfield now, it seems to have calmed down a bit judging from volume of actual updates/pics on the ground.
0017: Update via jc54322 on Twitter, Hemel Hempstead is not on fire. That picture was from 2005. Mea culpa!
0013: Crowd outside H&M in Brixton, apparently they are looting the shop:
0011:Brixton a few minutes ago. Not many police in that particular area despite earlier reports of 200+ youths in the area. Perhaps the crowd are beginning to disperse?
Stoke Newington High Street just now:
0007: Went for a drink, sorry about that. Nothing major seems to have emerged in the last few minutes. Coldharbour Lane in Brixton has a heavy police presence but that’s about it so far.
2359: Seems that Royal Mail aren’t immune from being targeted. It’s unclear exactly what the police are doing to mop things up out there – does anyone know? The riots just seem to be spreading across more of North London.
2356: The Hemel Hempstead reports are still unconfirmed – apparently there’s trees near the retail park there and our picture doesn’t feature any arboreal delights … Brixton was still heaving with police a minute ago.
2350 |
.
"Politics is not going back into the box where it was before.
"What's happened is people have said they have had quite enough of austerity politics, they have had quite enough of cuts in public expenditure, underfunding our health service, underfunding our schools and our education service and not giving our young people the chance they deserve in our society."
People were "voting for hope for the future and turning their backs on austerity", he said.
In an attack on Mrs May he said: "The Prime Minister called the election because she wanted a mandate.
"Well the mandate she has got is lost Conservative seats, lost votes, lost support and lost confidence.
"I would have thought that's enough to go, actually, and make way for a government that will be truly representative of all the people of this country."Urban-farming Apprenticeships
Urban-farming apprenticeship programs crop up across the country.
By Aleigh Acerni
February 3, 2012
Photo courtesy of Thinkstock Urban-farming apprenticeships are popping up all over the country.
Would-be farmers have a new way to hone their skills while helping to increase access to fresh produce in urban communities: urban-farming apprenticeship programs. They’ve been cropping up across the country with mounting frequency for the past few years, offering specialized, hands-on training in sustainable, urban-farming methods. And as the popular — and typically competitive — programs grow, they’re giving rise to a new contingent of professional urban farmers.
“We just graduated our first class of beginner farmers in December,” says Dan Bravin, food program coordinator for Multnomah County, Ore., and one of the creators of the Portland-based Beginning Urban Farmer Apprenticeship program. A partnership between the county and the Oregon State University Extension Service, BUFA provides in-depth and comprehensive training in sustainable, small-scale urban-farming methods through formal classes, hands-on training, field trips, online learning, farmers market sales and supervised apprenticeships.
“It is a trend that’s growing, and we’re certainly on the front end of that,” says Bravin. This first BUFA class had 17 graduates, but based on the program’s success and the number of applicants they’ve had for the second year of the program, they’ve nearly doubled the program’s size to include 30 students in 2012. But they’ll still have to turn away potential students.”
The same is true for Seeds @ City, a semester-long urban-farming apprenticeship program offered by San Diego City College in partnership with the San Diego Roots Sustainable Food Project. “It is difficult to get the funding to offer more courses like this, and the classes that are available in the agriculture program tend to fill up quickly,” says Aundrea Dominguez, who graduated from the program in December, 2011.
For fledgling farmers like Dominguez, the apprenticeship programs are an invaluable source of hands-on instruction — something that’s difficult to find anywhere else. “Growing food is nothing if not humbling, and a complete marvel,” she says. “Sometimes when you think nothing is going to come of your seeks and you return a day later to see a sprout making its way through the dirt … it feels like you’ve mastered an impossible magic trick.”
But there’s more to many of these programs than simply serving as a training ground for newbie urban farmers. BUFA was a result of the Multnomah Food Initiative, a multi-pronged analysis of the county’s food scene, which revealed a lack of training for small-scale farmers. “The program is a way to get a younger generation the knowledge and experience to go out and be a farmer,” Bravin says. “We’re hoping that it becomes a small economic engine so that people have more opportunities in the food system to create small businesses and that’s the one thing that we really want to see come out of this.”
And the benefits to the community extend well beyond boosting the economy and strengthening agriculture skills in a new generation. Apprenticeship programs in urban areas often attract a diverse student population — in some cases, diversity is even built directly into the program. That’s the case with Windy City Harvest [http://www.chicagobotanic.org/windycityharvest], a Chicago-based program managed by the Chicago Botanic Garden. What started with an urban agriculture program for teenagers has grown into a partnership between the garden and local city colleges. The diverse student body is made up traditional, self-paying students; participants from the Cook County Sheriff’s Boot Camp, an alternative sentencing facility for young men; and students with barriers to employment who come to the program through the federal Workforce Investment Act.
“It’s so fun to watch the group grow throughout the season,” says Angela Mason, director of community gardening at the Chicago Botanic Garden. “Food is always one of those key components to getting a group of people together.”
This year, Mason’s program had more than 60 applicants — a number that’s been steadily growing since 2010, the first year the program existed in its current form. “It’s incredible,” she says. “I like seeing the growth, but at the same time, it’s hard because I don’t want to turn anybody away. But we can’t have 60 people working on a quarter-acre.”
Ultimately, however, those capacity issues point to one thing: Urban-farming apprenticeship programs are here to stay. And with them comes a new generation of energized, educated farmers like Dominguez, who plans to launch her own farm, CiboMida Family Organics, this summer.
“My family has about two acres of land in Valley Center, forty minutes north of San Diego,” she says. “We’ll begin selling at local farmers markets and to restaurants in the area, with a CSA following closely behind. It means a great deal to me to be able to provide affordable, local, responsible produce to my community.”Early life and education Edit
Writing career Edit
As a film director and screenwriter Edit
Video games Edit
Amazon is a graphical adventure game created by Crichton and produced by John Wells. Trillium released it in the United States in 1984, and the game runs on Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, Commodore 64, and DOS. Amazon sold more than 100,000 copies, making it a significant commercial success at the time. It featured plot elements similar to those previously used in Congo.[57] In 1999, Crichton founded Timeline Computer Entertainment with David Smith. Despite signing a multi-title publishing deal with Eidos Interactive, only one game was ever published, Timeline. Released on November 10, 2000, for the PC, the game received negative reviews.
Works Edit
Speeches Edit
Reception Edit
Personal life Edit
As an adolescent Crichton felt isolated because of his height (6 ft 9 in, or 206 cm). During the 1970s and 1980s, he consulted psychics and enlightenment gurus to make him feel more socially acceptable and to improve his karma. As a result of these experiences, Crichton practiced meditation throughout much of his life.[citation needed] He was a deist.[110] Crichton was a workaholic. When drafting a novel, which would typically take him six or seven weeks, Crichton withdrew completely to follow what he called "a structured approach" of ritualistic self-denial. As he neared writing the end of each book, he would rise increasingly early each day, meaning that he would sleep for less than four hours by going to bed at 10 pm and waking at 2 am.[6] In 1992, Crichton was ranked among People magazine's 50 most beautiful people.[107] Marriages and children Edit He married five times. Four of the marriages ended in divorce: with Joan Radam (1965–1970), Kathleen St. Johns (1978–1980), Suzanna Childs (1981–1983), and actress Anne-Marie Martin (1987–2003), the mother of his daughter Taylor Anne (born 1989).[111] At the time of his death, Crichton was married to Sherri Alexander (2005–2008), who was six months pregnant with their son; John Michael Todd Crichton was born on February 12, 2009.[112]
Intellectual property cases Edit
In November 2006, at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Crichton joked that he considered himself an expert in intellectual property law. He had been involved in several lawsuits with others claiming credit for his work.[113] In 1985, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals heard Berkic v. Crichton, 761 F.2d 1289 (1985). Plaintiff Ted Berkic wrote a screenplay called Reincarnation Inc., which he claims Crichton plagiarized for the movie Coma. The court ruled in Crichton's favor, stating the works were not substantially similar.[114] In the 1996 case, Williams v. Crichton, 84 F.3d 581 (2d Cir. 1996), Geoffrey Williams claimed that Jurassic Park violated his copyright covering his dinosaur-themed children's stories published in the late 1980s. The court granted summary judgment in favor of Crichton.[115] In 1998, A United States District Court in Missouri heard the case of Kessler v. Crichton that actually went all the way to a jury trial, unlike the other cases. Plaintiff Stephen Kessler claimed the movie Twister (1996) was based on his work Catch the Wind. It took the jury about 45 minutes to reach a verdict in favor of Crichton. After the verdict, Crichton refused to shake Kessler's hand.[116] At the National Press Club in 2006, Crichton summarized his intellectual property legal problems by stating, "I always win."[113]
Illness and death Edit
According to Crichton's brother Douglas, Crichton was diagnosed with lymphoma in early 2008.[117] In accordance with the private way in which Crichton lived, his cancer was not made public until his death. He was undergoing chemotherapy treatment at the time of his death, and Crichton's physicians and relatives had been expecting him to recover. He died at age 66 on November 4, 2008.[118][119][120] Michael's talent outscaled even his own dinosaurs of Jurassic Park. He was the greatest at blending science with big theatrical concepts, which is what gave credibility to dinosaurs walking the earth again. In the early days, Michael had just sold The Andromeda Strain to Robert Wise at Universal and I had recently signed on as a contract TV director there. My first assignment was to show Michael Crichton around the Universal lot. We became friends and professionally Jurassic Park, ER, and Twister followed. Michael was a gentle soul who reserved his flamboyant side for his novels. There is no one in the wings that will ever take his place.[121] — Steven Spielberg on Michael Crichton's death As a pop novelist, he was divine. A Crichton book was a headlong experience driven by a man who was both a natural storyteller and fiendishly clever when it came to verisimilitude; he made you believe that cloning dinosaurs wasn't just over the horizon but possible tomorrow. Maybe today.[122] Stephen King on Crichton, 2008 Crichton had an extensive collection of 20th-century American art, which Christie's auctioned in May 2010.[123] Posthumously published novels Edit On April 6, 2009, Crichton's publisher, HarperCollins, announced the posthumous publication of two of his novels. The first was Pirate Latitudes (published posthumously on November 26, 2009), found completed on his computer by his assistant after he died. This was the second of a two-novel deal that started with Next. The other novel, titled Micro (published posthumously in 2011), is a techno-thriller that explores the outer edges of new science and technology.[124] The novel is based on Crichton's notes and files, and was roughly a third of the way finished when he died. HarperCollins publisher Jonathan Burnham and Crichton's agent Lynn Nesbit looked for a co-writer to finish the novel;[33] ultimately, Richard Preston was chosen to complete the book.[34] On July 28, 2016, Crichton's website and HarperCollins announced the publication of a third novel, Dragon Teeth, which was written in 1974 and published in 2017.[125] It is an historical novel set during the Bone Wars.
References Edit
Bibliography EditIn July 2017, North Korea tested two intercontinental ballistic missiles that it claims can deliver a nuclear payload anywhere in the world. Pyongyang tends to exaggerate its military capabilities, but its nuclear and missile programs are on a credibly threatening trajectory. A frustrating history of military posturing, economic sanctions and diplomatic initiatives has led to a standoff with no ready solutions. However, options remain on the table, if South Korea’s pro-engagement President Moon Jae-in and the uncertainty-wielding President Donald Trump coordinate strategies rather than submit to popular myths. Dealing with North Korea does not call for a radically new approach, but rather dogged implementation of policy.
The first myth is that sanctions don’t work. On 5 August, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 2371 to reduce North Korea’s foreign currency earnings by banning its trade in coal, iron and seafood, and prohibiting countries from hiring additional North Korean labourers and investing in new ventures with Pyongyang. Those who advocate a rush to dialogue with North Korea tend to see sanctions as ineffective or counterproductive. But saying that sanctions haven’t achieved denuclearisation mischaracterises their purpose, and blaming sanctions for Pyongyang’s provocations discounts the Kim regime’s aggressive intentions and record of cheating. Sanctions aim to frustrate North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs, punish its repeated violation of UN resolutions, and push Pyongyang back to the negotiating table. Returning to the table would involve suspending illegal tests, so that relevant parties can talk about security and economic incentives for a continued freeze and a capabilities cap, while maintaining denuclearisation as the ultimate goal.
A second myth is that the US isn’t willing to talk with North Korea and is on the verge of military action. In fact, the Trump administration has left the door open to talks and expressed support for inter-Korean dialogue. It is Pyongyang that has prioritised its nuclear missile development over diplomatic engagement and rejected numerous overtures from Seoul. The US has strengthened deterrence by conducting military exercises with its allies and brandishing strategic assets. Nuclear-capable B-1 bombers have flown through the region, escorted by South Korean and Japanese fighter jets. But Washington is not looking to start a preventive war. Such a military option isn’t attractive because of the vulnerability of South Korea to North Korean retaliation via artillery, missile and terrorist attack. The Trump administration has said that its goal is denuclearisation, not regime change. A pre-emptive strike (more targeted and limited than a preventive war) would only be considered if a North Korean attack was imminent.
A third myth is that we’ve tried everything before, so must now admit that North Korea is a nuclear power and focus on deterrence, containment and even diplomatic normalisation. That is problematic, for the diplomatic and nonproliferation dangers of accepting North Korea’s nuclear weapons, and because further non-military options exist. Washington can increase ‘left of launch’ efforts at cyber and component sabotage of North Korean missile systems, and broaden cybersecurity cooperation against North Korea’s hacking of banks and businesses. Efforts at information penetration into North Korea could also be increased. Greater scrutiny of human rights and targeted humanitarian assistance could pressure the regime while helping the North Korean people.
After the death of Otto Warmbier, Washington banned American tourists from visiting North Korea. Congress is considering additional sanctions and the administration has the option of relisting North Korea as a state sponsor of terror after Kim Jong-un’s half-brother, Kim Jong-nam, was assassinated in Malaysia with a VX chemical weapon. Significant diplomatic legwork is needed to enforce sanctions. A UN panel of experts has exposed numerous loopholes in Southeast Asia and China where the US and its allies can offer capacity-building assistance or apply secondary sanctions. The UN can be more timely in passing resolutions (Pyongyang managed to test a second ICBM while the Security Council debated the first) and telegraph additional measures in response to North Korea’s next test, including a global ban on Air Koryo and the suspension of oil shipments.
To facilitate ‘implementation diplomacy’, relevant parties should minimise linkage between negative externalities and efforts to deal with Pyongyang. US – South Korea burden-sharing and FTA amendment talks, Korea–Japan history issues, US–Russia political controversies, and US–China trade frictions shouldn’t derail cooperation on North Korea. Meanwhile, the US and its partners should clearly reject ‘fake solutions’ that deflect responsibility regarding North Korea. Beijing’s and Moscow’s criticism of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system is misplaced and their ‘freeze for freeze’ recommendation is a non-starter. THAAD is a defensive system justified by the North Korean missile threat, and Chinese economic coercion against its deployment is unseemly. While Seoul and Washington could feasibly scale down military exercises if North Korean behaviour changes, it’s nonsense to suggest a freeze on legal military readiness and defensive interoperability in exchange for North Korea’s abstaining from violations of international law.
Finally, the US, South Korea and Japan should build upon alliance and missile defense cooperation. Recent trilateral meetings—Trump–Moon–Abe at the G20 and Tillerson–Kang–Kono at the ASEAN Regional Forum—are a good start. The three countries could advance their intelligence sharing, contingency planning, and anti-submarine and missile defence exercises. Seoul is well advised to expedite THAAD deployment after recent successful tests in the US. Extended deterrence policy coordination and updates to the US Nuclear Posture Review will make clear that North Korea can’t compel Washington to abandon Seoul and Tokyo.
There are no quick fixes for the North Korean threat; attempts at rushed solutions and grand bargains risk unintended consequences. Better to pursue both the rhetoric and actions of ‘implementation diplomacy’—enforcing sanctions, strengthening deterrence, seeking meaningful dialogue, and reinforcing alliances for dealing with Pyongyang over the long term.By Doug Powers • September 16, 2016 01:55 PM
**Written by Doug Powers
This morning, Donald Trump promised to deliver comments on the issue of President Obama’s birthplace. Trump did offer some words on that issue — eventually — but there was a lengthy unrelated lead-up first, and the media flipped. It was even described as a hostage situation:
Donald Trump said “Jump,” and TV news said “How high?” It happened again on Friday morning when the Republican presidential candidate held the media hostage for nearly an hour after promising a major news announcement. “Breaking News: Trump To Make ‘Big Announcement’ on Birther Issue,” said the banner on MSNBC. “Soon: Trump To Address Birther Issue,” said CNN’s banner. Fox News was, of course, along for the ride. While they waited, and waited, Trump provided what amounted to a campaign infomercial and shamelessly promoted his new Trump International Hotel in downtown Washington. When it was over, and he had said the absurdly obvious — that he now accepts that President Obama was born in the United States — there was, at least, some long overdue indignation. “We got played again,” CNN’s John King said on the air. And that was as obvious as the announcement itself.
Trump keeps reporters waiting for 45 minutes to get to the point and they freaked out, but a traveling press corps kept following Hillary around for weeks on end whining that she never said a word to them and I don’t recall that ever being described as a hostage situation. Maybe Trump was just hoping Obama would have paid a big ransom to secure the release of some of the WH’s coveted lapdogs.
CNN took the lead when it came to impatience with Trump today:
Want some cheese to go with that whine?
By the way, the Hillary campaign and MSM (along with “fact checkers”) are laughing off suggestions that the “birther” movement originated within the Clinton campaign when Hillary was running against Obama for the Dem nomination. However, a former Washington bureau chief for McClatchy news claims that in 2008 Sidney Blumenthal tried to get him to report that Obama was born in Kenya. Or we can take what the Clintons say at face value, and the majority of the MSM will do just that.
**Written by Doug Powers
Twitter @ThePowersThatBeCommon Denominators between
Male & Female "Circumcision"
see also types of male/female genital mutilation
M A L E F E M A L E Yes Is the practice rooted in ancient blood ritual? Yes Yes Was it initially adopted to suppress or control sexuality?
( Circumcision of U.S. males began when it was adopted from England
in the late 1800s to "prevent" masturbation.) Yes Yes Did (Is) the practice become (becoming) "medicalized?" Yes Yes Do cultures use hygiene, medicine, religion or tradition to justify it? Yes Yes Is it done without anesthesia, and is it painful and traumatic to the child? Yes Yes Does it carry long-term physical, sexual, emotional or psychological effects? Yes Yes Does it diminish sexual sensitivity? Yes Yes Does it abuse or mutilate the child's body? Yes Yes Is it forced upon the child without his/her consent? Yes Yes Is it a violation of a person's fundamental human right to his/her own body? Yes Yes Do the victims learn to accept it as "normal" or defend the practice? Yes NO DO AMERICANS WIDELY CONDEMN IT? YES
WHY?
F A C T S [for anatomical clarification and references, visit Question 8 of our FAQ]
The prepuce (foreskin) is a natural protective covering for the glans (head) of the penis and is the most erogenous tissue of the penis, containing over 240 feet of nerves and over 1,000 nerve endings.
Average adult foreskin consists of 1-1/2 inches of outer skin and 1-1/2 inches of inner mucosal lining and is 5 inches in circumference (erect). Infant circumcision ultimately destroys what would become 15 square inches of erogenous tissue, or approximately 50% of the adult penile shaft skin and its nervous system.
The naturally adherent, non-retractile infant foreskin is torn from the glans before circumcision. We now know infants DO feel pain. They rarely receive anesthesia and/or post-operative pain management.
85% of the world's males are intact with few foreskin problems. America is the only developed nation left in the world still circumcising most (60%) of its newborn males for non-religious reasons.
Every day in the United States, over 3,300 baby boys are circumcised, more than 1.25 million infants annually, at an annual cost to parents and health insurers exceeding $200 million.
American medicine has failed to prove unequivocally and conclusively that circumcision carries any significant medical advantage over the intact state for the majority of males or their partners. It has also never researched the long-term physical, sexual, emotional or psychological consequences to men of infant circumcision.
Long-term harm includes: skin tags, skin bridges, prominent scars, tight/painful erections, bleeding during sex, bowing/curvature, loss of sensitivity, excessive/painful stimulation needed to orgasm, sexual dysfunction, anger, resentment, feelings of parental betrayal, mutilation/human rights violated, not feeling whole or natural, inferiority to intact males, low self-esteem, addictions or dependencies, etc.
More Pages Related to Male & Female Circumcision
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Your Rights | Attorneys for the Rights of the Child | Video Excerpt | Dads | FGC Experts | Position Statement | Harm Form | Class ActionSunday penalty rates will be cut for employees in the hospitality, retail and fast food sectors, the Fair Work Commission announced on Thursday.
The landmark decision will see significant reductions in Sunday and public holidays across the industries, but not to Saturday levels as originally thought.
The rates differ across the different industries, which will likely cause divide between unions and business sectors.
The Fair Work Commission has agreed with the Productivity Commission's argument that there are likely to be some "positive" employment effects from a reduction in penalty rates.
Fair Work Commission president Iain Ross said Sunday penalty rates would still be higher than for Saturdays.
"Generally speaking, for many workers, Sunday work has a higher level of disutility than Saturday work," he said.
"Though the extent of the disutility is much less than in times past."
Mr Ross said the commission took evidence from business owners that Sunday penalty rates had led employers to restrict trading hours and reduce staff levels.
"The evidence also supports the proposition that a reduction in penalty rates is likely to lead to increased trading hours, an increase in the level and range of services offered on Sundays and public holidays and an increase in overall hours worked," he said.
Mr Ross said the changes would provide greater consistency to penalty rate settings in the hospitality and retail awards.
Do you agree Sunday penalty rates for hospitality and retail workers should be cut? Yes 5277 No 17865
Australian Council of Trade Unions president Ged Kearney said the ruling was "a bad day for workers in this country", adding millions of the lowest-paid workers would lose out.
"How realistic is it to ask the lowest paid workers to take a pay cut of up to $6000 a year," she said.
"We would not accept any cut to take home pay. We're talking about people who don't earn a fortune... This needs to be stopped. We will not have a class of working poor in this country."
Hospitality worker Erin Gibbons said the whole industry had become unstable, adding the ruling "has so many tentacles and consequences".
"People will be forced to make up for the cut whether it's through a second or third job, or becoming dependent on others or turning to welfare," she said.
Sunday rates have been cut, but not to Saturday levels as many suspected. (AAP) ()
"The biggest thing is - can I stay in this industry?"
Australian Retailers Association executive director Russell Zimmerman said the decision would grow the sector.
"Reducing these rates from double time to time and a half, will increase retail growth nationally and reduce the unemployment rate in Australia," he said in a statement.
FAST FOOD INDUSTRY:
* Full time / part time staff: rates to drop from 150% of base rate to 125%
* Casuals will drop from 175% of the base rate to 150%
HOSPITALITY:
* Full time and part time workers will see Sunday rates reduced from 175% to 150%
* Casuals will stick to 175% of the base rate
RETAIL:
* Full time and part time workers’ Sunday rates to drop from 200% to 150%
* Casuals’ penalty rates will drop from 200% to 175%
* Full time and part time workers will see public holiday rates drop from 225% to 200%, while casuals will remain at 250%.
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Paddy McNair has revealed how he refused to go out on loan before sealing a transfer to Sunderland.
The defender left Manchester United for the Stadium of Light in a £5.5m move last summer.
But the 21-year-old, who made 27 first-team appearances at Old Trafford, has revealed it only happened after he defied Jose Mourinho and insisted on a permanent deal.
He told the BBC: "He wanted me to go on loan and I went in to see Jose and just said 'look, if you don't let me go on a permanent, I'm just going to stay here'.
"That's how strongly I thought about it. At the time, it's what I wanted so I've got no regrets. I think he quite liked how I was straight up. I said I wanted to leave, that I didn't want to go on loan.
"I think he respected that. I told him that I'd been here since I was 12-years-old and club could at least let me do what I want to do. I spoke to Ed Woodward and said the same to him. I was refusing to go on loan basically. I just wanted a new challenge and off I went."
Get all the latest Manchester United news first with our new app. Download it here now.Frequently Asked Questions
18. Are there any deciduous native trees?
Yes there are but comparatively few compared with the northern hemisphere. The majority are found in the tropical north of the continent. It may come as a surprise for those familiar with the forests of southern Australia to learn that many eucalypts of the tropical north are deciduous although not in winter and only for a short period before the wet season.
The two best known deciduous Australian species are the red cedar (Toona ciliata) and the white cedar (Melia azedarach). Both of these occur in subtropical rainforests of Queensland and New South Wales and are popular in cultivation. In Tasmania the deciduous beech (Nothofagus gunnii) can be found.
Some Australian trees can be partly deciduous in that they may lose foliage on a half or more of the tree just prior to flowering while retaining it on the other half. The Illawarra flame tree (Brachychiton acerifolius) is the best known example of this and it can sometimes be observed on the silky oak (Grevillea robusta).This year’s six nations championship will go down in history as one of the best ever (and not just because Ireland won for the second year in a row). The final six hours of rugby on Saturday was some of the most exciting sports I’ve ever watched. How many England fans would’ve believed going into the final day in first place and scoring 55 points against France wouldn’t be enough to take home the trophy? Madness.
As Nate Silver has pointed out at length, modern sports generates some tremendously rich datasets. Previously I used kdb+ and d3.js to visualize sports exchange data and tell the story of a single game – Superbowl XLIX. In this post I’m going to extend the same techniques to cover multiple prediction markets and the relationships between them: the key games of the six nations championship and the overall title odds. Over the course of the championship over 20 million data points were captured from betfair in real time and streamed into a kdb+ database. I’ve used this data to create a visual story of the whole championship.
If I’ve done my job well the interactive charts below shouldn’t need too much explaining, but I’ll give a quick summary anyway. The top chart shows the changing title odds for each team over the last 6 weeks of the championship. Hover over the square icons to see the championship table snapshot at different times, and click on one of the rugby balls to bring up an interactive visualization of in-match data for any one rugby match. The volumes relate to the number of matched bets on the sports exchange in a given time window.
The most exciting day was of course the final one, so my second chart is a close-up of the madness for your viewing pleasure. Notice the nice flat pre-match odds descending into chaos after the first kick-off? That’s chart-speak for a really exciting day of rugby! It’s clear from this how many people were backing Wales to win after the end of their match against Italy which finished at 2.20pm. By that point they had built up a big lead in terms of their points difference over England and Ireland. Then as Ireland moved more ahead of Scotland in the second half of the Ireland vs. Scotland match, the Welsh title chances diminished and finally disappeared. In the final match (England vs. France), you can see how the championship odds spiked every time either England or France scored a try.
There’s also a few other cool things that jump out to me:
See the tiny little blip of blue at the bottom at about 1 o’clock? That’s some very optimistic Frenchmen who still thought a Gallic victory was a possibility (technically it was…technically)
Wales beating Ireland on the 14th March benefited England’s championship chances far more than their own, which stayed more or less the same. The lesson here is the Celtic nations should stick together.
England didn’t win. Did I mention that already? Just in case anyone wasn’t aware. Ireland won.
I’m sure there’s plenty of other cool insight hiding in this dataset, so feel free to comment on any cool stuff you notice. Until next time!Thoughts on the public debate over corporal punishment
Are you a parent with toddlers, children or adolescents? If so, I would like to ask you a question. What are your thoughts about spanking? It is a hot topic on the minds of many. Are you wondering about it too?
Parental use of corporal punishment was thrust back into public debate in America in September when nfl running back Adrian Peterson was arrested on felony child abuse charges for using a switch to discipline his 4-year-old son. Peterson avoided jail time by pleading no contest to a reduced charge of misdemeanor reckless assault as part of a plea deal. Peterson was ordered to pay a $4,000 fine and court costs, to take parenting classes and to perform 80 hours of community service.
Learning of the Peterson incident, child advocates rushed to condemn corporal punishment across the board. Evangelicals answered back with indignation. Several op-ed writers threw the subject of race into the discussion. Parents began arguing with each other on social media and on call-in radio talk shows about the difference between child abuse and spanking. Some parents were hotly indignant, stating that it is nobody’s business how they raise their children.
I personally believe there exists a silent majority of parents in Western society who are confused and conflicted about how to discipline their children, who make their daily lives miserable because of unruly behavior. On a recent business trip, I felt really bad for a mom in an airport whose child was taking swings and hitting her because she was not doing what he wanted her to do.
Spanking and the Law
There is a global movement to eliminate spanking. Forty-one nations prohibit all corporal punishment of children: in the home, schools and other institutions including penal systems. Twenty-seven of these nations passed their laws against spanking in just the past decade. An additional 78 nations prohibit physical punishment in schools.
In America, all 50 states allow corporal punishment of children. Nineteen states, mostly in the South, permit physical punishment in schools. This does not mean that all parents use physical punishment. The debate spawned by the Peterson case shows huge disagreements about corporal punishment among Americans regionally, religiously and racially.
“From the macro data, it seems that corporal punishment is becoming less popular in the United States,” reported the Christian Science Monitor. “Evaluating numerous national surveys taken over the past decades, Murray Straus, an expert on corporal punishment at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, found that the number of parents who say spanking is sometimes necessary dropped from more than 90 percent in 1968 to about 65 or 70 percent in 1994, and then has remained steady through today” (Oct. 19, 2014). Other researchers have found that while the number of parents using spanking has decreased, Americans still use spanking to discipline their children—much to the dismay of the academic voices against corporal punishment.
It is likely that some parents are not being totally honest on surveys, or the surveys are not reaching parents who use corporal punishment. One of the leading academic voices against spanking, Prof. Elizabeth Gershoff of the University of Texas at Austin, discovered in the late 2000s “that by the time American children reach high school, 85 percent have been physically punished by their parents” (ibid). Kenneth Dodge, family policy scholar at Duke University, has found similar numbers. Following hundreds of children in longitudinal studies from pre-kindergarten through adulthood, he found that 70 to 80 percent were corporally punished (ibid). Prof. Murray Straus believes 90 percent of toddlers are still being physically punished.
Officially, spanking is still used in many school districts across states that permit it. U.S. Department of Education numbers say 200,000 students are physically disciplined every year. In some school districts in northern Florida, state statistics show more than 1 in 10 students is paddled.
The Arlington school district, located on the outskirts of Memphis, Tennessee, recently reinstated corporal punishment, giving teachers “all possible tools at their disposal.” It is clear that a majority of Americans use physical discipline.
Considering these facts, you may wonder why the Peterson case drew the attention it did. Child advocates against spanking took advantage of this tragic case to advance their cause to have spanking outlawed in America. However, there are large groups in the American population who are willing to fight for the right to raise their families in the manner they see fit, which includes the use of corporal punishment when necessary.
The Case Against Spanking
Child advocates against spanking see no difference between child abuse and spanking. Just after the Peterson case made news headlines, National Public Radio host Robert Siegel interviewed Elizabeth Gershoff about the history of corporal punishment. During the interview, Siegel made this emotionally charged statement: “There are lots of people today who are parents who were disciplined by their parents by being beaten and consider it normal, and therefore beat their children.” This is undeniably a broad, sweeping statement.
Gershoff responded to Siegel’s proclamation: “That’s true. We do see that cycle of violence continuing through generations. Our own parents are our best example for how to parent. We live with our parents for many years. And that’s the most close-up view of parenting we’ve ever seen. But there are many parents who are breaking that cycle and realizing that it is possible to raise children without hitting them.” Please take note that Gershoff refers to spanking as a “cycle of violence.” Did Gershoff’s parents beat her? Do all parents who spank their children beat them? Growing up in the 1950s, I know that I was occasionally spanked as a child—yet I was not beaten.
Anti-spanking advocates view all spanking as hitting, equating it with child abuse. The word hit conjures up horrible images of violent punching and slapping during out-of-control confrontations. Yes, sadly, child abuse does exist. Children have been hurt, physically, mentally and emotionally. All child abuse is definitely criminal against children and should be punished severely. Yet, is a parent who gives his or her unruly child several stinging swats on the behind a child-beater?
Gershoff estimates that a quarter of American households today do |
— they have one thing in common. All have hired a small, Tempe-based startup communications firm that highlights, rather than hides, their secular values.
“We are trying to be the serial entrepreneurs of the humanist movement,” said Evan Clark, 27, one-half of Spectrum Experience, the humanist-based firm that manages these candidates.
Across the Formica tabletop in a strip-mall breakfast spot that sometimes serves as Spectrum’s office, his partner, Serah Blain, 37, added: “We want to break ground. We are trying to start a movement, not win a race.”
The starting line
Blain and Clark met in 2011 when both were active in humanist circles, she as an Arizona state lobbyist for the Secular Coalition for America, he as head of his California college’s Secular Student Alliance.
In 2014, Blain began working with James Woods, a humanist running for Congress from Arizona’s 5th District. When Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema was elected from the adjacent 9th District in 2012, she was touted by some secular activists as the first open atheist in Congress — a label she instantly rejected. Many in the secular community were angered and saddened by her actions, which they saw as more politically expedient than honest.
Woods — with help from Blain and Clark — decided to highlight his lack of religious beliefs. And though he lost to Republican Matt Salmon, a Mormon, in this heavily Republican district, many Phoenix-area progressives saw Woods’ candidacy as a tipping point.
“James was the incubator of our idea of what a humanist campaign can look like,” Clark said. “We tried to create a humanist platform, a humanist brand that was credible. We went for things people are often afraid to talk about — humanism and feminism.”
READ: God? Meaning of life? Many Americans don’t seek them in church
But Woods’ lack of religion was an issue in 2014. On the one hand, it gained him national attention. On the other, local Democrats distanced themselves from him. At least one asked Spectrum to remove a picture of her with Woods posted on Spectrum’s Facebook page because she didn’t want to be associated with his atheism. A few people said they wanted to vote for Woods, but his lack of religious belief was a deal-breaker.
On the night Woods lost, Blain received condolence calls from secular activists all over the country. She was too busy partying to take them, celebrating the result as a milestone.
“I think it started a precedent in Arizona,” she said a week before the upcoming primary over an enchilada lunch. “It broke the glass. And that was the point. In a lot of ways it was a giant PR stunt to bring forward issues that we care about and get them discussed.”
Woods, sipping an Arnold Palmer at Blain’s left, said: “Serah said to me, ‘You are going to lose and you are going to lose big. But let’s go for it.'”
Pushing away her half-eaten plate, Blain added: “This time is different. Things have changed.”
Shifting politics
Arizona is known as a Republican mainstay, a bedrock conservative state. The last time Arizona went Democratic in a presidential election was in the 1950s. Its voters have elected Sen. Barry Goldwater, Sen. John McCain and the nationally famous — and infamous — Republican Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
Sixty-two percent of the state’s Republican voters live in Maricopa County, the most populous area around Phoenix, Mesa, Tempe and Surprise. Most of Spectrum’s candidates live here, or their districts overlap it.
By 2010, conservative Republicans — many with the support of evangelicals and Mormons — gained a supermajority in the Arizona Legislature. They pushed a number of laws that were considered extreme by critics — among the strictest abortion limits in the nation, defunding of Planned Parenthood, and allowing businesses to refuse service to LGBT customers if they felt it conflicted with their religious beliefs.
READ: Reason Rally organized atheist vote
Most of the legislation was supported by the Center for Arizona Policy, a conservative Christian organization. Much of it was defeated or vetoed by then-Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican.
Those proposed laws may have been something of a wake-up call. John C. Green, director of the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron, says yes, Arizona is traditionally Republican and conservative, but that is tempered by a strong libertarian vein that may have been strengthened in the wake of those proposed laws.
“Libertarians are skeptical about all forms of government, but they are also skeptical about religion in government,” Green said. “So just on the face of it, the arguments these candidates are making are plausible, and especially in the Phoenix area there would be a constituency for the kind of arguments they are making.”
Meanwhile, the Arizona population is changing, Green said. People are moving in from more liberal states, such as California; left-leaning Latinos show signs of turning out to vote in higher numbers; and millennials — generally less religious than preceding generations — are showing a growing interest in politics.
“Arizona may want to be the Mississippi of the West — that is what we used to call it,” said Mikel Weisser, a candidate for Congress from Arizona’s 4th District for the third time, this time with Spectrum’s help. “But Arizona has a pretty large and growing millennial population who are going through the realization that these religious statutes are being used for hate and division. They are saying we have to move beyond ‘God hates fags.'”
Crafting a ‘political humanism’
Weisser, 57, represents one extreme of Spectrum’s candidates. His platform rests on the legalization of marijuana, and he always wears his medical marijuana card on a lanyard around his neck. Over his left breast pocket is a Bernie Sanders button — the “i” in Bernie dotted with a cannabis leaf — and in his right hand is a ceramic marijuana pipe, which he alternately waves about and uses as he talks about his campaign.
He is a long shot to win his conservative district.
Then there is Ryan Winkle, a clean-cut, 37-year-old father and businessman who goes door to door in the Mesa neighborhood he grew up in wearing dress shoes and a tidily buttoned blue polo shirt with his “Winkle for City Council” emblem embroidered over his heart.
Winkle has a shot at winning the Aug. 30 primary and is possibly being groomed by the local Democratic establishment for other, higher offices.
The men — and all of Spectrum’s candidates — have two things in common: They are not traditionally religious, and they have asked Spectrum to highlight what they call the humanist aspects of their platforms.
Blain and Clark think of that platform as “political humanism” — values that promote the greater good of all people, regardless of race, religion or economic status. They include a living wage, health care access (including abortion and birth control), improved education, the eradication of poverty, the advancement of science and reason.
For Winkle, it is even more simple.
“I am a Mesa citizen, a human being, an American before I am anything else,” Winkle said as he deposited literature on closed doors in the 99-degree heat. “My values aren’t pro-choice or religious, but are based on being part of the community. So I don’t have to find common ground with voters on religion. I find it with them in the community.”
Tone down or amp up?
But are humanist values enough to win an election? Or are they something that can sink a candidate?
About half of Spectrum’s candidates said their lack of religion has not been a problem. But the other half have had some pushback.
Cara Prior, who is running for the Arizona House while her husband, Scott, runs for the state Senate, said she had been asked by a Democratic Party official to “tone down” her atheism because it didn’t play well. She has not. Weisser said other Democrats in his district asked him not to run because he doesn’t “live up to their Christian values.”
And most of Spectrum’s candidates acknowledge that they are unlikely to win. But that, they said, is not the point.
“The chances of us winning are slim,” said Scott Prior, as he and Cara, both in cowboy hats and holding one of their dogs by a leash, sat against a sunset mountain for official campaign pictures. “But if we do it right, the message we can bring for the future is important enough.”
Juan Mendez is the only one of Spectrum’s clients running as an incumbent; he was elected to the state House in 2012. At that time, he was not public about his lack of religious faith. Now, he is embracing his humanism with Spectrum’s help.
“Serah and Evan created a brave space where it made me want to go out and stand up for people who choose not to associate with religion,” Mendez said during a break in a day of canvassing. “They encouraged me to see a bigger picture. By myself, I probably would have just thought about keeping myself safe. But the fact that there were other people out there I would be helping — it made me feel like an opportunity would fall away if I didn’t” run as a humanist.
For Clark and Blain, the end of the race isn’t nearly as important as the race itself.
“In James’ (Woods) campaign, we wanted to normalize atheism in politics, and I think we did it,” Blain said. “This time, we asked: Can we inspire people to run as atheists? And we’ve done that.”
The next campaign
Which begs the question — if only one or two of their candidates has a shot at lasting beyond the primary, what’s next for Spectrum Experience?
The question is a complicated one. Blain, who considers Arizona home, spends a lot of time in Florida, where her two children live. Clark, originally from Massachusetts, pines for California. Both crash with friends or significant others, and neither can remember a full day off since January.
After handing out fliers for Winkle one morning, the pair reconnoitered at the Humanist Society of Greater Phoenix, a former Mesa home-turned-community center where they meet in a room cramped with coffee machines, microphones and computers. For about a half-hour between appointments with candidates, they talk about what direction Spectrum will take after November.
They talk about reviving a popular humanist podcast series they produced. They talk about training other secular activists in other states to do what Spectrum does. They talk about writing legislation, about promoting Darwin Day, about focusing on education and lobbying.
But they always seem to come back to one subject — fronting a slate of humanist candidates in the Prescott area, two hours to the north, and running their campaign from start to finish.
“Is the goal to run one, nail political humanism and then go on to other stuff,” Clark asked, his fingers clicking across his computer, seemingly independent of his words. Then he asks Blain with a smile, “Are you ready to run for Congress in 2018?”
Deadpan, she replies: “Yes. Unless you do.”Michigan police agencies seized $23.9 million last year from suspected drug traffickers, according to a Michigan State Police report released last month. (Photo: Jeff Chiu / AP)
Westland — Marijuana and pizza may be a popular combination, but the state Court of Appeals ruled last week it isn’t enough to warrant police seizure of property.
The state appellate court overturned the forfeiture of a car after ruling the driver didn’t use the vehicle to buy marijuana found by police, but instead received the weed as a tip for delivering a pizza.
The 2-1 decision came down Thursday, a day after House Bill 4499, part of a seven-bill package seeking to reform the state’s forfeiture laws, was passed by the Michigan Senate, 38-0. The Michigan House of Representatives in June approved the measure 104-5.
The Westland case began with an April 2013 traffic stop, during which Westland police officer Robert Fruit found a gram of marijuana on the driver, Linda Ross.
“Linda worked as a delivery driver and had received the marijuana as a tip earlier in the day after delivering a pizza to a customer,” the State Court of Appeals decision said.
The 2007 Ford Focus was seized under civil forfeiture laws that allow authorities to confiscate property that’s used to commit crimes. Ross’ father, Steven Ross, hired attorney William Maze, who specializes in forfeiture cases, to fight the case.
“At a forfeiture trial, Fruit testified that Linda told him, upon her arrest, that she purchased the marijuana from a customer to whom she had delivered a pizza,” the appellate court decision said.
“However, Linda testified, and the trial court found credible, that she received the marijuana as a tip for delivering pizza and that she did not intend to go to the customer’s house in order to purchase the marijuana.”
Maze said: “The question in this case was, did she use the car to purchase marijuana? If not, then they can’t seize the car. Possession of a drug isn’t enough.”
While Wayne Circuit Judge Robert Colombo agreed with Maze’s contention that mere possession of marijuana isn’t enough to warrant a seizure, the judge ruled Ross’ vehicle was used for the purpose of receiving the drug, and, thus, subject to forfeiture.
Appellate judges Michael F. Gadola and Jane M. Beckering overturned the lower court’s decision, with Judge Kathleen Jenson dissenting.
“Despite Linda’s testimony that she sometimes received marijuana as a tip from various customers, there was no evidence that she expected to receive it on this particular occasion, that this particular customer had given her marijuana before, or that she was motivated to go to the customer’s house by anything other than a delivery call,” the appeals court said.
“According to plaintiff and the trial court’s perspective, the fact that ‘the car was used to receive marijuana’ because marijuana was placed into it established — on its own — that Linda used the vehicle for the purpose of receiving marijuana. By that logic, a vehicle would be subject to forfeiture in all cases of mere possession.”
Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor Maria Miller said: “We are in the process of determining whether we will appeal this or not.”
Westland police declined to comment.
Michigan police agencies seized $23.9 million last year from suspected drug traffickers, according to a Michigan State Police report released last month.
However, that figure is likely low, since 56 agencies failed to respond to a Government Asset Forfeiture Report Form. Of the agencies that did respond, 332 reported asset forfeitures and 298 reported none.
Police are not required to file an annual report with the state detailing their forfeitures, although the proposed laws, which are awaiting Gov. Rick Snyder’s signature, would make it mandatory.
Bill 4499 would increase the burden of proof required to forfeit property in drug and public nuisance cases. Instead of the current threshold of “preponderance of the evidence,” the law would require “clear and convincing” evidence that the forfeited property was used to commit a crime.”
Read or Share this story: http://detne.ws/1LsBU9QBack in 2003, the original Planetside was one of the first high-profile first-person shooters to mix twitch infantry combat and combined-arms vehicle combat with a dynamic metagame and, most importantly, a persistent world. Since then, other developers seem to have caught on to the idea of persistence as a way for the FPS genre to evolve. Titles from World War II Online to the upcoming Heroes and Generals and Dust 514 have players fighting it out in worlds where the wider battle continues even when they aren't playing. Planetside 2 offers another step in this evolution, but seems to be tying its persistence more to unlockable weapons and abilities and less to things like territorial control and conquest.
While Planetside 2 will be offered as a free-to-play title rather than a boxed product, the game's most fundamental mechanics are unchanged from its predecessor. Three factions fight for control over bases on huge maps in wide-ranging battles involving dropships, fighter craft, tanks, armored personnel carriers and all-terrain vehicles. There are twelve bases on every map, each one covering about the size of a full map in Call of Duty (walking from one end of a Planetside 2 map to the other would take about half an hour, we're told).
Players will still be able to group together to share experience points generated by group efforts, forming into Squads of up to 10 soldiers and multi-squad Outfits of up to 100 players. Publisher Sony Online Entertainment is also working on an even higher level of player organization that will contain multiple Outfits, we're told. Players still earn Certification Points to unlock new abilities and increase proficiencies in those abilities, and there will be Warp Gates which connect different maps so that players can move freely from battlefield to battlefield.
While the fundamental mechanics may be the same, some things have been simplified for the sequel. The developers have reduced the number of character classes from eight to six, experience points are no longer divided into three separate pools, and players no longer need special equipment to hack base terminals and seize control over facilities.
Territorial changes
Control over bases, at least judging by our hands-on demo, is now less about gaining benefits directly from owning that base and more about seizing control over the eight square kilometer section of the map surrounding it. Different areas of the map generate different kinds of resources that players need to spawn vehicles or upgrade equipment. Some areas generate a currency called Auraxium which can be spent in the game's store.
But the most important difference between Planetside and Planetside 2 seems to be the lack of more permanent victory conditions. In the first Planetside, factions could seize control over entire maps and severely truncate enemy movement across the entire span. This doesn't seem to be the case in the Planetside 2 demo we were shown, in which each faction had a permanent base that enemies could only encroach for a short time before dying. The idea is for factions to always have a beachhead that allows them to develop a new attack, a change that alters the metagame from a high-level battle for permanent territorial control to a series of never-ending tug-of-war skirmishes.
The change is somewhat understandable, given that Planetside 2 won't be launching with many maps. If Planetside 2 stuck to the old system, one faction could fully dominate and lock down all of those maps relatively quickly, making for a very uninteresting game. The simplified metagame could also speak to SOE's desire to keep the free-to-play game more accessible to new customers.
Customization and monetization
Regardless, it seems likely that players will stick with Planetside 2 for its wide array of unlockable customizations as much as for the persistent territorial battle. Each class features hundreds and hundreds of skills, with top-level certification expanding into about a dozen sub-certifications, each with two to four levels of progression. The number of weapons in Planetside 2 is similarly ludicrous—while the original Planetside had about 30 different infantry weapons, Planetside 2 features 30 Assault Rifles alone, each with a slew of customization options. SOE says it would take about three years of consistent play to unlock everything in the game.
Players will also be able to use an iPad/Android tablet app to view maps, track things like territorial control and resource production, and keep track of their character's personal stats and progression. The app also allows players to chat live with friends who are currently in-game, letting players help provide information and organize a counterattack even when they're away from their computers.
Of course Planetside 2 offers a number of visual improvements, including a day/night cycle that is more than just eye candy. The battlefield actually changes markedly at night, and the game offers a robust suite of night-fighting gear to allow for better visibility. Well-equipped factions could wait to launch nighttime raids in the hopes that their opponents haven't geared up for the darker conditions, putting them at a significant disadvantage.
There's always the question of monetization models when we're talking about free-to-play games. While SOE insists that store purchases are mostly about customizations like armor color and skins, I saw store categories for stat amplifiers, weapons, equipment, and vehicle weapons and equipment. Most of the items had prices listed in Auraxium, an in-game currency earned through territorial control, but I also saw items such as experience point boosts that could be purchased with Station Cash, an analog for real money.
SOE stressed several times during our demo that the online store we were being shown wasn't final, however, and that there would be a lot of balancing to do during the upcoming beta. The devil is definitely going to be in the details, as far as that balancing is concerned, and SOE is going to have to walk a fine line between maximizing revenues and preventing players from simply paying to win.
Dennis Scimeca is a freelance writer from Boston, Massachusetts. You can enjoy his random excitations on Twitter: @DennisScimeca.Image caption The Pope is the first pontiff to resign rather than die in office for hundreds of years
Pope Benedict XVI is considering changes to Catholic Church rules which may speed up the process to select his successor, the Vatican says.
A spokesman said the Pope may issue a decree in the next few days regarding the conclave, the gathering of cardinals to choose the next pontiff.
Pope Benedict announced last week that he would resign on 28 February.
Under current rules the conclave should not start before 15 March, but there has been pressure to bring it forward.
Church officials want a successor to be in place before the start of Holy Week on 24 March, the most important event in the Christian calendar.
Surprise resignation
The existing rules are set to allow time for cardinals from around the world to travel to Rome for the conclave after the papacy becomes vacant.
But Benedict was the first Pope to resign rather than die in office for hundreds of years, giving more prior warning than usual of the need for a conclave to be held.
Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said the Pope was considering changes to two documents approved by his predecessor, but did not specify the possible alterations.
One document governs the period during which the papacy is vacant, the other gives details of the running of the conclave.
The spokesman said he did not know whether this would mean the conclave would be held earlier than anticipated.
But the BBC's Rome correspondent Alan Johnston says the possibility of bringing it forward is being widely discussed at the Vatican.
During the forthcoming conclave, there will be 117 cardinals who are eligible to take part in the series of secret votes held to choose the next pontiff.SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Officials have rebuffed a new push to change the name of a southern Utah canyon that's offensive to some but a point of historical pride for the state's largest NAACP chapter.
The Grand County Council voted 4-3 Tuesday to keep the name Negro Bill Canyon, which was dubbed for a black cowboy whose cattle grazed there in the 1870s, councilwoman Mary McGann said.
Amid renewed national scrutiny of the Confederate flag, she had pushed to change the name that she says is offensive and outdated.
Jeanetta Williams, president of the Salt Lake City chapter of the NAACP, opposed the effort. She says the name isn't offensive and is instead a point of pride because it makes clear the canyon is named for a black historical figure.
McGann says the councilmembers who wanted to keep the name cited the support of the Salt Lake NAACP.
Williams didn't immediately return a message seeking comment on the vote.
Moab's canyon is not the only American landmark with a similar name. As of 2012, there were more than 700 places in the U.S. with "negro" in the name, according to an analysis of government records.
Grand County Councilman Lynn Jackson voted to keep the name that he says is supported by longtime residents who feel their history slipping away.
It's part of the history of Moab — good, bad, unsavory, whatever. –Lynn Jackson, councilman
"It's part of the history of Moab — good, bad, unsavory, whatever," he said.
The canyon is a popular hiking spot in Moab, a town about 230 miles southeast of Salt Lake City that attracts tourists from all over the world to its unique red-rock landscapes in nearby national parks.
The canyon features one of the longest natural arches but its name makes tourists and locals uncomfortable, McGann said.
She's planning to bring up a name change again next year or the year after.
"We lost this battle, but we're going to succeed. It's going to happen," she said.
We lost this battle, but we're going to succeed. It's going to happen. –Mary McGann, councilwoman
The canyon was named for cowboy William Granstaff. McGann would like to see it bear his last name with the spelling corrected to Grandstaff based on new research.
It's not the first time someone had tried to change the name. Moab resident Louis Williams led a similar unsuccessful effort in 2013.
He said he was disappointed in the latest decision but encouraged by the several people who spoke in favor of a change, including one high school student.
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Related Stories(CNN) She couldn't read and she couldn't write. She was remarkably bad at public speaking. Yet mention the name "Laika" to any Russian of a certain age, and their eyes will light up with patriotic fervor.
Laika was, of course, a dog. Or to be precise, the first dog to be sent into orbit.
"There was this whole propaganda industry built around Laika and her canine comrades," says Damon Murray, editor of the new book Soviet Space Dogs
"Pictures of the dogs appeared on children's books, posters, toys, stamps, matchboxes, postcards, all over. It was a real cult thing."
Dogs or monkeys?
Murray's book draws together a collection of ephemera from the period, providing a window into the eccentric world of pop art from the USSR.
The Americans used monkeys for space exploration. In the early decades of the Russian space project, however, it was decided that dogs would be preferable.
"Initially they found it simply easier," says Murray. "There were plenty of dogs around. Russian scientists took strays off the streets and trained them. It was found that monkeys were harder to train, even if they were closer to humans in their genetic make-up.
"Towards the end of the space program, the Russians moved over to monkeys as well. But it's the dogs that are remembered as heroes."
How a mongrel dog became a Soviet icon
The way that this came about owes as much to serendipity as it does to the Soviet propaganda machine. When Laika, a stray mongrel plucked from obscurity, was launched into space on 3 November 1957, the Russian scientists had given no thought to her re-entry. It was simply accepted that she would die in space.
This, however, provoked an unexpected outcry from the Europeans. "Dog lovers across the world were up in arms about it," Murray says. "Western countries saw it as a dog being exploited. To get around this issue, the Soviets canonized her, making her a hero who had sacrificed herself for the greater good of her country."
The birth of a canine hero
The Soviet artists were drafted in, and soon depictions of the space-going dog gazing nobly towards the horizon were ubiquitous. The fact that she was from low-born origins only compounded the appeal of the myth: Laika might not have been human, but she was cast as a genuine proletarian hero.
To this day, the images of the Soviet space dogs have lost none of their aesthetic impact. "It's a weird combination of ideology and dogs," says Murray.
"The images have a very nostalgic quality. At the same time, there's this tragic edge because the dogs came from nothing and were eaten up by the Soviet space machine."By By Richard Milnes May 1, 2014 in Politics Winchester - Paul Weston, Chairman of Liberty GB, was arrested after quoting a passage from Churchill's ‘The River War’ book from the steps of Winchester Guildhall with a megaphone. He now faces two years in jail if found guilty. Police lay charges Paul Weston told Michael Coren from Canada’s Sun News station, “I was initially charged with a failure to obey a dispersal notice because my words were, well Winston Churchill’s words were causing offense and distress. I was then taken to the police station. That charge was dropped and I was rearrested on a racially aggravated crime under the public order act.” Government absolutely terrified of radical Islam He goes on to say in response to a question, “Well, it’s these terrible double standards we have over here because the government is absolutely terrified of radical Islam and of fundamentalist Muslims causing trouble on the streets, so they go out of their way not to arrest anybody from the Islamic community no matter what awfully dreadful things they get up to, but they will immediately arrest anybody from the non-Muslim side of it who dares to raise his voice in protest about what’s going on. “And the reason they do this is because if they have to admit that there is a serious problem with Islam then they would have to do something about it. And they are simply too careerist or too frightened to do anything about it. And that is the awful situation that we have in England and in Britain now.” Paul Weston could face two years jail Michael Coren asks, “…surely you cannot be convicted?” “I honestly don’t know. It’s gone to the Crown Prosecution Service. They have been taken over twenty, thirty years ago by the radical left. They will do their utmost to make sure it goes to court. If it goes to court, I would be most surprised if I was to lose, but one never knows and if I did lose, because its racially aggravated this now makes it a two year imprisonment. So, you know, I want to go to court, I want to argue my point, but I certainly don’t want to lose.” The Paul Weston is standing as a candidate for Liberty GB in the southeast region in the European elections, which will be held on 22 May. Speaking in the historic city of Winchester in the county of Hampshire, which was the capital city of England during Saxon times, Mr Weston quoted from a book, The River War which Churchill wrote in 1899 while he was a British army officer in Sudan.Paul Weston told Michael Coren from Canada’s Sun News station, “I was initially charged with a failure to obey a dispersal notice because my words were, well Winston Churchill’s words were causing offense and distress. I was then taken to the police station. That charge was dropped and I was rearrested on a racially aggravated crime under the public order act.”He goes on to say in response to a question, “Well, it’s these terrible double standards we have over here because the government is absolutely terrified of radical Islam and of fundamentalist Muslims causing trouble on the streets, so they go out of their way not to arrest anybody from the Islamic community no matter what awfully dreadful things they get up to, but they will immediately arrest anybody from the non-Muslim side of it who dares to raise his voice in protest about what’s going on.“And the reason they do this is because if they have to admit that there is a serious problem with Islam then they would have to do something about it. And they are simply too careerist or too frightened to do anything about it. And that is the awful situation that we have in England and in Britain now.”Michael Coren asks, “…surely you cannot be convicted?”“I honestly don’t know. It’s gone to the Crown Prosecution Service. They have been taken over twenty, thirty years ago by the radical left. They will do their utmost to make sure it goes to court. If it goes to court, I would be most surprised if I was to lose, but one never knows and if I did lose, because its racially aggravated this now makes it a two year imprisonment. So, you know, I want to go to court, I want to argue my point, but I certainly don’t want to lose.”The Nobel Prize in Literature 1953 was awarded to Winston Churchill "for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values". More about Winston churchill, Churchill, Quote, Paul Weston, Winchester More news from Winston churchill Churchill Quote Paul Weston WinchesterAndrew Harrer/Bloomberg News
DAVOS, Switzerland — To listen to the talk here this week, everyone is determined — really, really determined — to save the euro. But no one seems to know quite how.
One leader after another marched before audiences at the World Economic Forum to declare an unshakable will to overcome the euro area’s sovereign debt crisis and restore confidence in the common currency.
The euro “is more than a currency,” Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany said in a speech in Davos on Friday. “It is Europe. If the euro fails, Europe fails.”
Her speech came after an almost identical oath of allegiance to the euro during the last week by the president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy.
But there still seems to be deep division among European leaders, as well as the big thinkers from economics and academia, about what policies would remove doubts about the euro’s future.
Buy back Greek bonds? Increase the size of the European rescue fund? Allow Greece to default? Or just keep muddling through?
“If they’re not willing just to write blank checks to the peripheral countries, I don’t see what their strategy is,” said Kenneth Rogoff, an economics professor at Harvard University and former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund.
Even though many of the key figures in the debate are at Davos, no clear solutions have emerged. In fact, much of the rest of the world seems to have moved on. The most intense economic discussion seems to be about how to resolve the tensions created by the trade deficit of the United States and China’s surplus.
Timothy F. Geithner, the United States Treasury secretary, told an audience Friday that the European sovereign debt crisis hurt the United States economy last year when it caused a plunge in stock prices but that the effect was short-lived.
“I think it had a significant effect on slowing the recovery at a delicate point,” Mr. Geithner said. “After a brief loss of momentum, the U.S. started to recover.”
There does seem to be some marginal progress on what to do about Greece. George A. Papandreou, the Greek prime minister, said in Davos on Friday that he expected the European Union and the I.M.F. to grant the country more time to pay back the money it owed them.
“This will be a major asset for calming markets,” he said.
Mr. Papandreou also said officials were discussing how to strengthen the European Financial Stability Facility, which is administering a $604 billion rescue fund.
One proposal is to give the facility the power to buy government bonds, or to buy Greek debt at depressed market values in a kind of stealth restructuring. The European Central Bank has been buying Greek, Irish and Portuguese bonds to stabilize markets but has made it clear that it wants political leaders to take over the heavy lifting.
“There is a strong will to think about how the E.F.S.F. can be more robust,” Mr. Papandreou said.
But he continued to reject suggestions that Greece default on its debt or restructure its obligations so that it has more time to pay — measures that Mr. Rogoff and many other economists say are inevitable.
Instead, Mr. Papandreou and his finance minister, George Papaconstantinou, insisted that Greece would modernize its tourism and agriculture to restore growth. In addition, they said, Greece will increase revenue by combating rampant tax evasion by the seizing the yachts of wealthy deadbeats, going after assets hidden in foreign banks and other measures.
“We sometimes underestimate the capabilities we have,” Mr. Papandreou said. Such measures helped Greece increase revenue 5.5 percent last year, according to government figures.
Mr. Rogoff, who has studied the history of sovereign defaults, said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum that Greece might be able to get its debt under control someday but that it would require years of sacrifice that few political systems can endure.
The only precedent for such long-term suffering in the service of debt repayment is Romania in the 1980s, Mr. Rogoff said. At the time, the country’s dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu, imposed a draconian austerity program on the Romanian people, who later rose up and executed him.
Even among the stars of the economics world who have congregated at Davos, there is disagreement about if and when Greece should default.
Some advocate a restructuring as soon as possible. “The longer you delay it, the higher the stakes,” said Daniel Gros, director of the Center for European Policy Studies, a research organization in Brussels. “An orderly default of Greece is not such a bad thing. But do this now.”
Others fear that a restructuring would heighten fears that Ireland, Portugal and even Spain could also default, alarming markets and risking a much bigger crisis.
“To me the precedent of a default of a euro country is pretty bad,” said Robert J. Shiller, professor of economics at Yale.
There is one solution that everyone agrees would work, at least in the short term. Other European countries would simply give Greece and Ireland money to pay off their debts.
But that solution is considered politically unacceptable in Germany. Many economists agree that letting Greece off the hook would reward bad fiscal behavior, raise borrowing costs for other countries and eventually destabilize the European monetary union.
“It means that the incentive for Greeks to get their house in order is lowered,” said Dennis J. Snower, president of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy in Kiel, Germany. “Ultimately if any country misbehaves, then the risk premium in other countries rises because they are among those who pay for the mess.”
There was, at least, no shortage in Davos of moral support for the beleaguered euro area.
“Britain has a real interest in the euro succeeding,” David Cameron, the prime minister of Britain, said at the forum on Friday. Noting that euro members account for 44 percent of British exports, Mr. Cameron said, “A weak euro zone that doesn’t confront its difficulties is not good for us.” But he also sounded glad that Britain still has its own currency.
“There are times when different countries need different monetary policies,” he said, “and I want us to have a monetary policy that suits our needs.”
Liz Alderman contributed reporting.“He is ultimately responsible for everything that happens in Russia,” said Maxim Volkov, the chief executive of the Pikalevo factory visited in 2009 by Mr. Putin, the largest of three interdependent but, since the collapse of the Soviet Union, separately owned plants. “This is very good but also very bad.”
While praising Mr. Putin as a “tough and efficient” |
1932, he entered the novitiate and was given the monastic name of "Bede". He made his solemn profession in 1937 (a year before the death of his mother in a car accident) and was ordained to the Catholic priesthood in 1940.
In 1947 the abbey sent a group of 25 monks to give support to two monasteries in the United Kingdom which had been founded by monks from France. Griffiths was chosen to be the obedientiary prior for the monastery at Farnborough in Hampshire. He led that house for four years, but was unable to generate sufficient financial support to keep the community going. The abbot then sent him to the other monastery, Pluscarden Abbey in Scotland. It was there that he wrote his autobiography.
During Griffiths' time at Farnborough, he had come to know Father Benedict Alapatt, a European-born monk of Indian descent who was greatly interested in establishing a monastery in his homeland. Griffiths had already been introduced to Eastern thought, yoga and the Vedas and took interest in this proposed project. The abbot at first refused permission, but later changed his mind and authorised Griffiths to go to India with the Indian member of the community. There was one condition, though: Griffiths was not to be there as a member of the abbey, but as a priest subject to a local bishop, which meant that he would be giving up his vows.
Christian yogi [ edit ]
After some painful inner debate, Griffiths agreed to this and, in 1955, he embarked for India with Alapatt. At the time, he wrote to a friend: "I am going to discover the other half of my soul."[citation needed] After arriving and visiting some spiritual centres in the country, they settled in Kengeri in Bangalore, considered[by whom?] the garden spot of India, with the goal of building a monastery there. That project was eventually unsuccessful as Griffiths left the location in 1958, saying that he found it "too Western".[4]
Griffiths then joined with a Belgian monk, Father Francis Acharya, OCSO, to establish Kristiya Sanyasa Samaj, Kurisumala Ashram ("Mountain of the Cross"), a Syriac Rite monastery of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church in Kerala. They sought to develop a form of monastic life based in the Indian tradition, adopting the saffron garments of an Indian sannyasi (an ascetic or monk). At that point, Griffiths took the Sanskrit name "Dayananda" ("bliss of compassion"). During that time he continued his studies in the religions and cultures of India, writing Christ in India while there. He also visited the United States during the period, giving a number of talks about East–West dialogue and being interviewed by CBS television.
Later, in 1968, Griffiths moved to the Saccidananda Ashram (also known as Shantivanam; Tamil for "forest of peace") in Tamil Nadu, South India,[5] which had been founded in 1950 by the French Benedictine monk Abhishiktananda (Dom Henri Le Saux, OSB), from the Abbey of Kergonan, along with another Frenchman, the Abbé Jules Monchanin. The two had developed a religious lifestyle which was completely expressed in authentic Indian fashion, using English, Sanskrit and Tamil in their religious services. They had built the ashram buildings by hand in the style of the poor of the country. Monchanin had died in 1957 and Le Saux wanted to devote himself to a hermit's life. Griffiths came with two other monks to assume life there and to allow Le Saux his wish.
Griffiths resumed his studies of Indian thought, trying to relate it to Christian theology. At this point, he became known as "Swami Dayananda" ("bliss of compassion"). He wrote 12 books on Hindu–Christian dialogue. During this period, Griffiths desired to reconnect himself with the Benedictine order and sought a monastic congregation which would accept him in the way of life he had developed over the decades. He was welcomed by the Camaldolese monks, and he and the ashram became a part of their congregation.
Final years [ edit ]
In January 1990, Griffiths suffered a stroke in his room at the ashram. A month later, to the day, he was declared healed. The following year, he began a period of extensive travel, making annual visits to the United States, then later to Europe, where he met the Dalai Lama. He noted to a friend, "I do believe that he liked me."[6] He continued his journey, giving lectures in Germany and England. He arrived back at the ashram in October 1992, where an Australian film crew were awaiting him to make a documentary about his life, which was released as A Human Search.
Three days after the completion of filming, on his 86th birthday, Griffiths had a major stroke. The following month, he had a further series of strokes. He died at Shantivanam on 13 May 1993, aged 86.
Legacy [ edit ]
The archives of the Bede Griffiths Trust are located at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. His contributions are promoted and developed by the Bede Griffiths Trust and by the Camaldolese Institute for East–West Dialogue based at the American Camaldolese hermitage of New Camaldoli, located in Big Sur, California.[7]
Bibliography [ edit ]
Primary [ edit ]
The Golden String: An Autobiography, (1954), Templegate Publishers, 1980 edition: ISBN 0-87243-163-0, Medio Media, 2003: ISBN 0-9725627-3-7
, (1954), Templegate Publishers, 1980 edition: ISBN 0-87243-163-0, Medio Media, 2003: ISBN 0-9725627-3-7 Christ in India: Essays Towards a Hindu-Christian Dialogue (1967), Templegate Publishers, 1984, ISBN 0-87243-134-7
(1967), Templegate Publishers, 1984, ISBN 0-87243-134-7 Return to the Center, (1976), Templegate Publishers, 1982, ISBN 0-87243-112-6
, (1976), Templegate Publishers, 1982, ISBN 0-87243-112-6 Marriage of East and West: A Sequel to The Golden String, Templegate Publishers, 1982, ISBN 0-87243-105-3
, Templegate Publishers, 1982, ISBN 0-87243-105-3 Cosmic Revelation: The Hindu Way to God, Templegate Publishers, 1983, ISBN 0-87243-119-3
, Templegate Publishers, 1983, ISBN 0-87243-119-3 A New Vision of Reality: Western Science, Eastern Mysticism and Christian Faith, Templegate Publishers, 1990, ISBN 0-87243-180-0
, Templegate Publishers, 1990, ISBN 0-87243-180-0 River of Compassion: A Christian Commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, (1987), Element Books, 1995 reprint: ISBN 0-8264-0769-2
, (1987), Element Books, 1995 reprint: ISBN 0-8264-0769-2 Bede Griffiths, Templegate Publishers, 1993, ISBN 0-87243-199-1
, Templegate Publishers, 1993, ISBN 0-87243-199-1 The New Creation in Christ: Christian Meditation and Community, Templegate Publishers, 1994, ISBN 0-87243-209-2
, Templegate Publishers, 1994, ISBN 0-87243-209-2 (co-editor with Roland R. Ropers), Psalms for Christian Prayer, Harpercollins, 1996, ISBN 0-00-627956-2
, Harpercollins, 1996, ISBN 0-00-627956-2 John Swindells (editor), A Human Search: Bede Griffiths Reflects on His Life: An Oral History, Triumph Books, 1997, ISBN 0-89243-935-1 (from 1992 Australian television documentary)
, Triumph Books, 1997, ISBN 0-89243-935-1 (from 1992 Australian television documentary) Bruno Barnhart, O.S.B. Cam. (editor), The One Light: Bede Griffiths' Principal Writings, Templegate Publishers, 2001, ISBN 0-87243-254-8
, Templegate Publishers, 2001, ISBN 0-87243-254-8 Thomas Matus, O.S.B. Cam. (editor), Bede Griffiths: Essential Writings, Orbis Books, 2004, ISBN 1-57075-200-1
, Orbis Books, 2004, ISBN 1-57075-200-1 "The Relation of Ultimate Truth to the Life of the World." Arunodayam (Sep. 1962) 7–9; (Nov. 1962) 5–8.
"God and the Life of the World: A Christian View." Religion and Society 9/3 (Sep. 1962) 50–58.
India and the Sacrament. Ernakulam: Lumen Institute, 1964.
. Ernakulam: Lumen Institute, 1964. Christian Ashram: Essays towards a Hindu-Christian Dialogue. London: DLT, 1966. 249 pp.
Secondary [ edit ]The first time Captain Noorullah Aminyar traveled to the United States, in 2012, he felt calm and peaceful in a way he never had before. Back home in Afghanistan, he had slept fully clothed, boots on, hand on his rifle. The Taliban attacked every night, and he had to be ready. "But when I come to America," he told me, "I have no stress in America. I sleep good. I tell you, I have no stress. It was really easy. It was a good thing. You feel safe. I was born in the war. I grew up in the war. Always, your life is in danger. You find a little safe time, for sure you'll be happy."
For Aminyar, then twenty-eight, coming to America was an honor and an achievement. He attended the prestigious Defense Language Institute in San Antonio, the culmination of more than a decade of studying English, followed by a basic infantry officer's course at Fort Benning, Georgia, with American lieutenants. He was then selected for Ranger School, one of the few Afghan officers invited. Aminyar managed to gut his way through a two-week pre-Ranger slug-fest, but then he separated his shoulder during a swim workout, and the injury forced him to drop out of the infamously brutal main course after a few days.
Such injuries are common, and Aminyar was offered a chance to stay in America to heal and then rejoin another class. But by then he had been gone for ten months, and so he returned home, as he never could stand to be away from his wife and children for long.
Back in Afghanistan, Aminyar was assigned to Shindand Air Base, near the Iranian border, to take command of a company of special operations soldiers known as the Mobile Strike Force. It was a prominent assignment, paired with US Special Forces advisors, capturing and killing leaders of the Taliban, who had grown more powerful than any time since the U.S. invasion in 2001. "The Americans told me, your company is the strongest company," he said. "We did successful operations in that place, by air and by land. And the Taliban was not able to stand against us."
"I was born in the war. I grew up in the war. Always, your life is in danger."
As Aminyar completed operations around the country, Taliban fighters began to recognize him. They learned his name, the names of his family members, and where he lived. In a Sharia court, the Taliban charged Aminyar, in absentia, with collaborating with Americans against his own people and faith. They tried him, found him guilty, and sentenced him to death. Then they started searching for him.
Later that year, in September 2014, Aminyar traveled a second time to the United States, to Camp Edwards, a National Guard base on Cape Cod, to learn how to plan U.N. peacekeeping missions. It was to be a short trip, only two weeks. But halfway through the course, Aminyar's commander, an Afghan colonel, pulled him aside.
There was a message from his father. The Taliban had found his wife, his children, his father, his mother, his brothers. They invaded his home and beat his family. "They are looking for you," his father told him over the phone, "and if you return back they will kill you."
Aminyar has five children, three boys and two girls; at the time, his youngest son was only six months old. If the Taliban came for him, Aminyar would defend his home. He had trained his whole adult life for such a moment. But he also knew the consequences of a gun fight with the Taliban on his own doorstep. "If this thing happens, in the shooting I will lose my family," he thought.
Aminyar told his father he would not return to Afghanistan. The next day, he tried to flee to Canada. He would spend the next three years in federal detention, as his asylum claim ground through the American immigration courts. To win his case, Aminyar had to prove to an immigration judge that the Taliban were so powerful that he could never be safe again in his home country. That the Taliban constituted the de-facto government of Afghanistan. That there was nowhere he could go where he'd be beyond the reach of their death warrant. That to send him home was to execute him.
In other words, Aminyar's case rests on the argument that America has lost the war in Afghanistan.
In April, I visited Aminyar at the Department of Homeland Security's Buffalo Federal Detention Facility, which lies about thirty minutes outside the city, in the small town of Batavia. The campus looks more like a 1990s suburban nursing home than a jail—grassy lawns, pink and teal furniture—until the alarms ring and the doors lock tight and polo-shirted men with radios run in response. As Aminyar and I sat and talked in a bleached-white visitor booth, a lieutenant of the guard—a former Marine machine-gunner, his arms thick with tattoos—watched over us, not unkindly.
Aminyar is dark-haired, neatly groomed, and intense; when speaking to me, he never broke eye contact even for a moment. He wore blue scrubs, code that he had committed no crime in the United States, and was held only as part of his asylum claim. Other detainees, criminals transferred from prisons while awaiting deportation hearings, wear orange and red jumpsuits, indicating the severity of their offenses. Among the blue-suit wearers, Aminyar was an elder statesman, one of the longest-held in Buffalo. When I asked him what detention was like, he told me "There is people from everywhere in the world. Everywhere in the world is people coming to America," unknowingly paraphrasing Neil Diamond.
Behind the visitors' lounge, past a series of secure doors and search points, Aminyar lived in a single open bay of bunk beds, sixty men per warehouse. He told me he slept very little; someone was always watching a movie, using an exercise bike, going to the bathroom, rolling over on the creaking box springs. Cable television didn't show his favorite Bollywood music videos, so he learned to play dominos to pass the waking hours. He worked in the kitchen, assembling meal trays to send to the units. He ran and lifted weights. Five times a day he could pray. Five times a day the guards counted the men. It was tedious, slow time, but it was safe, and wasn't hard, if you followed the rules. "I always follow the rules," he told me. "I always follow the rules, all the time."
Always, except that once. When he got the phone call from his father, I asked him, why did he not return home to fight the Taliban, as he had for years? I understood fearing for his family, but he was the commander of a Mobile Strike Force, "the strongest company." Why not use that company to kill the Taliban?
In response to my question, he told me a story. In 2010, when he was a young Afghan Army officer, the Taliban came to his village. Alarmed, Aminyar told his brigade commander, who instructed him to go to the air base at Jalalabad and speak to the company there to plan an operation. Aminyar went to Jalalabad, but the commander was absent, and the lieutenants passed him on to U.S. Special Forces. "I told them about the situation." Aminyar said, but the Americans were busy with other priorities and declined to help. "They told me they already had a lot of planned operations. They didn't cooperate with me at that time. It did not happen." His was voice weary and full of regret. The Afghan and American militaries didn't help him then, and Aminyar had no hope that they would help him when the Taliban returned.
When he told me this, I felt compelled to say out loud what I couldn't stop thinking: this man surely had served in combat with many of my special ops friends and colleagues, from my own days in uniform. In a different situation—when he wasn't wearing prison scrubs and I wasn't on assignment—we'd be drinking tea and sharing war stories. Who was on what mission when and where, and what did they do to survive, and who are we mourning that did not.
I wanted to say to Aminyar that he and I were veterans of the same war. I wanted to say that I had friends who are alive because of him.
But I didn't know how to share all of that, so it came out like this:
"I want to say, thank you for your service."
"You are welcome, sir," he said, without hesitation, and nodded with vigor.
Aminullah Aminyar, Noorullah's father, was also an army captain, in the service of King Mohammed Zahir Shah. When the Soviets invaded in 1979, his father joined the mujahedeen, to fight the communist puppet government. Noorullah was born in 1984, in the midst of the Soviet occupation, and came of age during the civil war that followed. "Without weapons, no one was able to walk around the village," he remembered. "The situation was really really dangerous."
Aminyar grew up in the Khogyani district of Nangahar Province, just south of Jalalabad on the Pakistani border, in a narrow valley of a river that drains the Hindu Kush. "Mujahedeen had seven big parties," he said, referring to the militias that terrorized rural villages. "Maybe some of the family members are in one party, some of them in the others. Brothers on brothers, cousins on cousins. Home by home, village by village, was war."
"They are looking for you, and if you return back they will kill you."
In 1996, when Aminyar was 12, the Taliban took control of his district. They put an end to the mujahedeen anarchy by executing looters and brigands. The imams kept attendance sheets, mandated beards at least as long as the breadth of a man's hand. When one sick old man missed prayers, the Taliban dragged him from his home, whipped him, and threw him in jail. To keep his son out of the fighting, Aminullah enrolled him in extra English and computer classes. "My father, he spends more money on my education, less on food," Aminyar said.
When Aminyar did join the Afghan Army in 2005, he did so out of a hope for a democratic future. After the American invasion that followed the 9/11 attacks, "the Taliban ran away to Pakistan," he said, and the country was "completely safe." Because he was educated, he became an officer, one of the first lieutenants in the rebuilt post-election force, and he proudly wore his uniform in his home village without fear. "I saw U.S. military, soldiers in Jalalabad City, without weapons, going into shops to buy stuff."
But the optimism didn't last. "Later on, maybe a lot of mistakes happen from Afghan military, and lots of mistakes happen from U.S. military," Aminyar told me. There were night raids, civilian deaths. The Taliban was reborn.
Aminyar proved himself quickly, and he was put on the fast track: commando training in Jordan, first instructor at the Afghan special operations school, platoon leader in Paktia and Khowst, liaison officer for his brigade in Kabul. In 2009, he was assigned to FOB Salerno, a large special operations base that he called Bagh-e-Sahara, the princess' gardens, for the many orange groves that grew there.
One night, Aminyar recounts, a squad of Taliban suicide bombers, dressed in the uniforms of a militia being trained by the CIA, attempted to cut a hole in the outer fence and sneak on to the base. A soldier in a guard tower spotted them with a search light, but the Taliban shot him. Aminyar heard the shot—attacks occurred so regularly at night that the whole base was awake and ready—and led his men outside the wire to surround the Taliban in a farmer's field. The pitched battle lasted much of the night, then went quiet. When dawn came, Aminyar ordered his soldiers to search the high grass, since "maybe some of them are alive or some are hiding." In fact, none of the Taliban were dead, only injured, and they started setting off their suicide vests. Twelve detonations later, six Afghan soldiers, two U.S. special forces advisors, and their interpreter were hurt, but nobody died, Aminyar said, and the Taliban didn't gain access to FOB Salerno. After that attack, Aminyar's unit was recognized for its bravery and skill, and he was selected for training in the United States for the first time.
Aminyar learned that the Taliban were targeting him personally when they sent a letter to his parent's home in Khogyani, instructing Aminullah to turn over his son to the Sharia Court for an investigation and trial. "When my father got that, I didn't take it seriously," Noorullah said. "Later on, they sent the other letter, which was the decision of the Taliban court." Everyone in the village heard about the execution order.
Still, Aminyar had not planned to seek asylum in America on his trip to Cape Cod. His family was preparing for Eid al-Adha, only a few weeks away, and he had clothes at the tailor to pick up. But when his father called, he felt trapped.
All day, Aminyar fretted about what to do, confiding his troubles to a fellow Afghan officer named Mohammad Nasir Askarzada. The two men had little in common—Aminyar was a Sunni Pashtun, Askarzada a Shiite Hazara—and they had only known each other for a few weeks, since they met in Kabul while preparing to go to Massachusetts for the training. But Askarzada told Aminyar that he had an uncle and cousin in Montreal, and suggested they both go there and apply for asylum. To prove to Aminyar it was possible, Askarzada used his phone to look up YouTube videos showing people crossing a tall bridge to Canada.
During a break in the course, the Afghan officers went shopping at Walmart. Aminyar and Askarzada stayed close, discussing how they would flee, when the pair noticed that a higher-ranking officer, Major Jan Arash, was following them up and down the aisles of the store. Arash was stationed in Kandahar, and only spoke Dari. "I was afraid from him," Aminyar told me. "I said, maybe our colonel told him to follow." But then Arash caught up with them, and said, "My life is also in danger. Anywhere you guys going, I'm going with you." Aminyar said they were going to Canada. Askarzada spotted a taxi, and on a whim, they all got in.
"I have no plan. For sure I am nervous. I know nothing."
They told the driver they wanted to go to Boston. He asked no questions, and an hour or two later, he dropped them off at a downtown coffee shop. Arash had a cousin in Canada as well, and while he and Askarzada called their family members, Aminyar paced. "I have no plan," he said, "For sure I am nervous. I know nothing." There was great confusion about where to go and what to do. Arash's cousin said to go to New York City and promised he would come down and meet them and make a plan. But Askarzarda's cousin gave an address in Niagara Falls, and told them to go there.
Initially, the three decided to meet Arash's cousin, so they hailed a new taxi and said they wanted to go to New York. This driver was suspicious, though, asking them what they planned to do there, and the three men began arguing in the back of the car. "Askarzada is speaking with his cousin," Aminyar said. "Several times I tell him to take the address and let me speak with him, but he just speaks with his cousin and gives the address to the taxi driver." Askarzada punched a new location in his phone. "This is the place we want to go," he told the driver. The Rainbow Bridge at Niagara Falls, on the Canadian border.
Mollified, the taxi driver said the fare would be sixteen hundred dollars. The three men counted their combined funds—they each had received a stipend to pay for the trip to America—and had just enough. As they drove all night across upstate New York, Aminyar's mind was bludgeoned flat by the magnitude of what he was attempting. "I didn't think about nothing in that time," he said.
The American city of Niagara Falls is full of Indian take-out joints, parking lots, and run-down motels, but across the river, its Canadian cousin glittered with high-rise casinos. The taxi dropped them at a shabby inn at 5 a.m., but there was no room, so the three men sat in the drizzle in a state park near the falls, watching the rapids rush past. They walked to a restaurant and had breakfast, and a few hours later, Arash's cousin met them, driving them around town while they talked. He said they should all go to a church in Buffalo, twenty minutes south, where he had heard refugees could stay and sleep. They could go slow, make a plan, arrange their travel to Canada carefully. But on the phone, Askarzada's cousin was insistent. No, come to the border now.
So the next morning, Aminyar, Arash, and Askarzada went to the Rainbow Bridge. Embedded in throngs of tourists, they walked the thin span across the gorge and stepped on Canadian soil. At the border control booth, all three handed their Afghan passports over to the uniformed officer, and requested asylum in Canada.
Two major international agreements govern the status of asylum-seekers at the Niagara Falls border: the 1951 United Nations convention on refugees and the 2002 Canada-United States Safe Third Country Agreement. The first dictates that individuals fleeing persecution from their government "for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion," may request asylum and not be forced to return home. The second says that Canada will not accept third-country refugees from the United States, or vice-versa. Unless they already have close family in Canada or the United States, every asylum seeker must apply in the country in which they first land.
Aminyar had never heard of either rule. "They make us interview, all the day," he remembered. "In the evening, the officer, he told us that I don't have family in Canada. That I came first to America, that America is immigrant country, and you have to seek first asylum in America." Aminyar walked back across the border, where he was taken into custody by American immigration officials.
"I feel really ashamed," he said. "It was my first time in handcuffs."
A young Buffalo-based immigration lawyer named Matthew Borowski was eager to pick up pro bono work when he heard about the cases of the three Afghan officers. He had been licensed for less than a year, and he needed the experience, so he took on Arash's and Aminyar's claims."I figured, the busier I stayed, the better I'd be as a lawyer," he told me. "I didn't know what I was getting myself into."
Borowski is a tall, bulky man with a square head and thick fingers, like a meat-packer or sparring partner at a boxing gym. Between his look and his last name, you'd never guess that his mother is from Iran, and his first language was Farsi. Borowski says "Afghanistan" with the lilt of the region, soft "g" and "a," not the nasal East Coast accent that punctuates the rest of his speech. He grew up outside Washington, D.C. and attended law school at Drexel University before moving to Buffalo late in 2013. He chose the city because it lay on an international border, was home to immigrants from all over the world, and had a reputation as an underserved market. "Since the inauguration we've been swamped," he said. "I hate to say it, but Buffalo could use a few more immigration lawyers."
Successful asylum claims require a "nexus" of threats: an individual must fear persecution in their home country based upon "immutable characteristics," the fundamental and unchangeable nature of who they are. The system was set up in the immediate wake of World War II, and historically, asylum seekers have largely been religious and racial minorities and political dissidents fleeing oppressive dictatorships.
As a Shiite Hazara, Askarzada fit this traditional definition, and was allowed to apply for asylum in Canada because his uncle in Montreal is considered a close family member, per the Safe Third Country agreement. In addition, Askarzada's Canadian lawyer, Razmeen Joya, worked under an additional explicit legal mandate. Since 1996, Canada has not deported any Afghans back to their home country unless they had a serious criminal conviction on their record. Furthermore, because the desertions became an international news story, "we could say there was a new increased threat, because the Taliban could target him personally from the media coverage," Joya said. Askarzada was settled in three months.
Borowski's American claims were more challenging. Despite being a Dari-speaking Tajik, Arash was not considered a member of a persecuted group, so Borowski based his asylum claim on the Taliban's harassment of his family. After a year of denials and appeals, Arash was granted asylum and settled in Buffalo, where he got a job working security at the airport.
Aminyar's case was similar. As a Pashtun, the dominant ethnic group in Afghanistan, he could not claim any minority status either. Instead, Borowski argued that his immutable characteristic was not race or creed, but his success against the Taliban in battle, and the Sharia court death warrant that followed. So Borowski needed to prove two facts: that the Taliban was so powerful that it constituted a de-facto government in large swaths of Afghanistan, and that its members wanted to kill Aminyar for who and what he was to them. In other words, Borowski's task was to convince the immigration and justice divisions of the U.S. government that their fellow federal agency, the Department of Defense, had failed in their mission to destroy the Taliban.
There is no legal definition of "de-facto government," no clear standard that Borowski was asked to meet. U.S. asylum policy is administered case by case by several hundred immigration judges across the country. That makes decisions nonstandard, increasingly partisan, and—most frustratingly for the participants—unpredictable. Immigration judges have wide discretion, by design. "If I rob a bank and get arrested, I have a pretty good idea what my sentence will be," said Alex Nowrasteh, an immigration policy analyst at the Cato Institute, "but if I request asylum, anything might happen. The immigration legal code is second in complexity only to our federal income tax system."
The Transactional Records Access Clearing House at Syracuse University publishes the asylum denial rates of every immigration judge. Those rates vary widely from judge to judge and city to city; for example, from 2011-2016, the El Paso, Texas court denied 96.6 percent of its 1,042 requests, while Arlington, Virginia approved 70.3 percent of its 3,717 cases.
Art Arthur, a fellow at the conservative Center for Immigration Studies and a former immigration judge (2011-2016 denial rate: 90.4 percent), said that his challenge as a judge was that "the law is very narrowly tailored. You want to be empathetic, to alleviate pain and protect someone. But asylum law doesn't say that if something bad will happen to someone in their home country, they should be granted protection. There are specific guidelines, and it's important to maintain fidelity to the law." He is adamant that clear standards exist—"there's fifty years of case law to follow," he said—but he also admitted "at the end of the day, you can't take human nature out of the system."
Aminyar's asylum claim was first heard by Buffalo immigration judge Steven Connelly (denial rate 87.1 percent). Connelly rejected the application, as Borowski feared, and a $25,000 bond stood while the matter went to appeal. Aminyar called friends and family in Afghanistan to ask for loans so he could leave detention, but in a country with a per capita income of $562, he was unable to raise enough. Most were confused by the very concept of bail, and thought he was trying to pay a fine so he could be sent back to Afghanistan.
Aminyar and Borowski had higher hopes for their appeal. But five months later, the appellate body, the Board of Immigration Appeals in Falls Church, Virginia, upheld Connelly's decision, rejecting Borowski's argument that the Taliban constituted a de-facto government. Nowrasteh said the decision seemed indefensible: "Sounds like a nice legal fiction used to deny asylum claims," he told me. "The Taliban is actively seeking to become the government of Afghanistan. How could it not qualify?"
"The Taliban is actively seeking to become the government of Afghanistan. How could it not qualify?"
Aminyar was devastated, and confused by the lack of consistency. In Arash's case, "they say the Taliban is a de facto government of Afghanistan who controls large area of the country," he told me. "In my case, they say Taliban is not a de facto government in Afghanistan who controls large area of the country. The opinion of these two boards are against each other."
The opinions were different because the boards were different. The BIA is composed of sixteen administrative judges, appointed by the attorney general and serving at the pleasure of the president; the current board contains appointees from as far back as Janet Reno's tenure. Borowski knows the denial patterns of each judge, which are often predictably tied to the political party of the appointer. For high-profile cases, a panel of three judges considers the arguments, generally on paper without an appearance by the applicant. The fate of each asylum seeker, then, is often decided by luck: who will sit on their panel?
Aminyar was playing poker with a sixteen-card deck, and on the flop he was dealt one Eric Holder appointee and two from Michael Mukasey, a liberal and two conservatives. Four months after Arash's successful appeal—in which a different selection of judges heard essentially the same case from the same attorney—Aminyar's appeal was denied.
In their decision, the BIA judges identified the prime obstacle in Aminyar's case. Even if the Taliban were a de-facto government, the "controlling legal precedent" is a 1988 decision known as Matter of Fuentes, and their hands were tied. Fuentes was a police officer in El Salvador who requested asylum in 1982, saying that he could not return home because while on the job he had been attacked by drug smugglers and guerrillas seeking to overthrow the government. But the BIA ruled that although being a cop is dangerous and terrorists would see him as a symbol of government, the threat to his life was not related to an "immutable characteristic"—race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, political opinion—as defined by the United Nations. If Fuentes feared for his life, he could quit and no longer be a cop and the danger would be relieved.
Borowski is unconvinced by the precedent's merit in Aminyar's case. "This whole Fuentes argument is a strawman argument," he said. "Aminyar can turn in that uniform and go home and there's still a death warrant signed for him." Sure, he says, the Taliban would like to kill any Afghan soldier, just as Salvadoran rebels wanted to kill any police officer. But the Taliban wants to kill Aminyar specifically, personally, for leading successful operations against them.
The BIA said that for Aminyar to be granted asylum he must have a demonstrated political opinion, which they did not find. Borowski finds this laughable. "He volunteered for the Afghan army to fight the Taliban. That's his political opinion." His client agrees.
"They have lack of knowledge," Aminyar said of the Taliban. "God said, you kill one innocent person, it means you kill all of humanity. And He said, if you save one person, that means you save all of humanity. God, He ordered us to help each other. These are really stupid people, bad people."
While Borowski worked on filing a series of motions for a new appeal, Aminyar focused on raising his bond. In detention, he felt useless. With his military pay suspended, he was desperate to get a job to send money home to his family. "I am young. Any type |
and magic is perceived as “natural” characteristics of the Third Reich. This is especially evident in those representations of Himmler and the SS in which their supposed preoccupation with the occult is being highlighted, as occultural elements are being presented as normal components of their historical lifeworld. This “insight” has in fact become so naturalized in mainstream culture that it is, as we will see, often not being questioned even in scholarly discourse (cf Kingsepp 2008:167-168).
There is a post-war standard image of Himmler and the SS as the Nazi version of King Arthur and his twelve Knights of the Round Table, in which the Wewelsburg is their Grail castle. Obviously a more familiar point of reference than the Teutonic Order – especially for an Anglo-Saxon audience – the projection of the King Arthur theme has had an immense impact on the popular understanding of the Wewelsburg. This is in itself rather interesting, as it combines a very romantic and Christian topos with, basically, the heart of darkness. However, the narrative itself is rather shallow. A comparative analysis of nine cryptohistory books on Nazi occultism[2], in which the castle and what happened there are described, shows the following basic elements:
– There is/was a great dining/banquet hall with
– a large, round oak table
– surrounded by (13) (high-back or otherwise large-sized) chairs made of wood/oak tree/pigskin [sic!] (or upholstered with pigskin),
– each with the name of its “owner knight” engraved (on a silver plate).
– In this hall/in the castle Himmler and his knights/closest associates would perform occult/mystical/telepathic/spiritualistic practices.
– Beneath the great hall/the castle [sic!] is/was a crypt, in which
– the coat of arms of deceased SS officers/the deceased officers themselves were/would be burned and
– the ashes were/would be put in urns, placed on the pedestals in the crypt.
Although most of the authors don’t mention their sources, the basic theme in the above description of Wewelsburg is taken from Heinz Höhne’s 1966 volume The Order of the Death’s Head: The Story of Hitler’s SS (1966/2000:151-153), with some additions from the memoirs of SS-Brigadeführer Walter Schellenberg (1956/2006:32-34).[3] The different choices of tempus indicate different interpretations of the presumed historical narrative. For example, either the coats of arms (or the dead “knights” themselves) were in fact incinerated in the crypt, were supposed to have been, or were supposed to be, in Himmler’s view of the future. Each author adds creatively from their own imagination to the basic theme, and while some of them are thriving in fantastic and horrific elaborations, including rumours about human sacrifices (Sklar 1977/1989, also cited in Yenne 2010), others are using a more down-to-earth, pseudo-scientific mode of discourse.[4] This includes lots of footnotes, references and quotations from official memory culture, especially Höhne and Schellenberg, but also historian Peter Padfield (1990), to whom I will return later. By imitating this academic style of writing a high intellectual status connected to official memory culture is being indicated, and thereby a higher claim for validity. However, that few (or even none) of the authors have themselves actually visited the castle is made obvious especially through the consistent, erroneously given location of the crypt beneath the great dining hall. For some reason its imposant square dimensions are frequently being meticulously defined,[5] thus eliminating the possible mix-up with the correct room, the circular and comparably much smaller Obergruppenführersaal in the North Tower.
The constant repetition of this theme not only in best-selling printed media but also documentary films has established it as the popular conception of the Wewelsburg during the Third Reich.[6] So, how do academic historians and other instances within official memory culture handle the topic?
3. Official memory culture
Official memory culture includes accounts about history that are widely acknowledged in society as respectable, thus reliable, sources. Works published within this field almost automatically get a status of validity and reliability, due to their character of academic research and/or official presentations in museums, etc. Official memory culture also includes elements of popular history (cf Jordanova 2006:126-130), and there are non-scholarly works that also enjoy a certain status, especially if they have been used as references by established historians and/or well-known intellectuals. In fact, as there has not been much scholarly interest specifically focusing on the esoteric aspects of Nazi Germany, most research dealing with the topic has been conducted outside academia.[7] However, as we will see, concerning this topic it is possible to trace an “occultural flow” between official memory culture and popular culture, going in both directions. This suggests that the mythification described above is not a phenomenon confined to the popular parts of the discourse, but is in fact also prevalent within academia as well.
Official memory culture might sound like something static, but there is a lot of dynamic in the discourse. The idea of the Wewelsburg as a place of cultic worship for the SS – an SS monastery, an Order/Grail Castle etc. – was early established through books like Austrian journalist Willi Frischauer’s 1953 Himmler: The Evil Genius of the Third Reich, which for a long time set the standards for both popular and academic discourse (Hüser 1982/1987:5-8; cf Siepe 2009:488-490). As concepts like “Kult”, “Orden” and “Ordensburg” were frequently used in official discourse in the Third Reich, it is not surprising that they continue to occur long after its fall. However, what is often overseen is that their meanings are – and in fact were already then – open to different interpretations, thus easily leading to misunderstandings and anachronisms (cf. Ackerman 1970:103; Dülffer 2010:12-14; Vondung 1971:8). As Professor Karl Hüser notes in the introduction to his seminal Wewelsburg 1934-1945: Kult- und Terrorstätte der SS (1982/1987), connotations of the mystical have basically been haunting accounts of the Wewelsburg ever since the actual days of the SS (Hüser 1982/1987:5). Hüser’s work was the companion to the first permanent SS exhibition at the Kreismuseum Wewelsburg, and can be regarded as a catalyst for change at least in parts of official memory culture towards a more down-to-earth interpretation of the SS as an Order. Despite the somewhat “promising” title of the book, Hüser is in fact very clear in stating that there were no cultic actions performed in the Wewelsburg by the SS. However, he does imply that a cultic use of the castle was included in Himmler’s plans, and other parts of the text can easily be interpreted as a confirmation of the cultic aspects.[8] Thus, the cult theme remains, although changed into an intention. It is also present in a small brochure published as a resource for local memory culture in Westfalen: Wewelsburg 1933-45: Kultstätte des SS-Ordens (1988), by Hüser and Wulff E. Brebeck. There are frequent references to Pseudoreligion, Germanenmystik, Irminen-Glaube and even Runenverehrung, the worship of runes. Of the twelve photos in the brochure, three have an obvious esoteric theme: an SS “pseudo-religious” wedding ritual, the plans for the North Tower as the Centre of the World, and the Totenkopfring (ibid. 12, 18, 22). Accentuated by the somewhat surprising inclusion of Sklar’s Gods and Beasts: The Nazis and the Occult in the reading list (ibid. 32), this suggests that the popular idea of an SS cult was still influential even for those working with the history of the Wewelsburg on a daily basis.
This seems to be the case as late as 2002, when a report from a research project on memory culture in Ostwestfalen-Lippe was published (Kerzel 2002). Here historian Jan-Erik Schulte refers to Hüser in claiming that which makes the Wewelsburg so special is its esoteric meaning established by Himmler as the centre of the SS cult and of the world alike (Schulte 2002:214).[9] But Schulte goes somewhat further than Hüser in stating that “Über den von Himmler vertretenen und auch in Wewelsburg praktizierten Okkultismus ist bislang wenig bekannt“ (ibid. 217). Here there is an implication that at least Himmler himself did actually perform some kind of occult workings in the castle. Although not much is known about this, at least there seems to have been something happening – but this is not further elaborated upon.
However, in 2009 – twenty years after Hüser – the image has changed completely. In her chapter in the today most comprehensive and updated academic work available on the topic, Die SS, Himmler, und die Wewelsburg (2009), Daniela Siepe writes about the role of the castle and the Black Sun symbol in contemporary esoteric and rightwing circles. She states that the latest research shows that except from oath-taking ceremonies, there were no plans for any ritual actions by the SS at the Wewelsburg. The conception of the castle as a place of worship (“Kultstätte”) of the SS has thus been replaced by that of a central meeting-place for SS generals (“zentralen Versammlungsort der SS-Gruppenführer”) (Siepe 2009:490). The articles in the volume show how official memory culture has changed concerning the idea of an SS cult. From having been not very different from the dominant representation in popular culture, the image presented today is much less spectacular. It is not implausible that the scholarship of especially Goodrick-Clarke and Siepe has contributed to this process, indicating that contemporary ideas about Nazi/SS occultism can in fact be a respectable and even important field of research.[10]
This change is also visible in the new and considerably larger SS exhibition opened at Kreismuseum Wewelsburg in 2010, even by comparing the official names of the exhibitions, the former being “Wewelsburg 1933-1945: Kult- und Terrorstätte der SS”, and the new “Ideologie und Terror der SS”. Today, the cult is gone. Although the exhibition contains large parts that are in fact dealing with the esoteric aspects of the SS worldview, there is not much mystification left. The title of the extensive accompanying volume (Brebeck et al. 2011) suggests the theme now replacing the cultic as a motto for understanding the SS: “Endzeitkämpfer”, which could be translated as “Apocalyptic warriors”. The mythical is still there, but now referring to the self-image of the SS, not our own post-war conception of them.
4. Occulture in academia
As already said, official memory is not homogenous, and there are even several examples of how academic works have been influenced by the author’s own preferences towards an interpretation in which the esoteric plays an important role. In a short paragraph Hüser corrects his colleague, the well-known historian Joachim C. Fest, who in Das Gesicht des Dritten Reiches (1963) forwards the idea that there were certain “celebrations” (“Feierstunden”) at the Wewelsburg, and also refers to a sinister cult having taken place there (in Hüser 1982/1987:72).[11] Fest is by all means not unique in echoing fables familiar within popular culture. For example, when Peter Padfield in his biography on Himmler (1990:248) presents the Wewelsburg, the description is obviously taken more or less straight from Höhne (1966), although no formal reference to this is made. In a presentation at a seminar at Wewelsburg held in connection to the release of the 2009 anthology, its editor Jan-Erik Schulte offered an interesting, critical view of how the scholarly conception of the SS has indeed for decades largely been shaped by the popular image created by Höhne, despite the amount of dubious sources, pure speculations, and untruths in his book. An explanation, Schulte proposed, might be that the 1966 book in fact functioned as a catalyst for a major shift of paradigm concerning the view of the SS in official memory culture. In contrast to the demonic image of the SS as a monolithic, impersonal entity – “the SS State”[12] – established immediately after the war, Höhne offered a new, more differentiated perspective in which the individuals became more visible. The Order of the Death’s Head was first published as a series of articles in the magazine Der Spiegel, which is also important for explaining its impact. As scholars we are of course part of the rest of society, and it would be highly mistaken to believe that we are immune to all kinds of influences, including those that we later might rather wish we had been able to avoid.
The most extreme example of non-critical academic appropriation of popular myths about Nazi occultism I have found is an article in Journal of Popular Culture by a historian, Professor Raymond L Sickinger, called “Hitler and the Occult: The Magical Thinking of Adolf Hitler” (2000). Although he is not concerned with the SS, the text still deserves to mentioned, as it shows how occultural elements enter academic discourse even in a peer-review journal. In short, the author argues that Hitler’s personality and actions are to be explained through his personal obsession with magic and Norse mythology. Although there is a consensus in most scholarly research that this is an entirely false assumption – especially as it is well documented that Hitler looked upon Norse religion with a certain contempt – this does not seem to bother Sickinger, who instead uses a good number of rather dubious sources to confirm his ideas. These include the aforementioned cryptohistorical “classics” of Rauschning, Sklar, and Pauwels and Bergier (who, just to give an impression of their mode of writing, describes Himmler as a warrior monk from space [!]; 1960/1969:276).
There are certain media products that belong to popular history in that they are not officially sanctioned by academia or institutions such as museums, but still express a strong claim for authenticity and accuracy by using an authoritative mode of communication. They also frequently use references from historians and other authorities, be it academics or laymen that are well known within the field, in order to further establish an image of seriosity. This might be the explanation to phenomena like Sickinger’s article: if he had been familiar with the research field (or at least looked for other sources) the text would probably have been quite different. I have already mentioned some authors in the cryptohistory genre, but it is also noteworthy that this is an area where two discourse strands meet and create discursive bridges between them. Thus, a tv documentary like Nazis: The Occult Conspiracy (1998) made by Discovery Channel can include renowned historians like George L Mosse among its interviewed experts and still be highly speculative and sensationalistic. This means that those who are seriously interested in the esoteric aspects of Nazi Germany are faced with a huge amount of work, including reading and critically evaluating everything they can find on the topic. Although this kind of media criticism is by no means confined only to those with an academic training, such a background is certainly an asset. This becomes visible in the next part, when we go to the Temple of Set.
3. The Temple of Set / The Order of the Trapezoid
For the part of this paper dealing with the esoteric underground and how the idea about Nazi/SS occultism connected to the Wewelsburg is being put into practice I have chosen to focus on the Order of the Trapezoid, a part of the US-based Temple of Set, and a number of writings by Michael A. Aquino and Stephen E. Flowers, two leading members of the Order. Although the texts only represent the personal viewpoints of their authors,[13] they do form a coherent whole that – especially considered the positions of the authors within the Order – could be regarded as an expression of a “magical ideology”.[14]
The Temple of Set was founded in 1975 by Aquino, a former leading member of Anton LaVey’s Church of Satan. LaVey was fascinated by Nazi Germany, especially the idea of Nazi occultism and its potential for magical work, which led to rumours connecting the COS to Nazism. In both organizations there is/was certainly an appreciation of some elements in Nazi Germany, most notably concerning leadership, control of the masses and human social organization, interpreted as practices of both Lesser and Greater Black Magic (cf. Aquino 1975-2010; Flowers 1997). However, there is also a renouncement regarding racism, anti-Semitism and xenophobia. Flowers states, “Interest in this phenomenon [National Socialism] is entirely theoretical and structural – and Magical – and has nothing whatsoever to do with the racial dogmas of the Nazis” (1995:18). The following excerpt from the document “Order of the Trapezoid – Statement” explains:
Just as the Third Reich’s dynamism got out of hand, leading it to embark on irrational and destructive foreign invasions, so its life-worship – which could have been a truly evolutionary synthesis of the most sublime concepts of Hegel and Nietzsche – became perverted into crude xenophobia, hatreds built upon superficial notions of “race”, and ultimately a maddened stampede towards a Wagnerian _Goetterdaemmerung_ in defiance of a return to rationalism. Said Heinrich Himmler on April 21, 1945:
“We have made serious mistakes. If I could have a fresh start, I would do many things differently now. But it is too late. We wanted greatness and security for Germany, and we are leaving behind us a pile of ruins, a fallen world …”
The Order of the Trapezoid (O.Tr.) extracts the positive, the constructive, the exalted, and the Romantic from the Germanic magical tradition – and just as carefully avoids and rejects those excesses, distortions, and cruelties which have made this tradition an object of the most extraordinary fear, condemnation, and suppression in the postwar period. The Germanic tradition is also part of the legacy of the Prince of Darkness, hence is appropriate to an Order within the Temple of Set, which embraces all manifestations of the Powers of Darkness in the world. (Aquino 1990)
The Order of the Trapezoid has its origins in the Church of Satan, although it was reconstituted under the authority of the Temple of Set by Aquino in Wewelsburg as “an Order of knighthood characterized by strict personal honor and faithfulness to the quest for the Grail” (Aquino 1990). His visit to the Wewelsburg, including that which became known as his Wewelsburg Working on 19th October 1982, is not only (in)famous (see for example Goodrick-Clarke 2002:215; Levenda 2002:340) but also well documented. Detailed descriptions of the working and of its purposes are in fact found in all three parts of the discourse studied here: available through the Temple of Set itself, as a more general occultural resource on the web, and in official memory culture through the aforementioned article by Siepe (2009).
Aquino enjoys a high-status background in “normal” society with a PhD in political science, in which he has lectured at the Golden Gate University in San Francisco. He has also worked for the US Army with the rank of Lt Colonel and received a number of military decorations and awards (Aquino CV 2012). All this was most helpful when he in connection to a duty travel in Europe had the opportunity to take a trip to Wewelsburg. The staff at the museum did not suspect that he was anything but a “normally” interested visitor, and even allowed him to spend an hour and a half alone in the crypt (Siepe 2009:498-499; cf Aquino 1982). Like his former associate LaVey, Aquino had for a long time been very interested in the occult aspects of Nazi Germany, and, as he describes in the same letter, the visit to Wewelsburg was a “long-awaited personal quest” (ibid.; also in Siepe 2009:498). As he writes in a letter to the Priesthood of Set shortly after the working, “[a]s the Wewelsburg was conceived by Heinrich Himmler to be the ‘Mittelpunkt der Welt’, and as the focus of the Hall of the Dead was to be the Gate of that Center, [the aim was] to summon the Powers of Darkness at their most powerful locus”. Through this, the Gate of the Wewelsburg, “the Great Gate of the Powers of Darkness in our Time”, was opened (Aquino 1982).
So, why the Wewelsburg, and why the SS? Aquino poses the second question himself in his 1972 article “That Other Black Order”, published in the Church of Satan’s journal The Cloven Hoof. The SS, he says, “embodied a living blueprint for the ideal National Socialist state”, which was governed ”according to irrational principles”. Aesthetic and design are considered important: the leaders of the SS ”both followed and encouraged practices that, in the context of our Satanic ritual, included specific design for both operative and illustrative effect” (Aquino 1972). Wewelsburg is described through a quotation in which Himmler and his generals are likened to King Arthur and his knights of the round table, including an account of the crypt as the castle’s “holy of holies” (an expression also found for example in Höhne’s book) (Aquino 1972).[15] Thus, the chivalric aspect of the SS and references to the Grail are recurrent tropes in both popular culture, scholarly accounts of the Wewelsburg, and in the foundation principles of the Order.[16]
Both Aquino and Flowers – who also holds a PhD – express a highly sceptical attitude to most “mumbo-jumbo /…/ about ‘occult Nazism’” (Flowers 1987b:57), and encourage the members of the Order to study books on the topic that are recommended in the Temple of Set Reading List (Aquino 1976-2003). Its Category 14, “Fascism, Totalitarianism, and Magic”, contains a number of both literary works and movies, including documentaries. However, it is a mixture of both scholarly work and cryptohistory, which is of course most informative had it not been for a certain lack of critical distance to some of the titles. For example, while Ravenscroft’s The Spear of Destiny is commented with “read critically but thoughtfully”, nothing similar is said about Hermann Rauschning’s The Voice of Destruction (1940), a work generally considered to be bogus (for example Kershaw 1998:xiv) In fact, Rauschning is being referred to by both Aquino and Flowers (Aquino 1975-2010:102; Aquino 2009:611; Flowers 1997:120)
That historical accuracy is considered to be of fundamental significance is, however, personally confirmed by Aquino in an e-mail in which he kindly responds to my questions, stating that this is
[a]bsolutely important from the standpoint of the historical record. However this does not mean that present/future development of and experimentation with such principles need to be locked to the Nazis’ 1930s-40s knowledge and future ambitions or expectations. We should take interesting and stimulating ideas and go forward with them, not backward. (Aquino, e-mail, 2012-06-22)
He also says that the Black Sun symbol “has been rather over-sensationalized” and is of no special magical importance as compared to other National Socialist/SS designs (ibid.). This could of course be discussed further, considering the different possible non-Nazi meanings that can be attached to a Black Sun, not the least connected to alchemy. However, what is interesting in the present context is the distancing from the “vulgar” use of this particular symbol. Through this it is also emphasized that although the Order apparently considers itself as a kind of spiritual inheritor of the same Germanic tradition that inspired the SS, there is a distancing from similar post-war groups in Germany/Austria (cf Mund & von Werfenstein 2004; Siepe 2009).
A good example of the quest for accuracy is found in Aquino’s lengthy work about the history of the Church of Satan when he discusses the ritual “Die Elektrischen Vorspiele” published in LaVey’s Satanic Rituals (1972). Here he not only corrects errors in language and mistaken presumptions about occult aspects of the SS and SD (Sicherheitsdienst), but also traces the origins of the ritual not back to the SS – as claimed by LaVey – but more probably to German expressionist cinema of the 1920’s (Aquino 2009:241-242; cf Flowers 1987a). Answering my question about his most important sources concerning Nazi occultism, Aquino refers to “[t]he complete archæological, magical, and administrative records of the Ahnenerbe /…/ in the National Archives Building of the United States, Washington, D.C.” (Aquino, e-mail, 2012-06-22). The scholarly attitude is also prevalent in the writings of Flowers. In Lords of the Left Hand Path, the section on “Sources for the Study of the Nazis and Magic” states that
The major primary sources for the study of the magical or religious aspects of the National Socialist movement in Germany would be the Ahnenerbe archives, as well as the many official publications of the SS, the Rosenberg Office and other branches of the NSDAP. The most valuable secondary studies have been provided by Klaus Vondung (1971), Michael Kater (1974) and Ulrich Hunger (1984) (Flowers 1997:123).
The three studies mentioned are all PhD dissertations and would certainly be obligatory reading if there were ever to be a basic course in Nazi occultism. To those unfamiliar with the works of Aquino and Flowers it might be something of a surprise to learn that their knowledge about the esoteric aspects of Nazi Germany is in fact much more well founded than some authors within official memory culture. However, as in the case of Sickinger’s article, it seems that despite their critically reflective attitude, Aquino and Flowers fall into similar traps concerning the evaluation of their sources, at least when these show a significant resonance with their magical ideology.
4. Discussion
I will not discuss the relations between the magical ideology of the Order and the Third Reich, or the SS, from a historical point of view, as that is not within the scope of this paper. What interests me here is rather the power of myth in contemporary society. It is very tempting to use Bruce Lincoln’s concept of myth as ideology in narrative form, and scholarship as myth with footnotes (Lincoln 1999:209) on this material. It is hard to dispute that there is in fact a dominant myth about Nazi Germany and WWII within today’s western society, with the Nazis as the bad guys and the (western) Allies as the good. This is also visible in some scholarly work, especially when elements from occulture enter the discourse.
Several of the cryptohistorical works that most obviously are carriers of this myth would, according to Lincoln’s proposition, in principle be able to count as a kind of scholarship (and they indeed do present themselves in that way), as they are full of references and footnotes. Through the shared form of scholarly acknowledged communication the boundaries between the genres get blurred, sometimes resulting in hybrid texts that really are myths with footnotes. They also – especially King 1976 and Sklar 1977 – have an obvious ideological agenda, besides acknowledging the “common sense knowledge” that the Nazis were evil, which is to raise the warning flag about cultic movements in today’s society that are, or are considered to be, Satanic. This follows a discursive topos also visible in other works dealing with the fascination for Nazi Germany in popular culture, most notably Susan Sontag’s classic essay “Fascinating Fascism” (1974/1980), but also for example the study on WWII re-enactors in Ronald M. Smelser’s & Edward J. Davies II’s The Myth of the Eastern Front (2008), and even to some extent (concerning the musical subcultures) Goodrick-Clarke’s Black Sun (2002). There are also connections to a more general discourse on deviance, including a relation to moral panics (Cohen 1972/2002; cf Hultin 2012).
So, what can we learn from this? First, that official memory culture, including academia, is certainly not immune to occultural influences from popular media. Another, rather obvious lesson goes along with Lincoln’s argument that “it is often the researcher’s desires that determine the principles of selection. When neither the data nor the criticism of one’s colleagues inhibits desire-driven invention, the situation is ripe for scholarship as myth” (1999:215). It is interesting that although myth and fantasy are common modes of thinking in occulture, the “real” occultists Aquino and Flowers share an academic drive towards historical accuracy concerning the theoretical foundations of their magical ideology. On the other hand, scholars like professors Sickinger and Padfield seem to embrace that kind of elements – perhaps we could label them occultural mythemes – that are in fact rejected in the cultic group as sensationalistic and without value. Again Lincoln provides interesting food for thought: it might also be a question of searching for cognitive control over something that is in this case experienced as partly incomprehensive, “a relatively blank screen onto which scholars can project their fears and desires” (Lincoln 1999:211, cf also 214-215).
To conclude: the myth of Nazi occultism as a phenomenon institutionalized and practiced in the Third Reich is today firmly established in our society. It is being put to use in a variety of ways – commercially, ideologically, artistically, in contexts of fantasy and science-fiction, scholarly, and magically. Although the Black Sun in Wewelsburg was never a symbol in use by the SS, and is not considered to be of any special importance for practical magical use in a cultic group that is otherwise working specifically with elements from the Third Reich, especially the Wewelsburg, it has become a very potent factor in today’s occulture. The Black Sun is the present-day symbol of Nazi occultism. Its rays even find their way into parts of academic discourse, this in its turn resulting in an “official affirmation” and further legitimization of popular myths. It certainly seems like its power is invincible.
Literature
Ackerman, Josef (1970) Heinrich Himmler als Ideologe. Göttingen; Zürich; Frankfurt: Musterschmidt
Aquino, Michael A. (1972) “That Other Black Order”, Appendix 44 (pp. 611-613) in Aquino, Michael A., The Church of Satan, Sixth Ed., 2009, http://www.xeper.org/maquino. Originally in The Cloven Hoof #IV-4, April VII/1972.
— (1975-2010) Black Magic. https://xeper.org/maquino/nm/BlackMagicRL.pdf
— (1976-2003) The Temple of Set Reading List, 1976-2003, latest updated on Feb 26, 2003. Pp. 151-299 in Aquino, Michael A. (1975-2010) Black Magic. https://xeper.org/maquino/nm/BlackMagicRL.pdf
— (2009) The Church of Satan, Sixth Ed. http://www.xeper.org/maquino
Baker, Alan (2000) Invisible Eagle: The History of Nazi Occultism. London: Virgin
Brebeck, Wulf E., Frank Huismann, Kirsten John-Stucke, Jörg Piron (Hrg.) (2011) Endzeitkämpfer: Ideologie und Terror der SS. Berlin, München: Deutscher Kunstverlag
Carmin, E. R. (1994/2010) Das Schwarze Reich. Aktualisierter und erweiterte Ausgabe. Hamburg: Nikol
Cohen, Peter (1972/2002) Folk Devils and Moral Panics, 3rd ed. London and New York: Routledge
Cook, Stephen & Russell, Stuart (1999) Heinrich Himmler’s Camelot: Pictorial/Documentary. The Wewelsburg Ideological Centre of the SS 1934-1945. Kressman & Backmeyer
Dülffer, Jost (2010) ”Die Erschließung von Vogelsang”, pp. 9-19 in ”Fackelträger der Nation”: Elitebildung in den NS-Ordensburgen. Hrg vogelsang ip Gmbh. Köln; Weimar; Wien: Böhlau Verlag
Flowers, Stephen (1987a) “Trapezoidal Cinema”, pp. 51-53 in Flowers, S. (1995) Black Rûna: Being the Shorter Works of Stephen Edred Flowers Produced for the Order of the Trapezoid of the Temple of Set (1985-1989). Smithville, Texas: Rûna-Raven Press. Originally in Runes V:1 1987.
— (1987b) “Magie und Manipulation”, pp. 57-64 in Flowers, S. (1995) Black Rûna: Being the Shorter Works of Stephen Edred Flowers Produced for the Order of the Trapezoid of the Temple of Set 1985-1989. Smithville, Texas: Rûna-Raven Press. Originally in Runes V:3 1987.
— (1987c) “A Root of ‘The Occult Nazi Mythos’: Review: The Occult Causes of the Present War”, pp. 65-66 in Flowers, S. (1995) Black Rûna: Being the Shorter Works of Stephen Edred Flowers Produced for the Order of the Trapezoid of the Temple of Set (1985-1989). Smithville, Texas: Rûna-Raven Press. Originally in Runes V3 1987.
— (1988) “Nazi Occultism Revisited”, pp. 71-76 in Flowers, S. (1995) Black Rûna: Being the Shorter Works of Stephen Edred Flowers Produced for the Order of the Trapezoid of the Temple of Set (1985-1989). Smithville, Texas: Rûna-Raven Press. Originally in Runes VI:6 1988.
— (1995) ”Introduction”, pp. 11-20 in Flowers, S. (1995) Black Rûna: Being the Shorter Works of Stephen Edred Flowers Produced for the Order of the Trapezoid of the Temple of Set (1985-1989). Smithville, Texas: Rûna-Raven Press
— (1997) Lords of the Left-Hand Path: A History of Spiritual Dissent. 2nd Ed. Smithville, Texas: Rûna-Raven Press
Flowers, Stephen E. & Moynihan, Michael (2007) The Secret King: The Myth and Reality of Nazi Occultism. 2nd ed. Waterbury Center, VT/Los Angeles, CA: Dominion/Feral House
Frischauer, Willi (1953/1962) Himmler: The Evil Genius of the Third Reich. New York: Belmont Books
Godwin, Joscelyn (1996) Arktos: The polar myth in science, symbolism, and Nazi survival. Kempton, Illinois : Adventures Unlimited Press
Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas (1985/1992) The occult roots of Nazism: Secret Aryan cults and their influence on Nazi ideology: The Ariosophists of Austria and Germany, 1890-1935. New York: New York University Press
— (2002) Black sun: Aryan cults, esoteric Nazism, and the politics of identity. New York; London: New York University Press
Heiden, Konrad (1944/1999) Der Fuehrer: Hitler’s Rise to Power. London: Robinson
Hultin, Patrik (2012) “Utanförskapets njutningar: Nazism och fascism hos Nikanor Teratologen och Whitehouse”, pp. 219-238 in Kingsepp, Eva, & Tanja Schult (eds.) Hitler für Alle: Populärkulturella perspektiv på Nazityskland, andra världskriget och Förintelsen. Stockholm: Carlssons
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Hüser, Karl & Wulf E. Brebeck (1988) Wewelsburg 1933-45: Kultstätte des SS-Ordens. Münster: Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe, Landesbildstelle Westfalen
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Jordanova, Ludmila (2006) History in Practice, |
ropin) was described by Theophrastus in the fourth century B.C. for treatment of wounds, gout, and sleeplessness, and as a love potion. By the first century A.D. Dioscorides recognized wine of mandrake as an anaesthetic for treatment of pain or sleeplessness, to be given prior to surgery or cautery.[1]
323–283 BC – Euclid: wrote a series of 13 books on geometry called The Elements
287-212 BC - Archimedes of Syracuse: derived an accurate approximation of pi, defined and investigating the spiral bearing his name, and creating a system using exponentiation for expressing very large numbers.
280 BC - Aristarchus of Samos: used a heliocentric, heliostatic model
150s BC – Seleucus of Seleucia: discovery of tides being caused by the moon
1st century [ edit ]
2nd century [ edit ]
150s Ptolemy: produced the geocentric model of the solar system.
3rd century [ edit ]
200s Galen: produced big contributions to medicine.
9th century [ edit ]
Al-Kindi (Alkindus): refutation of the theory of the transmutation of metals
10th century [ edit ]
11th century [ edit ]
12th century [ edit ]
13th century [ edit ]
14th century [ edit ]
15th century [ edit ]
1494 - Luca Pacioli: first codification of the double-entry bookkeeping system, which slowly developed in previous centuries[4]
16th century [ edit ]
17th century [ edit ]
18th century [ edit ]
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21st century [ edit ]2013 Teaser
Links :
Way back in 2012, May 26th to be precise, a C64 styled game in development largely went unnoticed in the retro gaming scene. It looked to have all the hallmarks of a fantastic game, with some incredible detail that even C64 owners would probably drool at the thought of playing. Welcome to 'Pharaohs Return'; a current indie game development by Lazycow that looks just like Rick Dangerous, with enemies such as bats and beasts, underground tombs and caves, ropes to climb, vines to swing on, deadly traps and platforms that move.According to LazyCow, 'Pharaohs Return' uses a 320x192 multicolor charmode screen with raster interrupts every 32 lines, which splits the screen in six 320x32 zones with select able background colors and multicolor colors, while trying to stick to C64 restrictions. The developer is also aiming for a Windows, Mac and Linux release, with a possible plan to port it to the C64.The downside though, and this as always comes down to the release date, as from the 2013 posting the developer did mention the game is over 60% complete, whereas from the 2015 update, we may only see a non-playable demo at the end of this year. But still, I for one am really stoked for the next two years, we have Sam's Journey, The Lost Treasure of Cuauhtemoc, Roland of Sherwood, Cosmic Prison Commando and now this game. It's as if the 80's are back in fashion, and damn does it look good!Montreal police have asked the Sûreté du Québec to review certain cases by the municipal force’s internal affairs division in the wake of an investigative report in which two former high-ranking Montreal officers claim they were ousted after they were ready to report allegations of corruption on their force.
The request follows a report aired Tuesday night on the TVA network in which two former Montreal officers say their department fabricated evidence in an effort to silence them.
Montreal police chief Philippe Pichet said on Tuesday night he had asked the SQ to “review certain investigations” carried out by his department. Also on Tuesday evening, Quebec public security minister Martin Coiteux took to Twitter to say the “facts raised (by the report) are serious and deserve concrete action.” The minister also wrote he was “reassured” by the fact the SQ would conduct an investigation.
Coiteux also wrote he had spoken to Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre and both agreed that “public trust in our institutions must be assured” and that light must be shed on the allegations.
J'ai parlé ministre @CoiteuxMartin. Nous sommes d'accord que nous devons assuré la confiance de nos institutions et faire toute la lumière — DenisCoderre (@DenisCoderre) February 22, 2017
Rassuré par tweet du @Dir_Pichet qui a agit immédiatement, sans faux-fuyant et demandé @sureteduquebec de faire enquête. Il a tout mon appui — DenisCoderre (@DenisCoderre) February 22, 2017
Former Montreal police inspectors Jimmy Cacchione and Giovanni Di Feo have been off the force since June of 2013. Cacchione, who was assigned to security at Montreal-Trudeau airport, and Di Feo, who was responsible for community services, allege in the report they discovered a case of corruption within their force at the start of 2012.
Cacchione told the investigative program “J.E.” they were prepared to send a letter to the public security minister and the media “in order to expose cases of corruption” within the Montreal force.
The two former police officers maintain they have yet to see the evidence that resulted in their being thrown off the force. They were suspended without pay in June of 2013 following a disciplinary investigation. Amicable agreements between the two and their former department were reached afterwards.
According to the TVA report, both men, who describe themselves as “whistleblowers,” believe that after having examined certain documents, the Montreal police department’s internal affairs division fabricated evidence to silence them.
The TVA report contends the Montreal police department suspected the pair had questionable acquaintances, including Luigi Coretti, who ran the BCIA security firm.
Coretti faced charges of fraud, uttering false documents and using fraudulent documents to produce false company returns, but the case against him was dropped last November because of unreasonable delays in getting to court.
Former Quebec Liberal cabinet minister Tony Tomassi pleaded guilty to charges of fraud against the government after having used a credit card provided by Coretti to buy gasoline, even though the MNA had a government travel allowance.FORT WAYNE, Ind. — Delegates to the Indiana Republican Party convention have overwhelmingly approved a party platform opposing same-sex marriage.
The state party platform now officially supports the definition of marriage as between one man and one woman. Delegates meeting in Fort Wayne beat back two efforts to remove the platform language Saturday morning.
A minority of delegates, mostly from Marion County, fought unsuccessfully to remove the language.
The convention battle revived much of the fight that played out earlier this year in the General Assembly. State lawmakers voted against placing a constitutional ban on gay marriage on the November ballot.
Opponents of placing the marriage language in the platform said it would limit the party’s ability to attract new voters and supporters.
Supporters said the language was a compromise.
In Texas, that state’s GOP is poised to adopt a new platform on Saturday that would support “reparative therapy” treatments that seek to turn gay people straight.
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This Story Filed Under"I was always a good student, I’m like a person that does well with that kind of thing."
Donald Trump attempted to defend his bizarre and at times abusive Twitter behavior Sunday morning, praising his own tweets as “well crafted” even as he conceded that he knows people want him to spend less time tweeting.
Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo asked Trump if his unscripted and often unhinged tweets “get in the way of the larger message.”
Trump acknowledged that people have told him to lay off social media, but that he likes the attention he gets when he tweets.
“When I put it out, you put it immediately on your show,” Trump boasted.
He defended his tweets as “well-crafted,” and offered this trenchant self-analysis: “I was always a good student, I’m like a person that does well with that kind of thing.”
He whined about the “fake media” treating him so badly, and added that “I doubt I’d be here if it weren’t for social media.”
And he pompously stated that he likes Twitter because it allows him to directly attack his critics in front of a large audience.
“I have a tremendous platform,” he said. “So when somebody says something about me, I’m able to go ‘bing bing bing’ and I take care of it.”
Despite his claims that his tweets are “well crafted,” Trump often makes glaring grammatical and spelling errors in his tweets, prompting him to delete many of them (sometimes repeatedly) to correct his mistakes. This habit is no small issue; it actually led to a lawsuit filed in June by two government watchdog groups, who accused Trump of violating the Presidential Records Act by deleting his tweets.
According to a recent Quinnipiac University poll, nearly 7 in 10 Americans, including a majority of Republicans, think that Trump should stop tweeting from his personal account.
But if Trump’s own assessment goes no further than “Bing bing bing and I take care of it,” he’s not likely to accept those widespread concerns any time soon.
Indeed, based on this interview, it appears that Trump cares more about attacking his critics and throwing red meat to his base than he does about behaving like a president or respecting the opinions of the vast majority of Americans.The CTA is again readjusting its sights before spending roughly $2 billion on a new generation of rail cars, aiming to hit the bull's-eye with the first train order during the Emanuel administration, transit officials said.
The additional delay comes as delivery nears completion on the newest rail cars in the current fleet, officials said. Those cars are outfitted with a center-facing seat design that is unpopular among many riders and has failed to create room to carry more passengers, especially during rush hours when more capacity is needed on the rail system, according to a CTA analysis.
The proposed 7000 Series rail cars, which originally were expected to arrive in Chicago around 2016, are now being pushed back to 2019 for a handful of prototype cars that the CTA will test for up to one year, CTA officials said. Then, after possible technical and design changes, assembly-line production of 400 rail cars would begin in 2020. The CTA has options to buy up to 846 cars at a projected cost exceeding $2 billion, officials said.
At the request of some rail car manufacturers and equipment suppliers that may compete for the contract, the CTA has extended the bid-submission deadline to July 28, from May 29, CTA officials disclosed to the Tribune on Friday. The transit agency's goal is still to award a contract in 2015, officials said.
But the new timelines push back the prototype and production car delivery dates by one year over the most recently announced schedule, officials said.
"The 7000 Series will be a brand-new rail car from the ground up," CTA spokesman Brian Steele said Friday. "It will have new technologies, new interior designs, a new aesthetic look and new engineering components."
The bidding extension is part of the CTA's second attempt to get the new rail cars built. In early 2013, the transit agency invited manufacturers to bid on the 7000 Series contract. But last year, the CTA rejected the only two bids it received, citing a lack of competition and bids that came in higher than internal CTA estimates.
The CTA is proposing a "hybrid seating design" for the next order of rail cars, a step away from the unpopular center-facing seating design used in the current generation of cars.
Revised bidding requirements eliminated an original provision that the 7000s must be compatible with the newest CTA rail cars in service, the 5000 Series, made by Bombardier Transit Corp. under a $1.14 billion contract. Bombardier has delivered all except for about the last 50 cars in the 714-car 5000 Series order, with completion set for this year at the rate of two cars arriving in Chicago each week, officials said.
As the CTA moves cautiously toward a decision on its next-generation rail cars, a study published in a national research journal presents a painstakingly detailed account of how the transit agency went off the tracks when it selected the aisle-facing seat design on the 5000 Series.
The study titled "Is This Seat Taken?" was conducted by two CTA planning and market research employees. They questioned CTA estimates and assumptions that longitudinal aisle-facing seating would increase passenger capacity on each car.
As many riders will attest, a common scene on the new 5000 Series rail cars is that hardly anybody uses the seat between two seated passengers on the aisle-facing seats, because riders would be uncomfortably squeezed shoulder to shoulder and thigh to thigh. Another complaint is that the sight line outside the window on the opposite side of the car is often blocked by standing passengers, whose midsections are eye-level to seated passengers.
The 5000 Series cars have been phased in since 2011, under decisions set in motion by Frank Kruesi, who was CTA president for 91/2 years during the administration of Mayor Richard M. Daley. The aisle-facing longitudinal scoop seats, which represent about 90 percent of the 38 seats in each 5000 Series car, broke the modern-day CTA tradition of having mostly forward- and- rear-facing seats. The strategy was to cram more riders onto each rail car, reduce the amount of time that trains are stopped at stations and operate more peak-hour train runs through the Loop "L" structure.
None of those goals has been achieved, according to the CTA study by Tara O'Malley, CTA coordinator of market research, and Maulik Vaishnav, a CTA resource planner. Their study was published earlier this year by the Washington-based Transportation Research Board, which promotes innovation in transportation through research and also provides advice on transportation policy.
During a series of counts made on CTA trains, the maximum passenger loading observed averaged 101 passengers on a 5000 Series rail car, lower than a projection of 106 to 134 passengers per car, the study found.
Meanwhile, the maximum passenger loading observed fell on the high end of expectations on two earlier models of CTA rail cars, the 2400/2600 Series and the roughly 20-year-old 3200 Series, the latter of which is being overhauled and is scheduled to remain in service on the Brown and Orange lines until at least the early 2020s.
The 2400s have been retired and 559 of the 2600 cars, which date to the mid-1980s and operate mostly on the Blue Line, remain in service. The CTA board last week approved a plan to sell 200 of the 2600s for scrap. The rest will be replaced by the 7000 Series, officials said.
The CTA study found no evidence that the more standing room available on the 5000 Series cars increased car capacity, O'Malley and Vaishnav wrote, based on their observations as well as results of rider surveys and an analysis of how long trains stood at stations to allow passengers to exit and board.
"The wider aisle in this (5000 Series) layout was compromised by the varied leg lengths of the seated customers and therefore created spots in which no one chose to stand," the study said.
It recommended that the 3200 Series be used as a starting point for customizing the seating design on the 7000 Series procurement. It said the 3200s feel "less crowded and more accommodating" even at maximum passenger loads, thanks to the staggered pattern of traverse (combination of forward- and- rear-facing) seats that offered more standing room in the center aisle and a better mix of grab bars for standees.Yesterday EA dropped some news regarding Battlefield 1 that will affect all clans, players but, above all, server admins. Their new “renting system” for Battlefield 1 was briefly described.
Apart from announcing that there will be dedicated servers for Battlefield 1, EA and DICE kept a low profile regarding any news for game servers. Many gamers asked the studio and the publisher to make clear announcements and to provide the necessary information. Now they let the cat out of the bag, a blog post delivers the info everybody was waiting for.
Following the Battlefield™ 1 launch, we will start rolling out a Rent-a-Server Program that will allow players to set up their own private and public Battlefield 1 servers, with control of different gameplay options to map rotations. Thanks to these customization options, you’ll be able to create games that suit the play style for you and your friends. Starting close after launch, you will be able to rent a server through the in-game store of Battlefield 1. In the past, servers were handled by third-party companies – now, EA is providing them directly. We think this will benefit you in several ways. First off, we will be able to secure the quality of the actual hardware. Since the servers come from the same provider, it will give everyone the same uniform experience. Furthermore, if you have questions or need help, you will be able to reach out to EA Support directly instead of third party support. On a rented server, players will be able to customize gameplay aspects like server name, map rotation, game mode, various game play settings, and more. We might restrict number of game modes available at launch and gradually enable them based on feedback and other circumstances, but you can expect that we’ll keep adding customization options and UI design throughout 2016. Expect to hear more about it as we approach the release of the Rent-a-Server program. We can’t wait to see you on the battlefield!
To summarize it layman’s terms: PC servers from Battlefield 1 will be limited when it comes to what PC gamers actually liked about the series. You cannot chose your preferred provider anymore and have less control over your own servers. Additionally, tools like ProCon and its plugins are not possible anymore. Creating your own rules and certain settings, e.g. servers with high ticket numbers, or to share ban lists between servers and even analyzing event statistics are now most likely a thing of the past.
This affects not only the clans and server admins, but all PC gamers. The PC servers now offer the same features as the console servers. Now it’s the same for everyone. Now that EA will also service their servers, PC gamers can learn from the experiences of the console players. EA’s customer service was often not able to help them in the past which lead to many dissatisfied customers.
The price structure of the servers will be very interesting. In the past the community hosted a large portion of the servers. Many clans and admins will have to decide based on the limitations if it is really still worth it. EA and DICE now have to prove how good and stable their hosting will be. It will be very interesting to see what the future will hold, especially when you take into consideration how the problems during the last months regarding the instability of the backend of Battlefield 4 affected everybody.
However, we want to apologize to our customers. We would have liked to be able to provide our full range of stable services and servers also for Battlefield 1. Unfortunately, this will not be possible due to the reasons listed above. We hope that all the gamers will still have fun playing the game online.
Source: battlefield.comThe Italian website TMW claims Odegaard, 16, will join the Scottish champions for a season having previously worked under the Glasgow club's manager Ronny Delia at Norwegian club Stromgodset.
Odegaard apparently rejected the chance to join Celtic on a permanent basis in January as he became the highest paid teenager in the world by joining Real Madrid in a deal worth around £80,000 per week.
Odegaard's father called Deila after he chose Madrid, but it appears the player will now get the chance to work again with his former coach in Glasgow.
" He is very special," said Deila as he tried to sign the player at the start of the year. "Every time he gets a level, he takes it. His attitude is great and he always wants to progress, to learn. I know what’s happening. He’s in the town where my kids live and I know a lot of people there. I have control of the situation and we’ll see what we do. If there are possibilities, of course, we will try it. But it’s a very hard competition. "
Real Madrid's Martin Odegaard (L) embraces his teammate Cristiano RonaldoReuters
Getafe, Real Betis and Valencia were all linked with Odegaard, but Celtic have apparently won the race for his signature.ES Lifestyle Newsletter 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
It’s not often you travel to a honeymoon resort on your own (memo to self: take plenty of improving books to read) but Ponta Dos Ganchos is Brazil’s most exclusive beach retreat. I wanted to experience it, companion or no companion.
With only 25 bungalows set in a tropical landscape (overlooking the private beach dubbed one of the sexiest in the world), the resort on Brazil’s south coast provides romance and seclusion. Children under 18 are not permitted. No wonder it’s the weekend destination for wealthy paulistanos (inhabitants of São Paulo, 650km away but just an hour by plane).
If, through some oversight and like me, you arrive without a husband, there’s still plenty to do, including gourmet dining, a hilltop spa with cabañas overlooking the ocean, a cinema, nature trails along the headland and scuba diving.
Brazil is Latin America’s big success story — it will be hosting the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016 — but Ponta Dos Ganchos is still something of an insider secret.
Located just north of the island of Santa Catarina, this award-winning Relais & Châteaux resort is tucked away on a privately owned peninsula surrounded by the Emerald Coast and lush rainforest.
My trip came in the middle of a city tour covering both São Paolo and Rio de Janeiro. With all the feverish, frantic brilliance on offer, it was a chance to really unwind. The atmosphere is so laid-back here you can go barefoot or sparkle in your jewellery.
Frankly it’s not easy to leave your bungalow, which is bigger than the average central London flat. Decorated in rustic-chic style, my open-plan, loft-style bedroom had a huge bed with Egyptian cotton sheets, a sauna with ocean views and a bathroom with spa-massage and Jacuzzi.
There’s wi-fi, flat-screen televisions and a fireplace, plus an expresso machine and private wine cellar. Outside, the bungalow has a private deck with an infinity pool.
Breakfast is served in the games room, close to the fitness centre and indoor swimming pool. A dainty nine-course feast that is more like English afternoon tea is offered with teeny sandwiches or blinis, omelettes, fruit, organic shots, even an indulgent fruit clafoutis with whipped cream. All before 11am. As a lovely touch, your name is spelled out out in the froth of the cappuccino.
The main restaurant, Cantinho de Velez, which overlooks the beach, is like a set from South Pacific. The menu combines traditional Brazilian recipes with international haute cuisine. It’s delicious but healthy (I imagine honeymooners don’t want to retire stuffed). The resort grows its own organic fruit and veg and superb South American wines are served.
At lunch there’s an informal seafood grill — locally caught fish such as grilled mussels, scallops and prawns. Then you can sunbathe with coffee on the oversize sofas along the shore.
The à la carte menu changes daily.One night I feasted on a tasting menu of acaraje souffle with tomato tartar and spicy biquinho pepper cream; followed by grilled shrimp and mashed sweet manioc with yemanja sauce, and sea bass with bean pirao.
For dessert came a refreshing fruit soup with zabaglione and pistachio ice cream.
Guests can have supper served on the beach or dine solo on their little stone island (reached by walking a long wooden catwalk bridge).
Gentle exertions are boat trips along the coastline, to go oyster fishing or watch dolphins. Then there was that lost afternoon tasting different flavoured cachaca (Brazilian rum).
The Christian Dior spa — the only one in South America — consists of three small pavilions each with a garden at the edge of the peninsula.
You can enjoy a relaxing full-body massage as the sun sets over the bay, listening to waves crash.
Entertainment here helps keep you on site. One magical night, I watched a torch-lit folk art performance by Boi de Mamão, as figures in traditional animal costumes acted out the story of the death and resurrection of the ox.
Florianópolis, an hour’s drive away, is well worth a visit, with its mix of colonial and super-rich beach houses.
Cross over the famous old suspension bridge, no longer open to traffic, to the city centre and you’ll find ornate churches and fantastic local markets.
Brazilians are a bit obsessed by weddings (hence the existence of a honeymoon island). In the central town square, Praça XV de Novembro, there’s a 100-year-old marriage tree.
Walk clockwise and legend has it you’ll be engaged in minutes. Proceed backwards, however, if you want a divorce…
DETAILS: BRAZIL
Journey Latin America has five nights at Ponta dos Ganchos (pontadosganchos.com) from £2867pp B&B including return flights from Heathrow and transfers (journeylatinamerica.co.uk).
braziltour.comSteve Jurvetson, 2008
What's a search engine geek doing in the space business? Barney Pell, CTO and co-founder of Powerset, a search technology company that was acquired by Microsoft, has for the last year been working on building a robotic spacecraft to land on the moon, as the co-founder of a new company called Moon Express. (Pell also co-founded StockMaster, which was acquired by Red Herring when I worked there.)
It turns out that Pell is an old space hack. He has a Ph.D. in artificial intelligence from the University of Cambridge and worked on the AI program for Deep Space 1, a NASA probe that tested several autonomous space exploration technologies. Moon Express is a return home to him, but it's also his most audacious venture, even more so than his search business was. And that was a real flyer.
Moon Express is building a robotic spacecraft that can take a payload of up to 100 kilograms from lunar orbit down to the moon. It's fully automated, using what Pell says are (presumably his) AI algorithms to land safely. It does not have a return capability, but the mission of the company is nonetheless very much about getting stuff back from the moon.
Why? There is, Pell says, gold in them hills. Or, more accurately, platinum on the plains. Asteroids laden with precious materials, like platinum, have been landing on the surface of the moon for billions of years. They're just waiting to be harvested. Pell did not explain exactly how that harvesting would be done, although he maintains that the cost of developing an automated lunar platinum mining operation, including the Earth-side infrastructure to support it, would cost about $20 billion, which is less than opening a new terrestrial mine, he says.
There's also an abundance of water in the moon's soil, which can be used for life support on the moon or be extracted into component parts for rocket fuel back at Earth (you can park it in an orbiting depot). And then there's Helium-3, which might be usable in as-yet-unbuilt fusion reactors. Transporting clonesicles to the lunar mining camp is not included in Pell's projections.
Pell doesn't see Moon Express getting into the mining business directly. The company is based on more of a sell-the-shovels model. It'll help mining companies land their gear, and charge them for it. "It'll be the biggest ROI in history," Pell says.
Even if it doesn't become a bona fide mining services company soon, Moon Express has a not-ridiculous start-up balance sheet. It will cost about $40 million to build a lander, buy it a ride on a Falcon 9 rocket (which will fling it toward the moon), and pay for the vehicle that will insert it into orbit, Pell says. Customers will pay $10 million to $20 million for the trip (one customer has already agreed to pay about $5 million to deliver a telescope to land on the far side of the moon); plus there's start-up help in the form of $20 million of Lunar X-Prize money from Google and $10 million in challenge-related grants from the NASA Innovative Lunar Demonstrations Data program.
Pell obviously believes that the time is right for a private enterprise to make a moon delivery truck. His experience at NASA left him with an appreciation for a motto inside the agency: "As only NASA can." The space agency exists, he says, to push the frontiers of space science. Once what a NASA program can do becomes "easy," it's time for NASA to exit the business. And companies like Moon Express to take over. "It is rocket science," Pell says, "but it's not new rocket science."Performance
Build Quality
Value
$8,498/pair
AT A GLANCE
Plus
Powerful, full-range sound
Great looks
Easily driven by modest-power amps
Minus
Price may seem high to non-audiophile civilians
Large, space-dominating size
THE VERDICT
With the Triton Reference, GoldenEar Technology has delivered their finest loudspeaker yet. It looks great, sounds great, and represents an exceptional value in high-end audio.
When I reviewed GoldenEar Technology’s debut loudspeaker, the Triton Two, shortly after the company launched in 2010, co-founder/president/polymath Sandy Gross indicated that it would be the first of many to come. He wasn’t exaggerating. New entries arrived thereafter in quick succession, including powered towers, passive towers, soundbars, subwoofers, bookshelf models, and in-ceiling speakers. And in 2014, the company introduced the Triton One. Priced at $2,500 each or $5,000 for the pair, it represented the pinnacle of GoldenEar’s mission to combine high performance with high value.
My take—and that of many others—was that the Triton One stood as a definitive put-up-orshut-up challenge to an industry increasingly disposed to selling staggeringly expensive products. That’s why I was surprised when, less than two years later, Gross dropped news of another ace up his sleeve: a speaker that would take the technology the company had worked into the One and improve on it. And though he was willing to relax his value-oriented mindset to achieve his goals for the new speaker, it would still come in at under $10,000 for a pair, a number that, while pricey for the average consumer, seems almost a trifle these days against more than a dozen exotic high-end speakers ranging from over $100,000 to up to $1 million or more per pair.
GoldenEar’s more affordable entry is the new Triton Reference, whose sticker price of $4,249 each translates to $8,498 per pair. Like the One, the Reference is a powered tower with a combination of traditional passive woofers and tweeter, plus a trio of active sub-bass drivers augmented by a quartet of passive radiators to achieve true full-range sound reproduction. But for this new flagship, GoldenEar has introduced a number of enhancements large and small that, taken in total, help to justify the Reference’s exalted name.
Reference Quality
Starting from the highest frequencies reproduced by the Triton Reference and working our way down, those enhancements include a new version of GoldenEar’s HVFR tweeter with 50 percent more neodymium magnetic material, a tweak that increases efficiency and allows for better control of the tweeter’s pleated planar diaphragm. The volume of the chamber located behind the tweeter has also been enlarged, and there’s a smoother angle to the transition between faceplate and diaphragm that helps to improve dispersion.
The bass/midrange drivers above and below the tweeter are 6-inchers, as opposed to the 5.25-inch drivers on the Triton One, and they incorporate a new cone that uses a low-mass bonding to the surround, claimed to improve transient response. Also larger are the 6 x 10-inch drivers in the speaker’s subwoofer section, which provide 40 percent more surface area than the One’s drivers and feature a substantially bigger magnet structure and voice coil. The 1,800-watt specified, 56-bit-DSP-controlled amplifier powers the active drivers, which are aided and abetted by 10.25 x 9.5-inch passive “planar infrasonic radiators” arranged on either side in an inertially balanced configuration similar to that found in GoldenEar’s SuperSub X and XXL subwoofers.
Designing a reference-quality anything involves sweating over details, and it’s clear here that GoldenEar did just that. As with the One, the Reference’s customized crossover uses a fully balanced circuit. Damping material inside the speaker’s cabinet is made from a custom mixture of Dacron and long-fiber lamb’s wool. The speaker’s base incorporates a 3/32-inch steel plate that GoldenEar says provides a dramatic increase in stiffness and stability over that of the all-medite bases used on the company’s other models. More detail: The Reference comes with stainless-steel carpet spikes instead of the brass versions typically provided with tower speakers.
Additionally, much work was concentrated on the speaker’s internal bracing for maximum rigidity, according to Gross. While this isn’t readily visible, what is visible is the speaker’s single-piece gloss-black monocoque cabinet. A first for GoldenEar (which has wrapped all previous Tritons in a black-mesh “sock” material), this cabinet improves performance by enhancing the speaker’s overall rigidity and “deadness.” It looks great, too: While other speakers put out by the company have followed the same basic design template, the attention paid to cosmetics here makes the Reference really stand out from the GoldenEar pack.
Setting Up
Standing nearly 5 feet high and weighing 110 pounds, the Triton Reference can’t help but dominate any space it’s placed in. Then again, as a speaker targeted at audiophiles, its likely home will be in a dedicated music or media room. (Given the number of drivers inside, it’s amazing how compact the cabinet actually is.) I enlisted help to hoist a pair of the speakers into place, and I’d recommend that anyone else seek out the same.
Setting the speakers up in my 17 x 20-foot listening room, which has a ceiling height of 9 feet, I positioned them about a foot out from the front wall and spread 9.5 feet apart, with each tower angled in toward the main listening seat. The specific area of the room where the speakers sat has a wood floor, so I used the included adjustable rubber feet to fine-tweak position, sloping the front baffles slightly forward to better align the HVFR tweeters with my head. Tweaking was carried out in the company of Gross, who then found time to take in a Picasso exhibit at the local art museum before flying out early to escape a blizzard.
Like other GoldenEar powered towers, the Reference features an RCA-jack LFE input on its lower back panel. This can be used to run a separate LFE subwoofer signal from a processor or receiver, which lets you tweak bass level using the processor’s or receiver’s remote control when the speakers are in a home theater setup. Since my test was primarily stereo-only, I simply connected my 80-watt-per-channel integrated amp to the speaker’s gold-plated binding-post inputs. (With efficiency spec’d at 93.25 decibels, the Reference was easy to drive to exceedingly loud levels; even a 60-wpc amp I swapped in at one point proved more than sufficient in my room.) Lastly, I left the Subwoofer Level dial on the back panel at its center setting, which provided plenty of bass to fill my approximately 3,000-cubic-foot listening room.
Listening Up
With so much effusive (and in some instances, over-the-top) praise having been heaped on the Triton One, I’m afraid that any nice comments I make about the Triton Reference may come off as inadequate. You’d think that with the One, GoldenEar had created a type of audio crack, as opposed to just a really good speaker. Anyway, here I go.Dustin Byfuglien, who took a penalty on Monday night after he shoved Corey Perry to ice during a post-goal celebration, was asked on Tuesday about his game and about that penalty. The Winnipeg Jets defenceman responded that “as long as we stick together as a team we’ll be all right” to that and every subsequent question.
During his press conference afterward, Jets coach Paul Maurice was asked about it. He responded. At length.
Question: Frankly, to the media, it looks like a lack of maturity and accountability.
Paul Maurice: So you’re offended.
Question: No, I’m asking what he is like behind closed doors. Is that an accurate perception?
Maurice: Part of it is accurate in that he’s got an awesome sense of humour. You won’t like that. Don’t underestimate the investment the players make.
Here’s where I’m losing this argument before it even starts, you’re going to find one of the other 650 NHL players who would have handled that nicely and would have been contrite and everybody would have thought that was good. He’s a very, very competitive man, and he’s particularly unhappy with the result, more than anything else he wants to win. So, he doesn’t like the fact that he has to speak to the media today. And, I’m reading [on] twitter, ‘guy makes so much money he should be happy to stand in front of the media and talk to them,’ and there’s a certain dynamic there between the media and some of the players that you feel there’s an absolute obligation that he has to come out and answer for everything because of the gift and the joy that it is to play professional sports, and the amount of money that a man would make, and at some point, he has the right to come out here and say that.
I want you to fully appreciate the number of f-bombs he dropped on you in the back of his brain that didn’t come out, out of the sense of civility that he has, he |
to put diapers on you and make you do the right thing as we see it. We trust in God and nature for that. Government is here to keep the roads up to date and have the military to defend us, and really, very little else. Much of the stuff we do now is unnecessary, or better handled by someone else. If it needs doing, it’ll get done.
Our society is in deep doo-doo because we took on these social justice programs. We’re broke, unstable and most people hate each other. There is no unity, trust or decency. And the economy is flaking out as a result. Most people want us to make more government to fix this problem, but the fact is that more government got us into this state, and will only deepen the problem. We need to think different, outside the box, and that box is government.
Think of what you can do with the extra money. We won’t give you free stuff like the Democrats, but we’ll let you keep your own stuff instead of giving it to us. I have a rule about government programs: any programs that take money from all of us and give it to a group smaller than all of us are bad programs. That includes farm subsidies, welfare, and pork barrel projects by senators. We can cut it all and stop screwing up our country, and you’ll come out ahead and government will get out of debt.
I won’t claim this step is radical, but right now, any change from business-as-usual is going to look radical. What we have to agree on is that the way we are doing it now just is not working and we need a change. From there, we can make this country fun again. Thank you for listening. I’ll be back in a month with more policy ideas. Yes, Ma’am, there will be refreshments…For God and country, of course!…What a lovely baby!
Transcript from December 2, 2015 at “Lee’s Bowl and Burger,” Harrison, Texas.
Tags: socialism, stevens 2016, taxes, wealth transfer
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The Russian and Chinese defense ministries have confirmed the participation of a Chinese guided-missile destroyer in the week-long war games, the first-ever joint operation by the two powers in European waters, according to a report on the People's Liberation Army's official website.
Training will include anti-submarine warfare and air defense drills, the Russian Ministry of Defense said. Russian naval facilities in the enclave of Kaliningrad, sandwiched between NATO allies Poland and Lithuania, have been selected as the headquarters for the exercise.
China said the joint drills would be the first for the Type 052D destroyer Hefei, which was commissioned less than two years ago. It's being joined by a missile frigate, a supply ship and about 10 Russian ships.
That China is sending warships halfway around the world -- unthinkable as little as 10 years ago -- is not going unnoticed among NATO allies. British, Dutch and Danish warships have at various times been escorting the Chinese flotilla as it made its way to the drills through the English Channel and across the North Sea.
The choice of the Baltic Sea is also significant, say analysts. The area remains a source of heightened tension between Russia and the US and its NATO allies -- China's arrival in the waters signals its intention to be considered equal to those powers.
The Yinchuan (175), a Type 052D destroyer of China's People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), provides an escort ahead of the Liaoning aircraft carrier as it arrives in Hong Kong.
Showcasing power
In announcing the Baltic drills, China said they are not aimed at any "third party."
But the state-run Global Times newspaper quotes Beijing-based naval expert Li Jie as saying there's a message in the presence of a top-of-the-line warship.
"By sending its most advanced guided-missile destroyers, China is expressing its sincerity to Russia and also sends a strong signal to other countries who plan to provoke us," Li is quoted as saying.
The Chinese ships come to the Baltic at the end of a 10,000-mile journey. That included steaming through the Mediterranean, where they conducted live-fire training last week, according to China's Ministry of Defense.
Those exercises went on while another Chinese flotilla, led by the guided-missile destroyer Changchun, was also in the Mediterranean, most recently engaging in drills with the Italian Navy.
"Beijing has begun dispatching its navy on increasingly wide-ranging forays, providing its personnel with critical experience in blue-water operations," according to an analysis from the geopolitical intelligence firm Stratfor.
Magnus Nordenman, deputy director of the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security at the Atlantic Council, says with China's increasing role in world trade means it would want to be able to protect access to ports in northern Europe.
"Economic linkages tend to attract a naval presence as well. And naval power has a diplomatic quality to it, which is being used to forge ties when Chinese ships call in ports around the Baltic Sea and the Mediterranean," Nordenman wrote on US Naval Institute website.
The exercises also come in what has been a busy month for a PLA Navy trying to expand its global reach.
Last week, Beijing dispatched ships with troops to formally open a military base in Djibouti, on the Horn of Africa. While symbolically important, China's first overseas military base will provide a critical role in supporting Chinese warships in the Indian Ocean and on more far-flung voyages. China's Ministry of Defense said the ships heading to the Baltic Sea called at the Djibouti base before heading up the Red Sea and into the Suez Canal.
"One of the big hall marks of a superpower is having blue-water capacity, and China is in the awkward position where it sees itself as a superpower, other countries perceive it as a superpower, but it doesn't actually have the full capacity of a superpower as yet," said Yvonne Chiu, assistant professor at the Department of Politics at the University of Hong Kong.
"So all of this is happening in this context. The second aircraft carrier -- which crucially is homemade, the overseas base in Djibouti, the Baltic drills. There's a variety of things they can now check off the list," added Chiu.
Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) naval officers march pass Tiananmen Square during the National Day parade in Beijing on October 1, 2009.
Combat capability
The drills follow the launch in late June of China's first Type 055 destroyer. A June report from the US Congressional Research Service points out that at 12,000 tons, the Type 055 will be bigger than the US Navy's Ticonderoga-class cruisers.
"When completed, that class will qualify as among the best in the world, if not the most powerful overall," Stratfor says of the Type 055.
The Type 055 ships are expected to be the air defense control centers for future Chinese aircraft carrier battle groups.
While the PLA Navy now has only one active aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, it has launched another expected to enter the fleet later in the decade and has plans to build four more.
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A six-carrier fleet would leave China second only to the US and its 11-carrier fleet and give it a powerful impression on the world's seas.
"The PLA Navy's carrier groups will... they will signal to the rest of the world that China is a great power and that it has capabilities equivalent to the US, capabilities that it is willing to use," writes James Goldrick, a former Australian naval officer and nonresident fellow at the Lowy Institute.
"A China which has long been irritated by the appearance of American carrier groups on the East Asia periphery might well enjoy dispatching a task force to cruise the Caribbean and the coasts of Central America," Goldrick wrote.
Beijing hinted at that kind of role when it sent the Liaoning into the open Pacific for the first time in late December.
Global Times said it was a sign the Liaoning's combat capability has been enhanced and its areas of operation expanded, and could soon include the Eastern Pacific, including off the US West Coast.
"If the fleet is able to enter areas where the US has core interests, the situation when the US unilaterally imposes pressure on China will change," the Global Times said.
This aerial photo taken on January 2, 2017 shows a Chinese navy formation, including the aircraft carrier Liaoning (C), during military drills in the South China Sea.
Ship-building frenzy
To properly equip those carrier battle groups, the PLA Navy has been on a ship-building frenzy.
A February story on the PLA's official website says it commissioned 18 ships in 2016.
"These ships have a total displacement of 150,000 tons, roughly half of the overall displacement of the (British) Royal Navy," the story boasts.
By 2030, according to a June analysis by the bipartisan Center for a New American Security (CNAS), the PLA Navy will have a 500-ship fleet, while the US Navy is forecast to have only 350 ships.
JUST WATCHED Huge new Chinese warship launches Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Huge new Chinese warship launches 00:35
The development is part of wider strategy, that has seen the Chinese military move from offshore defense to open sea protection.
In January this year, Vice Adm. Yuan Yubai, a former commander of the North Sea Fleet, was appointed commanding officer of the Southern Theater Command, which is responsible for the South China Sea. The appointment was the first to break with the tradition of naming army generals to major leadership posts.
"China used to see itself as an inferior military power and from that perspective China has focused on deploying so-called asymmetric capabilities," said Tong Zhao an associate at the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy in Beijing.
"In order to achieve that target, there was a long term dispute within China on whether the country should focus on building aircraft carriers or submarines. But that debate has faded because China now has the economic resources to do both. So we now see China building up its surface capabilities -- especially its aircraft carriers, but also investing heavily in its submarine capabilities," added Tong.
China has accelerated its program to develop both strategic missile submarines as well as attack submarines in recent years.
Add the increase in quantity and quality in the PLA fleet to the experience Chinese sailors are getting with exercises like the one beginning in the Baltics, and you get a Chinese navy that must be reckoned with, analysts say.
"China's ability to conduct power projection and amphibious operations around the world will become a fundamental fact of politics in the near future," the CNAS analysis says.New York (AFP) – US President-elect Donald Trump is considering Mitt Romney as secretary of state, in what would be a major olive branch to mainstream Republicans who opposed the tycoon’s candidacy, a report said Thursday.
CNN and NBC said Trump would meet over the weekend with Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts who was the Republicans’ unsuccessful 2012 White House candidate against President Barack Obama.
NBC said that Trump was considering Romney as secretary of state, which would put a figure with more orthodox Republican views in charge of US foreign policy.
Senator Jeff Sessions, an arch-conservative Republican from Alabama who is one of Trump’s closest allies in Congress, said he expected the incoming president to consider the “capable” Romney for some position.
“I think it’s good that the president-elect is meeting with people like Romney. There are a lot of talented people that he needs good relationships with,” said Sessions, himself a top contender for a cabinet post.
“And I think Mr Romney would be quite capable of doing a number of things,” Sessions told reporters after meeting the president-elect at his Trump Tower in Manhattan.
Romney was one of the staunchest Republican opponents of Trump’s candidacy during the party’s primaries, describing the businessman as vulgar, unprincipled and threatening to US values.
Romney in particular chastised Trump for proposing a ban on all foreign Muslims entering the United States.
In March, Romney said that “Trump’s bombast is already alarming our allies and fueling the enmity of our enemies.”
Romney also has a more traditional Republican skepticism of Russia, which he called the top geopolitical threat to the United States during the 2012 election.
In a striking departure for a Republican, Trump has voiced hope for working with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has spoken warmly of the businessman-turned-world leader.
Media reports have speculated on a wide range of names to be secretary of state including South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, another Republican who was initially lukewarm to Trump.
An Indian American, Haley would inject diversity into the cabinet after a divisive election in which Trump was outspoken in his criticism of immigration.
Other names floated for secretary of state include Rudy Giuliani, the combative former New York mayor and staunch Trump defender who would likely face scrutiny over a slew of business dealings, and hawkish former US ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton.RANGERS can today confirm that Harry Forrester has signed a new three year contract with the club to extend his stay until 2019.
The former Aston Villa and Doncaster Rovers has signed a deal after impressing during his time at the club in the second half of the season.
The Gers announced the signing of Forrester from Doncaster Rovers on an initial six-month contract on Hogmanay, 2015.
Forrester came through the youth ranks at Watford and Aston Villa and he gained some experience of what to expect in Scottish football with a loan spell at Kilmarnock in season 2010-11.
He made a total of eight appearances for Killie, the final one of those coming as a substitute in a 3-2 defeat for the Ayrshire side to Walter Smith’s Rangers in November 2010, a match incidentally in which new teammate Kenny Miller scored a hat-trick.
From Villa, Forrester spent time on trial with Ajax before joining Brentford in the summer of 2011 on a two-year deal, where he went on to make 69 appearances in all competitions and scored 11 goals in the process with the most significant of those being a late penalty against Chelsea to earn the Bees an FA Cup fourth round replay in January 2013.
When his contract with the London club expired, Forrester switched to Championship side Doncaster Rovers where he made 66 appearances and again scored 11 goals before making the switch north to sign for Rangers.
The deal became official when the transfer window opened on January 2, 2016, which incidentally was also Forrester’s 25th birthday.
Since joining the club, Forrester has scored five goals in sixteen appearances and the Gers fans have taken to the attacker due to his entertaining style of play and never say die attitude.
Forrester scored the opening goal of the 4-0 win over Dundee after just thirteen seconds and his pace and enthusiasm in that game set the tone for what Mark Warburton has described as one of the best performances of the season.
You can view an exclusive interview with Forrester on RangersTV later this morning.When is a scientific debate finished? When should naysayers just be ignored? And in cases where the topic involves science-based public policy, deeply relevant to the well-being of the citizenry, when should doubters be denied the public forum of government funding and media attention?
These are interesting questions, made more complicated by the many times in the history of science when the evidence turned out to be misinterpreted or misleading. Evidence is often dependent on its observers and their techniques. Scientific observation seeks to be pure, free of influence, but it is rarely so, from the subatomic to the sociological.
For that matter, settled science is frequently disrupted, from the idea of the indivisible atom (still a fact in the living memory of those who learned all their science before 1942) to the idea that causality cannot be violated (except where it is, in the bizarre domain of quantum physics). Widely held scientific theories have later been shown to be fads or just bunk, from phrenology to the odious eugenics (the latter broadly accepted as settled science by an embarrassingly wide array of scientists and intellectuals).
Youd have to be in a deep coma not to know that global warming, more specifically the idea of imminent catastrophic human-induced global warming, is anchored in this complicated issue of settled-versus-unsettled science. The universe of books on global warming is now overwhelming in its extent, if not its opacity. Yet another entrant to this pantheon is the recently published Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming, (Bloomsbury press) by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway.
Merchants of Doubts authors take sides entirely with the contention that the science is indeed a settled fact of contemporary reality. Rather than focus on the evidence for human-induced catastrophic global warming, the book instead slogs through the entire canon of signature issues of similar science-tinged public policy challenges which have regularly created ideological divides. It gives short shrift to the substance of these issues, in favor of speculations about personalities and motives of various players who (the authors contend) successfully counter the (lefts) argument.
In the end, Merchants of Doubt is the kind of book that will persuade only those already sympathetic to its worldview. It is nonetheless instructive, although not necessarily in the ways the authors intended. That is why Merchants of Doubt is important. Fundamentally, it matters little whether or not you believe that catastrophic global warming is a valid theory, because this is not the first, nor will it be the last science-centric public policy issue we will have to deal with. Nor is global warming the primary science-centered issue the book deals with. What really matters about these kinds of debates is the paradigm of the debate itself: how we explore, engage, resolve and treat the various players in these kinds of science-centered debates.
Oreskes and Conway treat evidence as the sacrosanct foundation on which science is builtthough, in fact, much of what scientists do is try to determine what constitutes relevant or valid evidence in the first place. Consider this line from Merchants of Doubt: Research produces evidence.... After that point, there are no sides. There is simply accepted scientific knowledge. Or this line: While the idea of equal time makes sense in a two-party political system, it does not work for science, because science is not about opinion. It is about evidence.
Well, yes, it is about evidence, but evidence itself is the question. To explore one relevant example from the books primary concern, global warming, one must consider that there were no weather stations available to document the thousand years necessary to assemble a consistent data series of planetary temperatures. Scientists are forced to make adjustments to whatever secondary or tertiary data are available, interpreting indirect indicators such as tree rings. This is far from precise, pure, or perfect. Some of these data are decently indicative, some not.
Special Offer: Next Inning subscribers tripled their money in Isilon Systems which EMC just bought, and they did the same in 3Par which was acquired earlier this year by Hewlett-Packard. Don't miss out again. Click here for instant access to continuously updated analysis and stock recommendations from Paul McWilliams in Next Inning Technology Research.
To muddy the waters even more, some of the recordings of temperatureand many of the interpretive adjustmentshave been demonstrably shoddy or inexplicably selective, as we learned in recent months though the widely publicized emails leaked from the East Anglia Climate Research unit (one of the few keepers of data on planetary historical temperatures). Even the most fundamental scientific evidence in the global-warming debate is far from immutably settled.
Merchants of Doubt cannot bring itself to address these aspects of global warming or, indeed, any of the other issues the authors use. What theyre interested in is influence, the process of debate about contentious issues of high import and how, they insist, it is used to subvert true science for personal and political reasons.Oregon doomers Yob had already announced two NYC shows at Saint Vitus on February 18 and 19 (they had sold out the first before announcing the second). Well, now they’ve sold out both shows and added a THIRD Saint Vitus show, this one going down on February 17, and tickets are on sale now.
Meanwhile, openers for all three nights have been announced. The newly-announced show, which is the first, will feature great support from Yellow Eyes along with Hosianna Mantra, a new synth-based solo project from Pallbearer bassist Joseph D Rowland. Night two (2/18) will be with Kings Destroy and Pyrolatrous. And the show on 2/19 will be with Godmaker and Statiqbloom.
Yob have a handful of other dates coming up. Check them out, and listen to the great Clearing the Path to Ascend, below.
Clearing The Path To Ascend by YOB
Yob — 2016/17 Tour Dates
Dec 17 The Regency Ballroom San Francisco, CA
Dec 19 Neumos Seattle, WA
Dec 20 Venue Nightclub Vancouver, Canada
Feb 17 Saint Vitus Brooklyn, NY
Feb 18 Saint Vitus Brooklyn, NY
Feb 19 Saint Vitus Brooklyn, NYAll inputs and outputs to the Incirlik Air Base located in Adana have been closed as Turkish Minister of European Affairs cautions that it is just a "safety inspection" while local newspapers speculate that a second coup attempt may be underway.
Some 7,000 armed police with heavy vehicles have surrounded and blocked the Incirlik air base in Adana used by NATO forces, already restricted in the aftermath of a failed coup. Unconfirmed reports say troops were sent to deal with a new coup attempt.
According to the Turkish Minister for European Affairs, Omer Celik, this is just a routine "safety inspection." Hurriyet, by contrast, reports that anti-terror police received reports of a second attempt by Gulenists to overthrow the Erdogan regime.
Incirlik Air Base, located in the province of Adana, is a critical NATO base in Turkey. The US maintains 50 to 90 tactical nuclear weapons at the base.
Local media has focused on the base after the failed coup in Turkey occurred the night of July 15. Although the main scenes of the events were Istanbul and Ankara, Incirlik was shut down for a time by local authorities shortly after the putsch, and several Turkish soldiers from the base were deemed by Turkish officials to be involved in the overthrow attempt.
The lockdown at Incirlik follows a massive wave of protests on Thursday when pro-Erdogan nationalists took to the streets yelling "death to the US" and called for the immediate closure of the Incirlik base. Security personnel dispersed the protesters before they were able to make it to the base.
Syria Ceasefire (@Syria_Ceasefire) July 30, 2016
The massive presence of armed police supported by heavy vehicles calls into question the Turkish government's official line that the lock down at the Incirlik base is merely a "safety inspection."
Levent Tekin (@Levent_Tekin) July 30, 2016
The situation continues to develop in front of NATO's Incirlik Air Base as more heavy trucks have been dispatched to surround and block access to the critical military facility that is at the heart of the defense alliance's air campaign to combat terror in Syria.
Turkish European Affairs Minister took to Twitter to once again assert that there was a "general security check" at Incirlik Air Base and that "nothing is wrong" there.We never voted for that. It has long been the lamentation of Scots that England has imposed alien governments on them. They rejected Margaret Thatcher, but had to endure the she-devil and her hated poll tax because England put the blue lady in Number 10. They didn’t want David Cameron, but he and his hated bedroom tax were forced on them because Sassenach voters installed him at Downing Street. Even when they did get Labour governments under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, and even though both those prime ministers were born north of the Tweed, some Scots continued to complain, saying that their country’s interests were subordinated to the pursuit of swing voters in English marginals.
So I can quite see why Scots might think it poetic justice if the balance of power in the next House of Commons is decided north of the border. And that is looking increasingly likely. To the surprise of the SNP’s leadership, and to the enduring shock of the Labour party, the nationalists have been on a roll since the referendum. The “45”, as yes-voters like to call themselves, are still impassioned by the energy aroused during the campaign and unreconciled to losing. They have surged behind the SNP. The party’s membership has ballooned from around 24,000 at the time of the referendum to about 100,000 now.
David Cameron: SNP and Labour are halfway up the aisle together already Read more
Their poll numbers have also soared, hugely at the expense of their ancient and bitter Labour rivals. Jim Murphy, Labour’s new leader in Scotland, has got off to an energetic start that is attracting admiration from his colleagues, but years of neglect of the party’s supporters and lacklustre leadership from Labour in its former heartland will not be reversed in the short time left before the election. “Jim is playing a bad hand as best he can,” says one colleague.
Labour currently sends 41 MPs to Westminster from Scotland; the SNP has only six. The most dire projections for Labour would almost precisely reverse those numbers. That would make it highly likely that the SNP, not the Lib Dems, would be the third largest party in the Commons. Even if Labour isn’t slaughtered quite that dramatically, the party’s senior figures are pretty much reconciled to losing a slew of seats to the nationalists.
Swinging for victory: how the political landscape in Scotland is changing Read more
The prospect of being kingmaker in a hung parliament is emboldening the SNP to assert what it would demand in return for its support. The nationalists want the scrapping of the Trident nuclear deterrent. They want devolution going beyond that agreed by the parties when they signed up to the proposals of the Smith Commission. Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP’s smart and popular leader, recently added a further item to her growing list of demands when she declared that the nationalists would seek an additional £180bn of public spending over the course of the next parliament.
The nationalists’ strategy involves some double-talk. They electioneer by deriding Labour as Tory-lite. Yet they say that the SNP are natural partners for Labour who could make common cause after the election to form a “progressive alliance”. The suggestion is that voters should vote SNP to get a Labour government with a more leftish, tartan flavour. If the polls are right, this notion is proving alluring to a great many Scots.
It is also a source of huge delight to the Tories. They may say they love the United Kingdom, but the Tories are cheering on the SNP surge. A Tory attack ad designed to scare English audiences photoshops a grinning Alex Salmond outside Number 10 with his arm around Ed Miliband. The Labour leader’s face appears to have been manipulated to make him look chubbier. The tagline reads: “The SNP would prop up Ed Miliband – meaning chaos for Britain.” The Conservative propaganda machine doesn’t do subtle. They hope to frighten English voters with the idea that a Miliband government would be the SNP’s puppet jerking to nationalist tunes. Tory strategists claim this is “having traction” on English voters when they test the message on focus groups.
Labour thus finds itself pincered by a two-front assault: bashed in Scotland by the nationalists for being too like the Tories, and whacked in England by the Tories for being ready to jump into bed with the nationalists. In a speech in Edinburgh on 20 February, David Cameron described a Labour coalition with the SNP as the “ultimate nightmare scenario”. The obvious way for Labour to close down this line of attack is for Ed Miliband to declare unequivocally that he would never go into coalition with the nationalists. He’s not done that yet. When no one can be sure exactly what they will face on 8 May, there’s a reluctance to narrow down options. The Labour leader is also wary of opening any sort of conversation about what he might do in a hung parliament. A senior figure on the Labour campaign team says: “If we say no to the SNP, people will then ask, are you saying no to the Liberal Democrats?” There is also anxiety that ruling out a deal will come over as presumptuous. That might feed the nationalist narrative that Labour is part of the arrogant “Westminster establishment”.
Tories hope to frighten English voters with the idea that a Miliband government would be a puppet of the SNP
A growing number within the shadow cabinet are no longer convinced that this is the right strategy. They are urging a much more emphatically anti-SNP message. One of them says that Labour now needs to say “loud and clear” that it would not treat with the nationalists as “a party that wants to tear the United Kingdom apart”. Another agrees: “We’re going to have to say no deal with the SNP.” That, they think, would take the air out of the Tory attack. It is also necessary, they argue, to disabuse Scottish voters of the notion that voting SNP will give them a perfect world in which David Cameron is thrown out of Number 10 and Scots hold sway at Westminster. Senior Labour figures also contend that striking any sort of bargain with the SNP would be such a strategic mistake that they should never countenance doing one anyway. Says a member of the shadow cabinet: “If we do a deal with the nationalists, my fear is that it will not just be the end of the Labour party in Scotland, it will be the end of the Labour party in England.”
The nationalists are probably not sincerely interested in going into government at Westminster. They have prospered by riding the anti-politics wave and presenting themselves as the plucky “outsiders” battling the leviathan of the UK political establishment. That would be a harder act to perform if the SNP were in power both in Holyrood and Westminster. The way in which they are scaling up their demands also suggests that they don’t really want a deal. Ed Miliband’s colleagues believe he would never agree to casting aside the nuclear deterrent. And if he tried to, he would face massive opposition from within his own party at the most senior level. In the words of one member of the shadow cabinet: “It would be completely unsupportable to make a decision about the defence of the nation in a few days of scrambling for power.”
You don’t need a tremendous degree of political sophistication to spot that the SNP’s goal of independence would be best served by Mr Cameron winning another term in Downing Street. That would add potency to the nationalist argument that Scotland and England have become so politically divergent that the two nations ought to go their separate ways. It would also likely mean a referendum on British membership of the European Union. If the English voted to leave the EU and the Scots voted to stay, that would furnish the nationalists with perfect grounds to demand another vote on Scottish independence and a highly propitious context in which to win it.
Though they’d never admit this, it suits the nationalists’ central ambition for the Tories to do well. It equally suits the short-term electoral interests of the Tories, if not the long-term health of the union that Mr Cameron claims to care so much about, if the nationalists rob Labour of a lot of its seats north of the border.
That could very well make the difference between Ed Miliband emerging from the election with the most MPs and David Cameron doing so. If Mr Miliband were the runner-up in seats it would be a helluva a lot less likely that he could form and justify a Labour-led government. At every UK election for nearly a century, the party with the most seats has won the keys to power.
For their very different reasons, the Tories and SNP suggest that a vote for the nationalists will be a vote for a Labour government. The reverse is much more likely to be the case. What a mighty irony it would be if voting SNP were to put David Cameron back in Downing Street. That outcome might secretly delight the leadership of the SNP. It is rather more doubtful that it would please many of the Scots currently saying they plan to vote nationalist.The Cologne police chief was removed from his post on Friday amid growing public anger at his handling of the sex attacks in the city on New Year’s Eve.
Wolfang Albers was told he was being suspended from duty as allegations continue to mount of a police cover-up of asylum-seekers’ involvement in the attacks.
Ralf Jäger,the interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia state, said his decision to suspend Mr Albers was “necessary to regain the public’s trust”.
“The Cologne police now have the vital task of investigating the events of New Year’s Eve. People rightly want to know what happened, who the perpatrators were and how such incidents can be prevents in the future,” Mr Jäger said.
Mr Albers said he accepted the minister’s decision.“It’s part of my job to take responsibility in difficult time,” he said. “The facts need to be thoroughly reviewed. The public debate about my person can only obstruct and delay this important work.”
The suspended police chief has been accused of seeking to downplay the scale of the attacks after his force issued a press release claiming New Year’s Eve was “peaceful” in Cologne.
In fact, police officers had been outnumbered as a crowd of some 1,000 men took over the area around the main station and sexually assaulted scores of women.
More than 170 women have now filed criminal complaints over the incidents, 113 of them for sexual assaults.
Mr Albers has also come under fire after it emerged on Friday that police in nearby Dusiburg had offered to send reinforcements to help get the situation under control on New Year’s Eve but the Cologne police turned the offer down.
Photo: Warren Allott/The Telegraph
There have been allegations of a cover-up after Mr Albers repeatedly claimed police did not know whether asylum-seekers were among those responsible for the attacks.
Internal police reports leaked to the German press suggest officers were aware many of those involved were asylum-seekers.
Police questioned 71 suspects on New Year’s Eve, most of whom showed papers identifying them as asylum-seekers, according to an incident report leaked to several newspaper.
Two suspects were arrested outside the main station and briefly held in connection with the attacks on Friday but later released for lack of evidence.
They were named by Spiegel magazine as Issam D, 16, from Morocco, and Mohammed T, 23, from Tunisia.
Photo: Warren Allott/The Telegraph
Prosecutors refused to comment on allegations that one of them was carrying a handwritten crib sheet with phrases in German and Arabic, including “Great breasts”, “I want to f*** you” and “I’ll kill you”.
Police denied reports that video footage of assaults on women was found on their mobile phones.
It was officially confirmed for the first time on Friday that asylum-seekers are among suspects wanted in connection with the New Year’s Eve violence.
Federal police have identified 31 suspects by name, of whom 18 are asylum-seekers, the German interior ministry said on Friday. They are not suspected of sexual assault, but of |
complications from Hodgkin's disease at his mother's home in Paris, France.
She and Joan Fontaine are the first sisters to win Oscars and the first ones to be Oscar-nominated in the same year.
Confessed in later years that she had an intense crush on Errol Flynn during the years of their filming, saying that it was hard to resist his charms.
Her mother named her Olivia after William Shakespeare's romantic heroine in "Twelfth Night".
The role of Lisolette Mueller in The Towering Inferno (1974) was originally offered to her. It was eventually played by Jennifer Jones
Was somewhat overweight when she first came to Paramount; Edith Head designed costumes for her with a slimming effect.
She has a street named after her in Mexico City. Renowned Mexican actor and director Emilio Fernández lived in Coyoacan Town on a street with no name at all, so he asked the authorities to name this street "Dulce Olivia," Spanish for "Sweet Olivia," after her.
When she was nine years old she made a will in which she stated, "I bequeath all my beauty to my younger sister Joan [ Joan Fontaine ], since she has none".
In the 1950s the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum near Tucson, AZ, named one of their female javelinas "Olivia de Javelina" in her honor; Their male was named "Gregory Peckory" to honor actor Gregory Peck
Is mentioned in Helge Schneider's book "Die Memoiren des Rodriguez Faszanatas".
In April 1946 she set off a power struggle within the Hollywood Independent Citizens Committee of the Arts, Sciences and Professions (HICCASP) by refusing to deliver two speeches in Seattle as written by her fellow executive council member Dalton Trumbo, later one of the blacklisted Hollywood Ten. She felt Trumbo's text was too left-wing and worried that the organization was becoming "automatically pro-Russian".
Attended the funeral of Charlton Heston in April, 2008.
She accepted two film roles turned down by Ginger Rogers To Each His Own (1946) and The Snake Pit (1948). She won an Oscar for "To Each His Own" and was nominated for "The Snake Pit". Rogers later regretted turning down the roles and wrote: "It seemed Olivia knew a good thing when she saw it. Perhaps Olivia should thank me for such poor judgment".
Her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is at 6764 Hollywood Blvd.
Received the Medal of Arts honor from President George W. Bush at a White House ceremony in the East Room on November 17, 2008, "for her persuasive and compelling skill as an actress in roles from Shakespeare's Hermia to Margaret Mitchell's Melanie. Her independence, integrity, and grace won creative freedom for herself and her fellow film actors.".
One of her cousins, Capt. Sir Geoffrey de Havilland (1882-1965), was a British aviation pioneer, aircraft designer and owner of the de Havilland Aircraft Co. Its wooden bomber Mosquito has been considered the most versatile warplane ever built. The ill-fated de Havilland Comet was the first commercial jet airliner in 1952.
Was offered the role of Mary Hatch Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life (1946) after Jean Arthur turned it down, but she also turned it down.
In a rare act of reconciliation, Olivia and her sister Joan Fontaine celebrated Christmas 1962 together along with their then-husbands and children.
Gave birth to her first child at age 33, son Benjamin Briggs Goodrich, on September 27, 1949. The child's father was her first husband, Marcus Goodrich ; they divorced in 1953, and he died in 1991.
Gave birth to her second child at age 40, daughter Gisèle Galante, on July 18, 1956. The child's father was her second husband, Pierre Galante ; they divorced in 1979, and he died in 1998.
Is a staunch liberal Democrat and anti-communist.
Visited New York in the spring of 2004 to film a special commentary programme for the upcoming DVD of Gone with the Wind (1939), to be released in November that year.
[July 2006] Celebrated her 90th birthday at her daughter's home in Malibu.
Her paternal grandfather, the Rev. Charles Richard de Havilland, was from a family originally from Guernsey, in the Channel Islands. Her other ancestry includes Anglo-Irish and English.
Was considered for the title role in Mildred Pierce (1945).
Was the 28th actress to receive an Academy Award; she won the Best Actress Oscar for To Each His Own (1946) at The 19th Academy Awards on March 13, 1947.
As of 2016 she is the earliest surviving recipient of a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination. She was nominated in 1940 for Gone with the Wind (1939).
As of 2016 she is the earliest surviving recipient of a Best Actress Oscar nomination. She was nominated in 1942 for Hold Back the Dawn (1941).
In celebration of her 100th birthday, she was honored as Turner Classic Movies Star of the Month for July 2016.
She is only the third Oscar-winning actor to celebrate a 100th birthday. The others are George Burns, who died less than two months after passing the 100-year mark in 1996, and Luise Rainer, who lived to be 104.
Has put her longevity down to the three L's: "Love, laughter and learning".
[May 1999] Revealed in a UK press interview that she was a great admirer of the then 98-year-old Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (whom she had earlier portrayed in the TV film The Royal Romance of Charles and Diana (1982)), stating that she hoped "to follow her example and live many years longer".
Holds two world records for the actor/actress surviving the longest after the production of one film and the release of another, both of which she had a starring role. She has survived over 82 years and counting, after her starring role in the film, A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935), wrapped production. Her next movie, Alibi Ike (1935), was released before her first, giving her another world record for the longest length of time any actor has survived after the initial release of a film they starred in.
Two weeks before her 101st birthday, she was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2017 Birthday Honours by Queen Elizabeth II for services to Drama. She is the oldest woman ever to receive the honor. In a statement, she called it "the most gratifying of birthday presents.".
In June 2017, Olivia de Havilland sued the creators and producers, companies FX and Ryan Murphy Productions, of the series Feud (2017) due to what she felt was an unauthorized and inaccurate portrayal of her in the show's first season "Bette and Joan". A statement from her lawyers read: "Miss de Havilland was not asked by FX for permission to use her name and identity and was not compensated for such use." "Further, the FX series puts words in the mouth of Miss de Havilland which are inaccurate and contrary to the reputation she has built over an 80-year professional life, specifically refusing to engage in gossip mongering about other actors in order to generate media attention for herself".
On June 30, 2017, she filed a lawsuit against FX Network and the producers of Feud (2017), over the portrayal of her by Catherine Zeta-Jones
Bette Davis and Joan Crawford were cast in Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte by Robert Aldrich in the hope of repeating the success of Baby Jane. Bette got a producers credit and conspired to make things difficult for Joan who eventually pretended to be too ill to work causing production to be delayed resulting in her being dropped and replaced by Olivia De Haviland. Joan only discovered the news on the radio after it had been leaked to the press, allegedly by Bette.
Olivia de Havilland's Best Actress Oscar nomination and win for To Each His Own (1946) is the only time she was nominated for her performance in a film which was not nominated for Best Picture.
Her home on Nella Vista Ave. in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles is shown in Hollywood Mouth 3 (2018). De Havilland was living here at the time Gone with the Wind (1939) was filmed.
Turned down the role of The Duchess of Richmond in Waterloo (1970) which then went to Virginia Mckenna.
Returned to work fourteen months after giving birth to her daughter Gisele to begin filming The Proud Rebel (1958).
Was two months pregnant with her daughter Gisele when she completed filming The Ambassador's Daughter (1956).
[October 2015] Interviewed on camera by director Mark Cerulli for his documentary short 100 Years of Technicolor (2015), although her footage was not used in the final 6 minute film.
Personal Quotes (45)
Famous people feel that they must perpetually be on the crest of the wave, not realizing that it is against all the rules of life. You can't be on top all the time; it isn't natural.
[on Hollywood's reaction to her landmark court victory against Warner Bros.] I was told I would never work again, if I lost or won. When I won, they were impressed and didn't bear a grudge.
The one thing that you simply have to remember all the time that you are there is that Hollywood is an Oriental city. As long as you do that, you might survive. If you try to equate it with anything else, you'll perish.
The TV business is soul-crushing, talent-destroying and human being-destroying. These men in their black towers don't know what they are doing. It's slave labor. There is no elegance left in anybody. They have no taste. Movies are being financed by conglomerates, which take a write-off if they don't work. The only people who fight for what the public deserves are artists.
We were like a stock company at Warners. We didn't know any of the stars from the other studios.
[after winning her second Oscar in 1950] When I won the first award in 1947, I was terribly thrilled. But this time I felt solemn, very serious and... shocked. Yes, shocked! It's a great responsibility to win the award twice.
Playing good girls in the '30s was difficult, when the fad was to play bad girls. Actually I think playing bad girls is a bore; I have always had more luck with good girl roles because they require more from an actress.
[speaking in 1997] I have taken a long vacation, but I wouldn't object to a fascinating part in a first-rate project, something I felt I could do well or would understand and interpret in an effective way. Then I would say, "Yes". The offers still come, but not what I'm looking for.
[on the continuing appeal of Gone with the Wind (1939)] It will go on forever, and how thrilling that is. It has this universal life, this continuing life. Every nation has experienced war--and defeat and renaissance. So all people can identify with the characters. Not only that, it's terribly well constructed. Something happens every three minutes, and it keeps you on your toes and the edge of your seat, which is quite a feat, I must say.
[in 2004] There certainly is such a thing as screen chemistry, although I don't believe you find it frequently. There was a definite on-screen chemistry between Errol [ Errol Flynn ] and me. Before us, the most potent example was Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell in the '20s and '30s. People should not be surprised by screen chemistry because, after all, life is chemistry.
[in 2003] I know this is not a popular thing to say at the moment, but I love living among the French. They are very independent, intelligent, well educated and creative. They are a people full of feeling, which they express. They're a vivacious people. Well, they're Celts, you see.
[on Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)]: It was full of traps; it was a delicate tightrope assignment. I found that very interesting. Robert Aldrich gave it a very special style, a kind of dark, glittering style which fascinated me.
[in 2006, asked if she missed acting] Not at all. Life is too full of events of great importance. That is more absorbing and enriching than a fantasy life. I don't need a fantasy life as once I did. That is the life of the imagination that I had a great need for. Films were the perfect means for satisfying that need.
[in June 2006] I'll be 90 on July 1. I can't wait to be 90! Another victory!
The overwhelming majority of people who make up the liberal and progressive groups of this country believe in democracy, and NOT in communism. We believe that the two cannot be reconciled here in the United States, and we believe that every effort should be exerted to make democracy work, and to extend its benefits to every person in every community throughout the land.
[on Errol Flynn ] I had a very big crush on Errol Flynn during [ Captain Blood (1935)]. I thought he was absolutely smashing for three solid years, but he never guessed. Then he had one on me but nothing came of it. I'm not going to regret that; it could have ruined my life.
[on Michael Curtiz ] He was a tyrant, he was abusive, he was cruel. Oh, he was just a villain but I guess he was pretty good. We didn't believe it then, but he clearly was. He knew what he was doing. He knew how to tell a story very clearly and he knew how to keep things going.
[on Bette Davis ] The great lesson I learned from Bette was her absolute dedication to getting everything just right. She used to spend hours studying the character she was going to play, then hours in make-up ensuring that her physical appearance was right for the part. I have always tried to put the same amount of work into everything I've done.
[on Clark Gable ] Clark Gable was highly professional. He was a bigger star than we can create today. I was just a mini-star when we did Gone with the Wind (1939). I was afraid to talk to him. People can't understand it now, but we were in awe. Clark Gable didn't open supermarkets.
Clark Gable ] was supposed to cry in the scene after the death of his daughter. It worried him for days before he was to do the scene. He never cried on the screen before, and it became an obsession with him. He didn't think it was masculine for a man to cry. One day he confided in me, "Olivia, I can't do it. I'm just going to have to quit." I talked with him and convinced him that the tears denoted strength of character, not weakness. It turned out to be one of the most memorable scenes in the movie. Clark always underrated himself as an actor. I think his Rhett Butler will live forever as one of the screen's classic performances.
I felt Gone with the Wind (1939) would last five years, and it's lasted over 70, and into a new millennium. There is a special place in my heart for that film and Melanie. She was a remarkable character--a loving person, and because of that she was a happy person. And Scarlett, of course, was not.
[on Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)] [ Bette Davis ] wanted it so much, so I did it. I can't say I regretted it, because working with her was special, but I can't say it was a picture I am proud to put on my resume. Given the choice, I wouldn't have deprived Joan Crawford of the honor!
[on Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964)] The problem was I wasn't as anxious to work as she was. I didn't need to. I wasn't thrilled with the script, and I definitely didn't like my part. I was reverse-typecast, being asked to be an unsympathetic villain. It wasn't what people expected of me. It wasn't really what I wanted to do.
[her favorite word] I am attracted by almost any French word--written or spoken. Before I knew its meaning, I thought "saucisson" so exquisite that it seemed the perfect name to give a child--until I learned it meant "sausage"!
[Her dedication to Mickey Rooney upon his death, 2014] Mickey, Mickey, Mickey. They say you have died but I find this so hard to believe, for you are so live in my memory. There you are in the big room of the Chamber of Commerce Building on Sunset Boulevard in the summer of 1934, a little boy passing easily as a nine-year-old, when you are really 13. You hand me your work copy of A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935), climb onto the banquette beside me, place your head upon my lap and ask me to awaken you nine lines before your cue... What a memory you have left with me to keep.
I loved France, although I initially thought they were stubborn for always speaking French. When I went to Paris, Hollywood was collapsing because of television. A whole civilization was dying, and you cannot imagine how depressed we all were. That was the real Gone with the Wind (1939) saga. We didn't know what the new world was going to be, but we were sure it wasn't going to be as good. We were right.
[1979, on the autobiography of Joan Fontaine ] My book will have nothing to do with my sister's. I have not read it, but I think I have become a monomania with her. It is painful to think that her own life is incomplete to such a degree that it's still so keyed to me.
[1999, on her role in Gone with the Wind (1939)] It's ironic, isn't it? Melanie dies... and I didn't die. I haven't, and I don't intend to.
[1977, on filming Gone with the Wind (1939)] Vivien Leigh and I were very upset when they fired George Cukor as the director. He was a gentleman and he knew how to direct women. His replacement was Victor Fleming, who was a hunting buddy of Clark Gable's. Clark didn't like George Cukor...You know, Vivien was a bitch. All you heard is true. But understandably. She had to be. She had to fight back. They were killing her. She was in every scene of a movie that was heralded as amazing even as it was being filmed. They used her terribly. She worked endlessly. She and I stuck together. We were the women against all the men, but we seldom won. The hours and the working conditions were terrible, but what a joy. Looking back, it was the supreme joy.
[1999, on Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother ] I want to follow her example and live many years longer. I consider every birthday a victory.
To write is divine. Forget all the rest.
[in 1977] I think the lack of women's roles is due to the fact that everyone, men and women, have some idea of creating a 'new' kind of'modern' woman. They aren't interested in the fantasy of women anymore. Personally, I think women ruled from the first, and that we were better off not to let the men know about it. Movies should return to mystiques.
[1977, after living in Paris for 24 years] When I lived here [Hollywood] we were so impassioned with the movie business, and that's all we would talk about, and we would talk about finding a different world. I decided it wasn't enough to complain and feel restless. Now I have several sets of friends, and when I am in Paris, we never discuss movies; I don't have to think about work. I can think about other things. It's very rewarding to divide your life that way; it's gorgeous.
[2015, anticipating her hundredth birthday] Oh, I can't wait for it. I'm certainly relishing the idea of living a century. Can you imagine that? What an achievement.
[on Dodge City (1939)] I was in such a depressed state that I could hardly remember my lines.
[on being typecast] I wanted to do complex roles, like Melanie [ Gone with the Wind (1939)] for example, and Jack L. Warner saw me as an ingénue. I was really restless to portray more developed human beings. Jack never understood this, and he would give me roles that really had no character or quality in them. I knew I wouldn't even be effective.
[on Errol Flynn ] He never guessed I had a crush on him; it never occurred to me that he was smitten with me, too. I was deeply affected by him. It was impossible for me not to be.
[on preparing for her role in The Snake Pit (1948)] I met a young woman who was very much like Virginia, about the same age and physical description, as well as being a schizophrenic with guilt problems. What struck me most of all was the fact that she was rather likable and appealing. It hadn't occurred to me before that a mental patient could be appealing, and it was that that gave me the key to the performance.
[on Howard Hughes ] He was a rather shy man and yet, in a whole community where the men every day played heroes on the screen and didn't do anything heroic in life, here was this man who was a real hero.
[on her Gone with the Wind (1939) character] Melanie was someone different. She had very, deeply feminine qualities that I felt were very endangered at that time, and they are from generation to generation, and that somehow they should be kept alive, and that's why I wanted to interpret her role. The main thing is that she was always thinking of the other person, and the interesting thing to me is that she was a happy person - loving, compassionate.
[on John Huston ] John was a very great love of mine. He was a man I wanted to marry.
[on working with Errol Flynn on their eighth and final movie together, They Died with Their Boots On (1941)] Errol was quite sensitive. I think he knew it would be the last time we worked together.
[on her damehood] I am extremely honoured that the Queen has appointed me a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. To receive this honour as my 101st birthday approaches is the most gratifying of birthday presents.
[on her lawsuit regarding her portrayal in Feud (2017)] The creators of 'Feud' used my identity without my consent and put false words in my mouth, including having me publicly calling my sister, Joan Fontaine, a "bitch". The show was designed to make it look as if I said these things and acted this way. I feel strongly about it because when one person's rights can be trampled on this way, the rights of others who are more vulnerable can be abused as well. I have spent a good portion of my life defending the film industry. However, studios, which choose to chronicle the lives of real people, have a legal and moral responsibility to do so with integrity. They have a duty not to steal the value of an actor's identity for profit. I am fortunate to be able to be the standard bearer for other celebrities, who may not be in a position to speak out for themselves under similar circumstances.
Salary (4)An undercover call to a late-term abortion facility helps to shine a light on why some abortionists practice their grisly trade.
Priests for Life has released a recording of its latest undercover call, which was conducted by Tara Shaver of Abortion Free New Mexico.
The target for this eighth call in the undercover investigation was the Boulder Abortion Clinic, an abortion mill run by Dr. Warren Hern in Boulder, Colorado.
Shaver posed as a healthy woman wanting to abort a healthy baby at 30 weeks. “I've been going to the appointments and everything," she said, "but my husband and I just split up. I just don't want to continue the pregnancy now. So, I have like the estimated due date from the doctor and everything.”
“Okay,” replied the clinic employee.
Then Shaver got down to a serious discussion of whether Dr. Hern would handle the abortion and what the actual cost of the late-term abortion would be.
“Yes, [Dr. Hern] said that he would see you on the 28th (of November),” stated the clinic worker. “And it looks like you'll probably be about 32 weeks at that time, so the fee would likely be either $17,500 or $25,000."
Since late-term abortions are more difficult, and the potential danger to the mother dramatically increases, the cost could reach as high as $25,000.
Priests for Life contends most people do not know, or do not believe, abortions are actually being done on healthy women and babies that late into pregnancy.
Yet there are several locations in this country that do terminate babies at that stage, further suggesting awareness is the first step towards ending such travesties.Localized oxidative killing of tumor cells by glassy iron nanoparticles (Nanowerk News) Amorphous iron nanoparticles have a specific toxicity in tumor cells. In the journal Angewandte Chemie ("Synthesis of Iron Nanometallic Glasses and Their Application in Cancer Therapy by a Localized Fenton Reaction"), Chinese scientists describe their design and synthesis of a special amorphous state of nanoparticulate iron, which can locally release reactive iron species in the acidic and hydrogen peroxide rich environment of cancer cells, providing new possibilities for theranostics and chemodynamic therapies.
A Trojan Horse for Cancer Cells - Localized oxidative killing of tumor cells by glassy iron nanoparticles. (© Wiley-VCH)
Cancer cells are characterized by their relatively acidic cell environment and their production of significant amounts of hydrogen peroxide compared to healthy cells. Some chemodynamic approaches for cancer treatment thus employ the Fenton reaction, that is, iron ions reacting with the hydrogen peroxide to produce reactive oxygen species (ROS), which in turn can damage and destroy the cancer cells. However, the transport of iron ions to the target cells is problematic, and crystalline iron nanoparticles are not as effective.
Therefore, Jianlin Shi and Wenbo Bu and their groups at Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, in collaboration with Fudan University of Shanghai, China, have now prepared iron nanoparticles in an amorphous, glassy state. "Interestingly, the amorphous iron(0) nanoparticles present several unique physicochemical properties," the scientists write, and: "The results confirm that the amorphous iron nanoparticles, hydrogen peroxide, and acidic conditions act synergistically as nanotechnology to kill cancer cells."
In addition to their potential as drugs, other advantages are a good contrast for magnetic resonance imaging and the possibility of magnetic targeting. "Ideally, a perfect carrier should release its cargo at once when it is transferred from neutral to mildly acidic conditions, such as those in the tumor microenvironment," the authors write. Using magnetic resonance imaging, they proved by in vitro and in vivo tests that the anticipated mechanism was working.Hey there! I'm Lander, a Sky Artist for Tripmine Studios. In this blog, our heads will be in the clouds, explaining the work the sky-department of Tripmine Studios does. Leandro (another Sky Artist) and I will show some of the work that goes on behind the scenes.Skies are an important part of every environment, and at Tripmine we put extra care into this important part of the outdoor areas. The sky is not just another asset to fill the game environment with, we view it as the scenery that contains the whole game world. The sky plays an important role in the experience of the player. The right sky in the right place can make all the difference in the world.In all of our projects (Operation Black Mesa, Guard Duty and Uplink) we try to follow a timeline so every level has the right lighting and sky. This timeline was made with the information that was available through Half-Life, Opposing Force and Blue Shift. Every level needs a different type of sky, and every type of sky needs different types of clouds. Midday skies have typical fluffy sheep clouds (cumulus mediocris) and evening skies have those long hairy clouds (cirrus clouds). We try to keep the skies consistent with each other. When you are playing through our games, you will see the change in the weather match our different cloud types and environment lighting. We think that those subtle elements can make a game more immersive.Hey I'm Leandro and I work mostly on the Operation Black Mesa skies. I will give you a small tutorial about HDR skies in general. First, let me explain why almost every custom HDR skybox is not, in fact, HDR.When you create a HDR image and save it in the wrong way, all your HDR info will be lost. Most source mods save their skies as.jpeg or.png and export it to source. But will the image have the same quality as the original HDR? No. The color information is lost forever.See what happens? Saving a.bmp (LDR) image as.pfm (HDR) is like saving a.gif (256 colors) as.bmp (millions of colors): just a waste of disk space. If you create a HDR skybox doing this, the skybox will essentially be a LDR sky with no HDR information and none of its benefits. It will behave in game just like a LDR skybox.So why is almost every custom HDR skybox is not, in fact, HDR? It is because most people just save LDR images (.tga,.bmp) as a HDR format, like.pfm! If you are a perfectionist, you render your image and save them as High dynamic range (*.hdr) instead of as.tga.Making skies the correct way will make beautiful and true HDR skyboxes.We thank you for your time and hope we can make more Dev. Blog's in the future. Also a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!Good news for Saudi women may be very bad news for the country's army of chauffeurs.
Saudi Arabia announced Tuesday that it will lift a ban on women driving by June 2018. That will likely slash the demand for personal drivers, who are often employed to drive women to work.
According to the latest official data, 1.4 million men work as drivers for private households. That's one for every 23 Saudis, and most of them come from south Asia.
Saudi officials hope that the money women save on drivers -- on average $1,000 a month -- will remain in the local economy, rather than being sent as remittances to other countries.
Related: Women driving could rev up Saudi economy
Ride hailing apps such as Uber, and its big Middle East rival Careem, have recently offered women a cheaper alternative to hiring a private driver.
Both firms were quick to highlight the opportunities that the historic change would give women, rather than any loss of business.
"We're proud to have been able to provide extraordinary mobility for women in Saudi, and are excited by the economic opportunities this change could represent for them in the future," Uber said in a statement.
Women taxi drivers?
Careem, which already has 80,000 drivers in Saudi Arabia, said it hoped women would be among the 20,000 or so it is planning to recruit there over the next four years.
"We believe this recent announcement from Saudi with regard to women being able to obtain a driver's license is a golden opportunity for women to gain additional income and help [increase] women's participation in the workforce," it said.
And automakers were quick to see the potential upside of women needing their own cars.
Nissan (NSANF) tweeted: "Congratulations to all Saudi women who will now be able to drive. #SaudiWomenDrive."
While Ford (F) said "A momentous day for women in Saudi! Welcome to the driver's seat!"
Congratulations to all Saudi women who will now be able to drive. #SaudiWomenDrive pic.twitter.com/g3p8276rOr — Nissan Middle East (@NissanME) September 26, 2017
Saudi Arabia is the region's biggest car importer, with Toyota (TM) and Hyundai (HYMTF) claiming the biggest market shares.Under New Leadership: Alberta’s Headwaters
The Alberta NDP’s historic election win on May 5 ended a four-decade dynasty for Progressive Conservatives, ushering in a new political era in this perpetually blue province.
The Twitter-verse hummed with chatter long after the surprise election, with one happy tweeter, SONiC Boy Mike, capturing the glee of many Albertans this way: “The last time I was this excited to see an empire fall there were Ewoks dancing!”
But beyond the surprise and novelty of an orange Alberta, this election offers a new mandate and platform for change at a highly critical time—when shifts in Alberta’s environmental outlook could have implications far beyond the province. That has many conservation groups feeling excited to get down to business with the new government.
As part of its election platform, the NDP promised to strengthen environmental standards to protect Alberta’s land, water and air, and to spearhead new action on climate change. If acted upon, those promises could affect everything from the pace of oil-sands development—including government lobbying for new pipelines to export the volatile product—to more regional efforts for protecting threatened wildlife and natural habitat.
Several conservation groups, including Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative (Y2Y), have been advocating for years for improved land protections in Alberta’s headwaters—the mountainous and still-largely wild region that hugs the province’s western border. These landscapes provide critical wildlife corridors for diverse species to move throughout the Yellowstone to Yukon region, and clean water for millions of people downstream.
Y2Y’s efforts took on a new focus when the Government of Alberta announced a land-use planning process for all of the province’s watersheds. Although hashing out land-use plans can be as long and arduous as the uninspiring name suggests, it’s an enormously important undertaking—whatever is decided in these plans will greatly determine the future health of these invaluable ecosystems.
The first plan in the Yellowstone to Yukon region—the South Saskatchewan Regional Plan (SSRP), finalized in July 2014—encompasses all of southern Alberta, an area stretching from the headwaters of the Bow River to the Saskatchewan border.
“The SSRP plan failed to protect critical areas, which left in doubt its ability to resolve conflicts over land-use planning in the southern part of the province,” says Y2Y’s Interim President Wendy Francis. She identified the Castle Special Place, an important region for wildlife habitat and connectivity north of Waterton Lakes National Park, as one of those “critical areas” that was not sufficiently protected.
Although half the Castle region was protected in the plan, its failure to protect the entire species-rich region has remained a bone of contention for Y2Y and other conservation groups ever since the SSRP was approved. But with the NDP promising to protect the Castle in its election platform, hope remains that an important headwaters region for water and wildlife will now be conserved.
With the next plan in the process now underway—the North Saskatchewan Regional Plan (NSRP)—the focus turns to the North Saskatchewan watershed, which stretches from the Icefields in Banff National Park through Edmonton, across the Saskatchewan border and beyond. As with the SSRP, Y2Y and other groups are calling for a final plan that safeguards water sources while preserving critical wildlife habitat and corridors.
“When the public comment period for the NSRP gets underway, Albertans will have an opportunity to advocate for greater flood protection while securing the source of water for millions of people,” says Sarah Cox, Y2Y’s Senior Conservation Program Manager and head of the Alberta Headwaters project.
The North Saskatchewan watershed derives 90 percent of its flow from the Order Bighorn Wildland, one of the few roadless areas remaining in Alberta’s foothills. The Bighorn is prime habitat for multiple species, including grizzlies, elk and bighorn sheep, and offers a link for wildlife moving between Banff and Jasper National Parks and other wilderness areas.
“Thirty years ago, the Alberta government promised permanent protection for the Bighorn,” says Cox. “The NSRP offers a golden opportunity to fulfil that long-standing promise.”
The fledgling NDP government will be hard pressed to move quickly on all these environmental files—especially an already slow-moving provincial land-use planning process. But Albertans voted for change in this election, which could lead to environmental gains in a province long in need of them.
UPDATE: The NDP came through! After more than 40 years of dedicated efforts from Albertans, as of September, 2015, the entire Castle Special Place has been protected as Wildland and Provincial Park, adding over 1000 km2 to the protected areas network in our beautiful province. Read the announcement here.
To learn more about the importance of protecting the Alberta Headwaters and how you can make your voice heard, visit the Y2Y website.
Fraser Los Fraser is a writer and editor based in Canmore, AB. He has received three National Magazine Awards for his feature articles, which have been published in several publications, including Canadian Geographic and Maisonneuve. Fraser currently manages communications for the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative and is online editor for thegreenpages.ca.
(Visited 668 times, 1 visits today)Hello there fellow twisted tourists, it’s Thakgore and today I bring you a review of the upcoming horror comedy, “Welcome to Willits”. This movie is definitely something different, I can tell you that right off the bat. It wears many hats during it’s short run time, but the one thing it certainly was not was boring. So sit back and let’s take a trip together to the Emerald Triangle of California and hope we are….
Directed by Trevor Ryan, and written by his brother Tim Ryan, “Welcome to Willits” is the most original take on the classic slasher formula I’ve seen since “Tucker and Dale vs Evil”. The story involves a group of doomed “teens” who are traveling into the woods searching for some hot springs to frolic around in. They run up on some local pot farmers on a meth binge who are convinced they are being besieged by aliens. The meth-heads are intent on protecting their pot farm at all costs and vow to bring bloody retribution to the “aliens” they are at war with. Sounds nutty huh? It absolutely is.
The charm of this movie is in the unbridled comic insanity that pervades nearly every frame. I found myself laughing out loud many times at the sharp dialogue and visual gags. |
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Registration required: No
Gallery size: Large | Medium | Small
Attribution Required: No attribution required, but it is appreciated.
Resolution: Low| Medium| High
Source: Visualhaunt
Every photo at PhotoRack is free to use for individual and business venture.
You do not find any limitations and backlink needed to use them.
Benefits:
Photo available free of cost
Allows to use photo for both commercial and personal use
No backlink needed
Search Feature: No
Registration required: No
Gallery size: Large | Medium | Small
Attribution Required: Attribution appreciated, but not a necessity.
Resolution: Low| Medium| High
Source: Photorack
Established in 2001 by Jim Unprofound holds the collection of cover art sorted the images aligned with the basic colours.
Benefits:
Highest quality images
You do not have to register to access the images
Photos available to accomplish different venture
Search Feature: Yes
Registration required: No
Gallery size: Large | Medium | Small
Attribution Required: Attribution appreciated, but not a necessity.
Resolution: Low| Medium| High
Source: Unprofound
All the photos of TwicePix are licensed under a Creative commons license. The website allows you to copy, share and transfer the images for free of cost.
Benefits
Available in different languages
Allows you to attribute the work as specified by the licensor or author
Search Feature: Yes
Registration required: No
Gallery size: Large | Medium | Small
Attribution Required: Yes
Resolution: Low| Medium| High
Source: TwicePix
Cepolina is one of the leading stock free image website designed especially for travel and nature. All the 20000 images are usually available in five formats and they are thumbnail 64X48, mobile phone wallpaper 150X113, small screen 640X480, medium screen 1024X1068, and wider screen 1280X960.
This website is available in overall 19 languages
Allows you to download the image in 7 different sizes
Search Feature: Yes
Registration required: No
Gallery size: Large | Medium | Small
Attribution Required: Yes
Resolution: Low| Medium| High
Source: Cepolina
Little Visuals offers seven highest resolution photos every seven days. Although a small gallery, you can acquire maximum moody, atmosphere images and textures on Little Visuals. Also, the website lets you download various photos in zipping format.
Benefits:
Allows you to download 7 images in an easy zip format
Updates high-resolution photos every 7 days
Highest quality photos
Search Feature: No
Registration required: Yes
Gallery size: Large | Medium | Small
Attribution Required: No
Resolution: Low| Medium| High
Source: Little visuals
Startup stock contains Small sized gallery and the images are mostly allied to business and tech. You can get the image without membership and attribution. The images are especially used for social media when you share links to content like a proficient blog post.
Benefits:
Good-looking high-resolution stock photos
Ideal for a tech related site
Focused on start-up photography
Search Feature: No
Registration required: No
Gallery size: Large | Medium | Small
Attribution Required: No
Resolution: Low| Medium| High
Source: Startup stocks
Fotolia counts on the Image bank that offers quick access to more than 61 million images, vectors, graphics, illustrations and video clips for websites, brochures, reports, and slides with reasonably priced, royalty-free.
Benefits:
Royalty-free images
Provides instant access to above 61 million images
Search Feature: Yes
Registration required: No
Gallery size: Large | Medium | Small
Attribution Required: No
Resolution: Low| Medium| High
In real, Unsplash is the original, and Re:splashed is a hack for Unsplash. Here you can get HD photos free of cost for your web and design venture without membership, particularly landscape, lifestyle and portrait photography.
Benefits
You can download HD images for your graphics work and any kind of usage
Released under Creative common public domain license
Search Feature: Yes
Registration required: No
Gallery size: Large | Medium | Small
Attribution Required: No
Resolution: Low| Medium| High
Source: Re:splashed
StokPic is initiated by photographer Ed Gregory. The images attribution of the website is incredibly valued even though it is not necessary. Here, you can find 100% free images for any reason but strictly forbidden for sale.
If you are looking for free photos based foods then Foodiesfeed is always there for your help. The website was owned by Jakub in April 2014 as a personal venture to share his novice food photos with the globe.
Benefits
Remarkable lifestyle photography
Simple and easy navigation
New images are added on the daily basis
Search Feature: Yes
Registration required: No
Gallery size: Large | Medium | Small
Attribution Required: Not required but requested in a pleasing manner.
Resolution: Low| Medium| High
If you are looking for free photos based foods then Foodiesfeed is always there for your help. The website was owned by Jakub in April 2014 as a personal venture to share his novice food photos with the globe.
Benefits
Illustrative images
Ideal for foodies blogs or food related website
Makes use of trendy overhead stock images
Search Feature: Yes
Registration required: No
Gallery size: Large | Medium | Small
Attribution Required: Not required but requested
Resolution: Low| Medium| High
Bucketlistly contains the list of high-quality images based travel. It is a free creative common gathering of travel images that can be used by anyone. They offer you an option to make everything you do on BucketListly private.
Benefits:
Ideal for travel websites
Free highest quality stock images
Allows you to share and embed list with no trouble
Search Feature: No
Registration required: No
Gallery size: Large | Medium | Small
Attribution Required: Yes
Resolution: Low| Medium| High
Getrefe facilitates its users with good-looking, natural architectural and landscape photos with no categories of Europe even though the complete website is not for free.
Benefits
You do not have to worry about attribution
Images rich of resolution
Search Feature: No
Registration required: No
Gallery size: Large | Medium | Small
Attribution Required: No
Resolution: Low| Medium| High
Source: Getrefe
In Free Photos Bank, you can find the searchable database with Small thumbnails, the number of categories and compatible browsing. You can also download here without login.
Benefits:
Widely categorised with various ways to search
Lets you download without login details
Search Feature: Yes
Registration required: No
Gallery size: Large | Medium | Small
Attribution Required: No
Resolution: Low| Medium| High
Source: Free Photos bank
In Albumarium you can get and share images. The website also allows you to search high-resolution images for both personal and commercial purpose without worrying about membership but make sure you check copyright privileges earlier than you use.
Benefits:
Resolution and quality wealthy images
No membership required
Allows the images for both business and personal use
Search Feature: Yes
Registration required: No
Gallery size: Large | Medium | Small
Attribution Required: Yes
Resolution: Low| Medium| High
In Foter, you can get more than 200 million photos. And, in this library, so there is high probability finding your search. There is the choice to copy the code to embed the images in your blog post and a WordPress plugin is also accessible.
Benefits
Searchable action
Membership not necessary
High resolution and large size of gallery
Search Feature: Yes
Registration required: No
Gallery size: Large | Medium | Small
Attribution Required: Yes
Resolution: Low| Medium| High
The new old stock website is a nostalgic storehouse. The website allows to catch gracious old school vintage photos here and utilised free of known copyright restrictions.
Benefits
Completely copyright restriction
The website facilitates you with old rare Images
Search Feature: Yes
Registration required: No
Gallery size: Large | Medium | Small
Attribution Required: No
Resolution: Low| Medium| High
Source: New old stock
Pick up image is the gateway to the free registration and the website facilitates you with high resolution free public domain images that are more focused on the environmental and outdoor-related scene.
Benefits
Free download high-quality premium free stock images, public domain photos.
Allows to update, copy, share and carry out the work for business use without the permission
Search Feature: Yes
Registration required: Yes
Gallery size: Large | Medium | Small
Attribution Required: No
Resolution: Low| Medium| High
Source: Pickup image
Free stock image website Wylio is a simple to utilise Creative Commons image finder. Also, Wylio takes help from the Flickr API to occupy its search returns.
Benefits:
Membership is necessary
Image rich qualities
Free for basic search as well as functionality
Search Feature: Yes
Registration required: Yes
Gallery size: Large | Medium | Small
Attribution Required: Sometimes
Resolution: Low| Medium| High
Source: Wylio
123RF is a well-liked royalty free resource that provides more than 35 million photos, audio, videos, and vectors for a fee.
Besides, the free library inventory shifts continuously. So, if you see a photo that you admire, download it earlier than it runs out.
Benefits:
Intelligent search engine
Registration with no charge
Rich of royalty free image sources
Search Feature: Yes
Registration required: Yes
Gallery size: Large | Medium | Small
Attribution Required: Yes
Resolution: Low| Medium| High
Source: 123rf.com
One of the leading image communities 500px holds impressive high-quality images and marketplace for discovering, sharing, buying, and selling exciting images. The images you find on 500px are not free to employ.
Benefits:
Get explore the images easily
Images rich of resolution and quality
Search Feature: Yes
Registration required: No
Gallery size: Large | Medium | Small
Attribution Required: Yes
Resolution: Low| Medium| High
Source: 500px
If you are willing to share inspirational quotes or great one-liner through social media or you look for a fine-looking background and breathtaking slider then website Pablo is always there for you.
It is like an app or tool that allows the users to upload their own image and add some text as well.
Benefits
Easiest way to develop engaging social media image
Allows you to share straight in social media
Lets you insert text in the website
Search feature: Yes
Registration required: N0
Attribution Required: Yes if necessary
Size of Gallery: Large | Medium | Small
Resolution: Low| Medium | High
Ancestryimage contains royalty free stock photos of traditional prints of significance to historians, students and family history researchers.
Also, the website is the free image resource for historians, genealogists and anyone who is involved in family history, ancestry or local history research.
Benefits:
Contains more than 31,100 photos of ancient and traditional maps, prints and more.
You can find high-quality image here
Search feature: Yes
Registration required: Yes
Attribution Required: Yes
Size of Gallery: Large | Medium | Small
Resolution: Low| Medium | High
Source: A ncestryimage
Freemediagoo contains quality free stock background and photos. You can get them for free. The website is particularly dedicated to the one who is unable to afford more budgets for high-resolution photos.
Benefits:
Images are available for free
You do not have to struggle signing up for image
Search feature: No
Registration required: No
Attribution Required: Yes
Size of Gallery: Large | Medium | Small
Resolution: Low| Medium | High
Source: Freemediagoo
Hubspot is truly an inbound marketing platform software platform helping lots of business to influence visitors, switch leads and make their business admired by the customers.
Even though the website is a marketing platform it facilitates their customer with free images in exchange for your email details.
Benefits:
Helps your website turn into market attracting maximum number of users
Here you can get large number of images that includes the photos of Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas and New Year
Search feature: No
Registration required: Yes
Attribution Required: Sometimes
Size of Gallery: Large | Medium | Small
Resolution: Low| Medium | High
Source: Hubspot
In Jeshoots, you can discover and share photos free of copyrights instantly. The website allows you to copy, update, share and use the photos without worrying about permission and attribution.
Benefits:
Photos available for both business and personal use
Highest quality and resolution images available
Search feature: By category
Registration required: No
Attribution Required: No
Size of Gallery: Large | Medium | Small
Resolution: Low| Medium | High
Photo pin lets you search as well as download the images devoid of leaving the Photo Pin website. You receive attribution links after you download the images.
Benefits
Useful for bloggers to find images for their blog and makes including them to their post fast and simple
Simple and easy navigation
Search feature: Yes
Registration required: No
Attribution Required: Yes (HTML code given)
Size of Gallery: Large | Medium | Small
Resolution: Low| Medium | High
Source: Photo Pin
Freepik benefits their users with the highest quality graphic design that are selected by the expert design teams to make sure the content are used for both business and commercial purpose.
Benefits:
Offers exclusive illustration and graphic resources carefully
Free vector, images and you can check for image license as well
Search feature: Yes
Registration required: Yes
Attribution Required: Yes
Size of Gallery: Large | Medium | Small
Resolution: Low| Medium | High
Source: Freepik
Free stock image website Photober provides free high-resolution stock images for individual and business purpose.
Benefits
Signup is not necessary to download images
Images rich of quality
Search feature: Yes
Registration required: No
Attribution Required: Yes
Size of Gallery: Large | Medium | Small
Resolution: Low| Medium | High
Source: Photober
Are you looking for car photos?
If yes, do not waste your time just browse Carpictures. The website offers different images without registration.
Benefits
Facilitates to search Cars by Nameplate
You do not have to worry about navigation
Search feature: Only by nameplate
Registration required: No
Attribution Required: Depends on image
Size of Gallery: Large | Medium | Small
Resolution: Low| Medium | High
Source: Carpictures
Texture offers background and upshot for artist, designer, game developer, and other design experts. You have to login to download an image.
Benefits:
Offers digital images for every kind of materials
Download 15 free photos per day
Search feature: Yes
Registration required: Yes
Attribution Required: Depends on image
Size of Gallery: Large | Medium | Small
Resolution: Low| Medium | High
Source: Textures
You must have guessed what the website is about through the name Animalphoto. Of course, here you can get free images of different types of creatures.
Benefits:
To download, you do not have to sign-up. Browse and save.
High-quality photos available
Search feature: Yes
Registration required: No
Attribution Required: Yes (HTML code provided)
Size of Gallery: Large | Medium | Small
Resolution: Low| Medium | High
Source: Animalphoto
Minimography offers nature and lifestyle based images without any charge. Browse, search, and download images to use for personal or commercial purposes.
Benefits:
You do not have to worry about attribution or sign up
Even though search box is not available it allows you to search by number, format, images and category
Lets you download royalty-free simple images
Search feature: No but can find via tag, category, format and more
Registration required: No
Attribution Required: Not required by appreciated
Size of Gallery: Large | Medium | Small
Resolution: Low| Medium | High
Skitterphoto is very clear and frank website regarding the contents. All the photos you get there are free and licensed under CC0. This indicates the website have no copyright restriction. Crediting is not necessary for their contents, but appreciated.
Benefits:
No registration required
Instant browse, search and download image
Credit not compulsory yet appreciated
Search feature: Yes
Registration required: No
Attribution Required: Not required by appreciated
Size of Gallery: Large | Medium | Small
Resolution: Low| Medium | High
Ultra HD Wallpapers benefits their users with free stock images to carry out the personal and commercial venture. The website also lets users download those high-quality photos without the registration.
Benefits:
Easy navigation
High-quality image
Search feature: Yes
Registration required: No
Attribution Required: Yes
Size of Gallery: Large | Medium | Small
Resolution: Low| Medium | High
Source: Ultra HD Wallpapers
FreeFoto.com holds almost 132,549 photos managed into 183 sections and 3640 categories. The website allows the users to utilise the photos for free yet crediting and link back is compulsory.
Benefits:
Provides image with email address submission
Easy and simple navigation design
Search feature: Yes
Registration required: No
Attribution Required: Yes
Size of Gallery: Large | Medium | Small
Resolution: Low| Medium | High
Source: Free foto
Royal free stock image website A Digital dreamer provides free photos and you do not have to add a link back or credit. You just need to select and save the image without sign in.
Benefits:
Sign in not necessary
Website rich of images and categories
Search feature: No
Registration required: No
Attribution Required: No
Size of Gallery: Large | Medium | Small
Resolution: Low| Medium | High
Source: A digital dreamer
Free stock image website Pdphoto.org is a good platform to get free photos for your website, social media or blog posts. You can get images from here without signing up.
Benefits:
Storehouse for free public domain images
Rich of high-quality images
Search feature: No
Registration required: No
Attribution Required: Yes
Size of Gallery: Large | Medium | Small
Resolution: Low| Medium | High
Source: pdphoto
Studio25 holds a sensibly good collection of free images, but you have to sign-up to acquire them.
Benefits:
Great categories of free images
Easy to explore
Search feature: Yes
Registration required: Yes
Attribution Required: Depends on the individual image
Size of Gallery: Large | Medium | Small
Resolution: Low| Medium | High
Photo Everywhere website has high-resolution images of the different attractive site. The website also allows downloading photos on this website without signing up.
Also, the website search facility employs Google search technology to get the photos you are looking for without difficulty.
Benefits:
More than 3000 travel stock images
Registration or subscription not compulsory
Free download instantly
Un-watermarked high resolution and web resolution photos
Search feature: Yes
Registration required: No
Attribution Required: Yes
Size of Gallery: Large | Medium | Small
Resolution: Low| Medium | High
Source: Photo everywhere
Realistic Shots uploads seven fresh images every seven days which are free to use. Sign-up is not compulsory and the images are licensed under Creative Common Zero which lets you update, copy, share and use the images for commercial use as well.
Benefits:
Images can be used for business purpose
Uploads fresh images regularly
Search feature: Yes
Registration required: No
Attribution Required: Not required but appreciated
Size of Gallery: Large | Medium | Small
Resolution: Low| Medium | High
Source: Realistic shots
Free royalty free image website Fontplay.com offers images taken by its creator and volunteer. You can explore the site to browse, search and save images in your device.
Benefits:
No login required
Photos from group of organiser and volunteers
Search feature: No
Registration required: No
Attribution Required: Depends on the images
Size of Gallery: Large | Medium | Small
Resolution: Low| Medium | High
The website Texturer facilitates with texture, background, and other graphic resources for both newbie and experienced designers. You can utilise these contents without worrying about the price and login details.
Benefits:
You will get a growing storehouse of the highest quality texture image.
For ease of use, the textures are arranged into categories and subcategories.
Search feature: Yes
Registration required: No
Attribution Required: Depends on the images
Size of Gallery: Large | Medium | Small
Resolution: Low| Medium | High
Established in 1990 by Micheal Jastremski, the photo sharing platform OpenPhoto provides their photos free of cost under terms of Creative Commons License.
Benefits:
Easy to browse and navigation
Rich of categories
Search feature: Yes
Registration required: No
Attribution Required: Depends on the images
Size of Gallery: Large | Medium | Small
Resolution: Low| Medium | High
NYC website is committed to sharing photographs of New York City. Also, the images can be used for free by crediting the author.
Benefits:
Sign-up not necessary
High-Quality images
Search feature: Yes
Registration required: No
Attribution Required: Depends on the images
Size of Gallery: Large | Medium | Small
Resolution: Low| Medium | High
Abstract Influence benefits the users with free images downloads without worrying about the login. You can find their forum as well.
Benefits:
Allows you to upload images on this website
No membership required
Search feature: Yes
Registration required: No
Attribution Required: Depends on the images
Size of Gallery: Large | Medium | Small
Resolution: Low| Medium | High
Bossfight is dedicated to share images of New York City. And, you can use them for free by giving the credits.
Benefits:
Sign-up not required
Images by committed group of expert photographers
Search feature: No
Registration required: No
Attribution Required: Yes
Size of Gallery: Large | Medium | Small
Resolution: Low| Medium | High
Fancy Crave is royalty free stock image website useful for both newbie and expert designers along with publishers for their graphic requirements. Users don’t have to sign up to download free contents from this website.
Benefits:
Not necessary to create an account
Image holds high quality
Search feature: Yes
Registration required: No
Attribution Required: No
Size of Gallery: Large | Medium | Small
Resolution: Low| Medium | High
Image temple doesn’t provide the user with a big deal of images, but the website is valued trying as it has some good-looking nature photos.
Benefits:
No registration required for download
Easy to explore and search images
Search feature: Yes
Registration required: No
Attribution Required: Depends on the image
Size of Gallery: Large | Medium | Small
Resolution: Low| Medium | High
The website MadeinMoments is initiated by the team who has three members and they are Tomy, Marina and Ruby. They love to eat, take images, and write hipster diaries.
During their travel, they came across the idea to share the images instead of storing them in a hard drive only.
Benefits:
Provides you free images based on travel and food
Images of different places and categories
Search feature: No
Registration required: No
Attribution Required: Depends on the image
Size of Gallery: Large | Medium | Small
Resolution: Low| Medium | High
Streetwill comes with a big deal of travel, the standard of living and food images. They provide you free to use images under CC1.0. You can explore the website and get the image you need.
Benefits:
You do not worry about the quality image
Offers you the images with easy navigation
Search feature: Yes
Registration required: No
Attribution Required: Yes
Size of Gallery: Large | Medium | Small
Resolution: Low| Medium | High
Bajstock offers free original image for your individual or business purpose. You only have to browse the website and download the photos.
Benefits:
No registration needed
Images can be used for both commercial as well as personal projects
Search feature: Yes
Registration required: No
Attribution Required: Depends on the image
Size of Gallery: Large | Medium | Small
Resolution: Low| Medium | High
Image search engine TinEye helps you to find the image with a sample image upload or a link to the target photo.
Benefits:
Self-funded and fiercely independent company
Facilitates with image search and recognition solution to the searching image is the key mission
Search feature: Yes
Registration required: No
Attribution Required: Depends on the image
Size of Gallery: Large | Medium | Small
Resolution: Low| Medium | High
Established in 2001, the website Creativity offers free textures, background, and art pieces to encourage both newbie and experienced designers.
Benefits:
No registration required
Provides the image free of cost under creative commons license
Search feature: Yes
Registration required: No
Attribution Required: Depend on the image
Size of Gallery: Large | Medium | Small
Resolution: Low| Medium | High
You must have guessed by the title.
Yes, Free Pixels provides free images for individual or business use.
Benefit:
You do not have to create an account
High-quality image for both commercial and individual projects
Search feature: Yes
Registration required: No
Attribution Required: Based on the image
Size of Gallery: Large | Medium | Small
Resolution: Low| Medium | High
This site Stick Stock Photos contains a great collection of striking photos managed into various groups.
Benefits:
You do not have to sign-up to download the image
Image rich of categories
Search feature: Yes
Registration required: No
Attribution Required: Depends on the image
Size of Gallery: Large | Medium | Small
Resolution: Low| Medium | High
Wrapping Up,
I hope you got some Royalty Free Stock Images that adds fuel to you Commercial and personal venture. If you think I’ve missed any of the websites apart from the above, please let me know in the comment box below.When Caila Quinn first appeared on The Bachelor for Ben Higgin's season, everyone and their mother thought the same thing, "This girl should win based on her hair alone." Her long brown curls perpetually looked perfect. Even during deep-sea fishing and on farm dates, not a shiny strand was out of place. And when she returned to our TV screens for Bachelor in Paradise, you guessed it, her hair still looked damn good when she was outside all day in the humidity. Lucky for all of us, Caila Quinn spilled her hair secrets to Allure. We recently chatted with the 25-year-old to find out which products she can't (and can) live without, what curling iron she uses, and what tips she picked up from Jojo Fletcher and Becca Tilley.
The key to flawless hair is her blow-drying technique.
Before Quinn curls her hair, she blow dries it using a technique she calls "bookends." First, she starts with her bangs and the crown of her head to add volume. Then, she blow dries her ends. After that, she does the middle. Why? "This keeps the middle smooth, but also gives the top and the bottom some bounce," Quinn tells Allure. Then, she takes her time curling her hair, starting with the bottom layer working her way to the top.
Save these ideas for later—and follow Allure on Pinterest!
Her hair routine hasn't changed since high school.
Yup, she's a woman of consistency. Before Quinn appeared on national television in hopes of winning the heart of Ben H., she used the same curling iron, shampoo, and conditioner she's using right now. "I've used the same one-and-a-quarter-inch barrel from Conair for almost 10 years," Quinn says. That's right, her now-famous curls have been a decade in the making, and she taught herself how to do them all on her own. "I would always just practice and curl," she says. "I never watched tutorials, but I knew what worked well for me."
Her love of Biolage shampoo and conditioner hasn't changed either. "The same one I use now is the same one I used on The Bachelor and in high school," she admits. "I have always loved the scent and the luxury feel of them." And in case you were wondering, she only uses the conditioner on her ends twice a week.
Of course, she has a ride-or-die hair product.
She's been using her all-time favorite, moisture product since high school, too. "Once a week, I deep-condition all of my hair—except the roots—with
," Quinn says. Not only is it inexpensive, it's also keeps her hair on point. "Whether it's a date in Jamaica or on the beaches of Paradise or traveling in Switzerland, it keeps my ends smooth and my hair healthy," she says.
When it was time for her to pack for The Bachelor, she made sure to bring enough to last her until the last rose ceremony. "I was like, 'It'll be a red alert emergency if I run out of Aussie 3 Minute Miracle,'" she recounts. "They tell you that you can't shop or anything, so basically I brought one bottle per month I think, even though one bottle can last you three months."
You probably won't guess what she doesn't use.
"I think my hair secret is, I don't use too many products," Quinn says. "I like the airiness of not using too much. I'm a firm believer in never using hairspray because I find it really clumpy and kind of synthetic looking." Instead, she lightly sprays on Not Your Mother's Double Take Dry Finish Texture Spray before and after curling her hair. "I find that it reduces frizz," she says.One of the most popular guaranteed loan available is guaranteed personal loans that offer you quick loan deals easily. Top payday loans are meant for timely completion of routine works or timely payment towards various expenses. Such loans are designed to meet any of your valid needs quickly when you need it most.
Such loans guarantee that credit score will only have a limited influence on the decisions of approval. That is why it is called a guaranteed loan. The terms and requirements are made available to the borrower beforehand. Hence, the borrower knows the requirements he has to meet and to make sure that the credit score is above the minimum required. The loan approval is guaranteed if the borrower meets all the requirements given to him beforehand by the lender.
Guaranteed loans are also designed for would be borrowers who have not so good credit history and need urgent funds to put his matters in order. You can avail of these loans even if you had a past history bankruptcy, provided it is not happening now. However, the terms for approval wont be the same ones as those offered to people with a better or good credit rating.
Guaranteed online personal loans support your financial requirements with amount up to $1000. While approving your loan request for any amount, a lender will look for presence of collateral, your credit score and employment details. The lending policy of each lender also affects the interest rate, size of the loan amount, duration of the loan and repayment schedule. Depending upon the loan amount repayment term can go up to 10 years without collateral and up to 30 years in presence of security. The |
to one another, for example, Cause number 1 for a given problem can be avoided by Prevention number 1 for that same problem.
I hope you find it useful.
Klaus
BLEEDING
Condition:
A change in color of the paint that results from the pigment, or other colored material in the surface beneath the coating, moving upward into the applied film and becoming visible.
Cause:
1. Contamination, in the form of soluble dyes or pigments (especially red), on the older finish before it was repainted.
2. Wrong thinner or reducer - too slow.
Prevention:
1. Thoroughly clean the areas to be painted before and after sanding, especially when applying lighter colors over darker colors. Avoid using lighter colors over older shades of red without applying a sealer first.
2. Select the thinner or reducer most suitable for existing shop conditions.
Remedy:
Apply a sealer before reapplying the color coat.
BLISTERING
Condition:
Bubbles or pimples that appear in the topcoat film, sometimes months after application.
Cause:
1. Improper surface cleaning or preparation. Dirt left on the surface can act as a sponge and hold moisture. When temperature or atmospheric pressure increases, the moisture expands and builds up pressure, resulting in blisters.
2. Wrong thinner or reducer. Use of a fast-dry thinner or reducer, especially when the material is sprayed too dry or at an excessive pressure, can result in air or moisture being trapped in the film.
3. Excessive film thickness. Insufficient drying time between coats or too heavy an application of the undercoats can trap solvents that later escape and blister the color coat.
4. Contamination of compressed air lines with oil, water or dirt.
Prevention:
1. Thoroughly clean the areas to be painted before and after sanding. Ensure all surfaces are dry before applying coatings. Avoid touching the cleaned area with your bare hands to prevent skin oil from contaminating the surface.
2. Select the thinner or reducer most suitable for existing shop conditions.
3. Allow proper drying time for undercoats and topcoats. Be sure to let each coat flash before applying the next coat.
4. Drain and clean air pressure regulator and drain air compressor tank daily.
Remedy:
In mild cases, the blisters can be sanded out, and refinished. If damage is severe, the paint must be removed down to the undercoat or substrate, depending on the depth of the blisters, and then refinished.
BLUSHING
Condition:
A milky white haze that appears on the paint film.
Cause:
1. In hot humid weather, moisture droplets become trapped in the wet paint film. Air currents from the spray gun, spray booth ventilation, and evaporation of the thinner tend to make the surface being sprayed lower in temperature than the surrounding atmosphere. This causes moisture in the air to condense on the wet paint film.
2. Excessive air pressure.
3. Wrong thinner - too fast.
4. Low temperatures of the part, paint, and spray booth air, increase the chance of dropping below the dew point.
Prevention:
1. In hot humid weather try to schedule painting when temperature and humidity conditions are more suitable (70 deg. F, 45%-55% RH).
2. Use proper gun adjustments and techniques.
3. Select a thinner that is suitable for existing shop conditions.
4. Allow parts, and paints to reach normal temperature. See also #1.
Remedy:
Add a retarder to the thinned color and apply additional coats.
CHALKING
Condition:
A formation on the finish of pigment powder that is no longer held by the binder, producing a dull look
Cause:
1. Wrong thinner or reducer affecting topcoat durability.
2. Poorly mixed materials.
3. Paint film too thin.
4. Excessive mist coats when finishing or refinishing metallic color applications.
Prevention:
1. Select the thinner or reducer that is best suited for existing shop conditions.
2. Stir all pigmented undercoats and topcoats thoroughly.
3. Meet or slightly exceed minimum film thickness specification.
4. Apply metallic color as evenly as possible so that misting is not required. When mist coats are necessary to even out the flake, avoid using straight reducer.
Remedy:
Remove surface in affected area by sanding, clean and refinish.
CHECKING (LINE CHECKING)
Condition:
Similar to cracking, except that the lines or cracks are more parallel and range from very short up to about 18 inches.
Cause:
1. Excessive film thickness.
2. Improper surface preparation.
Prevention:
1. Avoid piling on topcoats. Allow sufficient flash and dry time. Do not dry by gun fanning.
2. Thoroughly clean the areas to be painted before and after sanding. Ensure the surface is completely dry before applying undercoats and topcoats.
Remedy:
Remove topcoat down to the primer and apply new topcoat.
CHECKING (MICRO-CHECKING)
Condition:
Appears as severe dulling of the film, but when examined with a magnifying glass, it contains many small cracks that do not touch. Micro-checking is an indication that cracking or crazing may develop.
Remedy:
Remove the topcoat down to primer and apply new topcoat
CRACKING
Condition:
A series of deep cracks resembling cracks in a dry pond, often going all the way through the topcoat and undercoat
Cause:
1. Excessive film thickness that magnifies normal stresses and strains in the paint film
2. Poorly mixed materials.
3. Insufficient flash time.
4. Incorrect use of additive.
Prevention:
1. Allow sufficient flash and dry time between coats. Do not dry the coatings by gun fanning.
2. Thoroughly mix all materials. Add fish eye eliminator as a preventative measure.
3. Same as 1.
4. Use only additives designed for the final paint film.
Remedy:
Sand the affected areas to a depth below the damage, and refinish.
CRAZING
Condition:
Fine splits, small cracks, or crowsfeet, that completely checker an area in an irregular manner.
Cause:
1. Shop too cold, literally causing the original material to shatter under the softening action of the solvents being applied.
Prevention:
1. Select the correct thinner or reducer for existing shop conditions. Schedule painting to avoid temperature and humidity extremes in the shop; bring the part to room temperature before painting.
Remedy:
1. Apply wet coats of the topcoat with the wettest thinner shop conditions will allow, to melt the crazing and flow the pattern together.
2. Apply a fast-flashing topcoat to bridge over the cracks in the crazing area.
FEATHEREDGE SPLITTING
Condition:
Appears as stretch marks or cracking along the edge of a refinished area (featheredge); occurs during or shortly after a new topcoat application
Cause:
1. Piling on the undercoat causes solvent to become trapped in undercoat layers that have not had time to set-up.
2. Poor mixing of materials, causes the paint to act like a sponge. As the solvent flashes the finish shrinks and pulls away from the refinished area.
3. Wrong thinner.
4. Improper surface cleaning or preparation. When not properly cleaned, primer-surfacer coats draw away from the edge because of poor adhesion.
5. Improper drying. Fanning with a spray gun after the primer-surfacer is applied results in drying the surface before solvent or air from the lower layers is released.
6. Excessive use and buildup of putty during the refinishing process.
Prevention:
1. Apply primer-surfacer in thin to medium coats with enough time between coats to allow solvents and air to escape.
2. Mix all materials thoroughly.
3. Select only thinners that are suitable for existing shop conditions.
4. Thoroughly clean areas to be painted before and after sanding.
5. Same as #1.
6. Lacquer putty should be used in minimum amounts, applied in thin layers. Putty applied too heavily will eventually shrink and cause featheredge splitting.
Remedy:
Remove finish from the affected areas and refinish.
FISH EYES
Condition:
Small crater-like openings in the finish
Causes:
1. Improper surface cleaning or preparation, usually involving deposits of silicone or wax on the surface of the old topcoat.
2. Effects of an old finish with embedded silicone that is not removable by solvent wiping.
3. Oil contamination of air lines.
Prevention:
1. Remove all traces of silicone or wax by thoroughly cleaning with a product designed for this purpose.
2. Add fish eye eliminator to the topcoat.
3. Drain and clean the air pressure regulator daily.
Remedy:
After the affected coat has set up, apply a double coat of color containing the recommended amount of fish eye eliminator. In severe cases, the affected area should be sanded down and refinished.
LIFTING
Condition:
Distortion or shriveling of the surface while the topcoat is being applied or drying.
Cause:
1. Incompatible materials. Solvents in the new topcoat attack the old surface, e.g., lacquer over enamel.
2. Insufficient flash time or drying between coats.
3. Improper surface cleaning or preparation.
4. Wrong thinner or reducer.
Prevention:
1. Use only materials that are compatible with the old surface, and designed for use with one another.
2. Don't pile on topcoats. Allow sufficient flash and drying time. Topcoats should be applied when the previous coat is still soluble or after it has completely dried and is impervious to the topcoat solvents.
3. Thoroughly clean the areas to be painted before and after sanding. Ensure the surface is completely dry before applying undercoats and topcoats.
4. Use a thinner or reducer that is recommended for the topcoat being applied and is suitable for existing shop conditions.
Remedy:
Remove the finish from the affected area and refinish.
MOTTLING
Condition:
A stripped or spotty appearance in metallic paints caused by the flakes floating together in the paint film
Causes:
1. Wrong thinner or reducer.
2. Poor mixing of materials.
3. Spraying too wet.
4. Spraying too close to the part.
5. Uneven spray pattern.
6. Low shop temperature.
Prevention:
1. Select the thinner or reducer that is suitable for existing shop conditions, e.g., faster solvent in cold, damp weather; slower solvent in warm, dry weather. Mix all materials properly.
2. Mix all materials, especially metallics, thoroughly.
3. Use proper gun adjustments, techniques, and air pressure.
4. Same as #3.
5. Keep your spray gun clean, and in good working order.
6. Same as #1.
ORANGE PEEL
Condition:
Dimpled surface, like the skin of an orange, resulting from paint droplets drying too much to level out and flow smoothly together (poor coalescence)
Cause:
1. Improper gun adjustment and techniques.
2. Extreme shop temperature causing the droplets to lose more solvent and dry out before they can flow and level properly.
3. Improper drying by gun fanning causing the paint droplets to dry out before they have a chance to flow together.
4. Improper flash or drying time causing subsequent coats to lose solvents to the dry coat.
5. Wrong thinner or reducer, or too little thinner or reducer.
6. Poor mixing of materials.
Prevention:
1. Use proper gun adjustments, techniques, and air pressure.
2. Schedule painting to avoid temperature and humidity extremes. Select thinner or reducer that is suitable for existing conditions. Use a slower evaporating thinner or reducer to overcome this.
3. Allow sufficient flash time. Do not dry by fanning.
4. Allow proper dry time for undercoats and topcoats.
5. Use the correct thinner and reducer in correct amounts for existing shop conditions.
6. Mix all pigmented coatings thoroughly.
Remedy:
In mild cases, a mild polishing compound for enamel or rubbing compound for lacquer may help. In severe cases, sand and refinish with a slower evaporating thinner or reducer at the correct air pressure.
PEELING
Condition:
Loss of adhesion between the paint and substrate
Cause:
1. Improper cleaning or preparation. Dust or other surface contaminants preventing the paint film from coming into proper contact with the substrate.
2. Poor mixing of materials.
3. Use of incorrect primer/sealer, or no primer/sealer.
Prevention:
1. Thoroughly clean areas to be painted.
2. Mix all pigmented coatings thoroughly.
3. Primer/sealers are generally recommended to improve adhesion of topcoats.
Remedy:
Remove finish from an area slightly larger than the affected area and refinish.
PINHOLING
Condition:
Tiny holes in the finish, putty or body filler, usually the result of trapped solvents, air or moisture
Cause:
1. Improper surface cleaning or preparation.
2. Moisture or oil contamination of air lines.
3. Wrong gun adjustment or technique; paint application is too wet.
4. Wrong thinner or reducer; solvent is trapped by subsequent topcoats.
5. Improper dry. Fanning a wet finish can drive air into the surface or cause a skin-dry that results in pinholing when air or solvents come to the surface.
Prevention:
1. Thoroughly clean all areas to be painted. Ensure all surfaces are dry before applying coatings.
2. Drain and clean air pressure regulator and drain air compressor tank daily.
3. Use proper gun adjustments, techniques, and air pressure.
4. Select the thinner or reducer that is suitable for existing shop conditions.
5. Allow sufficient flash and dry time. Do not dry by fanning.
Remedy:
Sand the affected area down to a smooth finish and refinish.
RUNS or SAGS
Condition:
Heavy application of sprayed material that fails to adhere uniformly to the surface.
Cause:
1. Too much thinner or reducer, or wrong thinner or reducer.
2. Excessive film thickness or insufficient dry time between coats.
3. Low atomizing air pressure, gun too close to the part, or spraying speed too slow.
4. Shop, materials, or surface too cold.
Prevention:
1. Use the correct thinner or reducer in adequate amounts for existing shop conditions.
2. Avoid piling on finishes. Allow sufficient flash and dry times between coats.
3. Use proper gun adjustments, techniques, and air pressure.
4. Allow part to warm up to room temperature before painting. Try to maintain appropriate shop temperature for painting (70 deg. F, 45%-55% RH).
Remedy:
Solvent wash the affected area, let dry and sand smooth before refinishing.
SANDSCRATCH SWELLING
Enlarged sandscratches caused by swelling action of topcoat solvents.
Cause:
1. Improper surface preparation.
2. Improper thinner or reducer causing undercoat to bridge scratches.
3. Sealer not used allowing topcoat solvents to penetrate and swell substrate.
Prevention:
1. Use appropriate grits of sanding materials for the topcoats you are using.
2. Use the correct thinner or reducer in adequate mounts for existing shop conditions.
3. Use proper sealer to prevent solvent penetration into substrate.
Remedy:
Sand affected area down to smooth surface and apply appropriate surfacer before refinishing.
SOLVENT POPPING
Condition:
Small holes in the paint film caused by rapid evaporation of trapped solvents or air
Cause:
1. Wrong thinner or reducer - too fast.
2. Waterborne paints applied in high humidity.
3. Excessive film thickness, trapping solvents in the undercoats
Prevention:
1. Select the thinner or reducer that is suitable for existing shop conditions.
2. Apply waterborne paint during low humidity or dehumidify the paint area.
3. Avoid piling on undercoats or topcoats. Allow sufficient flash and dry time. Do not dry by fanning.
Remedy:
In mild cases, the damage can be sanded out, and refinished. If damage is severe, the paint must be removed down to the undercoat or substrate, depending on the depth of the holes, and then refinished.
WET SPOTS
Condition:
Spots of various sizes that are discolored, slow drying, or both.
Cause:
1. Improper cleaning and preparation.
2. Improper drying or excessive undercoat film build.
3. Wet sanding with contaminated solvent.
Prevention:
1. Thoroughly clean all areas to be painted.
2. Allow sufficient flash and dry times for undercoats.
3. Use water when wet sanding.
Remedy:
Solvent wash or sand affected areas thoroughly and refinish.
WRINKLING
Condition:
Surface distortions or shriveling that occurs while the enamel topcoat is being applied or drying.
Causes:
1. Improper drying. Force drying the topcoat too soon causing the undercoats to soften.
2. Piling on heavy or wet coats, which don't allow the lower wet coats to release their solvents and set-up at the same rate as the topcoat.
3. Improper reducer or incompatible materials, e.g., using a fast dry reducer, or lacquer thinner in enamel.
4. Improper shop temperature or drafts cause enamel surfaces to set-up unevenly.
Prevention:
1. Allow proper drying time for undercoats and topcoats.
2. Don't pile on topcoats. Allow sufficient flash and drying times.
3. Select proper reducer and avoid using incompatible materials such as such as a reducer with lacquer products, or thinner with enamel products.
4. Schedule painting to avoid temperature extremes or rapid changes.
Remedy:
Remove wrinkled enamel and refinish.The stockholding of Japanese listed companies by foreign investors reached 30.8% at the end of 2014. This figure surpassed the holding ratio of 26.7% by domestic financial institutions, which used to be at the top in terms of holding ratios. Foreign investors became the largest stockholders in the Japan Corporation for the first time in history, replacing Japanese financial institutions that had had an overwhelming influence on corporate management through lending and stockholding under the main bank system. The governance reform of Japanese companies, long discussed, is entering a new phase along with the growing trend of foreign investors, many of whom are “self-assertive stockholders.”
Enhancement of Corporate Governance Emphasized in Japan Revitalization Strategy
The Abe administration approved the Japan Revitalization Strategy 2014 at a Cabinet meeting in June 2014. This strategy stresses that “it is essential for global corporations in particular to strengthen corporate governance with a focus on capital costs, and to realize the sustainable development of corporate value in order to expand corporate profits through improved productivity and reallocate them to wage increases, reinvestments and returns to stockholders.”
This strategy is based on the expectation that companies, which are the main actors in economic activities, will steadfastly build up their earning power, expand employment, raise international competitiveness and work appropriately to fortify the growth potential of the entire Japanese economy. Currently, fewer than 40% of the listed companies are able to achieve profits and pay corporate income tax. Even quite a few profitable companies secure profits by reducing wage costs through employment cuts and peddling assets instead of pushing proactive management, such as developing new products and services and tapping new markets.
As long as this situation remains unchanged, only around half of government expenditure will continue to be covered by tax revenue, and neither fiscal reconstruction nor Japan’s economic recovery will be realized. The Abe administration’s economic policy, called Abenomics, will soon be in its third year. Until recently, the stock market rose amidst growing anticipation of the policy. However, this has not led to the revitalization of the real economy, such as corporate management behavior. Of Abenomics’ “three-arrow” policies, the first arrow of a different-dimension loose monetary policy and the second arrow of flexible fiscal policy raised public expectations, but their effects were merely reflected in the increase of stock prices.
Although both loose monetary policy and expansive fiscal policy can work as economic stimulus measures, they cannot facilitate proactive corporate management or the greater growth potential of the entire Japanese economy. The attitude of risk-taking corporate management is essential to raise potential growth rates, that is, the ability to achieve sustainable economic growth rather than cyclical economic push-ups. Fundamental structural and institutional reforms, including regulation reform, are indispensable for realizing these factors. This is exactly what the third arrow of Abenomics seeks to do.
The Japan Revitalization Strategy 2014, which is around 120 pages long, uses the word “innovation” repeatedly, as many as forty times. The word “productivity” is also repeated more than thirty times. In addition, the phrases “corporate value creation,” “earning power” and “metabolism” are used throughout the document. However, all of these things can be realized only once the third arrow of structural reforms is implemented surely and steadily. No matter how hard the government implements a drastic loose monetary policy and expands fiscal spending, those things cannot be achieved. It is for this very reason that the government emphasizes the strengthening of corporate governance.
IMF’s Warning and an Increase in “Self-Assertive” Foreign Stockholders
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) proposed that Japan strengthen corporate governance in its August 2014 Working Paper “Unstash the Cash! Corporate Governance Reform in Japan.” This Working Paper notes that Japanese companies have more cash and cash equivalent holdings than necessary, and that they are inactive in utilizing money for capital investment and research and development. The ratio of Japanese companies’ cash and cash equivalent holdings to market capitalization is almost 45%, which is remarkably high compared with the 15% to 27% ratios of G7 nations other than Japan. The paper presents a view that the gaps in corporate governance are reflected in these figures.
What should now be noted in relation to corporate governance is how foreign investors, who have become the largest stockholders in Japanese companies, will call on their investee Japanese firms for corporate governance reform.
The stockholding structure of Japanese listed companies changed dramatically following the financial crisis of 1997. The holding rate of institutional investors increased from 28% before the crisis to 48% in 2013. In particular, the holding rate of foreign institutional investors went above 30%, as noted above, and the impact of these foreign stockholders on their investee Japanese companies’ management is attracting a great deal of attention. That is, the point is whether or not Japanese corporate governance will be strengthened to facilitate the shift from inactive to proactive management through foreign pressure, and to realize the development of corporate value.
Recently, twenty groups of foreign institutional investors, including the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), known as “self-assertive stockholders,” sent letters to thirty-three Japanese listed companies, including Toyota Motor Corporation, NTT Docomo, Inc., Sumitomo Realty & Development Co., Ltd. and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc., calling for an increase in outside directors. The letters called for the Japanese listed companies to raise the percentage of highly independent outside directors to more than one-third within three years. In addition, the letters stated that if the Japanese companies failed to achieve this goal, the foreign institutional investors would address the issue at the stockholders’ meetings in seven years’ time.
In Japan, direct investments involving direct corporate management are slow to increase, but foreign investors are extremely active in the stock market. In 2013, foreign investors recorded net buying of as much as 15 trillion yen worth of Japanese stocks in great anticipation of Abenomics. This presents a striking contrast to the net selling from Japanese individual and corporate investors. That is, the Japanese stock market under Abenomics was primarily supported by foreign investors. This means that the percentage of foreign investors in the stockholding structure increased further under the initiative of Abenomics.
The abovementioned thirty-three Japanese listed companies that received letters from CalPERS regarding the strengthening of corporate governance are all high in terms of market capitalization and low in terms of the ratio of outside directors. In the case of Toyota, for example, of its fifteen directors, only three are outside directors. In the West, in contrast, companies with an outside directors’ ratio of more than 50% make up over 90% of all companies.
As of the end of March 2014, the foreign stockholding ratio of Toyota reached its highest level ever of 30.3%, a 0.4% increase from the previous year. Hitachi, Ltd. also showed a 4% increase, at 45.4%, which was the highest foreign holding ratio it had ever recorded. During the same period of time, around 2,300 companies, or two-thirds of all Japanese listed companies, showed an increase in this ratio.
Companies that showed record high foreign holding ratios as of the end of March 2014 included Kao Corporation (50.7%), Shiseido Co., Ltd. (35.5%), Dentsu, Inc. (27.9%), Seiko Epson Corp. (25.7%), Seven & i Holdings Co., Ltd. (35.0%), KDDI Corporation (38.0%), Panasonic Corporation (33.2%) and Ryohin Keikaku Co., Ltd. (47.9%).
It is becoming a point of interest, both in Japan and overseas, as to how much these foreign investors with an increasing holding ratio of Japanese listed companies, particularly foreign institutional investors such as CalPERS, will function as “foreign pressure” or a catalyst for changing Japanese corporate governance.
Governance Reform Launched from Within the Country
We can see the domestic progress of slow but active discussions about corporate governance reform emphasized by the Japan Revitalization Strategy 2014. The discussions were triggered by the reaction from domestic and foreign investors in the aftermath of the Lehman shock in 2008. They noted the lower profitability of Japanese companies compared with that of foreign companies amidst the delayed performance recovery of Japanese companies, and expressed growing dissatisfaction with the prolonged sluggishness of stock prices. Those investors presented the observation that one of the factors for the low profitability of Japanese companies was the lack of adequate corporate governance.
Corporate governance reforms include the motion of calling for institutional investors, such as investment advisory companies that are commissioned to manage funds by their clients, to fulfill their fundamental roles and functions, and the motion of directly transforming companies themselves through the revision of the Companies Act.
The former motion of focusing on the responsibilities of institutional investors began to progress when the Financial Services Agency published the Japanese version of the Stewardship Code (the Principles for Responsible Institutional Investors) in February 2014.
The steward is an asset manager and the Stewardship Code, which originated in Great Britain, is a code of behavior for institutional investors that hold corporate stocks. Triggered by the financial crisis of 2008, based on the recognition that one cause of the crisis was the fact that banks had neglected to fulfill their responsibility to appropriately oversee the boards of directors of their investee companies as institutional investors, the British government formulated the Stewardship Code in 2010. This code is intended to encourage stockholders, corporate executives and other stakeholders to exert an influence over the operational processes of management so that companies can raise long-term sustainable performance.
The Japanese corporate governance theory was initially focused on compliance to prevent corporate scandals. However, the Japan Revitalization Strategy in the context of Abenomics is focused on restoring the resilience of the Japanese economy through the revitalization of businesses.
The Japanese version of the Stewardship Code formulated by the Financial Services Agency is also in line with this strategy.
The Financial Services Agency’s code is made up of the following seven principles.
The Principles of the Code
Institutional investors should have a clear policy on how they fulfill their stewardship responsibilities, and publicly disclose it. Institutional investors should have a clear policy on how they manage conflicts of interest in fulfilling their stewardship responsibilities and publicly disclose it. Institutional investors should monitor investee companies so that they can appropriately fulfill their stewardship responsibilities with an orientation towards the sustainable growth of the companies. Institutional investors should seek to arrive at an understanding in common with investee companies and work to solve problems through constructive engagement with investee companies. Institutional investors should have a clear policy on voting and disclosure of voting activity. The policy on voting should not be comprised only of a mechanical checklist; it should be designed to contribute to the sustainable growth of investee companies. Institutional investors in principle should report periodically on how they fulfill their stewardship responsibilities, including their voting responsibilities, to their clients and beneficiaries. To contribute positively to the sustainable growth of investee companies, institutional investors should have in-depth knowledge of the investee companies and their business environment and skills and resources needed to appropriately engage with the companies and make proper judgments in fulfilling their stewardship activities.
These codes are not legally binding rules, but rather principles and gentlemen’s agreements.
By the end of August 2014, however, 160 institutional investors, including 109 investment trust management companies and investment advisory companies, 17 pension funds and 16 trust banks, had already announced that they would accept the code.
Japanese corporate management often involves a culture of “non-self-assertive” stockholders. Companies have lifelong employment and seniority-based promotion systems. The president is internally promoted to the position. The president has a strong personnel authority and the board of directors’ meetings are frequently not an arena for discussion but a forum for a ceremony of “non-self-assertion.” Many employees hold the stocks of their companies. The ratio of cross-holdings among closely related companies is also high. In addition, around 80% of Japanese listed companies hold regular stockholders’ meetings every June, and more than 90% of those meetings are concentrated in late June. In this situation, stockholders’ meetings are mere formalities, and in fact there are few active discussions about how to improve corporate value.
Even under this stockholding structure and stockholders’ meetings, many corporate managers actively took risks and raised their corporate value during the postwar period of rapid economic growth. However, after the bursting of the bubble economy in 1991, and particularly the collapse of Sanyo Securities Co., Ltd. in November 1997, the financial crisis worsened in 1998. Amidst this situation, many corporate managers shifted to a passive attitude and rapidly leaned toward not taking any risks. This trend was triggered by the emergence of financial institutions engulfed in the crisis of non-performing loans and the collapse of their governance, although those institutions used to direct corporate governance under the main bank system.
Amidst the financial crisis, financial institutions were reluctant to lend, and even retracted loan credit from their client companies. On the threshold of 1998, the balance of loans from private sector financial institutions decreased dramatically, which led to a typical credit crunch. With a deeper sense of crisis, companies prioritized cost reductions called “restructures,” such as personnel cost cuts, and lost their willingness to make capital investment and research and development investment. Although the issue of non-performing loans has already been resolved, financial institutions are still unwilling to lend, and the Bank of Japan’s ultra-loose monetary policy does not lead to active lending from financial institutions. Companies are still suffering from the lingering effect of the traumatic experience of having loan credit forcibly retracted by banks when the abovementioned financial crisis hit. There is still the issue of excessive internal reserves, which the IMF recommended in its Working Paper that Japanese companies should tackle.
It is necessary to overcome the “deflation in the corporate manager’s mind” in order to resolve deflation. This is a significant future challenge in carrying out corporate governance reforms.
Translated from an original article in Japanese written for Discuss Japan. [September 2014]A 33-year-old police officer in Altona, Man., has been charged with making and possessing child pornography as well as voyeurism, the RCMP announced on Saturday.
The man was arrested following an investigation by the Altona Police Service with the help of the RCMP Internet Child Exploitation Unit and the RCMP Winnipeg major crime unit.
The RCMP said it will not release the name of the accused in order to protect the identity of the victims, who are under the age of 17.
The man's police rank was not disclosed. An RCMP spokesperson would only confirm that he is an officer with the Altona Police Service.
The man was taken into custody but has since been released. He will appear in provincial court in Altona on Jan. 26, 2015.
The man is suspended with pay from the Altona Police Service, according to the RCMP.After several days of slow progress north in light winds, Armel Le Cléac'h and Alex Thomson were today blasting towards the home straight of the solo round the world race in winds of up to 30 knots.
The skippers, split by just 95 nautical miles, were eating up the 1,300nm standing between them and the finish line in Les Sables d'Olonne, France, as they try to squeeze every last bit of speed from their foiling IMOCA 60 raceboats.
At the 1400 UTC position update British skipper Thomson, who led the race through most of its early stages, had a narrow speed advantage as he hurtled north on Hugo Boss at 24 knots. French skipper Le Cléac'h, who has topped the rankings since December 2, was more than two knots slower as he closed in on the Azores. With the ETA in Les Sables currently Thursday, the Vendée Globe is shaping up to go right down to the wire.
“We have 17 to 20 knots of breeze at the moment and not very nice seas to be honest with the waves coming in from the east,” Thomson told Vendée Globe HQ in Les Sables today. “It’s difficult to go fast but I’m not complaining because I am making good speed. It’s going to get windy in the next 24 hours, up to 30 knots. We'll be going fast, and we'll have to see how things pan out.”
Thomson is competing in the Vendée Globe for the fourth time and is aiming to become the first Briton ever to win the race in its 27-year history. If he can continue to eat into Le Cléac'h's lead there is a chance he could realise his goal. Le Cléac'h, meanwhile, is hell-bent on ensuring he scores his first ever Vendée Globe win after posting runner's-up finishes in the past two editions.
The anticyclone currently blocking the duo's path to Les Sables is moving towards the English Channel and in another 36 hours the pair will be able to point their bows towards the finish line for an upwind drag race to glory.
Some 6,000nm behind the leaders the quartet of Fabrice Amedeo, Arnaud Boissières, Alan Roura and Rich Wilson from 11th to 14th were fighting a battle against Mother Nature as they approached Cape Horn, the southernmost tip of South America. North-westerly breeze of up to 40 knots was making for a testing passage past the legendary milestone, not only battering the boats but whipping up seas of up to six metres high.
Amedeo, a sports journalist-turned-solo sailor, said his primary focus was to preserve man and boat in order to keep his dream alive of finishing the Vendée Globe. “It's an amazing moment for me because it's my first rounding of Cape Horn, and it comes after one month in the south,” he said. “But because of the wind I feel a little bit stressed and it hasn't quite sunk in that I will round Cape Horn in a few hours. I'm very concentrated now but I will feel better in two days – then it will feel like a victory. I'll have a lot of wind today and tomorrow so my psychological Cape Horn will be tomorrow evening.”
The enormity of the task at hand is not lost on Swiss sailor Alan Roura, who at 23 is the race's youngest skipper. “It’s my first Cape Horn and it’s no holiday that’s for sure,” he said. “It’ll be a big, big relief to round it as it’s a key passage and marks our return home. I hope we’ll have milder conditions in the Atlantic.”
Log on to vendeeglobe.org at 1200 UTC tomorrow for the Vendée Live show, with all the latest news from the racecourse.
Quotes
Conrad Colman (Foresight Natural Energy): “Entering the "Roaring Forties", the band of latitude between 40 and 50 degrees south, is always a great moment. When going down the South Atlantic it means the beginning of the south, the long swells, the grey days and the start of the strong winds that roar, hence the name. Entering this band going back up again means an escape from all that and the promise of calmer days and the opportunity to untangle the nerves that were wound tight by weeks of stress. Even now at 48 degrees north, the constant dampness of condensation inside the boat is drying out with the rising temperatures and I am blessed with bright sunshine, puffy white clouds dancing in blue skies. Eric has had a dream run since the Horn, with one tack taking him straight up the direct route home whereas conditions just a few hours behind have meant that I have sailed more miles with more manoeuvres in order to find the wind I need to maximise my limited sail wardrobe. I am currently in stable running conditions in up to 30 knots of wind and am making great progress. All that is set to change however as today the wind will come more from the north and I will start a long upwind march that will have the boat banging into the crests of the waves, instead of sliding over them downwind, until I get up to the level of Rio. This is one of the least interesting parts of the race as it's just one long port tack towards the north east on boats that are optimised for running and reaching, not hundreds of miles of upwind! Still, if that's the price for thousands of miles downwind I'll take it but first I need to find my earplugs!”
Didac Costa (One Planet One Ocean): “Yesterday I launched the two Argos beacons I had on-board. Over the coming months they will drift through the Pacific at the mercy of the currents providing valuable information to scientists about the dynamics of the oceans. The most elongated of the beacons is a prototype that feeds on the kinetic energy generated by the motion of the waves. Another of the four oceanographic studies I’m doing in this Vendée Globe is the project Citclops-Eyeonwater. Through an application on a mobile I take a daily picture of the surface of the sea. As the colour of the sea is determined in part by the presence of phytoplankton, scientists can measure the quality of the marine environment via these photos. This phone also has an unplanned dual-purpose now too as I ran out of batteries for the headtorch (the Tupperware container where I kept them got wet when I had the incident at the start and most of them are unusable) so I use the phone as a light whenever I can. It won’t illuminate the mast, but it helps me when I am on deck or doing things inside the boat. The rechargeable handset stopped charging a few days ago, so I do |
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- Pet-battle invitation declined. ERR_PETBATTLE_IN_BATTLE - Pet-battle already in progress.
- Pet-battle already in progress. ERR_PETBATTLE_NOT_A_TRAINER - Must be a battle pet trainer to pet-battle.
- Must be a battle pet trainer to pet-battle. ERR_PETBATTLE_NOT_HERE - Cannot pet-battle here.
- Cannot pet-battle here. ERR_PETBATTLE_NOT_HERE_OBSTRUCTED - Pet-battle area is obstructed.
- Pet-battle area is obstructed. ERR_PETBATTLE_NOT_HERE_ON_TRANSPORT - Cannot pet-battle on a transport.
- Cannot pet-battle on a transport. ERR_PETBATTLE_NOT_HERE_UNEVEN_GROUND - Ground is too uneven to pet-battle.
- Ground is too uneven to pet-battle. ERR_PETBATTLE_NOT_WHILE_DEAD - Cannot pet-battle while dead.
- Cannot pet-battle while dead. ERR_PETBATTLE_NOT_WHILE_FLYING - Must be standing to pet-battle.
- Must be standing to pet-battle. ERR_PETBATTLE_NOT_WHILE_IN_COMBAT - Cannot pet-battle while in combat.
- Cannot pet-battle while in combat. ERR_PETBATTLE_TARGET_INVALID - Not a valid pet-battle target.
- Not a valid pet-battle target. ERR_PETBATTLE_TARGET_NOT_CAPTURABLE - Creature is not a valid pet-battle target.
- Creature is not a valid pet-battle target. ERR_PETBATTLE_TARGET_OUT_OF_RANGE - Pet-battle target out of range.
- Pet-battle target out of range. ERR_PLAYER_IS_NEUTRAL - Target has not selected a faction.
- Target has not selected a faction. GUILD_CHALLENGE_LABEL4 - Guild Scenario Challenge
- Guild Scenario Challenge GUILD_CHALLENGE_LABEL5 - Guild Challenge Mode Dungeon Challenge
- Guild Challenge Mode Dungeon Challenge LOOT_PASS_NEWBIE - You don't want the item at all.
- You don't want the item at all. PET_BATTLE_PVP_DUEL - Pet-battle Duel
- Pet-battle Duel PET_BATTLE_PVP_DUEL_REQUESTED - %s has challenged you to a pet-battle.
- %s has challenged you to a pet-battle. PET_PUT_IN_CAGE_LABEL - Put This Pet In A Cage?
- Put This Pet In A Cage? POWER_TYPE_DARK_POWER - Sha Power
- Sha Power POWER_TYPE_GOLD_POWER - Gold Power
- Gold Power POWER_TYPE_WILLPOWER - Willpower
- Willpower RESET_CHALLENGE_MODE - Reset Challenge
- Reset Challenge STARTUP_STRINGSENUM_MSG_GX_FAIL_API_VERSION - World of Warcraft requires the latest version of the DirectX Runtime to be installed. The latest DirectX runtime can be installed through Windows Update or downloaded directly from Microsoft. For more information please see http://us.battle.net/support/en/arti...te-information
- World of Warcraft requires the latest version of the DirectX Runtime to be installed. The latest DirectX runtime can be installed through Windows Update or downloaded directly from Microsoft. For more information please see http://us.battle.net/support/en/arti...te-information STARTUP_STRINGSENUM_MSG_GX_FAIL_NO_DRIVER - World of Warcraft was unable to find a suitable graphics card, please check that your graphics driver is up to date and that you are not running in safe (VGA) mode. For more information please see http://us.battle.net/support/en/arti...te-information
Item Additions
Gems
Glyphs
Level Type Slot Name 25 Warrior N/A Glyph of Incite 25 Paladin N/A Glyph of Mass Exorcism
Leg Armor
Rare Quality Gear
Spell Changes
This is a beta, everything can change.
Those changes are not official, they're the result of datamining. This is not a perfect process and there may be errors.
- We had a little mishap with the news post and are still trying to track it down. For now, we reactivated the comments on the thread and try to figure out where we lost the old ones.A new patch should hit the Mists of Pandaria beta servers in the next few days, changes below!A few new models popped up this time, some Tier 14 gear, Challenge mode gear, creature models, and the remaining gathering nodes.Only a few items added with this patch,we only kept the most interesting ones! To see the full list, check outSpell changes are here and as usual keep in mind that:In the past three years, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has rapidly increased its use of drones for domestic surveillance, despite growing concern from civil liberties groups. But those drones may soon do more than just spy. A recently declassified government report reveals that the agency has also considered equipping its drones with “non-lethal weapons.”
“It’s the first I’ve heard of Customs and Border Protection considering using weapons,” says Jennifer Lynch, a staff attorney with the nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation, the group that obtained the government report on drones after filing a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. “They’ve always said their Predator drones are unarmed and just used for surveillance.”
The non-lethal weapons would be used to immobilize “targets of interest,” according to the report. Most likely weaponized drones would be used for border security, Lynch says. “What the targets of interest would be are unclear. They could be people, facilities or cars.”
The report also doesn’t specify what non-lethal weapons the agency has in mind. U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents have been known to use rubber bullets and pepper pellets in their arsenal.
Despite the recent revelation, this is not the first time the use of weaponized drones has come up in the realm of border security. In a 2011 interview in the magazine El Paso Inc., former Democratic Congressman Silvestre Reyes, then chair of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said he wouldn’t rule out drone strikes in Mexico. “We have to do what we’ve done essentially in Pakistan, and that is start taking out the heads of the cartels,” he told the magazine.
Earlier in 2011, The New York Times revealed that the Mexican government was allowing U.S. Customs and Border Protection—under direction of the Pentagon—to fly drones deep into Mexico to conduct surveillance and gather intelligence on major drug kingpins.
Customs and Border Protection is also using drones to conduct surveillance for many other governmental agencies, especially state and local law enforcement, with scant oversight, Lynch says. She adds that the use of weaponized drones, even non-lethal weapons, on U.S. soil is cause for concern. “If they’re flying drones with weapons on them on behalf of other agencies in a program with little oversight—that really worries me,” Lynch says. “We’re going to start seeing weapons used for many different things.”
(Update: U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesperson Mike Friel sent the following statement in response to the story: “CBP has no plans to arm its unmanned aircraft systems with non-lethal weapons or weapons of any kind. CBP’s unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) support CBP’s border security mission and provide an important surveillance and reconnaissance capability for interdiction agents on the ground and on the waterways. Current UAS were designed with the ability to add new surveillance capabilities, accommodate technological developments, and ensure that our systems are equipped with the most advanced resources available.”)As he readies his players for the game of their lives, Carl Robinson understands everything that’s in play for the Vancouver Whitecaps on Thursday night.
For starters, he understands there will be 40,000 or so fans at CenturyLink Field and 39,500 of them will be in full-throated support of the hometown Seattle Sounders in the second leg of their Western Conference semifinal series (7:30 p.m., TSN 5, TSN 1040). He also understands the Sounders are the defending MLS champions and star forward Clint Dempsey is returning to their lineup after sitting out Game 1. And, before you ask, the Whitecaps’ head coach is aware that two of his best offensive players — Yordy Reyna and Cristian Techera — are less than match fit, and that the Whitecaps’ attack fizzled in their absence in Game 1’s scoreless draw at B.C. Place Stadium on Sunday.
So Robinson understands the circumstances aren’t exactly optimal for his team as it prepares for the Sounders, just as he understands the vast majority of soccer fans have an expectation for Thursday night.
Just be aware he’s expecting something slightly different.
“One-nil,” Robinson answered Wednesday, shortly before his team headed down the I-5 to the Emerald City. “It will be a tight game. but we’ll take it 1-nil.”
And just in case you missed the point, Robinson offered this as his session with the media concluded.
“Remember, 1-nil.”
Don’t worry. It will be hard to forget.
While his isn’t exactly the consensus view, the Whitecaps’ irrepressible head coach sees a way to victory on Thursday. This is following a dreary first game in which the Whitecaps failed to generate so much as one freaking shot on Sounders goalie Stefan Frei and were content to defend cravenly for the 90-plus minutes.
But Robinson has a plan for Thursday night, and even if that plan seems to be scoring one goal and hanging on for dear life, it’s still a plan.
“Do we want to sit and defend?” he asked rhetorically. “No. That’s not our intention. We believe in certain periods of the game and certain areas, we can exploit their weaknesses. We’ve identified a number of weaknesses in the four games we’ve played (their season record is 1-1-2, with the Sounders thumping the Whitecaps 3-0 in their last meeting at CenturyLink in September).
“We know they’re good going forward. We know that. We’re going to have to be organized and disciplined, but they have got weaknesses in their armour.”
It’s also instructive to note this quote isn’t take out of context. Robinson, in fact, drummed the point home repeatedly and without much prompting.
Example 1: “(Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer) wants to play attacking football and score. No problem. Kansas City wanted to do that when we beat them and so did Orlando. We’re not bad away from home. It suits the players we have, if we can get them fit, and the way we want to play.”
Example 2: “They’re the clear favourites. I’m not lying. I’m not trying to spin anything. They’re at home now and they’re expected to finish the job. Good. It plays into our hands.”
Example 3: “This is why you play the game. It’s for Cinderella stories. It’s for stories that upset the odds. We believe we can go to Seattle against a really good team and upset the odds. We’re going there to win the game.”
OK, so Robinson isn’t worried about providing bulletin-board material for the Sounders. As for the motivation behind his madness, that’s also clear. The Welshman isn’t providing sound bites for the benefit of the media — although there’s nothing wrong with that. He’s speaking directly to his team, telling them he’s got this all figured out and they just have to trust his vision.
And say this for the Whitecaps: They’ve received the message. They see a game where they absorb the Sounders’ attack and all that talent gets frustrated along with their supporters. They see a physical match, similar to Sunday’s, without much flow. Mostly, they see a goal, just one goal, that can deliver them to the conference finals.
One-nil. They can see it all.
“I think they’re the ones who have the pressure,” said team captain Kendall Waston, sporting a black eye from Sunday’s affair.
“I expect it to be very physical,” said Tim Parker, Waston’s partner in the centre of the Whitecaps’ defence. “The longer this game goes scoreless, the more physical it will get. I think that’s the why it’s going to be written.”
As for penalties, Fredy Montero was asked if he like the Whitecaps’ chances in a shootout.
“I feel we can take care of business in 90 minutes,” he said.
In the next breath, the ‘Caps’ striker admitted there were any number of variables that can turn this match. There’s the weather — rain is expected in Seattle. There’s the officiating — the Whitecaps have generated offence from set pieces all season and in Game 1 there weren’t a lot of fouls given for either team. There’s the condition of Reyna’s wonky hamstring — both he and Techera trained with team on Wednesday and will likely come off the bench in Game 2.
On top of all that, we’ll give you something else to consider. Seattle has more talent, especially with Dempsey back. That often decides these things.
But like their head coach, these Whitecaps see something different. They see a plan and a game that unfolds according to that plan. They see a moment that few others can see and they see it clearly.
One-nil. Go ahead. You tell them they’re wrong.
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Is there more to this story? We’d like to hear from you about this or any other stories you think we should know about. Email vantips@postmedia.com.Great news out of ABC: The network has renewed 10 dramas and six comedies.
On the drama side, Castle, Grey’s Anatomy, How to Get Away with Murder, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Nashville, Once Upon a Time, Scandal, American Crime, Secrets and Lies and Marvel’s Agent Carter have all scored additional seasons.
As for the comedies, freshman fare black-ish and Fresh Off the Boat join The Goldbergs, The Middle, Modern Family and Galavant. Yes, Galavant.
On the alternative side, America’s Funniest Home Videos, The Bachelor, Dancing with the Stars, Shark Tank, Beyond the Tank and 20/20 have all been renewed.
The news comes on the heels of ABC ordering six dramas, including Shonda Rhimes’ The Catch, Don Johnson’s untitled oil boom project, biblical saga Of Kings and Prophets, FBI thriller Quantico, anthology series Wicked City and the Joan Allen-starring project The Family. The network also ordered three comedies: a reboot of The Muppets, Ken Jeong’s Dr. Ken and Dan Savage’s The Real O’Neals, which stars Martha Plimpton.
But it was bad news for Forever, Resurrection and Cristela, which were canceled.
More to come: We’re in the thick of a frantic annual three-day period of TV broadcasters making big decisions, so expect more series orders today—and perhaps some verdicts on existing shows as well. Follow @jameshibberd and @natalieabrams for up-to-the-minute details.The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives on Monday began the grueling process of hashing out the disparities between their tax bills — a task that will require reconciling hundreds of billions of dollars in differences.
The two versions of the legislation are a bit of a mixed bag for the real estate industry — disproportionately favoring the commercial sector over residential. Limited liability companies (LLCs) and real estate investment trusts win big under both. Homeowners? Not so much.
Heidi Learner, chief economist of Savills Studley, warned that the benefits will likely come at a cost. After all, the $1 trillion that is expected to be added to the federal budget deficit — as estimated by the Joint Committee in Taxation — will need to be made up for elsewhere.
“From the commercial front, the treatment is quite favorable,” Learner said. “But any perks could be offset by higher interest rates.”
The Real Estate Board of New York has also spoken out against the elimination of the federal deduction of state income taxes, and has voiced concerns over the impact the House’s version will have on affordable housing construction.
“The tax reform legislation under consideration contains elements that will promote economic growth and job creation,” REBNY President John Banks said in a statement. “There are several issues, however, with which we remain deeply concerned.”
Here are the issues that will most dramatically impact the real estate industry:
1. Pass-through deductions
The biggest developers and investors in New York City, Los Angeles and Miami rely extensively on LLCs and partnerships. For this reason, the increase in tax cuts for pass-through entities — which don’t pay income taxes at the corporate level — is likely a significant boon to the industry. The House version caps the pass-through rate at 25 percent, down from the current 39.6 percent. The Senate version allows such businesses to exclude 22.4 percent of their income from taxes.
“This could certainly cause a lot of people to rethink how they structure their business,” Learner said. She noted that more owners may opt to form LLCs or other partnerships to benefit from the deduction.
Real estate investment trusts (REITs) will also benefit from the lower pass-through rates, as the New York Times noted.
2. Corporate tax cuts
Both the Senate and House versions of the bill slash the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 20 percent. The House version kicks in next year, while the Senate version starts in 2019.
3. Depreciation
The Senate bill shortens the depreciable life of commercial assets from 39 years to 25 years, meaning that the rate at which property owners can take these deductions is sped up, according to the Times. Shimon Shkury, founder of Ariel Property Advisors, says the change is a win for commercial property owners.
“The property owner has a non-cash deduction, and essentially shelters more income,” he said.
4. Estate tax
This one’s for the real estate dynasties. The Senate version of the bill would double the federal estate tax exemption levels — currently a 40 percent tax on estates worth more than $5.49 million for individuals, and nearly $11 million for married couples. The House bill would do the same until 2024, when it proposes to repeal the estate tax altogether. According to the Times, President Trump would save $1.1 billion under the House’s bill.
5. Private activity bonds
City officials estimate that the elimination of private activity bonds would mean 10,000 less affordable housing units will be created or preserved each year — in New York, that could cut the de Blasio administration’s goals roughly in half. These bonds are used to claim 4 percent tax credits each year (which yield approximately 30 percent of the cost of constructing low-income housing over a 10-year period), and are a major source of funding for affordable housing across the country.
“You would be looking at a 65 percent reduction in the production of affordable housing [nationwide],” said Chris Eisenzimmer, director of affordable development at Greystone. “It’s creating a lot of uncertainty amongst investors and owners.”
The House bill revokes private activity bonds, while the Senate version leaves them intact.
6. Mortgage and property tax deductions
The House version caps mortgage interest deductions at $500,000, down from $1 million. The Senate’s bill doesn’t change the cap on these deductions but eliminates them for home equity loans, the Washington Post reported. The Senate version has also decided to follow the House in allowing deductions on property taxes of up to $10,000.
Bonus: Private jets!
The inclusion of a tax break for private jet owners in the Senate version of the bill inspired a flurry of angry tweets and stories this month. The measure, however, actually tweaks an existing tax law to assure that private jet owners don’t get hit with a “ticket tax,” which is intended for commercial airlines, according to the Wall Street Journal. Still, the private jet owners out there — Steve Witkoff, Jeff Greene, Michael Stern and Richard LeFrak, to name a few — are probably pleased with the change.NEW X-ray technology that can reveal drug smugglers' internal cavities will be trialled at airports under a plan to fast-track security searches.
Legislation before Federal Parliament would enable customs officers to use new body scanners instead of sending suspects to hospital for internal X-rays ordered by a doctor, reported the Herald Sun.
Federal police wasted more than 4600 hours in hospital waiting rooms last year because of drug smugglers waiting for scans.
More than 200 people were taken to hospital for internal searches, with almost 50 found to have drugs in their bodies.
Drug couriers captured by Australian authorities at airports last year were carrying a total of 27kg of drugs.
Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor said the scanners would also help innocent travellers.
"The option of an internal body scan will more quickly exonerate the innocent and ensure a minimum of delay for legitimate travellers," Mr O'Connor said.
He said the new X-rays would be used only if suspects agreed to undergo scans.
Mr O'Connor said people carrying drugs inside their bodies could die if bags split or leak, so it was important to check as soon as possible.
Specially trained customs officers would be authorised to screen the alleged smugglers.
Under current laws, an internal X-ray scan can only be done by a doctor at a hospital or surgery centre.
The proposed trial would start later this year, at a date to be set if legislation passes both Houses of parliament.
Mr O'Connor said he understood privacy concerns in relation to internal X-ray use, and the technology would only be used with strict controls, including destruction controls.
There would also be exemptions for pregnant women, people with mental impairments and those under 18.GSC Game World, the original makers of the STALKER games, is back in business, reports Gamesindustry.biz. In a bizarre turn of events, the company that essentially self destructed in 2011 is back with a new website and a secret project in the works. Valentine Yeltyshev was interviewed by Gamesindustry.biz, who identified him as part of the original GSC team and "spokesperson for the studio's return."
"The market we're in is quite old fashioned," said Valentine. "They're not 16 year olds, they're 25-40 years old. We don't think free-to-play is the right model for the game we want to make. So we're making an old-fashioned, full price game, we think our audience will be happy about that. We're expecting a lot of our old audience!"
The published interview, while brief, covered issues ranging from the studio's implosion in 2011 to the ongoing attempts by West Games to crowdfund a successor to the STALKER franchise, a project of which Valentine was fairly dismissive.
"I don't really know enough about them, but the story is quite funny," Valentine said. "These guys were basically promoting themselves as being the STALKER team, that they were working on STALKER, but that's not true. When we were working on STALKER 2, we were also planning on releasing a browser game based on STALKER so we could keep the audience engaged until released.
"That project was never finished. There were mistakes. But the guys at West Games, that was the STALKER project they were working on — a Flash game. So when they promoted themselves as having worked on STALKER, I was quite surprised."
So far the crowdfunding effort for West Games' project, called STALKER Apocalypse, has received only $15,000 on its goal of $600,000 with 79 days to go.
"We would definitely win the legal action against them, but we won't start it. They used a lot of the ideas from STALKER... I don't know what they were thinking, starting that. I haven't heard from them for quite a while."
Polygon has reached out to GSC as well as West Games for comment.The Political Winner From The Proposed NSA Changes? Rand Paul
Enlarge this image toggle caption Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
It's too early to gauge the political impact of President Obama's plans to tame the NSA's data-gathering effort. The full details of the proposal haven't been made public yet.
But it's not too soon to say that Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., appears to be a winner. Paul, whose activities are fueling speculation about a 2016 presidential run, said Tuesday he didn't want to "take all the credit" for the president's decision, but the lawsuit he and others filed against the administration got Obama's attention.
Ever since Edward Snowden's 2013 disclosures revealed the NSA was collecting data linked to the telephone calls of millions of innocent Americans, Paul has inveighed against those practices.
His stance has turned him into a champion for voters worried about federal government surveillance — especially young voters. Polls consistently show that it's under-30 voters who are the most concerned about the NSA's activities.
At a recent speech at the University of California, Berkeley — a liberal stronghold — where he castigated Obama for the NSA surveillance, Paul became the rare Republican to receive a warm reception.
Not only does Paul get to claim he helped push the administration toward a policy change many Americans desired, but he also increases his stature among young voters by being out front on an issue they follow closely.
"Young voters are certainly the most concerned about this of anyone, and Sen. Paul has been out speaking on this issue for a while now," Doug Stafford, executive director of Rand PAC, told It's All Politics. "I think he certainly has helped bring this issue to the forefront. And I think he can claim no small part in the fact that it's being addressed. Whether it's going to be addressed to everybody's satisfaction, we'll withhold judgment on. But the fact that it is being addressed is in no small part due to the attention he's brought to the issue."
Young voters, of course, aren't the only ones who care deeply about the NSA surveillance issue. It also matters a great deal to those in the Tea Party and libertarians. Paul could already lay claim to many of those voters, but the president's move to rein in the NSA certainly seems likely to energize those voters to the Kentucky senator's benefit rather than rally them to Obama's side.
Many Democrats will also welcome the president's decision — not only because of the implications for civil liberties. Democrats certainly didn't need anything that would further discourage young voters from going to the polls.
The president's NSA decision wasn't made solely or even mostly for political reasons. But one of the potential spinoff benefits of responding to criticisms of NSA data-collecting is that it could defuse the issue.Turkey has arrested 12 academics for signing a declaration denouncing Ankara’s military operations against Kurdish militants. The move comes after more than 1,200 scholars were being investigated for criticizing the Turkish State.
The Anadolu Agency, as cited by AP, says the 12 who were detained by police are lecturers at Kocaeli University in the northwest. Police are still processing the paperwork for nine other academics, who will also be arrested.
The 1,200 academics had been accused of allegedly participating in “terrorist propaganda” after they signed a declaration condemning military operations against Kurdish rebels in the southeast.
News of the investigation was reported by Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency.
Around 1,200 academics from 89 universities, including prominent foreign scholars such as Noam Chomsky, David Harvey and Immanuel Wallerstein, signed the declaration, which was titled: “We won’t be a part of this crime.”
It called on the authorities in Ankara to end the “massacre and slaughter” in southeast Turkey and lift the siege of Kurdish towns and cities. The declaration also accused Erdogan of waging a war against his own people.
“The responsibility for the present self-inflicted crisis in the country must lie squarely with Erdogan, who perceives the Kurds… as obstacles to his plan to establish supreme rule for the Turkish presidency,” the declaration said.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu spoke against the signatories.
Read more
“It is really very saddening that some of our academics have signed such a declaration while we are fighting terrorism. Every day we are fighting against international terror such as Daesh [Islamic State, previously ISIS/ISIL] and against the separatist terrorist organization that kills civilians in dormitories, including a five-month-old baby. We are working to secure the life and security of our citizens,” Davutoglu said Thursday.
The official comments came as Sedat Peker, a notorious convicted criminal kingpin who actively promotes the idea of pan-Turkism, has issued death threats against intellectuals who signed the declaration.
“We will spill your blood in streams and we will shower in your blood,” Peker said in a blog titled “The So-Called Intellectuals, The Bells Will Toll for You First” on his personal website.
The academics’ criticism of the military operation against the Kurds also angered Turkish President Tayyip Recep Erdogan, who called the declaration “treachery” and urged the judiciary to get involved.
Erdogan described the group of academics as “poor excuses for intellectuals,” in a speech to Turkish ambassadors Tuesday. He insisted that human rights violations in southeast Turkey were being carried out by “terrorists,” referring to the Kurdish rebels, and not by the state.
“A group that call themselves academics has emerged and spewed hatred against their state and nation by publicly taking sides with the terror organization [PKK],” Erdogan said in another speech Thursday.
In turn, Chomsky, a prominent US linguist and philosopher, accused the Turkish president of hypocrisy and applying double standards to terrorism as well as openly aiding terrorist organizations.
Read more
“Turkey blamed ISIS [for the attack on Istanbul], which Erdogan has been aiding in many ways, while also supporting the al-Nusra Front, which is hardly different. He then launched a tirade against those who condemn his crimes against Kurds – who happen to be the main ground force opposing ISIS in both Syria and Iraq. Is there any need for further comment?” Chomsky said.
The clashes between Turkish forces and Kurdish fighters from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been outlawed by Ankara, have been ongoing since July, with Turkey’s authorities claiming that those killed during the security operation in the southeast were PKK members.
Erdogan has vowed to continue the operation until the area is cleansed of Kurdish militants. However, according to Turkish human rights groups, more than 160 civilians have also been killed during the government crackdown.
Meanwhile, Kurds have long been campaigning for the right to self-determination and greater autonomy in Turkey, where they are the largest ethnic minority. In late December, a congress of Kurdish nongovernmental organizations called for Turkey’s southeastern regions to be granted autonomy via constitutional reforms.Illustration by Claudio Munoz
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THE months ahead will be busy for Chinese dissidents. A string of sensitive anniversaries will evoke numerous petitions calling for political change. In December more than 300 of the country's most prominent activists issued a wide-ranging appeal for democratic reform. On January 12th a group of them were at it again, no less quixotically, with a demand for a boycott of national state-owned television.
As China's economic growth falters and unemployment rises, political activists—marginalised during the past few years of prosperity—will become a bigger worry to the government. The 20th anniversary on June 4th of the quashing of the Tiananmen Square protests will be the highlight of the dissident calendar. For Tibetans it will be the 50th anniversary on March 10th of an uprising that led to the Dalai Lama's flight into exile in India. Followers of Falun Gong, a quasi-Buddhist sect, will want to mark the tenth anniversary on July 22nd of its banning. Ever fearful of instability, the government will be especially anxious to quell dissent in the build-up to celebrations on October 1st of 60 years of Communist Party rule.
Dissidents can take some pride in their first salvo of the season. Their petition, known as Charter 08, which they issued online in early December to mark the 60th anniversary of the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights, was initially signed by 303 intellectuals. They included a wide range of lawyers, journalists, academics and activists. Organisers say that thousands more have added their names (by sending their details to an e-mail address), although the identities of many of them are difficult to verify.
Charter 08's name was intended to recall that of Charter 77, a human-rights manifesto circulated by dissidents in Czechoslovakia in 1977. The Chinese version called for everything from private ownership of land to multiparty democracy. It said social tensions were building up and the number of protests was rapidly increasing, “indicating a tendency towards a disastrous loss of control”. Democratisation, it said, could “no longer be delayed”.
The authorities disagree. They quickly detained the chief organiser, Liu Xiaobo, a veteran Beijing activist, and threatened or questioned dozens of other signatories. Chinese internet-service providers removed postings about the document. A blog-hosting service, Bullog, home to several personal sites supportive of the charter, was shut down. A search in Chinese for the words Charter 08 on Google's Chinese search engine now produces only a standard warning that “according to local laws, regulations and policies, some results have not been displayed”. Dai Qing, a prominent author and signatory, says the charter is unlikely to galvanise the public now that many cannot find it online to read.
The call for a boycott of the state broadcaster CCTV suggests some dissidents have not been deterred. Among the 22 people who signed the petition are seven, including its drafter, Ling Cangzhou, from Charter 08's first group of signatories. The petition accuses CCTV of playing down reports about protests and other negative news. It mentions a CCTV report broadcast in September last year praising the quality controls on milk-powder production by Sanlu, a leading dairy company. Sanlu was revealed just a few days later to have been selling tainted baby formula that caused thousands of infants to fall sick.
The contaminated milk scandal, in which many other Chinese milk producers were also implicated, heightened public suspicion of officialdom just as concerns were beginning to grow about the impact on China of the global financial crisis. With a total of nearly 300,000 children affected by the milk, the government feared unrest. On January 1st police in Beijing detained five parents of sickened children for several hours, apparently to stop them holding a press conference to complain about compensation arrangements.
Officials allowed the press little access to the trial on December 31st of Sanlu's boss, Tian Wenhua, and three other executives. Press reports say Ms Tian might be sentenced this week. Several officials have lost their jobs in connection with the scandal but none has been taken to court. Xu Zhiyong, a Beijing lawyer, says courts have ignored collective lawsuits he has filed on behalf of affected families. He is now planning to bring their cases to the Supreme Court. One of Mr Xu's aides speculates that the government, anxious to put the tainted-milk affair behind it, wants families to accept out-of-court settlements.
Even the official media have given warning that 2009 could be troubled, as the economy wobbles. Liaowang, a weekly magazine, quoted a senior journalist as saying that China was entering a “peak period for mass incidents” (the usual official euphemism for protests and riots). The authorities, he said, could be tested by “even more conflicts and clashes”.
But few—even among dissidents—envisage upheaval on the scale of the pro-democracy protests in 1989. Hu Xingdou of the Beijing Institute of Technology says the public appetite for rapid political change still seems low. This month China's police chief, Meng Jianzhu, said that as long as Beijing was stable, the whole country would be stable. To mark the anniversary festivities of the founding of the People's Republic, the authorities will pull out every stop to ensure a trouble-free capital.Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images Pretty much everyone who has worked with Tom Cruise says the same thing. We were particularly impressed with this quote by "Cabin In The Woods" director Drew Goddard, who described his 2008 meeting with the legend in Entertainment Weekly:
"That was definitely one of those surreal experiences.
"It was wonderful. I mean, Tom Cruise — at least in my experience with him — I've never met a more enthusiastic, creative, and supportive person.
"He has that energy and to feel that energy directed towards you about you, it's like a drug. It's wonderful.
"He was so excited about the script and so complimentary and really just pointed out scenes in the movie that he felt we should bring out more. And he was totally right."
Amazing, right? After seeing this quote (which also appears in the new Joss Whedon biography we have been covering obsessively), we were inspired to look up more descriptions of what it's like to work with Cruise.
"He has the best reputation in the industry, by far," screenwriter Ken Miyamoto wrote of Cruise on Quora. "He works his ass off and has this utter positive energy that he brings to the development phase, the set, and beyond. He's the hardest working actor in the industry (and most that have worked with him have said so) and he's known as one of the nicest actors to work with."
Tom Cruise's "Edge of Tomorrow" co-star, Emily Blunt, says the actor "is heaven" to work with. Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images Cruise's "Edge of Tomorrow" co-star, Emily Blunt, told ABC News that Cruise is "is heaven" to work with.
"He's so sweet and generous," said the actress. "And such a pro at this stuff. He was so emboldening and encouraging. I wanted to do my own stunts because he does his own stunts."
"Oblivion" screenwriter Karl Gajdusek also spoke positively of working with Cruise.
"He's a very good collaborator," Gajdusek told ScreenwritingU of his experience working out of Cruise's house for about three weeks during one phase of the writing process. "The reason he wants to work with you is that you're spending more hours a day on this thing than he is, and if you don't know it — in some ways better than him — and can resist ideas when they don't seem right for the film, then you're useless, you're just a stenographer.... That's not to say that he didn't win arguments. He usually wins the argument."
Cruise's former publicist, Pat Kingsley — who worked with the actor from 1992 until he fired her in 2004— told The Hollywood Reporter last year that "Tom Cruise was a prince."
During their working relationship, "We talked constantly," Kingsley says. "He was an insomniac. I liked the fact that he was so much fun. And he was so thoughtful. He remembered birthdays, my daughter's birthday. He came to her wedding; she was registered somewhere for the china, |
We start the top three on my big board. This is where the distinctions between quarterbacks become so small. No. 3 in my rankings is Tom Brady. Brady is one of the best ever, and he had another outstanding season in 2012.
“In the NFL of 2013, quarterbacks must be able to control the game at the line of scrimmage. With the increased sophistication of fronts and coverages, it’s imperative that quarterbacks both recognize and manipulate defenses before the snap of the ball. There are few better than Tom Brady.
“Brady and the Patriots dictated favorable matchups as well as any team in the NFL. They were effective out of multiple tight end sets, at times utilizing three tight ends. This was great design on this first down shot play, with two distinct elements that defined the touchdown.
“It featured three tight ends and stretch run-action. Look at the offensive line. The footwork for each lineman was exactly the same, and it’s in perfect sync. It was designed to impact the safeties, not the linebackers.
“The Patriots utilized more first down run-action out of base personnel in 2012. The result? Brady threw for more yards on first down than any quarterback in the league. In addition, Brady had the highest third down quarterback rating. He threw an NFL best 13 touchdowns on third down.
“How about these numbers over the last three seasons: 109 touchdown passes and only 24 interceptions. Brady is a top three quarterback every single year. He can be one, two or three in my rankings. This year I put him at No. 3. I know people are going to get all fired up, but there are two other quarterbacks I feel deserve a higher ranking in 2013.”
Denver Broncos Quarterback Peyton Manning Ranked No. 2 on Jaws’ QB Countdown
Jaworski ranks Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning at No. 2. Transcribed analysis:
“Now we are down to the final two quarterbacks on my big board: Peyton Manning and Aaron Rodgers. No. 2 is Manning. Manning had an outstanding season in 2012, truly remarkable given that he missed the entire 2011 season with a serious neck injury. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a quarterback more aware and in total command than No. 18.
“Manning’s most extraordinary attribute: total recall and application. You know what really stood out watching all of Manning’s throws this season? His ball location. He read the one-on-one coverage as he always does and made throws that were so precise. That’s accuracy in the NFL.
“That eight-yard touchdown was one of the best throws of the 2012 season. Look when Manning made the decision to pull the trigger. That’s remarkable anticipation. I’ve seen Manning work on that exact throw countless times in practice. Repetition and application.”
Green Bay Packers Quarterback Aaron Rodgers Ranked No. 1 on Jaws’ QB Countdown
Jaworski ranks Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers at No. 1. Transcribed analysis:
“Now it’s time for No. 1: Aaron Rodgers, the most physically-gifted quarterback in the NFL. Arm strength, release, accuracy, movement, toughness – the total package. No quarterback is better avoiding, escaping, moving, then delivering the football with velocity and accuracy.
“Rodgers’ ability to throw from different arm angles and platforms is unmatched. It was demanded more than ever in 2012 behind a struggling offensive line. While Rodgers is not a runner, he always poses a dangerous threat when running opportunities present themselves. When you evaluate all the attributes and traits that comprise high-level quarterback play in the NFL, Rodgers is at the top of the list.
“You know how I feel about arm strength. Rodgers has a gun with a quick, compact release. This touchdown to Jordy Nelson was a great example. Rodgers is throwing off the movement of this safety. As soon as he sees the safety jump inside, Rodgers drives the ball to Nelson. That’s a strong-arm throw.
“For the second year in a row, Aaron Rodgers is my No. 1 quarterback. That wraps up my quarterback countdown for the summer of 2013. A lot can change over the course of the 2013 season.”Andy Clayton-King/Associated Press
ESPN's Field Yates reported Friday that Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Michael Floyd will be suspended four games by the NFL for his December DUI arrest.
The arrest led to his release by the Arizona Cardinals before signing with the New England Patriots en route to earning a Super Bowl ring.
Floyd signed a one-year deal with the Vikes in free agency.
Starting in February, Floyd served a 24-day sentence at a Scottsdale, Arizona, jail after pleading guilty to one charge of second-offense extreme DUI, per ESPN.com's Josh Weinfuss.
In June, Floyd was sentenced to one day in jail for violating the terms of his probation, according to Robert Gundran of USA Today.
Floyd tested positive for alcohol as part of a court-ordered test, but he said it was due only to drinking kombucha teas.
The Vikings accepted his explanation, but head coach Mike Zimmer made it clear that he won't have any tolerance for lying, per Brian Murphy of the Pioneer Press:
"Do I believe it? I don't know how much tea he drank. I have no clue. I don't have any doubt why there'd be skepticism, but he told me that he wasn't [drinking]. That it was legit.... I said, 'If I find out you're lying to me, I'm going to cut you.'"
The 27-year-old Floyd was selected with the No. 13 overall pick in the 2012 NFL draft out of Notre Dame by Arizona.
He has one 1,000-yard season to his credit, and is coming off a career-worst 2016 campaign that saw him register 37 receptions for 488 yards and five touchdowns in 15 games split between the Cards and Pats.
With Floyd out of action, Minnesota's primary receiving threats for the first three games are likely to be Stefon Diggs, Adam Thielen and second-year man Laquon Treadwell.Why Is Sony Going under and How Can It Save Itself?
One of the most iconic names in the mobile industry has always been the Japanese giant, Sony. Over the years, we have seen this company going from an icon, to an evil empire going after poor developers (yeah, yeah… different division), to one of the most friendly giants a developer could hope to have as a friend. Over the last couple of years, Sony has shown the developer world (and really the entire world) that being a ginormous global corporation should not prevent you from keeping in touch with the people who have helped to make you big in the first place. You can be friendly with lesser groups (us :p) and you can also do simple things like play by the rules (ie following GPL as they should). However, it seems that the old saying “good guys finish last” does hold some truth to it. Unfortunately, a few days ago, a report came out stating that Sony is considering selling their phone division. This comes out not long after Sony’s sale of their laptop computer division. So, it seems that Sony is trying to trim down the fat in order to survive. But, is this the right way of surviving?
According to various reports floating around on the web, Sony will have lost roughly US$1.9 billion dollars this coming March, which is a ridiculously large amount for any company trying to make a living by selling… well, anything. Now, Sony is a company that has branched out into so many areas that “Jack of all Trades” falls short in comparison. They do have some rather profitable areas such as their Playstation division as well as their cameras. When it comes to TV’s, they are getting their behinds handed over to them in a silver platter, courtesy of Samsung and LG. And of course, you have other areas such as Sony Music, which will keep the brand alive for the foreseeable future. However, this alone is not enough to keep the entire company afloat.
As mentioned earlier, they axed their Vaio division not too long ago due mainly to dismal sales and increase in competition in markets where they had some levels of dominance. Acer, Asus, Lenovo and others began pushing out cheaper products, which basically pushed Sony into a corner. On top of all this, the former Ericsson division, which was completely acquired a couple of years ago by Sony, has been currently trying their hardest to look alive. Multiple device releases per year with a yearly flagship, new innovative tech (submersible devices, screen tech, and more) have been paramount for them since the introduction of the Z line (and even a little before). Despite all their efforts, the company seems to be giving up as it simply cannot win against the likes of Apple and Samsung, both of which dominate the markets worldwide with vast percentages.
Focusing solely on their phone division, it is actually not hard to see why they are where they are right now. After quickly browsing through the 4 major US carrier’s websites, one can tell what is going on. Out of the 4, only two of them offered Sony devices (T-Mobile and Verizon). Each one of them offered 1 device (each) – the Xperia Z3 (and Z3v for Verizon) whereas they offered about 9 variants of Galaxy devices and 6 others of iPhones (and a slew of other brands including HTC, LG, etc). They have 0 penetration in the US markets as their only other outlet would be to sell unlocked directly from Sony stores or via other venues such as Amazon, eBay, etc. And yes, we do realize that the US is not the only nor the largest mobile market in the world, but it does represent a very large portion of it.
The other issue with Sony’s model revolves around their support structure. This, as it is always the case, is a typical scenario for ymmv (your mileage may vary). Some people hate them and you do also get the mixed stories about successful repairs with minimal to no hassle. However, if anyone browses through their support forum, they will quickly realize that they are not exactly all that great. And since there is never a second without a third, you have the issue (which beautifully magnifies the effect of the support issues) of build quality concerns. Point and case, did you know that the first generation Xperia Z‘s processor heated up so much that it warped the glass back and unset the glue holding it together? Well, whether Sony admitted it or not, the issue was there with lots of reports and they flat out denied it.
So, Sony… you have the trifecta of death unfortunately: low sales, poor customer support, and quality issues. How to fix this? Well, obviously marketing would do you wonders mainly because people cannot buy your product if they do not know it exists. You are in the money losing wagon at this point and I don’t believe you will outbudget Samsung or Apple in marketing dollars. But, as a last resort, I would try one final push, going out through the big door, going all out, etc, etc. You have to somehow convince the people that you have better bang for their buck, which brings me to my next point… price. Most of your devices (newer ones) hit the shelves grossly overpriced (when compared to your competitor’s flagships for instance). Stop doing this! There is no worse buyer’s repellent than overpriced hardware. Also, own up to possible mistakes. You’ll look better in the end by admitting that there may be something wrong than trying to deny the existence of a sheet with over 700 entries of people reporting the same issue. And no, water cannot get past a water indicator without activating it (true story btw, I actually got this from Sony techs after sending my Xperia Z in for water damage which had gotten in through the warped glass in the back, which they graciously denied to repair or replace).
I am not sure if you will be able to save the phone division, but taking the steps above might throw you a line to survive a bit longer. Who knows? You might even be able to beat HTC or even LG by bringing some of your mid range devices into the US market as well, thus breathing some life into those deep red numbers of yours.
If you were in Sony’s shoes, what would you do? We’d love to hear your thoughts.What the developers have to say:
Why Early Access? “To give you a preview of the game and give us the means to finish it properly. Your feedback is very valuable to us as we want to improve the experience in every aspect and offer the best experience to players.” Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access? “Until we consider the game satisfying enough.” How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version? “The early access version contains the first 5 levels with their full scenario, and the 5 following levels without narration, but with the necessary instructions to finish them, along with some bonuses. This is an apetizer, meant to showcase the narrative system and different gameplay mechanics. The final game will include at least 15 levels.
For now on, only the seated version is available. A roomscale mode taking advantage of the HTC Vive controllers (and Oculus Touch) is in the works. We are completely rethinking the gameplay for roomscale, and this will lead to drastic changes in the experience, the level design, the player role in the story and of course the overall gameplay.” What is the current state of the Early Access version? “- Levels in seated mode are 80% done
- Levels in roomscale mode are 80% done for HTC Vive, not available for Oculus Rift yet
- The comics are done, too
- Sound design and music are 80% done. We still need to position everything correctly and implement missing sfx.
- A few bonus levels full of surprises” Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access? “The price may evolve between the Early and Final versions.” How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process? “Your feedback is very important to us. VR being quite new for a lot of people, we want to give players something different and enjoyable, by including different gameplay modes and perspectives.
We are players and VR enthusiasts ourselves and we know the importance of being available and receptive to the community, and this early access is a great way to do so!”It was a steamy summer night in College Station, Texas, the evening of June 23, but inside Texas A&M’s Bright Football complex, the near triple-digit temperatures were the last thing on anyone’s mind. The 100 or so players on the Aggies’ roster sat in silence as coach Kevin Sumlin introduced the guest speaker.
Everyone knew Maurice Clarett’s name, and the players who were too young to remember him leading Ohio State to the 2003 BCS National Championship game knew his story. They had all seen the 2013 documentary about his life; the one that chronicled his rise to college football stardom, the fall that landed him in prison, and his rise again.
To make sure there was no confusion about how good Clarett once was, A&M director of player development Mikado Hinson popped in a highlight tape from that 2002 season, showing Clarett gashing Miami on the way to the BCS title.
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At that point, there was doubt in the players’ minds that Clarett was in fact a "real dude" (as Hinson had earlier told them), but when he got to the podium to speak, no one was exactly sure what he would say. Most assumed he would talk a little bit about football and maybe urge them not to make the same mistakes he made.
That’s exactly how Clarett’s speech opened. Then, it became much more complicated.
He began speaking in the present, looking players in the eyes and asking if they were taking actionable steps right now to improve their lives 40 years down the road. He asked about their academic coursework, whether they were taking easy classes just to get by or classes that might actually give them skills when they stepped into the real world. He asked if they were taking advantage of every opportunity a college campus provides, seeking mentors and knowledge. Did they know that in many cases their scholarships were paid for by local philanthropists? Had they bothered to reach out to the benefactors and ask how they had worked themselves into the positions to provide scholarships?
The players leaned in, engaged, soaking up his every word. One player caught Clarett’s attention, to the point that he called him out in front of the whole team.
In front of the player’s peers, Clarett asked what it took to be a man and whether he wanted to spend the rest of his career at A&M as a leader or a follower. A&M’s players gasped when they heard the questions; not because they were so straightforward but because they had heard the Aggies’ coaching staff ask the team the same questions before.
When the speech was over, the player jokingly went up to Hinson and asked if the coaching staff had put Clarett up to asking those questions.
That assumption couldn’t have been further from the truth; Clarett had not been told anything.
"He thought we had put Maurice up to that," Hinson told FOX Sports earlier this month. "I was like ‘Bro, we didn’t tell him anything.’ That really made it even more real to him because Maurice echoed what we’ve been saying. What the head coach, what the position coach, what the coordinator has been saying all along. It became real."
Oh, it was real, and also shows who the real Maurice Clarett is. No longer is Clarett the troubled former player looking to get back on his feet. He’s the adult who has done it, who is back and ready to make sure the next generation of football players doesn’t make the same mistakes.
In the process Clarett has become one of the most in-demand speakers in all of college football, the guy your favorite coach calls to set his team straight. This summer, Clarett has spoken at Texas A&M, LSU, TCU and Kentucky, with stops at UConn and Alabama last week. This week it’s Florida State. Then, who knows?
It’s all part of the new Maurice Clarett, the former football star who once brought thousands to their feet every Saturday.
Little did anyone know that he would make a much bigger impact off the field than he did on it.
Maurice Clarett (middle) with Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin (left) and director of player development Mikado Hinson.
Few are aware of the rebirth of Clarett. The documentary on his life, "The Youngstown Boys," began to tell the story, but in the 18 months since it first aired so much has changed.
Since then, Clarett has begun an entrepreneurial career he hopes eventually will bring dozens of jobs to his hometown of Youngstown, Ohio. And his speaking career has done nothing short of take off. When the movie was released, he had only done a handful of speaking gigs, mostly to groups around Ohio. Since, he has spoken to everyone from corporate CEOs to millionaire head-football coaches to prison groups and elementary school students.
It’s been a wild ride for Clarett, but to truly understand where he is now, you first have to know where he came from. And to do that, the best place to start is probably during his time in prison. In 2006, Clarett was sentenced to 7 1/2 years on robbery and concealed weapons charges. And it was during that time that he began to re-evaluate himself and look at the decisions he made that landed him there in the first place.
"I don’t care who you are, nobody plans to go to prison," Clarett told FOX Sports in a recent interview. "When you’re in prison it’s like ‘Hey, how did this thing become what it is?’ At that point you begin to assess your behavior or assess your decision-making, and you correct it. You become self-aware, you set some good new goals and you create new paths. You realize you have to fix it."
To accomplish those goals, the first step for Clarett was to read every piece of literature he could. He knew that by the time he re-entered society, his chances at a football career would be nil, so rather than focusing on rebuilding his body he decided instead to focus on his mind. Clarett read psychology books to better understand what he had done to himself. He then read as much business-related literature as he could, with an eye toward his future. Clarett had a family to provide for, and when he left prison he wanted to be armed with as much knowledge as possible to jump right into the next chapter of his life.
"(I read) anything that taught me more about the economy, business, the mechanics of business and any industry that you can be involved in outside of sports," Clarett said.
When Clarett was released from Toledo Correctional Facility after 3 1/2 years for good behavior, he had a wealth of knowledge but was still only known for football. Eventually he wanted to transition into the business world, but to help put a little money in his pocket, the plan was to open a football camp or two to start. And he was given a chance to play when the Omaha Nighthawks of the now-defunct United Football League gave him a shot.
It was during his time in Omaha that Clarett was offered his first speaking engagement. Ironically, the request didn’t come from a former football coach, or anyone involved in the sport, but instead from a law professor in Connecticut. Marilyn Ford remembered Clarett’s story and was impressed when she heard that Clarett not only was out of prison, but also had begun taking classes toward his degree at Ohio State. She was running a symposium at Quinnipiac University called "Disparity in Youth Education" and believed that Clarett would be a perfect fit for her panel.
Granted, she had never heard Clarett speak before; since this was his first speaking engagement, no one had. With a diverse crowd expected to attend, Ford wanted a diverse panel to discuss the issues at hand. And she thought Clarett’s story — not so much his downfall but his efforts to turn his life around — would be a nice contrast to many of the professors and other academic minds.
"I had no idea if he’d be a good speaker," Ford recalled. "But I knew he had a story to tell."
I had no idea if he’d be a good speaker. But I knew he had a story to tell. Marilyn Ford, who sought Clarett as a speaker at Quinnipiac University
As it turned out, Clarett did have a story to tell, and did it in a dynamic way. Clarett was scheduled to speak for 20 minutes, but the response was so powerful that Ford pulled him into a side room for a question-and-answer session that lasted hours. If Clarett didn’t have a flight to catch to Omaha that afternoon, he might still be speaking there.
Before Clarett headed to the airport, Ford made one demand: She insisted that Clarett call her when he returned to Omaha. He had a gift, and she damn well wasn’t going to let him waste it.
"A few days later he called me, and I said, ‘Have you ever thought about going on the road and telling your story? Because you connect,’ " Ford told Clarett. "He comes across as very genuine, he’s got credibility. And he said, ‘No, I have not.’ And I said, ‘Well, you should.’ "
Clarett took Ford’s message to heart, and from there the bookings began. At the beginning it was mostly small churches and prisons, maybe an elementary school. Most of the engagements were around Ohio, and occasionally in Connecticut or New York, when Ford would bring Clarett back to the region or recommend him to another group locally.
But then, just as Clarett was getting comfortable in a field he had never planned on getting into, the documentary came out in December 2013. From there, a side gig became a full-time career.
Literally.
"Within two days of the film release, that Monday morning, we woke up to 350 email requests," Clarett’s cousin and booking agent Richard Owens said. "(It was) people wanting him to come out and speak from all over the country."
The requests came from as far west as Scottsdale, Arizona, and from corporations as large as IBM. They came from major college football programs such as Tennessee and Notre Dame, from student groups at smaller schools like Bethune-Cookman. And, of course, they continued to come from prisons, elementary schools and churches as well.
Basically, they came from everywhere. And faster than anyone could keep up.
"(Prior to the film) he spoke maybe once a month," Owens said. "Once the film came out, it was bananas from that point."
Today, Clarett has spoken to thousands of people, with his speeches varying from group to group (after all, a room full of IBM CEOs has different requirements than a group of 18-year-old football players). Regardless of who Clarett is speaking to, all his speeches carry the same tenets: Work hard and take advantage of your opportunities; we all make bad decisions, but there isn’t a single mistake you can’t dig your way out of.
They can somewhat relate, regardless of their profession. I’m talking about judges, doctors, teachers, lawyers, (all the way down) to crack addicts, unemployed, they can somewhat relate. Richard Owens, Clarett's cousin and booking agent
What’s most incredible is that virtually everyone, regardless of race or social standing, can take something from Clarett’s speeches. As Ford mentioned, he connects in a way few speakers do.
"They can somewhat relate, regardless of their profession," Owens said. "I’m talking about judges, doctors, teachers, lawyers, (all the way down) to crack addicts, unemployed; they can somewhat relate. They can say ‘You’re real. You’ve been through this before.’ ‘Hey I’m a judge, but I haven’t always been on the straight and narrow path.’ Or ‘I have a son going through the criminal justice system. Here I am a federal court judge.’ "
For football players, the message is much more direct. Clarett talks about what he was like at their age and implores players to not make the same mistakes. More important, in a world where media and fans claim that the system of big-time college athletics uses student-athletes, Clarett flips the tables and tells the players to use the system to their advantage.
"He challenged guys academically," Hinson said. "He said, ‘A lot of guys get degrees they’re never going to use.’ He said, ‘If you get degrees because it’s easy to go through, don’t do it. You’re not getting challenged in the classroom because it’s about playing ball.’ But he said, ‘Listen, real life is about getting real jobs. You need skills.’ He challenged them in their degree plan."
To his credit, Clarett doesn’t only challenge the players, he challenges the administrators as well.
"It’s also going to the administrative staff and explaining to them how they can be more supportive," Clarett said. "It’s about offering up these kids legitimate classes. A lot of these kids are just taking lollipop classes, and these coaches know that they wouldn’t put their own kids in these courses."
Clarett continued.
"It’s the responsible thing to do — put every resource in place for these kids to be challenged academically. … I have to challenge the student-athlete support services, I challenge the coaching staff, and I challenge the students because there’s something to say to everyone. And it’s not rude. But it’s like, ‘Let’s be serious with each other.’ "
When asked about one of the biggest, most far-reaching topics facing college athletics today, Clarett added rare depth to the discussion.
"People say all the time, ‘Do these college students need to be paid?’ " Clarett asked aloud. "It’s like, that’s not the question. The question is, ‘Do they need to be educated properly?’ That’s the bigger question."
While speaking has become his bread and butter, it is only part of who Clarett is now. In addition to the speeches, Clarett also has entered the beginning stages of what he hopes will be an entrepreneurial career.
Maurice Clarett is surrounded by Mississippi State players after speaking at their university.
While in prison, he took an interest in the work of Warren Buffett, the business magnate whose net worth was last estimated at a cool $67 billion. Clarett eventually had the chance to meet Buffett when he was playing in Omaha.
"I went down, and I thought it was just going to be a quick picture," Clarett said. "Next thing I know, we’re sitting there for hours and we’re going back and forth. And I felt like I knew him because I read so much."
Through the principles he learned in prison, as well as some other knowledge he’s picked up over the past few years, Clarett has started a few businesses locally. His transportation service is beginning to take off; Clarett announced he was hiring three new drivers in the past week. Clarett also is in the early stages of opening his own packaging company, becoming part of an industry that generates hundreds of billions of dollars a year in revenue.
The packaging idea wasn’t anything Clarett learned in prison, but rather through a chance meeting. Bryan Wilks had no ties to Clarett until he saw "Youngstown Boys," and when he did, he decided to reach out to Clarett with a congratulatory note. From there, Wilks had no expectation that he would hear from Clarett. Not only did Clarett respond, but a friendship blossomed.
As time went on, Clarett began picking Wilks’ brain about the packaging industry, a field Wilks has worked in for close to 15 years. He now serves as a bit of a mentor for Clarett. Wilks, who owns his own packaging company, sees in Clarett everything needed to be a successful entrepreneur. He is an avid learner, an outside-the-box thinker and a relentless worker.
All Clarett needs at this point is experience.
"He fits the profile perfectly," Wilks said. "He’s the kind of guy who is going to thrive in a business if he’s given a little bit of help. The more he gets exposed to business at a higher level, the better he’ll be."
Clarett continues to make strides in the entrepreneurial world, but his focus remains on his speaking career. It’s grown not only in the sheer number of engagements but also in the impact they are having. Ask anyone who has had Clarett speak to their group, and they come out raving.
Ford, who hired Clarett for his first gig nearly four years ago, tells a funny story about friends at Eastern Connecticut State University hounding her for Clarett’s contact information after he first spoke at Quinnipiac. Clarett eventually was booked and set to appear for a single speaking session.
Safe to say, it went a little longer than that.
"He was only supposed to speak at 9 a.m. and it turned into a full day, nearly two-day event," Ford said. "He got in the night before, and all of the next day he must have talked to five or six different classes, and then talked to an auditorium session with like three or four thousand young people on their campus."
Oh, but the party kept going.
"They had a steak dinner with the president and the board of trustees," Ford said. "When I say they loved him so much at Eastern Connecticut, I’m pretty sure that if Maurice was in the market for a job, he could have gotten a job there."
It was the same at Bethune-Cookman University, where Clarett appeared at a "Male Empowerment" seminar in April 2014. Not only did the students immediately demand that Clarett return the following year, but to this day they’re also still using the lessons he taught them.
"We have our students mentor local elementary, middle school and high school kids," director of student leadership Jermaine McKinney said. "When they’re speaking to these kids, they’re using the messages that Maurice Clarett gave them."
Then, of course, there was the young man at Texas A&M, the one Clarett called out. According to A&M’s staff, he has never been a troublemaker but instead someone who simply needed guidance. He was the kind of person who would listen to what the coaches were saying but didn’t always integrate those lessons into his life.
So what happened since Clarett spoke to the Aggies?
I really believe that was a crossroads moment in this young man’s life. He got challenged by a real dude. He got challenged by someone who’s lived it, walked it, talked it. Texas A&M director of player development Mikado Hinson
"Yes, I have seen some subtle differences in the young man," Hinson said. "I’ve been watching him take things more seriously. You can see him thinking things through. You can see him looking at things through the bigger picture."
Hinson continued, emphasizing the impact Clarett had.
"I really believe that was a crossroads moment in this young man’s life. He got challenged by a real dude. He got challenged by someone who’s lived it, walked it, talked it. And he’s been put in the pit to the prison to the palace, so to speak. And he’s someone who is now living it."
Clarett is indeed living it, and in a lot of ways living out a dream that he never knew he had.
"We don’t often know our calling in life," Ford said. "Maybe this was his calling."
Aaron Torres is a contributor for FOXSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @Aaron_Torres or Facebook.E-mail at ATorres00@gmail.com.Over a decade ago, when I learned of the institutionalized cruelty under which billions of animals suffer, I gave them my word that I would devote my life to trying to help them. I soon realized that while changing my own eating and clothing habits and being involved in rescue work makes a difference, the ability to influence other people's behavior can multiply my impact exponentially. No wonder I am currently rereading the Dale Carnegie classic, How to Win Friends and Influence People.
There is so much in there for activists for any cause. Carnegie discusses how effectively we can reach people if we make them feel good rather than bad about themselves, for example by complimenting what they are doing well. He guides us to take a real interest in others and frame things in terms of their interests, their desires, rather than our own. He recommends that we show respect for others' opinions and never say "You're wrong." And he suggests that we emphasize the things on which we agree.
On that point, Carnegie writes: "Get the other person saying 'Yes, yes' at the outset. Keep your opponent, if possible, from saying 'No.'"
He further explains:
"The skillful speaker gets, at the outset, a number of 'yes' responses. This sets the psychological process of the listeners moving in the affirmative direction. It is like the movement of a billiard ball, propel in one direction and it takes some force to deflect it; far more force to send it back in the opposite direction.... Hence the more 'yeses' we can, at the outset, induce, the more likely we are to succeed in capturing the attention for our ultimate proposal."
With that in mind, yesterday I sent out, in my DawnWatch newsletter, a New York Times column by Nicholas Kristof. In the last few years he and another columnist, Mark Bittman, have brought to New York Times readers an awareness of horrors in our food system that had largely been hidden from the public over the decades in which factory farming had become the food production norm. Yet despite numerous articles on animal suffering, neither writer has taken the argument to the logical conclusion. Neither man suggests that we stop eating animals. So when I send out their work to my subscribers, mostly vegan, recommending that we commend and share it, I receive, predictably, a few irate notes suggesting that Kristof and Bittman, who highlight the suffering but continue to support it by eating some meat, are unworthy of commendation.
I understand my readers' frustration, their wish that Kristof and Bittman would just go vegan completely and tell their readers to do the same. But for now I think we should accept that such a stance might be a sure way to get the vast majority of their readers to say no. The focus on the egregious cruelty of factory farming, however, has their readers saying yes, saying that they agree that something is wrong and that they care about animal suffering. We might see Kristof and Bittman as "capturing the attention," as Dale Carnegie put it, of New York Times readers for our (rather than their) "ultimate proposal."
Indeed, if you look at the comment section next to Kristof's latest piece you'll find many people making that ultimate proposal and getting dozens of thumbs up. Without Kristof's work we would not have had that New York Times forum waiting for us with the groundwork already laid for recommending plant-based diets.
There's an early section in my book, Thanking the Monkey, in which I argue for welfare reforms on behalf of the individual beings who are suffering right now, whose pitiful hope of some relief cannot be sacrificed for the cause. Advocating veganism does not preclude support for a more humane meat system any more than advocating abolishing the death penalty precludes support for better conditions or painless execution methods for death row inmates. I won't revisit that argument in depth now but I wanted to make sure to stress that even just the face value of welfare campaigns, the alleviation of suffering, is value indeed.
It so happens that my own advocacy straightforwardly touts veganism as a healthy and joyous lifestyle. That feels best for me. I put forward what I truly believe and am rewarded with a feeling of integrity. But is what feels best for me what matters most? I notice that some of the animal advocacy groups, whose leaders are vegan, run some campaigns asking the public to oppose factory farming and that those campaigns don't always discuss and recommend veganism. And those groups have some brochures with titles that promote "vegetarianism" even though the recipes inside are in fact vegan. I've been impatient with them at times and have seen them pilloried from within our movement for their soft stance, for their unwillingness to just call it how it is. But Dale Carnegie has taught me that those campaigns aren't halfhearted or gutless -- they are smart. They are about getting a yes, where the "Go Vegan" message straight off the bat, at least for some demographics, might get a fast "no" ball rolling that would be hard to stop. Those softer campaigns get people to take that first step in the right direction. They are therefore invaluable because every journey starts with a step.Email Daniel Dale at ddale@thestar.ca if you hear a candidate make a new pledge or think we’re missing anything.
We will keep a running list of the specific campaign positions of Toronto mayoral candidates. Click here for an up-to-date list by issue. Click here to see the list sorted by candidate |
can say? Love mega man, the first game was one of my first Nes games, since then I waited for the next one. I love X and Legends sagas, indeed In the beginning I wanted to do a Legend pic but in the end, my heart belongs to the first and original serie. Cant forget Cut man, Elec man, Pharaoh man, Top man, snake man, etc. So much memories there and so much hours, days, weeks and years of fun.oh! dedicated to my bros Francisco and Alejandro! both really fans of the blue bomber.PSCS/Bamboo/9hours/Music: Megaman 2 by Duane & BrandO----------------------------------------------------Genzoman Artbook on sale! you can pre order it here!More info here!A federal magistrate has ordered the city to pay $21,610.50 in legal fees to the lawyers for Manuel Pombo, 63, a saxophone player who challenged the way the city enforced policies on performing on the streets.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- A federal magistrate has ordered the city to pay $21,610.50 in legal fees to the lawyers for a saxophone player who challenged the way the city enforced policies on performing on the streets.
Lawyers for the state’s chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union had represented Manuel Pombo, 63, a saxophone player who said police often ordered him to stop playing or arrested him for performing on city streets.
The lawyers had sought a combined $27,551.25 for their work. The city had filed a motion contesting that amount. U. S. District Court Magistrate Judge Lincoln D. Almond pared some of the requested hours and rates, but approved most of the billing. Shannah Kurland should be paid $13,410.50, Almond ruled, and John W. Dineen is due $8,200.
The suit was filed last summer, claiming the city unconstitutionally harassed Pombo, who has been playing the saxophone at various locations throughout the city since the 1990s. He had a 1991 letter from the city’s Board of Licenses that authorized him to play, but he said on numerous occasions city police would tell him to leave an area or arrest him. At times, however, he said some police would compliment his playing or give him a contribution.
Playing music is a form of free speech, Kurland and Dineen argued, and the city’s permission-to-perform letter was a violation of Pombo’s or any other street performer’s First Amendment free speech rights.
Both sides settled the lawsuit in January with the filing of a consent judgment in which the city agreed that it would no longer harass Pombo if he played in public and agreed that “soliciting donations is protected speech under the First Amendment.” The city also agreed to pay Pombo $1,500 in damages.I am growing tired of seeing css or javascript frameworks and libraries being installed with bundler.
When working on a rails app I want to keep the list of dependencies to a minimum. By adding static assets to your Gemfile you are adding more to the load path, incurring a boot up time penalty and making bundler install slower.
My approach
I use rails’ vendor/ directory to store all third party frontend assets and simply require them through sprockets in my application.css and application.js files.
My Gemfile is kept for Ruby dependencies and by reading through it I can see the external boundaries of the system.
I want to experiment further with cdnjs and local fallbacks, but for now no frontend assets are clogging up my Gemfile! Please leave any comments with how you handle third party assets in your rails apps.I met up with a long-lost friend recently. "I'm gonna tear you a new one!" he shouted, almost as soon as he'd seen me in my little orange dinghy. "Suck on this!" he added.
Thankfully, I didn't suck on anything. I merely accelerated towards the beach of the first island in Far Cry's much-beloved 'Boat' level, zoomed up onto the shore, knocked him off his feet and murdered him and all his friends with a shotgun. "How'd ya like them apples?" I asked his prostrate body. Not much, I'd wager.
Oh, but how I love Far Cry. Yes, its difficulty curve becomes parabolic halfway through, but there's a feeling of freedom on its islands, mountains and winding rivers that is still remarkably fresh. On the three chunks of paradise that lie beyond my doomed friend's patrol spot, for instance, there are multiple assault points, boats to commandeer, jeeps to ram into the unwary and gliders to plummet from - albeit laced with as many save points as a failed triad has fingers. Far Cry has many imperfections - the boss battle at this level's close is a genuine horror show - but its essential beauty is never eclipsed.
Far Cry's aircraft carrier - it took a while to find the way in, and its occupants killed you loads. Yet I still love it dearly...
Crytek's first foray into paradise saw meathead idiot Jack Carver escorting a journalist-cum-CIA-agent called Val around the honeymoon destination of Micronesia. Here, amidst many disturbed parrots and the occasional pig, he found swarms of mercenaries to pick off from afar - a villainous crew led by a chap called Krieger who had monkey mutation mischief in mind. Alarms were slammed, alert flares went up, helicopters were called in and chimpanzee monsters were unceremoniously released from their cages - throughout the lengthy play-time, the violence felt stirringly organic. In fact, the only thing staid and one-dimensional about Far Cry was its pantomime iron-jaw hero.
Carver's loud hawaiian shirt was the closest he ever got to having a personality (and perhaps the primary reason he was so easily spotted by his foes) but thankfully his failings were drowned out by the vibrancy of the world around him. The enduring beauty of the island chain's lush maps was matched only by the clever ways Crytek would siphon you through them. Far Cry put you front and centre in free-form combat bubbles; it was an action hero simulator that encouraged you to make and break tactics on the fly. Strong tangs of the real Hollywood then doubled this down: an assault on a jungle base was lifted from Predator, while tree-top paths above rampaging Trigens were strongly redolent of Jurassic Park and its escaped raptors.
Many disliked the Trigen menace, and it's true that muto-monkeys who can kill with two swipes are hard to love. What they did provide, however, was a brigand of antagonists whose AI bled into the behaviours of Krieger's mercenaries exceptionally well. Far Cry's feeling of chaos, of being the odd one out in an unpredictable battle, was superb.
The battle between Glider and Helicopter is usually a short one.
One sequence saw you surface after a long spell of corridor battling only to be faced with a blood-trimmed dawn where the Trigen rebellion had become all-out war. Leaping Trigens scaled fortress walls, desperate mercenaries sprayed bullets in all directions and lumbering beasts with rockets for hands exchanged missiles with the locals. Your only real option in this madness was to scarper. Very often, Far Cry was more about running away than getting up close and personal.
It wasn't all smiles. In fact, the Far Cry experience still runs the gamut of emotions from pure joy to a broken keyboard and bloodied handprints above your PC. A creaking auto-save system was compounded by ultra-hard enemies who could hit a bullseye from a beach hut in Brazil.
The last levels of Far Cry were easily the hardest I've ever fought through: the penultimate corridor of heavily armoured shield-bearing soldiers took countless attempts, each time demanding ever-refined tactics and an opening foray of perfectly placed grenades. And the volcano basin after that? Hours of rocket-fuelled misery followed by the most desultory of endings. "We didn't think anyone would get that far into the game," a Far Cry developer once admitted to me, mere minutes before the paramedics arrived.
So yes, late-game Far Cry remains an unbalanced nightmare. On top of this: indoor levels weren't great, keeping your play stealthy was near impossible and invisibnle Trigens can still do one - now and forever. When all this is put alongside the pleasures of blowing helicopters out of the sky as you rampage down a river in a stolen boat, or listening to distant mercenaries chatter as you tag them with your binoculars, frustation dissolves.
"A mercenary sits on one end of a see-saw (in my imagination, eating his sandwiches) while a heavy boulder precariously balances on the small cliff behind him. Gravity is a great comedian."
Letting Trigens loose was always a delight. Until they leapt up to say hello themselves...
Played today, Far Cry's eccentricities still make it endearing, and not only in the way that mercenaries with rocket launchers will happily blow themselves out of their own guard towers if you approach from the right angle. Most games of its generation were addicted to physics, but Far Cry's silly, knockabout approach still shines. Every map has a strong tang of the Swiss Family Robinson - or the traps of the Ewoks, if you're that way inclined.
Heavy barrels are stored on tilted surfaces above mercenary checkpoints, while early on, a vast concrete cylinder sits at the crest of a hillock above two chattering enemies, held in place only by a sliver of plywood. Best of all, in my beloved Boat level, a mercenary sits on one end of a see-saw (in my imagination, eating his sandwiches) while a heavy boulder precariously balances on the small cliff behind him. Gravity is a great comedian.
Above all, however, a true sense of location made Far Cry special. Day turned to night, then back into day as you made your way through its levels. Locations looked real, felt real and were full of mercenaries, Trigens and terrified piggy wildlife who'd probably still be going about their business even if you weren't around to watch them. Like no other game, Far Cry made you feel like a righteous interloper and exotic holiday action hero: James Bond in Dr No, Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon or Val Kilmer in a less terrible version of The Island of Dr Moreau.
I enjoy the Crysis games - certainly the bits in them where you kill humans - but there's no doubt in my mind that Crytek has never managed to top Far Cry and are doomed to chase their own (ever more amazingly replicated) tail forever. Far Cry 3, however, has more than delivered; it's finally a sequel that's worthy of the name. But let's never forget the blood-stained white sands that first made it possible.The E.U.'s rapid enlargement to the east and south has further sapped it of life. Absent the cozy feel the smaller union had before the Berlin Wall came down, its original members have turned inward. The newer members from Central Europe, who have enjoyed full sovereignty only since communism's collapse, are not keen to give it away. As Poland's late president, Lech Kaczynski, put it soon after taking office in 2005, "What interests the Poles is the future of Poland and not that of the E.U."
European participation in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has added to the weariness. In Germany, roughly two-thirds of the public opposes having German troops in Afghanistan -- not good news for an E.U. intended to project a united voice on the global stage. Although giving Europe more geopolitical heft is one of the union's raisons d'être, this task has no constituency; these distant wars, coupled with plunging defense expenditures mainly due to the economic downturn, are tempering the appetite for new burdens.
"The E.U. is now just trying to keep the machine going," a member of the European Parliament told me recently. "The hope is to buy enough time for new leaders to emerge who will reclaim the project."
Buying time may be the best the E.U. can do for now, but its slide is poised to continue, with costs even for those outside Europe. The Obama administration has already expressed frustration with an E.U. whose geopolitical profile is waning. As Defense Secretary Robert Gates complained in February to a gathering of NATO officials, "The demilitarization of Europe -- where large swaths of the general public and political class are averse to military force and the risks that go with it -- has gone from a blessing in the 20th century to an impediment to achieving real security and lasting peace in the 21st." As the United States tries to dig itself out of debt and give its armed forces a breather, it will increasingly judge its allies by what they bring to the table. In Europe's case, the offering is small and shrinking.
Europe is hardly headed back to war; its nations have lost their taste for armed rivalries. Instead, less dramatically but no less definitively, European politics will become less European and more national, until the E.U. becomes a union in name only. This may seem no great loss to some, but in a world that sorely needs the E.U.'s aggregate will, wealth and muscle, a fragmented and introverted Europe would constitute a historical setback.
Six decades ago, Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman and Konrad Adenauer were Europe's founding fathers. Today, the E.U. needs a new generation of leaders who can breathe life into a project that is perilously close to expiring. For now, they are nowhere to be found.
ckupchan@cfr.org
Charles Kupchan is a professor of international affairs at Georgetown University and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is the author of "How Enemies Become Friends: The Sources of Stable Peace."More baking with bananas. I buy bunches of them all the time, then eat a few and let the rest languish until they’re brown. I can’t bear to pitch them out, so am always on the search for new ways to use old bananas.
I recently scored an amazing deal on two Dorie Greenspan cookbooks: both Baking and Around My French Table for $5.87. Considering that they were both on my wish list, this was a great bargain. I found a good block of time to read through Baking and found this recipe for ‘Classic Banana Bundt Cake’. Win! Because I am using my aging bananas, because I’m getting to try out my new cookbook and because Bundt cakes are a fun thing to make. Let’s see how this goes.
What ingredients I need:
Here’s what happened:
Mixed the dry ingredients together.
Creamed the butter.
Added sugar to the butter, then more mixing.
Some vanilla in, then the eggs and more mixing.
Then the bananas go in, and there is more mixing. The sour cream is in there too.
Here’s what I got:
Loaded in the Bundt pan:
Finished!
You can find the recipe here:
http://foodlibrarian.blogspot.ca/2009/08/classic-banana-bundt-cake-tuesdays-with.html
Classic Banana Bundt Cake
Page 190, Baking: From My Home to Yours.
Ingredients: Makes 1 Bundt Cake (14 servings)
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs, preferably at room temperature
About 4 very ripe bananas, mashed (you should have 1 1/2 – 1 3/4 cups)
1 cup sour cream or plain yogurt
Center a rack in the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Generously butter a 9- to 10-inch (12 cup) Bundt pan. (If you use a silicone Bundt pan there’s no need to butter it.) Don’t place the pan on a baking sheet – you want the oven’s heat to circulate through the Bundt’s inner tube.
Whisk the flour, baking soda and salt together.
Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter until creamy. Add the sugar and beat at medium speed until pale and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla, then add the eggs one at a time, beating for about 1 minute after each egg goes in. Reduce the mixer speed to low and mix in the bananas. Finally, mix in half the dry ingredients (don’t be disturbed when the batter curdles), all the sour cream and then the rest of the flour mixture. Scrape the batter into the pan, rap the pan on the counter to debubble the batter and smooth the top.
Bake for 65 to 75 minutes, or until a thin knife inserted deep into the center of the cake comes out clean. Check the cake after about 30 minutes – if it is browning too quickly, cover it loosely with a foil tent. Transfer the cake to a rack and cool for 10 minutes before unmolding onto the rack to cool to room temperature.
If you’ve got the time, wrap the cooled cake in plastic and allow it to sit on the counter overnight before serving – it’s better the next day.
Optional Lemony White Icing:
Sift 3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar into a bowl and squeeze in enough fresh lemon juice (start with 2 teaspoons and add more by drops) to make an icing thin enough to drizzle down the Bundt’s curves.
Half batch or muffins:
If you want 1/2 the recipe and make muffins, Dorie Greenspan wrote it up herself on this 2008 entry on Serious Eats: Banana Cake Big and Small. She added some chocolate to this one. Yield 12 muffins, bake 28-32 minutes.Image copyright Belfast Zoo Image caption Tina the elephant arrived at Belfast zoo in 1966 and was one of the oldest elephants in captivity
An elephant which had been at Belfast Zoo for more than 50 years has died.
Tina, an Asian elephant, was 54 and one of the oldest elephants in captivity.
She had arthritis as well as a history of problems with her back legs, and collapsed in the early hours of Sunday.
Despite the best efforts of zoo staff and fire officials with heavy-lifting equipment, staff and a vet took the "very difficult decision" to put her down.
'Stealing umbrellas and handbags'
Tina had arrived at the zoo in 1966, having been bought from a pet shop in Birmingham and shipped across to Northern Ireland at a cost of £20.
Alyn Cairns, the zoo's manager, said he and the zoo's staff were extremely saddened by the death of the much-loved elephant.
"She was so full of personality," Mr Cairns told the BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme.
"She was sensitive and intelligent but there was also a cheeky and naughty side to her," he said.
Before the zoo's elephant enclosure was modernised in the 1970s, Tina was renowned for stealing handbags and umbrellas from visitors.
While the zoo will remain open as normal on Monday, the elephant house will be closed until further notice.Kanye West was spotted entering Trump Tower on Tuesday morning with a large entourage in tow.
Reporters noted the rapper’s presence, and a spokesperson for Donald Trump Donald John TrumpHouse committee believes it has evidence Trump requested putting ally in charge of Cohen probe: report Vietnamese airline takes steps to open flights to US on sidelines of Trump-Kim summit Manafort's attorneys say he should get less than 10 years in prison MORE later said he was there to meet with the president-elect.
Trump and West appeared together in the building’s lobby roughly 45 minutes after the rapper arrived.
“Just friends, just friends,” Trump told reporters when asked about the meeting. “And, uh, he’s a good man. We’ve been friends for a long time.”
Asked what they discussed, Trump said “life.”
West did not take questions, telling reporters, “I just want to take a picture right now.”
The two men shook hands, with Trump saying as West departed, “So long, man. You take care of yourself, alright? See you soon."
.@kanyewest appears with Donald Trump at Trump Tower, says "I just wanted to take a picture" https://t.co/hBNZQlva7T https://t.co/No7Jh6LUpp — ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) December 13, 2016
The eccentric musician, who is married to Kim Kardashian, claimed last year that he plans to mount a presidential bid in 2020.
West appeared at Trump Tower on the same morning Trump announced his choice of Rex Tillerson for secretary of State.
The Exxon Mobil CEO is expected to face a tough confirmation battle in the Senate because of his close ties to Russia.
West's surprise stop at Trump's Manhattan high-rise took some attention away from the debate surrounding Tillerson, though the secretary of State pick remained a trending topic on Twitter.
Trump met with the Grammy Award-winning artist less than 24 hours after he scrapped a press conference planned for Thursday to address how he will handle his business conflicts.
I will hold a press conference in the near future to discuss the business, Cabinet picks and all other topics of interest. Busy times! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 13, 2016
West has repeatedly dipped his toe into political waters.
He said last month he would have voted for Trump if he had cast a ballot on Election Day.
“I said something that was kind of politically correct,” West told the concert crowd in San Jose, Calif. "I told y’all I didn’t vote, right? What I didn’t tell you... If I were to have voted, I would have voted on Trump.”
Days later, West was hospitalized in Los Angeles for stress and exhaustion.
The "Gold Digger" rapper’s antics have attracted the ire of the past two presidents. In 2009, President Obama was caught on a hot mic calling West a “jackass” for interrupting singer Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at the MTV Video Music Awards.
West caused a firestorm in 2005 when he declared that “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” during a nationally televised relief concert for victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Bush revealed in his 2010 memoirs he was furious over West’s comments, calling them the lowest point of his eight years in the White House.
“He called me a racist,” Bush told NBC News’s Matt Lauer that year.
“I didn’t appreciate it then and I don’t appreciate it now," he continued. "It’s one thing to say, ‘I don’t appreciate the way he’s handled his business.’ It’s another thing to say, ‘This man’s a racist.’ I resent it, it’s not true and it was one of the most disgusting moments of my presidency.”
This story was updated at 10:21 a.m.Reuters President Donald Trump delivers his inauguration speech.
A veteran investor, who has witnessed several crises over the past half-century, is worried.
“There is a lot of optimism,” said Jim Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings. “People are focusing on the good stuff when it comes to [Donald] Trump,” he said.
But there is no telling what Trump will do once in office and that unknown bothers Rodgers the most.
“He very much wants a trade war. And if that happens, sell everything,” Rogers told MarketWatch.
By everything, he means U.S. stocks, which rode Trump’s coattails to record levels following his November victory on euphoria over Trump’s promises to cut taxes, eliminate regulations and boost infrastructure spending.
Read: How Trump’s postelection stock market rally stacks up against other presidents
Some of that enthusiasm waned in recent weeks as doubts over Trump’s America-first agenda emerged although stocks held gains on Friday as Trump was sworn in as the 45th president of the U.S.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.13% climbed 94.85 points, or 0.5%, to 19,827.25, while the S&P 500 SPX, -0.08% 7.62 points, or 0.3%, to close at 2,271.31. and the Nasdaq Composite COMP, -0.07% gained 15.25 points, or 0.3%, to 5,555.33. All three indexes were lower for the week.
Jim Rogers
To be sure, Trump’s rhetoric has resonated with a large swath of U.S. voters who, rightly or wrongly, blame globalization for many of their woes.
“I know trade wars have always been disastrous. It leads to bankruptcies and has led to real wars,” said Rogers, speaking via telephone from his office in Singapore. “History has shown that no one has won a trade war and very few people learned the lessons of history. They ignore them because people think they are more powerful and smarter than people in the past.”
Trump swept to the Oval Office in part on antitrade rhetoric, including threats to slap China with 45% import tariffs and declare the Asian country a currency manipulator, sparking fears of escalating friction between the U.S. and its most important trading partner.
Analysts have cautioned that a confrontation between the U.S.and China could be catastrophic, likely dragging the global economy into a recession.
Read: Trump’s game of chicken with China is a lose-lose situation
The famed investor admits that there is a chance that Trump may opt to focus on the positive changes he had promised such as lower taxes and deregulation.
“If he does the good things, then happy days are here again,” he said.
The challenge for the market is that no one knows what Trump will do once he’s in office, according to Rogers who co-founded the Quantum Fund with billionaire investor George Soros, a vocal critic of President Trump.
Read: Soros says Trump ‘uncertainty’ will cause global markets to falter
Still, Rogers said there is one asset that will shine no matter which Trump shows up at the White House—the U.S. dollar.
“This is a good time to add dollars,” said Rogers, who believes that the greenback will continue to rise through this year into 2018.
The ICE dollar index DXY, -0.36% a gauge of the greenback’s performance against a basket of six rival currencies, has risen 3% since Trump’s election.
Trump’s promise to pave the way for corporations to repatriate trillions of dollars parked abroad to avoid crippling taxes alone will ensure that the dollar remains firm even as Trump has indicated recently that the dollar may be too strong.
Read: Trump sends shiver through stock market with shot across dollar’s bow
Steven Mnuchin, Trump’s nominee to head the Treasury, on Thursday attempted to clarify that the president was referring to the short term rather than the long view. But the Mnuchin’s efforts fell short of explaining how the president will reconcile his dollar-positive policies with his desire for a weaker currency in the near term.
Also see: Trump is waving adios to the longstanding ‘strong dollar policy’
“I’m not sure Mr. Trump knows what he’s going to do, he has contradicted himself several times,” said Rogers. “He speaks loud but his words are confusing.”
The one certainty that the markets can bet on, according to Rogers, will be more chaos under Trump, which may coincide with an economic turmoil on a global scale.
“We are overdue for a crisis,” he said, reiterating his steadfast view that debt levels across the world, including in the U.S. and China, continue to swell while interest rates are at historic lows.
But that grim outlook shouldn’t scare investors away, he said.
“The Chinese have a word that opportunity and disaster are the same so when there is a catastrophe, it is also a huge opportunity,” Rogers said.
Providing critical information for the U.S. trading day. Subscribe to MarketWatch's free Need to Know newsletter. Sign up here.Welcome to the Rethinking Schools Archives and Website
Preview of Article:
The Real Ebonics Debate: Power, Language, and the Education of African-American Children
Perhaps more than any other debate in education, the study of language grapples with questions of power and identity. We believe it is especially important that African-American educators take the lead in defining the discussion around Ebonics. We are pleased that Theresa Perry and Lisa Delpit approached Rethinking Schools with the proposal to guest edit this issue on Ebonics. Both are well-respected educators with a long history of challenging educational practices that are a disservice to African-American students.
As Lisa Delpit notes in her article, one cannot be for or against Ebonics. It exists. It is the language many African-American children heard "as their mothers nursed them and changed their diapers and played peek-a-boo with them. It is the language through which they first encountered love, nurturance, and joy."
The national debate on Ebonics did little to clarify the misunderstandings about the history of the language or to help educators develop curriculum. Delpit, Perry, and the other writers in this volume offer background history that excavates the race and power dynamics surrounding the development of the language, and discuss how an understanding of Ebonics may affect classroom practice. We believe it is especially important that white educators carefully consider their arguments.
The authors in this issue, despite certain differences, have two essential points of unity: a respect for the language spoken by most African-American children -- whether one calls that language Ebonics, Black Dialect, or an African-American Language System -- and an understanding that African-American children must be taught Standard English if they are to succeed educationally. One of the media's crudest distortions of the Oakland School Board's resolution was the mistaken view that Oakland students would be taught Ebonics in place of Standard English.
How teachers view the home language of students and their families plays a significant role in teachers' expectations and respect for a student's culture. Speaking a different dialect or language, whether it is Ebonics, Spanish, or Tagalog, should not prejudice a teacher's attitude toward a child. But too often it does. The difficulty is particularly acute for African-American students who speak Ebonics, because many teachers fail to recognize their language as anything other than a substandard form of English. As a result, they may view Ebonics-speaking children as stupid or lazy -- although these value judgments might be couched in more acceptable terms such as "disadvantaged" or "in need of language remediation."
To Read the Rest of This Article:Mumtaz Qadri, who killed Punjab governor, showered with rose petals by lawyers as he arrives in court
The increasing radicalisation of Pakistani society was today laid bare when mainstream religious organisations applauded the murder of Salmaan Taseer, the governor of Punjab, earlier this week and his killer was showered with rose petals as he appeared in court.
Taseer was buried in his home town of Lahore. The 66-year-old was assassinated yesterday by Mumtaz Qadri, one of his police bodyguards, after he had campaigned for reform of the law on blasphemy.
Qadri appeared in court, unrepentant, where waiting lawyers threw handfuls of rose petals over him and others in the crowd slapped his back and kissed his cheek as he was led in and out amid heavy security.
The internet had already been hosting fan pages for Qadri, with one Facebook page attracting over 2,000 followers before being taken down, while there were small demonstrations in favour of the killer in north-west Pakistan.
While terrorist acts are generally associated with an extremist fringe, the gunning down of Taseer appeared to have significant support that reached into the heart of society.
All the big mainstream political parties strongly condemned the murder, and thousands attended funeral prayers for Taseer. However, both the large religious political parties declared that he had deserved to be killed for his views.
Reports suggested that Qadri, 26, was a known radical in the police service who had previously been declared by his superiors to be unfit for guarding VIPs. He told interrogators he was proud to have killed a blasphemer.
Reports also said Qadri, part of Taseer's security force, had tipped off other guards about his plan to kill the Punjab governor. The other bodyguards did not seem to react as Qadri fired a whole clip of bullets into Taseer in a market in central Islamabad and then laid down his weapon.
It is thought that over a dozen police officers were taken into custody following the murder. Taseer's ruling Pakistan People's party suggested that a "wider conspiracy" was behind the killing, while the issue also became an ugly party political spat.
Taseer's job was a ceremonial position representing the president, the head of the PPP, Asif Zardari, but the provincial government is run by the administration of opposition leader Nawaz Sharif, which was blamed for providing the governor with poor security.
Taseer had used his position to warn about the "Talibanisation" of Punjab province, telling the Guardian last year: "The Sharifs are creating a potential bomb here in Punjab."
"This is a political murder," a senior member of the PPP, Fauzia Wahab, said. "There will be an investigation. It is a conspiracy."
Taseer's call for the widely-abused blasphemy law to be reformed or abolished was so incendiary that it united rival Islamic schools of thought against any change, the moderate Barelvi sect with the pro-Taliban Deobandis.
The statute, meant to protect Islam and the prophet Muhammad from "insult", is used to convict dozens of people on flimsy evidence each year.
"Salmaan Taseer was himself responsible for his killing," Munawar Hasan, the head of Jamaat-e-Islami, one of the two big religious political parties, said. "Any Muslim worth the name could not tolerate blasphemy of the Prophet, as had been proved by this incident."
Qadri was in the Barelvi sect, which is followed by most Muslims in Pakistan. However, on the issue of the blasphemy law, the Barelvi clerics had joined hands with the pro-Taliban Deobandi. The issue was sparked by Taseer's championing of a Christian woman, Asia Bibi, who was sentenced to death for blasphemy late last year.
"No Muslim should attend the funeral or even try to pray for Salmaan Taseer," a statement from Jamaate Ahle Sunnat Pakistan, one of the biggest organisations of the Barelvi, representing 500 religious scholars, said. "We pay rich tributes and salute the bravery, valour and faith of Mumtaz Qadri."
Taseer's assassination showed how free speech has been curtailed in Pakistan. The religious scholars warned that others could meet the same fate.
"The supporter is as equally guilty as one who committed blasphemy," the Jamaate Ahle Sunnat Pakistan statement said. It added that adding politicians, the media and others should learn "a lesson from the exemplary death".Verizon is preparing to launch its 5-inch Nokia Lumia Icon Windows Phone handset shortly, but it looks like the carrier will also unveil a Samsung Windows Phone 8.1 device in future. Evleaks has posted what appears to be a render of an unannounced Samsung "Huron" Windows Phone. The handset includes Verizon branding, and it looks very similar to Samsung’s Ativ S and Galaxy S3 / S4 devices.
A lack of buttons hints at Windows Phone 8.1
While the Ativ S has capacitive search and back buttons, this latest leaked Samsung "Huron" handset appears to only include a dedicated home button. We’ve heard Microsoft is planning to use on-screen buttons for some Windows Phone 8.1 handsets, and Nokia’s "Moneypenny" device will likely be the first example of that, but Samsung could be opting for a mix of hardware buttons and on-screen. However, it’s possible the render is incomplete or the capacitive buttons are simply not lit up, as Samsung has used non-capacitive home buttons on its previous Windows Phones. Also of note, there’s no dedicated camera button on the Huron.
No solid specifications have leaked yet for Samsung’s Huron handset, but rumors suggest it will include a 5-inch or 4.3-inch 1080p display. The device recently passed through Bluetooth 3.0 testing, and Windows Phone trackers Ad Duplex also spotted it being tested on Verizon. Ad Duplex claims the handset, identified as the SM-W750V, is running Windows Phone 8 which contradicts Evleaks claim of Windows Phone 8.1. While Samsung may unveil its latest Galaxy S5 handset in Barcelona later this month, it’s possible the company could also use its latest Unpacked event to detail its future Windows Phone handsets.
Update (March 17th): Evleaks has posted a new render of the device, revealing the Samsung ATIV SE runs on Windows Phone 8.1 and has capacitive buttons“Savannah’s got a badass throw!” an observer exclaims as a ball comes whipping through the air. The impact against the wall is even louder.
Savannah Burton does have a badass throw, and she should — it’s the result of over seven years of playing dodgeball. And it’s paid off big, because she’ll be representing Canada at the World Dodgeball Championships in Las Vegas in August 2015.
It’s not her first crack at this tournament. In 2012, she represented Canada in Malaysia — as a member of the men’s team. Now on the women’s team, she has become the first trans athlete to be part of a Canadian national dodgeball team.
But it almost didn’t happen.
“I wasn’t sure if I was ever going to come back and play dodgeball,” Burton says.
In May 2013, she stopped playing dodgeball to focus on her transition. She left the sport for 16 months. “I just had to step away from everything,” she says.
When she was ready to return, she wasn’t sure how she would be received. Her first hurdle: finding out the Canadian Dodgeball Association’s (CDA) stance on the matter.
Bethel Lascano, vice president of communications and media for the CDA, confirms that Burton did inquire with the association’s president about her chances. From there, the next step was to find out if the World Dodgeball Federation (WDBF), the international governing body for dodgeball, allowed for trans athletes to compete.
It turns out that legal documentation recognizing Burton as female was the only requirement for her tryout. She had it.
The WDBF’s guidelines are quite slack when compared with those from the International Olympic Committee (IOC). In 2004, the IOC introduced a policy for trans athletes — it outlines that they must have legal recognition of their assigned sex, have received hormone therapy “for long enough to minimize any gender-related advantages” and have lived at least two years in their newly assigned gender |
with violent acts. The causal link is unproven. People don’t kill abortion providers because they heard a hate speech. They commit these crimes because of a zealous belief that abortion is immoral.
I have some sympathy for your narrow definition of hate speech (the Taylor test) and that only repeated hate speech to a wide audience should be criminalized. Perhaps this is where we come close to common ground?
Joyce
In Canada, legal definitions of discrimination encompass hate speech.
I agree that people should not be arrested for the types of insults you describe. But one bad law or the abuse of laws is not an argument against hate speech laws. We are smart enough to craft better definitions of hate speech that protect marginalized groups from discrimination based only on immutable characteristics, which include religious affiliation but not specific religious beliefs or behaviours. Blasphemy must be permitted.
It can be very difficult to prove the causal effects of any law, but we accept living under a system of laws because they serve many other purposes. That said, a US court found that ‘Wanted Posters’ issued in the 1990s by anti-abortion groups for a dozen named abortion providers constituted a true threat because they led to the murders of several of them, even though the posters made no specific threats. People kill abortion providers not simply because they believe abortion is immoral, but because widespread hate speech against doctors creates an atmosphere of perceived acceptance and impunity for their actions.
Hate speech is destructive to society and to its victims. Enduring hatred over years can limit people’s opportunities, isolate them socially, push them into poverty, lead to loss of self-esteem and depression, and endanger their health and safety. It is wrong to diminish the dignity and lives of some people just so others can freely spout hate against them. Leading purveyors of hate (at least) should be prosecuted.
Peter
I share your view that if a person is subjected to prolonged, extreme hatred it is damaging, wrong and should be criminalized. But this amounts to harassment and can be dealt with using anti-harassment laws, without the need for legislation against hate speech.
The abuse of abortion doctors is disgusting but I don’t think it signals that it’s okay to kill them. On the contrary, since murder is a criminal offence with severe penalties, society signals that killing doctors is impermissible. The ‘Wanted’ posters you describe were more than hate speech. They were de facto incitements to murder, which is rightly a crime.
We both agree that hate speech is a bad thing. We differ on how to tackle it. Hate speech laws address a problem after it has happened. I’d prefer to eradicate hate before it’s expressed. Suppressing hate speech by use of the criminal law is, at best, a short-term fix. A better solution is education against hateful ideas.
I’d like to see compulsory school lessons and exams in Equality & Diversity, to challenge all forms of prejudice, starting from Year 1 and continuing every school year. Production of the exam results should be compulsory for all job applications. This would, over time, debunk and diminish bigoted ideas; creating understanding, respect and community cohesion, without the need for hate speech legislation.
People aren’t born hateful. They become hateful. Education can prevent hate. Prevention is better than punishment.
This article is from the December 2012 issue of New Internationalist.
You can access the entire archive of over 500 issues with a digital subscription. Subscribe today »BANGALORE: About 800 young men spent last weekend wondering what had hit them. They were picked up and rapped by police for allegedly loitering in public places and displaying'suspicious behaviour' with the potential to commit sexual offences. Some of them will have to visit court and even pay a fine.This drive has upset civil and human rights activists, who are wondering how police could round up youths at random, based on the mere suspicion that they are capable of committing a crime that may never take place. Asked what the criterion was, police officers from the field quipped: "They are vagabonds. We know it when we look at them."The way the drive was conducted gives an impression that Bangalore police, having failed to conduct a proper investigation in the rape case of a 6-year-old, is on an overdrive to cover up their follies and show that action is being taken. But the force appears unmindful that they are creating an impression of Bangalore becoming a police state.The rounding up of 800 men also appears illogical to many women's rights activists in the city. Rounding up youths based on suspicion is not a solution and might even be counter-productive, said Donna Fernandes, an activist with Vimochana."Any police action must be based on evidence. Young men who are picked on suspicion could end up nursing a grudge against women. They will feel humiliated," she said."Picking up men standing on the roads is not a solution to curb crime against women. Police have to act diligently and swiftly when a complaint is lodged, and ensure that justice is delivered. More than police action, we need a change of mindset," says human rights activist Corrine Kumar.Explaining the operation, a police officer said they rounded up 'vagabonds' based on suspicious behaviour like loitering in public places aimlessly, and staring at women. He claimed that while some of them were found at places frequented by women, there were also instances of many of them staring at women and making lewd gestures.During an interaction with reporters, city commissioner of police MN Reddi was on Monday told about the case of a youth from Ulsoor who said he was picked up while waiting for his girlfriend. Such complaints of police high-handedness should be taken up with senior officers, who would take corrective measures, Reddi said.On Saturday, city police picked up 351 persons on the suspicion that they could pose a threat to women. The next day, the haul stood at 450.Most of the men were released after being warned. Some of them were asked to appear in court after being booked under section 92(R) of the Karnataka Police Act, which pertains to threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour on the streets, with the intent to provoke breach of peace.By BRANDON FORMBY
and TERRY BOX
Staff Writers
Thousands of elderly and disabled Collin County residents will have their access to on-demand transit extended — and others will finally regain access — thanks to a $1 million grant from Toyota.The grant, announced at a Toyota “Hello Texas” event Tuesday night at the University of Texas at Dallas, is at least the second large grant the automaker has made since it announced two years ago that it was moving its North American headquarters from California to Plano.As its buildings go up on a 100-acre site in west Plano, Toyota is already striving to become part of the North Texas community — as it did in California.Besides the DART grant, Toyota has given $1 million to the Plano school district, sponsored a recent two-day country-music festival by radio station “The Range” KHYI-FM (95.3) and helped fund the cost of installing Wi-Fi at parks in Plano — among other grants.The automaker is giving Dallas Area Rapid Transit the money as North Texas transportation officials grapple with providing essential trips to Collin County’s most vulnerable residents after a rural transit provider abruptly halted service amid financial woes.“We’ve been having ongoing discussions with DART for several months now,” said Latondra Newton, Toyota’s chief social innovation officer. “It’s part of our strategy to have an impact on people with less access to mobility.”DART is providing temporary service in Allen, Fairview and Wylie that was scheduled to halt in May. The grant will extend service through the end of September. Then the agency plans to retool how it provides paratransit trips in those areas and expand it to other Collin County cities and its rural areas.“We’ll be able to extend not only that service, but some of the areas,” said DART spokesman Morgan Lyons.Newton said the grants are in keeping with the company’s long-term philosophy.“We were established as a company to contribute to society,” she said. “Cars and trucks are just the way we build a business that can do those things.”Moreover, she said, “people love to see their company engaged in the local community.”Plano is one of DART’s member cities that send sales tax revenues to the transit agency, so residents there already have access to paratransit trips.Sherman-based TAPS Public Transit had mounted a quick expansion of paratransit and some bus service throughout the rest of Collin County, but just as quickly scaled back after alleged mismanagement and overspending left the agency millions of dollars in debt.TAPS ended all Collin County service in December, leaving many elderly and disabled residents without any way to get to medical appointments or pharmacies.The North Central Texas Council of Governments agreed to fund temporary service through DART until the end of May. But by then Frisco had already signed a one-year agreement with the Denton County Transportation Authority to provide paratransit service.McKinney officials also declined the temporary service through DART, which would have cost them about $8,800 a month. Concerns centered on increased costs once the temporary service ended and an expectation that service would need to continue even if a long-term alternative wasn’t found.DART provides service to nonmember cities in Collin County through its paratransit provider, MV Transportation. That’s the service that will continue in Allen, Fairview and Wylie until September. But DART is looking at retooling how it provides trips after that.“We have a fundamental responsibility of meeting the needs of a growing elderly population,” NCTCOG transportation director Michael Morris said.DART pays MV by the hour, regardless of how many people book rides. But in Plano, the agency has long had a cheaper program wherein registered paratransit passengers are provided subsidies each month that they can use to pay taxi drivers for trips.“The same concept could be used in Collin County where the resident would purchase taxi vouchers,” said planning and development vice president Todd Plesko.Toyota’s $1 million grant and potential cost savings from changing service tactics will help DART expand to other nonmember Collin County cities in October. That could include McKinney, regardless of whether city officials there decide to financially contribute.“We’ve not yet had those conversations,” Plesko said.Meanwhile, DART and NCTCOG are hoping to use the grant funds as a local match that could then qualify the area for federal funds.“There’s lots of work to be done between now and Oct. 1,” Plesko said.People tend to use the Web site GoFundMe to set up fundraising campaigns for deeply personal causes—to treat a lame pet, for example, or to cover a niece’s medical bills. Recently, an unusual request turned up on the site. Aktarer Zaman, a twenty-two-year-old from Brooklyn, wanted to raise ten thousand dollars to fight a lawsuit that was brought by United Airlines and Orbitz against him and a Web site he had started to help people find cheap airplane tickets. “Skiplagged’s sole purpose has always been to help you become savvy travelers,” Zaman wrote on his fundraising page. “We have been doing that by exposing pricing inefficiencies for air travel, among other things.”
In the summer of 2013, after graduating with a major in computer science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, in Troy, New York, Zaman was searching for a flight from New York City to Seattle and found that the best deal, for less than two hundred dollars, included a layover in San Francisco. On a whim, he searched for flights from New York to San Francisco and discovered that the New York-to-San Francisco leg of his flight was priced, if it were purchased as a single direct flight, at nearly three hundred dollars. This struck him, he told me, as strange and inefficient: Why wouldn't someone simply purchase the two-leg flight, if it were cheaper, and then just not fly on the second leg? He learned after some research that this practice is well documented and has a name: hidden-city ticketing.
Zaman set out to build a Web site and app, which he called Skiplagged, to let people search for hidden-city flight opportunities and then point them to third parties such as Orbitz and some airline Web sites, where they could buy the tickets. (Zaman wouldn’t tell me how this worked or how the site derived its revenues, calling those details “trade secrets”; he said, though, that none of his revenues have come directly from United or Orbitz.)
The problem, for Zaman, is that when passengers book plane tickets, they agree to what’s known as a contract of carriage—a document, dense with legalese, that can be found on an airline’s Web site. United’s contract prohibits hidden-city ticketing. (Most other big airlines have similar rules.) Also, many airlines have deals with travel agencies, including Orbitz, that bar them from facilitating the practice. Zaman seems to have been at least somewhat aware of this. He told me that he’d learned more about hidden-city ticketing from an article that Nate Silver wrote for the New York Times Magazine, in 2011. In it, Silver noted that airlines don’t allow the practice, but wrote that you weren't likely to get caught for trying it—and offered some tips on how to do it. According to the lawsuit, United last year asked Zaman to stop showing United’s hidden-city opportunities, and Orbitz demanded that he stop sending people to its site.
In November, representatives of the companies showed up at Zaman’s mother’s house, in Ozone Park, Queens, to try to serve Zaman with court papers. Zaman didn’t live there—he had his own place in Manhattan—and ended up learning of the lawsuit from a reporter. He wasn’t surprised. “It would be foolish for me to not expect that something like this would eventually come,” he said. Because he had registered Skiplagged as a business—an L.L.C.—only after learning of the lawsuit, Zaman could be held personally liable for any damages. After he realized how much his defense, or a legal settlement, might cost, he started the GoFundMe campaign.
United and Orbitz argue that Zaman, simply by operating Skiplagged, illegally “interfered” with United’s contract with customers and with Orbitz’s contracts with several airlines, by inducing breaches of those contracts. Zaman declined to comment in detail on his interactions with the companies, or about what he knew about their contracts, but he did tell me that he thinks that Skiplagged’s service is legal and that the plaintiffs have misrepresented his actions. He describes his site as an information service—albeit an advanced and specialized one—that publishes publicly available information and links to outside Web sites where people might make use of it. “Skiplagged doesn’t even touch United or Orbitz’s services,” he said. He argued that he is no more responsible for keeping track of the fine print on the sites that Skiplagged links to, and gets information from, than Google is for the sites it lists.
The holiday season, it turns out, is an excellent time to seek sympathy in a battle against air-travel companies. Zaman’s fundraising campaign has attracted national media attention, much of it sympathetic to his cause. “United and Orbitz sue Skiplagged, a service you should totally use,” read a headline on the Web site Boing Boing. In early December, Zaman answered questions on Reddit’s Ask Me Anything, or A.M.A., forum, and the thread became the eighth most popular A.M.A. of all time. Since then, Zaman has raised more than fifty thousand dollars and boosted his target to sixty thousand. (He said that he plans to give any excess funds to charity.) One contributor gave six hundred and sixty-six dollars and wrote, “Send them to hell, please.”
The strong reactions may stem from the notoriously complex and opaque nature of airfare pricing. Ticket costs can fluctuate wildly based on when they’re booked, the planned travel date, which cities are involved, how competitive a given route is, and how much passengers are willing to spend. The hidden-city loophole seems especially confounding, though. Given that a longer flight with a layover consumes more fuel, requires more hours of airline employees’ time, and so on, shouldn’t that flight cost more? One person wrote on Reddit during Zaman’s Q. & A. that the scenario resembled a department-store sale: “You could buy a Kit-Kat and a Snickers for less than the price of the Kit-Kat, but you only want a Kit-Kat. Is it unethical to buy the bundle and throw the Snickers out?”
The answer, on the face of it, seems like an obvious no. If a passenger has paid for both legs of a flight, isn’t it up to him to decide whether to travel on the second leg? But from United’s perspective, the situation is more complicated than it may seem. Christen David, a United spokeswoman, said in an e-mail that hidden-city ticketing is “tantamount to switching price tags to obtain a lower price on goods sold at department stores.” Her point is that the airline loses revenue when people use hidden-city ticketing in spite of the prohibition—making the act a form of theft. (Orbitz, for its part, said in a statement, “We have an obligation to uphold airline fare rules and also protect consumers from making purchases that could be invalidated.”)
Anyone who has suffered air-travel indignities while flying United might be disinclined to care whether the airline is hurt by the practice. But there may be some logic to United’s argument. What’s more, the airlines’ prohibition on hidden-city ticketing could ultimately be better for consumers.
Until the nineteen-seventies, airlines needed to seek permission from the federal government to operate along each route they sought to serve; the government also set fares that guaranteed certain returns to airlines. Consumers didn’t like the regime, which was seen as keeping airfares artificially high. So, in 1978, President Jimmy Carter signed into law the Airline Deregulation Act, which made it legal for airlines to set their own routes and rates. Suddenly, airlines could operate wherever they wanted, more or less, and offer tickets at whatever prices they chose; by the eighties, the big airlines’ business models had evolved to take advantage of that. They started using a hub-and-spoke model that allowed them to gather passengers from far-flung cities into a small number of hubs, and then redistribute them from those hubs; this let the airlines transport the same number of customers with fewer flights. As proponents of deregulation had predicted, airfares went down over time, partly because the hub-and-spoke approach was so efficient. But the model has led to new problems. Flights are far more interdependent, which means that one cancelled flight can have a domino effect on many others. Hub airports are congested at certain times and under-used at others. And, of course, there is the hidden-city problem.
Under the hub-and-spoke model, airlines realized that it didn’t make sense to price flights based on their costs: after all, few passengers would want to spend more for longer flights, with layovers, than on nonstop options. Instead, airlines set prices based largely on supply and demand. That’s why a flight from New York to Seattle—even one with a layover in San Francisco—might cost less than a direct flight from New York to San Francisco.
In July, 2001, the U.S. General Accounting Office, tasked with studying the potential impact of a federal law to stop airlines from blocking hidden-city ticketing, published a report that found that the differences in competition from one market to another accounted for much of the pricing gap that leads to hidden-city opportunities (and infuriates consumers). But the G.A.O. concluded that killing the ban on hidden-city travel would not only hurt airlines—it could ultimately be worse for travellers.
Each hidden-city ticket that is sold for a given route translates, roughly, into one fewer ticket sold for that route at the market price. For each ticket, the G.A.O. found, the pricing gap could range from a hundred dollars to two thousand dollars, which could add up to a significant loss in revenue for airlines. Hidden-city ticketing also keeps airlines from making the best use of their seats, because seats that might have been sold at a market rate are snapped up at lower rates by people who don’t intend to actually take the flight. The report illuminates the math with an example:
A flight from Chicago to San Antonio with a connection in Dallas could cost $904, as opposed to $1,085 from Chicago to Dallas. If the passenger deplanes in Dallas, the hidden city, and the seat is vacant from Dallas to San Antonio, the airline potentially lost about $594—the fare for travel between Dallas (the hub) and San Antonio (the spoke city)—assuming that the flight otherwise was full—plus another $181 for the difference between the hidden ticket and the cost of a ticket between Chicago and Dallas.
Even if this math makes sense, it might seem that it's United’s problem, and not ours, that the company uses a business model that leaves it vulnerable to this kind of loophole. But with airlines’ profit margins as slim as they are, if enough people use the hidden-city method, United could be forced to raise prices to make up for the loss. That could hurt consumers in the end, the G.A.O. found. In a worst-case scenario, airlines could even discontinue service to some hidden-city destinations if the higher airfares to and from those places, meant to close the hidden-city loophole, hurt demand. That outcome would disproportionately harm small cities, because they tend to present more hidden-city opportunities, according to the report. (The G.A.O. ran its findings by a representative from the Consumers Union, who didn’t support the current way that airlines price tickets but “found credible” the report’s conclusion that legalizing hidden-city ticketing probably wouldn’t help consumers; a representative from the American Society of Travel Agents, however, believed that airlines could “take actions to mitigate losses that might occur.”)
When I spoke with Robert Mann, a longtime airline-industry analyst, about the Skiplagged case, he said that the service could ultimately backfire on consumers. “To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time someone has tried to automate this process,” he said. “If some so-called startup entrepreneur is claiming to exploit inefficiencies and make this available to otherwise unknowing third parties, then that’s a problem.”
Zaman, perhaps unsurprisingly, maintains that it’s impossible to predict what would happen if hidden-city ticketing became more widespread—and it’s true that the G.A.O. report wasn’t comprehensive. Still, while he continues to publish some information about hidden-city flights, he is no longer linking to sites that facilitate it, at least for now. Recently, people who have gone to Skiplagged hoping to book tickets have been led to a blank page with the message, “Sorry for the inconvenience, but Skiplagged can't help you book this specific itinerary right now. Donate to our legal fund to help us change that.”Despite his protestations, Owen Jones has taken sides. The choice at the moment is between Corbyn or Smith. Jones doesn’t want Corbyn as he is. And Corbyn’s already indicated that he’s not likely to change himself to fit in with Jones’ suggestions as to who he should be. The upshot is that Owen Jones is desperate to poke holes in Corbyn and show the world he is right to want those changes. And this all helps Owen Smith no end.
Jones’ attempts to poke holes in Corbyn in a youtube interview a couple of days ago didn’t manage to make much of an impression, so he’s now pressing more questions in a blog, free from the distraction of Corbyn being able to answer them.
Owen Jones pretends not to mind that his ‘advice’ to Corbyn is being ignored, but shouting out long and hard about his credentials and banging on about the areas where he sees Corbyn as sorely lacking (even if, like a prosecuting advocate he raises them as questions), indicates that he hopes at least some of his readers will mind on his behalf. He’s not the first person in the bubble to discover that the fact that Corbyn is ‘decent’ and ‘listens’ doesn’t mean he’s just a vessel waiting to be filled by those who insist they ‘know better’.
And Jones’ blog looks too like the work of man who is sure he ‘knows better’ and feels unfairly spurned. He too readily uses the excuse that he is being true to himself whilst using his position to compromise that of a leader he ostensibly supports. He’s under no obligation to put right the proven media bias against Corbyn (which he brushes off as readily as Corbyn’s most fervent detractors) but I don’t see a genuine principle at play in deciding to do the opposite. And there is hypocrisy in his attempt to add weight to his criticisms by, on the one hand bigging up his credentials in supporting Corbyn, whilst on the other adopting the hackneyed ploys of every MSM detractor to undermine him.
For example the glib comparison of JC with Foot (but no mention of the ‘Falklands effect’ of course). Or his suggestion that Corbyn’s not been visible enough in speaking out about hate crimes post Brexit. (In fact when Corbyn did so, MSM reported the proven fabrication that he’d ‘lunged.’ at a female journalist.) And Jones even takes up the much used quote of the ‘Corbyn supporter’ who said ‘winning is not important’— but in true MSM style omits the caveat of the original, — ‘if we’re going to offer the same policies as the Tories’.
In raising the question of ‘media strategy’, Jones again follows the MSM lead in undermining the relative importance of social media —though its influence in building Labour support is clear, and it’s recognised as having won Obama his victory. By contrast he concentrates on the importance of MSM and seems keen to blame Corbyn for the problems he’s having — which is odd as the real problems: the bias, prejudice, partiality, collusion, hostility etc. were experienced in parallel by Sanders in the US. I’ve not heard anyone blaming Bernie’s media strategy. When dealing with a hostile press ‘strategising’ may limit the damage but won’t solve the problem. But Jones is nonetheless determined that we do all see Corbyn’s efforts as the problem. He tells Corbyn supporters that we ‘must’ question media strategy! If I do…..I can see that Corbyn is absoutely right to concentrate on the ripple effect of social media. I can see that he challenges press treatment without allowing it to become a whine. And I get the size of the problem Corbyn faces in media bias (which Corbyn manages reasonably well and which doesn’t get to be less of a problem just because Jones is clearly bored of hearing about it). But to understand the leadership media strategy and management in greater detail the leadership would also have to be accountable to us in greater detail.
It is divisive to encourage the membership to want to micro-manage the leadership in areas where they are under huge pressure and where the strategy has at least in part to be able to adapt to the particular. And we have to be wary when we are being asked to do so by someone who makes no secret that he wants more of a say in leadership decisions.The irony is that if Owen Jones were really driven about media strategy, he’s better placed than any of us to have an impact in redressing the current imbalance in the press. Instead he writes an article which has the PLP and their supporting media, singing from the rafters.
But strategising for Corbyn’s victory, is something that Owen Jones prescribes for Corbyn and ordinary supporters but not for himself. So, constraints and restraints on Corbyn — but Jones must be able to write what he likes when he likes. He raises various other questions in his blog. They can all be answered in equivalent terms and with equivalent irritation at Jones’ assumption that they cover issues which members /the Labour leadership haven’t thought about. We are aware that this isn’t a dress rehearsal. Hence the commitment. Owen Jones may not be.
From outside the bubble a huge number of Labour members, have judged Corbyn to be the best possible option to guard and promote the democratic socialist agenda. If you truly believe in democracy and in socialism Owen Jones, ask not what Corbyn or Corbyn supporters should be doing for you — but what you should be doing for this movement. Whilst you are using media pressure in the hope of changing the mindset of an elected leader so that it more nearly reflects your own, you become a dead weight in Corbyn’s leadership campaign despite positioning yourself above it.Sacramento, CA – The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) California today announced the 700,000-member union’s primary endorsements in 40 legislative districts. SEIU California’s endorsements are made in a town hall process in which members have the opportunity to evaluate candidates’ policy positions, listen to them speak, interview them, and then make their recommendations.
“After hearing directly from the candidates, SEIU members have made their choices, and we are gearing up for a banner year of victories in electing leaders who stand up for working families,” said Laphonza Butler, President of SEIU California and SEIU Local 2015. “SEIU members will be active in turning out our co-workers, friends, family and neighbors at the ballot box because there is much at stake this year. We have the opportunity to shape California’s future for the better by electing candidates who will join our fight to raise wages, invest in the next generation, and respect the people who work hard to care for our kids and our elders.”
SEIU California’s endorsement for the June 2016 legislative primary elections are as follows:
STATE SENATE
Senate District 03: Mariko Yamada (D)
Mariko Yamada (D) Senate District 09: Sandré Swanson (D) & Nancy Skinner (D)
Sandré Swanson (D) & Nancy Skinner (D) Senate District 11: Jane Kim (D)
Jane Kim (D) Senate District 15 : Jim Beall (D)
Jim Beall (D) Senate District 19: Hannah-Beth Jackson (D)
Hannah-Beth Jackson (D) Senate District 21: Jonathon Ervin (D)
Jonathon Ervin (D) Senate District 25: Anthony Portantino (D)
Anthony Portantino (D) Senate District 27: Henry Stern (D)
Henry Stern (D) Senate District 29: Sukhee Kang (D)
Sukhee Kang (D) Senate District 31: Richard Roth (D)
Richard Roth (D) Senate District 33: Ricardo Lara (D)
Ricardo Lara (D) Senate District 35: Steven Bradford (D)
STATE ASSEMBLY
Assembly District 04: Don Saylor (D)
Don Saylor (D) Assembly District 12: Virginia Madueño (D)
Virginia Madueño (D) Assembly District 14: Mae Torlakson (D)
Mae Torlakson (D) Assembly District 16: Cheryl Cook-Kallio (D)
Cheryl Cook-Kallio (D) Assembly District 17: David Chiu (D)
David Chiu (D) Assembly District 18: Rob Bonta (D)
Rob Bonta (D) Assembly District 20: Bill Quirk (D)
Bill Quirk (D) Assembly District 27: Ash Kalra (D)
Ash Kalra (D) Assembly District 31: Joaquin Arambula (D)
Joaquin Arambula (D) Assembly District 36: Darren Parker (D)
Darren Parker (D) Assembly District 37: Monique Limón (D)
Monique Limón (D) Assembly District 39: Patty Lopez (D)
Patty Lopez (D) Assembly District 43: Ardy Kassakhian (D)
Ardy Kassakhian (D) Assembly District 44: Jacqui Irwin (D)
Jacqui Irwin (D) Assembly District 48: Brian Urias (D)
Brian Urias (D) Assembly District 51: Jimmy Gomez (D)
Jimmy Gomez (D) Assembly District 53: Miguel Santiago (D)
Miguel Santiago (D) Assembly District 54: Sebastian Ridley-Thomas (D)
Sebastian Ridley-Thomas (D) Assembly District 58: Cristina Garcia (D)
Cristina Garcia (D) Assembly District 60: Eric Linder (R)
Eric Linder (R) Assembly District 62: Autumn Burke (D)
Autumn Burke (D) Assembly District 63: Anthony Rendon (D)
Anthony Rendon (D) Assembly District 64: Mike Gipson (D)
Mike Gipson (D) Assembly District 65: Sharon Quirk-Silva (D)
Sharon Quirk-Silva (D) Assembly District 66: Al Muratsuchi (D)
Al Muratsuchi (D) Assembly District 78: Todd Gloria (D)
Todd Gloria (D) Assembly District 79: Shirley Weber (D)
The endorsed candidates on SEIU California’s 2016 roster include Eric Linder (R-Corona). In recommending Linder for endorsement, SEIU members cited Linder’s accessibility and willingness to meet face-to-face with constituents, as well as his track record of standing by workers who have voted for union representation in their workplace.
“Eric Linder has been such an outstanding leader time after time on behalf of hospital workers who voted to unionize at Parkview Community Hospital in Riverside,” said Mark Janov, a Licensed psychiatric technician at Community Hospital of San Bernardino, United Healthcare Workers (UHW) Executive Boardmember and a member of SEIU International’s Conservative Committee. “While the hospital is refusing to recognize the union, Linder has never stopped urging management to honor workers’ wishes and sit down and bargain a contract. He is a great advocate and we’re fortunate to have him helping so many working families. This is why SEIU members are endorsing him for Assembly.”
SEIU members previously endorsed Hillary Rodham Clinton for President and Kamala Harris for U.S. Senate.
# # #
Californians can register to vote online: http://registertovote.ca.gov
Over 700,000 Californians make up SEIU in California; we work throughout the state, in all 58 counties, and we represent California in all of its diversity. We are social workers, nurses, classroom aides, state workers, security officers, college professors, home care workers, janitors, and more.The government move to win the hearts of tribals to tackle the Naxal issue may be gaining pace, but the Naxals too claim to have started their own development programmes.
In an interview published in April 2013 issue of Pahat (Dawn), a mouthpiece of Maharashtra State Committee of CPI (Maoist), Katakam Sudarshan, secretary of Central Regional Bureau of Maoists and alleged mastermind of the Darbha Valley massacre in Chhattisgarh, says that lands of over 1,000 farmers were levelled and 50 new reservoirs and farm-bunds have been built in the "liberated" Dandakaranya zone.
The programme reportedly was launched in 2011 on the occasion of Bhumkal Diwas on February 10. It was on this day in 1910 that the tribals revolted against the British in Bhumkal, Bastar.
Sudarshan has claimed that in the zone, that cover parts of Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, houses have been built for 136 homeless. "Only one-third of the Rs 1.5 crore allotted by zonal government (Jantaana Sarkar) was spent on the works. Since the funds don't get lapsed, the amount will be spent for further works," he says.
Sudarshan claims that over 1.2 lakh people participated in the three-week-long activity. With this initiative, Sudarshan says, people are finding it less necessary to travel to adjoining states to fetch anything. Trying to emphasise that the villagers are participants in the armed conflict, he says, "And in such times, it has become possible for the people to unitedly fight police attacks."
The Maoist leader also expounded on industrial growth based on agriculture. "The current exploitative ruling classes are afraid that if this alternative model of development succeeds, it will pose a danger for their existence. So they are trying to crush it," he said.
Rubbishing various Acts like the 1970 Land Ceiling Act and the 2006 Forest Rights Act, he says such laws have done no good to tribal farmers.
Supporting the Telangana cause, he says, "Deceitful conspiracy by Nehru and Patel saw annexation of Telangana. Communists and Muslims continued to be massacred even after the Nizam surrendered. After creating Andhra Pradesh, people from coastal Andhra started exploiting poor Telangana farmers leading to agitation in 1969."
Marri Chenna Reddy rode the wave of dissent and won 11 Lok Sabha seats but he later ditched the Telangana people and joined the Congress, says Sudarshan.
According to him even what Chandrashekhara Rao of TRS is doing is nothing beyond elections, resignations and lobbying. "We are supporting it since it is necessary for real people's Telangana and prevent it from being reduced to the same state of affairs as other states," he says in the interview.
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Please read our terms of use before posting commentsThe Primary Continent is bisected by the Dragonspine Mountains, a massive set of peeks which can rise up to ten kilometers above sea level. Sparsely populated, largely inhospitable and being home to the lairs of many great dragons: this mountain range has distinctly cut the continent in two. To it's west lays the Coldlands, the lands of the Qanthrathi, the High Kingdom of Ilvanas, the original Drow States and Ilvamicum (a roughly defined area which constitues those lands who's human civilization has it's origins in the Student Men). To their east of them are the northern Steppes and the Eastern Empires. To the North these mountains reach to the pole, petering out to foothills. To the South they dip into the ocean forming a set of large fertile islands with above average magic levels at the crossroads between the east and the west. Said crossroads are home to one of the more unusual races, the Naga. The states in which they rule are known as the Naga Rajs.
The Naga are often described as being half woman and half snake, which while a simplification is generally considered to be accurate enough. They have a (usually) Human torso with a 4-5 meter long snake like body below the waist. Naga also generally lack fingernails and have slited eyes and a set of canines enlarged to fangs. Some exhibit more reptillian characteristics including forked tonges, scales or have flattened reptilian noses. All Naga have some magical abilities. Nagas weigh about 200 |
her roughly one day's notice to leave the property.
She claims the college subsequently failed to provide alternative accommodation, leaving her little option other than the stay with her former boyfriend and his fraternity house.
She says it was during this period that her former boyfriend sexually assaulted her after he had been drinking heavily.
Samantha says it was roughly one month before she felt comfortable enough to report the sexual assault, adding that she had requested to speak to a female security officer.
She claims, however, that a male security officer pressured her into reporting it to him instead and refused to let her leave the room until she signed a written agreement not to press criminal charges.
A later hearing at the college found Samantha's former boyfriend not guilty of the alleged sexual assault after he claimed not to have been in the building at the time, and concluded that the male security officer had simply been 'anxious to help'.
A spokeswoman for Hanover (pictured) insisted the college takes all reports of sexual misconduct seriously and insisted it would fully cooperate with the Department for Education's investigation
Over the following two years, Samantha says her former boyfriend's new girlfriend repeatedly harassed her as she fought to have the case against him reopened.
The Office for Civil Rights initially worked with Samantha and reached a mediation agreement last summer to allow her to file a claim of harassment against her alleged attacker and his new girlfriend.
When that case was dismissed last November, the college then allowed the couple to claim that it was in fact them who were being subjected to harassment, claiming Samantha's repeat attempts to have sexual assault charges filed against her former boyfriend breached their rights.
The college was quoted by the Huffington Post as saying that it concluded that the attempts to have alleged attacker punished 'whether through campus security, the campus conduct review process, his fraternity, the court system, or the Department of Education, do appear to be a type of harassment'.
They reportedly added that Samantha would face no punishment however, as the form of harassment they were accusing her of isn't covered by the school code of conduct.
The Office for Civil Rights is now investigating whether the college failed in its duty to stop harasment against Samantha after it had been reported, and whether or not it had permitted retaliation against a sexual assault victim when allowing the alleged attacker and his girlfriend permission to file their own harassment claim.
A spokesman for Hanover insisted the college takes all reports of sexual misconduct seriously and insisted it would fully cooperate with the Department for Education's investigation.I love anything with secret compartments. From the big (secret passageways) to the small (a secret pocket in a jacket), there’s just something delightful about things that are hidden away.
Which is why I’ve always been drawn to book safes. They combine my love for secret compartments with my love for books. And they’re just a lot of fun.
Book safes are an age old way to stash one’s treasures–the key to a safe, a private document, a flask, a gun. And you can use them while traveling to hide your ipod, back up cash, or other valuables from would-be thieves. And of course if you end up wrongfully imprisoned, they work as an excellent place to stash a rock hammer for tunneling to freedom (salvation lies within!).
Not only are book safes fun to possess, they also make a cool, unique gift. If money is tight this year, consider making a few book safes for your friends or family. The supplies you need only cost a few bucks, and each will take you about 2.5 hours or so to create. Here’s a step by step rundown of how it’s done.
A side note: I know there will be people who cry foul at this project-arguing that cutting up a book like this is sacrilege. I personally don’t understand that kind of fetishization of books. Books are not intrinsically sacred. These are generally books that no one wants and will otherwise go to waste. You’re not destroying the book, you’re turning it into something else. There’s value either way.
1. Buy a Book. Head to your local used bookstore and pick one up. It doesn’t have to be fancy; they always have bargain books that you can snag for just a dollar or two. Personally, I love the look of vintage books, especially for a project like this. Of course if there’s a book on your shelf that you’re not fond of and wouldn’t mind hacking up, all the better.
There are a few things to keep in mind when selecting a book. First, consider what you’ll want to hide in it and how much time you’re willing to put into making it. Thick books will allow you to make a deeper cavity, but carving out that cavity will require more time. A thin book will hold less treasure, but necessitate less cutting time.
Second, choose a book that will fit in on your shelf. If you’ve got a shelf full of new mystery paperbacks, a large vintage medical textbook will look suspicious and out of place.
Finally, consider picking a book that people aren’t likely to pull off your shelf out of curiosity. Think The Economic History of Kazakhstan instead of The Secrets of Better Sex.
But if you’re giving the book safe as a gift, choose a volume that suits the personality and interests of the intended recipient. For Whom the Bell Tolls for Dad; Nancy Drew for little sis.
2. Gather Your Supplies. You’ll need:
a book
a box cutter
a brush
puzzle glue
You can also use regular glue mixed with water. I’ve seen the recommended glue/water ratio as 80/20 or 70/30. I’ve haven’t tried it myself, so you may want to experiment to get the ideal consistency. Too much water and you’ll warp the pages and book.
I also recommend grabbing a ruler to mark the outline of your secret compartment and a few extra blades for your box cutter. The blades get dull quickly and rotating and replacing them helps the cutting step go much quicker.
3. Mark off a few pages in the front. You don’t want to start carving out the secret compartment on the very first page. Leave a few pages in the front untouched, so the compartment is covered and the book looks normal when initially opened.
4. Wrap the cover with plastic bags. To keep glue off of the cover, wrap it with plastic bags. Stick one in-between the pages you marked off in the front and wrap it around the front cover. Then wrap another bag around the back cover.
5. Brush glue on the outside of the pages. Brush the glue on the outside of the pages all around the book. Put on a few layers, but make sure to smooth out any globs as they will dry white. Press the book firmly in your hand to keep the pages together as you glue them.
6. Place the book in a vice or under a weight. To cut down on warping, place the book in a vice or under a heavy weight such as several large books. The pressure will hold the pages together as the glue dries. Let the book dry for about an hour.
7. Draw the outline of your secret compartment. Using a ruler, trace an outline of the secret compartment on the first page of the glued together section of your book. It can be any size or shape you want, but leave at least a half an inch border all around it.
8. Cut out the secret compartment. Using your box cutter, cut along the outline of your secret compartment. Take it slow-don’t try to do too much at one time or you’ll end up with ragged edges. The hardest part is the corners; every now and then go back and clean them up.
This is the part of the project that takes the most time-so just put on some tunes and get in the zone. Rotate and replace the blade of the box cutter a few times in order to keep it sharp and efficient.
If you have one, you can also use a scroll saw to cut out the compartment, which obviously saves a ton of time and also allows you to make the compartment into more creative shapes.
9. Brush glue on the inside of the cut pages. You can also add another layer of glue to the outside of the cut pages if they look like they need it. Using puzzle glue, I didn’t need to.
10. Glue felt inside the secret compartment. This isn’t necessary but it’s a nice touch, especially if you’re giving the book as a gift. The felt covers up the ragged edges and gives it a finished look.
Have you ever made a book safe? Do you have any tips for variations and improvements? Share your comments with us!If you’re ready to turn off the oven and head to Disneyland Resort on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 24, here are spots in the theme parks and hotels for a taste of the holiday. Make your reservations at disneyland.com/dining or by calling 714-781-DINE.
At Disneyland Hotel
The Disneyland Hotel Grand Ballroom will offer a traditional buffet from noon-6 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, with favorites such as carved roasted turkey breast, prime rib, homemade stuffing, sweet potato soufflé, fresh cranberry-orange relish and smashed potatoes and gravy. Add salads, artisan cheeses, smoked salmon cured meats, chilled poached shrimp and king crab legs. Desserts will include pumpkin and pecan pies, tarts, cookies, mousses, freshly made crepes and a chocolate fountain with sweets for dipping.
will offer a traditional buffet from noon-6 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, with favorites such as carved roasted turkey breast, prime rib, homemade stuffing, sweet potato soufflé, fresh cranberry-orange relish and smashed potatoes and gravy. Add salads, artisan cheeses, smoked salmon cured meats, chilled poached shrimp and king crab legs. Desserts will include pumpkin and pecan pies, tarts, cookies, mousses, freshly made crepes and a chocolate fountain with sweets for dipping. Goofy’s Kitchen is adding turkey, herb stuffing, mashed potatoes, turkey giblet gravy, sweet potatoes with marshmallow and seasonal desserts to the expansive brunch and dinner buffet.
is adding turkey, herb stuffing, mashed potatoes, turkey giblet gravy, sweet potatoes with marshmallow and seasonal desserts to the expansive brunch and dinner buffet. Steakhouse 55 is offering a three-course dinner, starting with butternut squash soup or crispy shredded skirt steak with maple clabbered cream. The entrée is roasted turkey Wellington with brioche stuffing, cranberry compote, Swiss chard and wild mushroom gravy. Dessert is sweet potato s’mores with sweet potato cheesecake and salted caramel marshmallow with dark chocolate sauce.
At Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa
Storytellers Café buffet is adding seasonal tastes for lunch and dinner, such as mixed fall greens, pasta salad with brussel sprouts and butternut squash, roasted breast of turkey and dark meat with turkey gravy and cranberry sauce, candied yams with toasted marshmallows, sourdough bread stuffing with mushrooms and fresh herbs, sweet potato bread pudding and pumpkin and pecan pies.
buffet is adding seasonal tastes for lunch and dinner, such as mixed fall greens, pasta salad with brussel sprouts and butternut squash, roasted breast of turkey and dark meat with turkey gravy and cranberry sauce, candied yams with toasted marshmallows, sourdough bread stuffing with mushrooms and fresh herbs, sweet potato bread pudding and pumpkin and pecan pies. Napa Rose will offer Chef Andrew Sutton’s four-course Wine Country Feast (wine pairing available) with a seasonal menu. Dinner only.
At Paradise Pier Hotel
PCH Grill is adding seasonal favorites to the buffet – pumpkin ravioli, oven-roasted turkey breast with cranberry relish and brown gravy, sausage and herb stuffing, green beans with caramelized shallots and pumpkin pie with spiced crème fraiche.
At Disneyland Park
Carnation Café on Main Street, U.S.A., will offer oven-roasted turkey breast, bourbon gravy, cornbread stuffing and pumpkin pie for lunch and dinner.
on Main Street, U.S.A., will offer oven-roasted turkey breast, bourbon gravy, cornbread stuffing and pumpkin pie for lunch and dinner. Plaza Inn is cooking slow-roasted turkey with gravy, apple thyme dressing, mashed potatoes, vegetables, dinner roll and pumpkin pie for lunch and dinner.
is cooking slow-roasted turkey with gravy, apple thyme dressing, mashed potatoes, vegetables, dinner roll and pumpkin pie for lunch and dinner. River Belle Terrace is serving oven-roasted turkey breast, bourbon gravy, cornbread stuffing and pumpkin pie for lunch and dinner.
is serving oven-roasted turkey breast, bourbon gravy, cornbread stuffing and pumpkin pie for lunch and dinner. French Market Restaurant has slow-roasted turkey breast, cornbread and apricot stuffing, smashed potatoes, home-style gravy, vegetables, bread, cranberry relish and pumpkin pie for lunch and dinner.
has slow-roasted turkey breast, cornbread and apricot stuffing, smashed potatoes, home-style gravy, vegetables, bread, cranberry relish and pumpkin pie for lunch and dinner. The Blue Bayou Restaurant menu includes slow-roasted turkey roulade with truffle stuffing, roasted garlic Yukon Gold mashed potatoes, cognac turkey gravy, cranberry relish and pumpkin crème brulée for lunch and dinner.
menu includes slow-roasted turkey roulade with truffle stuffing, roasted garlic Yukon Gold mashed potatoes, cognac turkey gravy, cranberry relish and pumpkin crème brulée for lunch and dinner. Café Orleans has slow-roasted turkey breast with cornbread and apricot stuffing, garlic mashed potatoes, vegetables, home-style gravy, cranberry relish, pumpkin pie and candy cane beignets served with a crème Anglaise.
has slow-roasted turkey breast with cornbread and apricot stuffing, garlic mashed potatoes, vegetables, home-style gravy, cranberry relish, pumpkin pie and candy cane beignets served with a crème Anglaise. Seasonal tamales are on the menu at Rancho del Zocalo Restaurante for lunch and dinner, served with enchiladas.
At Disney California Adventure ParkThe rock band leads the list with its first release in nearly eight years.
Rock band Brand New nabs its first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart as Science Fiction starts atop the tally with 58,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending Aug. 24, according to Nielsen Music. Of that sum, 55,000 were in traditional album sales. The set was released Aug. 18 through the band's own Procrastinate! Music Traitors label, and is the first album from the band in nearly eight years.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption, which includes traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). The new Sept. 9-dated chart (where Science Fiction debuts at No. 1) will be posted in full on Billboard's websites on Tuesday (Aug. 29).
Science Fiction is currently only available through streaming services and for sale as a digital album. A physical release on CD and vinyl LP is due Oct. 18. (A number of other albums have topped the chart in 2017 without a physical album release, including Drake's More Life, Future's self-titled album and HNDRXX, Migos' Culture and Big Sean's I Decided.)
Science Fiction is the third rock album to lead the Billboard 200 in 2017, following Arcade Fire's Everything Now (Aug. 19) and Linkin Park's One More Light (June 10).
Further, Science Fiction also debuts at No. 1 on the Independent Albums chart, as the set was self-released by the band. It is the first independently distributed album to top the Billboard 200 in 2017.
In 2016, five independently distributed albums led the chart: Metallica's Hardwired… To Self-Destruct (Dec. 10, 2016; released on the band's Blackened Records, distributed via Alternative Distribution Alliance [ADA]), Jason Aldean's They Don't Know (Oct. 1; on Broken Bow Records, distributed through RED Distribution), Frank Ocean's initially self-released Blonde (Sept. 10; on Ocean's own Boys Don't Cry), <a href="/artist/298592/blink-182/chart">Blink-182</a>'s California (July 23; released through the band's Viking Wizard Eyes LLC, licensed to BMG and distributed by ADA) and The Lumineers' Cleopatra (April 30; on Dualtone via ADA).
Brand New made its Billboard 200 debut in 2003 with Deja Entendu, which arrived on the list dated July 5 of that year, debuting and peaking at No. 63. The group returned in 2006 with The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me (No. 31) and then in 2009 with its previous studio set, Daisy (No. 6).
Brand New scores its first No. 1 a long 14 years, two months and four days after the act's chart debut back on July 5, 2003. The last act to wait longer for its first No. 1 was David Bowie, when Blackstar debuted at No. 1 on Jan. 30, 2016 -- 43 years, nine months and 15 days after he debuted on the list with Hunky Dory on April 15, 1972. Blackstar, of course, was released two days before Bowie died on January 10, 2016. Previous to Bowie, the last longer wait (than Brand New's 14-year gap) was tallied by Tyrese, when his Black Rose bowed at No. 1 on the Aug. 1, 2015-dated list -- 16 years, eight months and 18 days after his self-titled album hit the chart dated Nov. 14, 1998.
At No. 2 on the new Billboard 200, rapper Kodak Black scores his highest-charting album yet, and second top 10, as Project Baby Two launches with 50,000 units (8,000 in traditional album sales). The mixtape album is powered largely by streams, as the title garnered 39,000 SEA units, translating to 58.6 million on-demand audio streams of the album's tracks. Kodak Black previously notched a No. 3-peaking set earlier in 2017 with his debut studio effort, Painting Pictures (71,000 units in its first week, 15,000 in album sales).
Kendrick Lamar's former No. 1 DAMN. moves 2-3 with 41,000 units (down 5 percent).
Rock band Neck Deep notches its first top 10 effort with The Peace and the Panic bowing at No. 4 with 32,000 units (mostly from traditional album sales, as the set sold 29,000 copies). The Welsh act previously reached No. 17 in 2015 with Life's Not Out to Get You (19,000 units in its first week, with 18,000 in sales).
The Peace and the Panic was released through Hopeless Records, and the set is the highest charting effort for the label in more than two years. All Time Low's Future Hearts was the last Hopeless release to go higher, when it debuted and peaked at No. 2 on the April 25, 2015-dated list.
<a href="/artist/305612/keha/chart">Kesha</a>'s Rainbow falls from No. 1 to No. 5 with 31,000 units (down 74 percent), Khalid's American Teen retreats two spots from its No. 4 peak, as it moves to No. 6 with 29,000 units (down 8 percent), and DJ Khaled's Grateful -- which led the list for two weeks in July -- falls 3-7 with 27,000 units (down 20 percent).
Also, this week's top 10 is apparently brought to you by the letter "K": Kodak Black is No. 2, Kendrick Lamar is No. 3, Kesha is No. 5, Khalid is No. 6 and DJ Khaled is No. 7.
In other artist chart news: Ed Sheeran's former leader ÷ (Divide) slips 6-8 with 26,000 units (down 7 percent).
Rapper Dave East scores his first top 10 effort, as Paranoia: A True Story, arrives at No. 9 with just under 26,000 units (12,000 in traditional album sales). East previously hit the chart with Kairi Chanel in 2016, which debuted and peaked at No. 38.
Closing out the top 10 is Imagine Dragons' Evolve, slipping one rung to No. 10 with 25,000 units (down 2 percent).Saved from the dinner table: Activists rescue more than 500 caged dogs destined for restaurants in China
Crammed into tiny cages and enduring appalling conditions, these dogs had been destined for restaurant tables in China.
But they were saved from that fate after activists intercepted the truck carrying them.
Many of the 505 creatures had barely survived their terrible ordeal, having endured cramped conditions and a lack of water during their near 1,000 mile journey by road.
Barbaric: The dogs were discovered crammed into tiny cages on the back of a truck in Kunming, China
Suffering: Activists arrived too late to save around 11 of the dogs which had already died under the terrible conditions
Saved: Volunteers provided the dogs with water and food which they had been deprived of because of the narrow space in the truck
Rescue: The activists stopped a truck carrying 505 dogs on Puji road on Thursday evening Some of the huge markets which sell dogs and cats to restaurants for slaughter and human consumption, came under international spot light several years ago after being the suspected origin of the deadly SARS virus. It is not uncommon for dogs, as well as other animals, to be crammed so tightly together into tiny metal cages they cannot even bark - an environment ripe for the spread of disease.
In one of the large markets, on a 60 acre site in Guangzhou, China, cages of dogs and cats - some of them bred as domestic pets - are piled high and when an animal is chosen for sale it is bludgeoned with an iron bar until it is close to death before, being handed over to the purchaser.
Business: The dogs in this case had a fortunate escape but the trade in dog meat means many more animals are not as lucky
Sickening: Many of the animals showed signs of the appalling conditions in which there were transported - including dehydration and other injuries
Fate: The driver of the truck told police he employed to transport dogs to a restaurant in Yulin city in south China's Guangxi provinceIf elected, Ted Cruz promised “accountability for Benghazi." | AP Photo Asked about Benghazi, Cruz talks about spanking daughter
CHARLES CITY, Iowa — Ted Cruz was asked about Benghazi. But the Texas senator’s answer veered into the most unusual of territory: spanking, his daughter and Hillary Clinton.
“Was Secretary Clinton awake or asleep when four Americans were being murdered? We don't know to this day,” Cruz said of the 2012 attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Libya that left four dead, including the ambassador. “We do know Hillary told her daughter, Chelsea, well gosh, I knew it was a terrorist attack, while we were out telling the American people it wasn't.”
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Cruz went on.
“You know, I'll tell you, in my house, if my daughter Catherine, the 5-year-old, says something she knows to be false, she gets a spanking,” he said. “Well, in America, the voters have a way of administering a spanking.”
If elected, Cruz promised “accountability for Benghazi,” which has become an anti-Clinton rallying cry for conservative activists.
“We will answer the questions of who did what and why and anyone that did wrong will be held accountable,” Cruz said.A moist cake flavored with raisins, fresh apples and spices. Walnuts add crunch. A perfect dessert for any meal and a great accompaniment for coffee or tea. This Apple Raisin Cake is a wonderful departure from your usual decadent treats. And it is a breeze to prepare!
Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup milk
2 eggs
1 cup mayonnaise
3 cups peeled, cored, and chopped apples (4 to 5 apples)
1 cup raisins
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
Procedures:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly flour a 9x13-inch baking pan with cooking spray.
In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, and salt. Add milk, eggs, and mayonnaise. Beat with an electric mixer at low speed about 2 minutes or until well blended, scraping the bowl frequently. The batter will be thick. Add apples, raisins, and walnuts and mix completely with a wooden spoon. Spoon mixture into a prepared baking pan.
Bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until a cake tester inserted in center comes out clean. Remove cake from oven and cool in pan about 10 minutes. Then, remove cake from pan and cool completely on a wire rack.
Serve Apple Raisin Cake with whipped cream or a scoop of your favorite ice cream if desired.
Get These Other Easy Dessert Recipes:
Comments
commentsLine of Control +
surgical strikes +
surgical strike +
infiltration area +
safeguard the territorial boundaries +
NOUSHERA: For Army snipers donning the camouflaged battle-gear, "Dushmun Sikaar, Hum Sikaari" is the "duty mantra" as they guard the highly sensitive LoC ).Ply boards with "Dushman Sikaar, Hum Sikari" written on them dot the pine tree tops on the foot-tracks of patrolling parties and border woods along LoC.LoC snipers and soldiers, whose morale has gone further up poston terrorist launch pads in PoK, are out to give befitting reply to any ceasefire violation by Pakistan and foil infiltration attempts of terrorists and Border Action Teams (BATs).Pointing towards a placard bearing the motto nailed to a pine tree on foot-patrolling track along three-tier fence, Sniper Ram Singh (name changed) said, "The enemy sitting across the Lakshman Rekha (LoC) is my prey and I am his hunter. We work as per this motto for those daring to cross this Lakshman Rekha."Singh, along with other snipers, are highly trained and target hitting soldiers meant to hit specific enemies daring to breach LoC.Like snipers, the motto is no different for jawans and officers monitoring the forward post and undertake foot patrolling along LoC amid electronic surveillance put to guard the Indo-Pak border in Noushera sector of Rajouri district, which falls opposite to the Bhimbher district of PoK, where the heavily armed special forces in pre-dawnhit at terror launch pads last month.Noushera sector with thick coniferous woods, deep valleys, rock-cut mountains is now a target of the Pakistan Armed troops post surgical strike defeat.The Noushera sector was once biggestas there were huge launching pads and terrorist training camps in Bhimbher-Samahni-Nikyal belt across LoC."We are most vigilant along LoC. We cannot even for a moment keep LoC out of the manual and electronic sight. We cannot trust Pakistani troops. They are insulted following surgical strike," said another soldier at the forward post.Showcasing the electronic surveillance of the LoC, the company commander said that "we are keep a hawk-eye on LoC and forward past posts and sensitive gaps on the border"."Even movement of a cat is watched now through electronic gadgets. We cannot afford to give a chance to them (enemies)," the officer said.Rocky mountain clips, dense forest lines and deep rock-cut valleys along the borderline are manned round-the-clock manually and electronically."Apart from continuous observation from forward posts, electronic observation rooms, there is manual patrolling and three-tier lit-up fencing to guard against infiltration and cross LoC raids," the officer said.Amid hostile weather conditions, the soldiers guard the border posts and vow toat the cost of their lives.Undeterred by continuous mortar shell blasts and rattle of heavy machine guns at their posts last week, jawans brave bad weather and inhospitable terrain to keep a strict vigil on the LoC in Poonch."Even during recent heavily shelling and firing, we kept hawk's eye vigilance on LoC to foil any design of infiltration or any such attack," the officer said.The situation in Poonch-Rajouri sector has deteriorated in the past week following the surgical strike. Repeated ceasefire violations, firing on forward posts and sniper-firings have forced jawans, officers and commanding officers to remain on their toes along the 225-km LoC."Defences at LoC are well prepared. Jawans are well motivated and morale is high. Our troops are prepared for 24X7 for any eventuality along the LoC," the officer said.There is a foolproof security mechanism in place and anti-infiltration measures have also been activated to foil infiltration bids by militants or any kind of BAT attack, he said.Since the surgical strikes, there have been over 26 ceasefire violations from Pakistan along the LoC in which four soldiers and five civilians suffered injuries and 11 shops were gutted.Syrian rescue workers carry body parts in a shroud after a reported barrel bomb attack by Syrian government forces on the rebel held al-Shaar district of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo.
June 9, 2015 Syrian rescue workers carry body parts in a shroud after a reported barrel bomb attack by Syrian government forces on the rebel held al-Shaar district of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo. Karam Al-Masri/AFP/Getty Images
Activists say forces loyal to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad continue to drop barrel bombs on citizens in the country.
Activists say forces loyal to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad continue to drop barrel bombs on citizens in the country.
Activists say forces loyal to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad continue to drop barrel bombs on citizens in the country.
Rebels announced the capture of a strategic army base in southern Syria on Tuesday, the latest of several sweeping offensives by forces battling President Bashar al-Assad.
A coalition of moderate rebel factions known as the Southern Front took control of the Brigade 52 base by early afternoon, spokesman Issam al-Reis said. Brigade 52 is the largest military installation in Daraa province, which borders Jordan, and is key to the defense of northern routes leading to the Syrian capital, Damascus.
“The base has been liberated, and we are in full control,” Reis said, speaking by telephone.
The loss of the base is another blow to Assad’s forces, which have recently suffered a string of battlefield defeats. A largely Islamist rebel alliance that includes al-Qaeda’s powerful Syria affiliate, Jabhat al-Nusra, has seized most of northwestern Idlib province. The Islamic State militant group has captured territory from government forces in the east as well as the ancient city of Palmyra, a UNESCO World Heritage site in central Syria.
The rebel and militant advances have raised questions among analysts about the durability of the Assad regime, which has weathered the civil war because of military and financial support from Russia and Iran. The four-year-old conflict has killed an estimated 220,000 people and displaced millions.
[Assad’s hold on power looks shakier than ever]
The attack on Tuesday marks another success for the largely moderate rebels fighting for the Southern Front, which is backed by the West and has received weapons and money from Arab countries. The umbrella group is supported by a military operations center in Amman, the capital of U.S. ally Jordan.
In April, Southern Front fighters captured the last border crossing between Syria and Jordan that was held by the Assad government.
Emile Hokayem, a Middle East analyst at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, said the fall of Brigade 52 weakens government defenses around the capital. The assault also provides a glimmer of hope for moderate insurgent groups, which have been overtaken by extremist factions on several fronts.
“The Southern Front is now showing itself as an increasingly effective buffer against Islamist rebels as well as an effective means for applying pressure on the Assad regime,” Hokayem said. The rebels control about 70 percent of Daraa and are poised to seize the provincial capital from Assad’s forces, he said.
Hard-line Islamist groups such as Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State do not have a strong presence in Daraa, partly because of tight border control by Jordanian authorities. This has curtailed the flow of extremist fighters into the area.
[The Islamic State was dumped by al-Qaeda a year ago. Look where it is now.]
Hokayem said this has also helped the Southern Front expand its control in Daraa. He noted that the group could be a key player in a broader rebel advance on Damascus, which is less than 100 miles from Daraa.
“You cannot mount a big attack on Damascus unless you have the cooperation of the Southern Front,” he said.
Reis, the Southern Front spokesman, described the assault on Brigade 52 as a surprise raid that began early Tuesday. More than 2,000 rebel fighters participated in the attack, which involved storming the facility from every direction, he said. Reis estimated that Southern Front forces killed seven army officers and 76 pro-government fighters. He said he did not have figures for rebel casualties.
Reis said the insurgents seized “substantial war spoils,” including tanks and heavy weaponry. He indicated that Southern Front fighters would attempt an advance toward Damascus.
“We have most of Daraa liberated, our lines of defense behind us are solid, and now we can start the operation toward Damascus and the highway leading to it,” he said.
Syrian government officials could not be reached for comment on Tuesday's assault.
Sam Alrefaie contributed to this report.
Read more:
Among Syrians, Palmyra is famous for a different landmark — its brutal prison
Map: The world according to the Islamic State
Report: Western women are attracted to Islamic State for complex reasonsIt’s what any little sister would do.
With the cameras pointing at a new statue of her older brother Martin, Jane Richard did something she had probably done countless times before — she gave him bunny ears.
After the Martin Richard statue was unveiled at BSU, his sister Jane gives him bunny ears. ❤️ #wcvb #BSUPeace pic.twitter.com/F1kPT0a1hq — Sera Congi (@seracongi) September 26, 2015
It was a momentary return to innocence for a family that has seen anything but.
Martin, 8, was the youngest victim killed at the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings. Jane, then 6, lost her leg in the attack and suffered numerous shrapnel wounds. Their parents, Bill and Denise Richard, both suffered injuries as well.
The statue unveiled Saturday at Bridgewater State University is in front of the university’s new Martin Richard Institute for Social Justice.
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The statue has Martin holding the “No more hurting people. Peace.’’ sign he made in school. The photo of him holding the sign became an iconic image following the bombings.
“I find some peace in knowing what kind of man he would have become,’’ Bill Richard said of his son at the unveiling.
Bill and Denise are Bridgewater State alumni, and Bill said Martin wanted to attend the university as well.Kell Brook’s IBF World Welterweight title defence against Diego Chaves on Saturday October 24 at the Sheffield Arena will be aired live on SHOWTIME Sports in the US.
The SHOWTIME BOXING INTERNATIONAL presentation of the Sky Sports telecast will feature analysis from SHOWTIME boxing experts Brian Custer, Al Bernstein and Paulie Malignaggi before and after the world championship showdown. An encore presentation of the bout will air on SHOWTIME later that evening at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
“I'm delighted that my fight with Chaves is going to be shown in the U.S.,” said Brook. “I was thrilled when I saw my name in the top 10 of the pound-for-pound list in The Ring Magazine, and now is the time that I need to show the fans in the U.S. that I am a must-see fighter.
“Chaves is an all-action boxer who always comes to fight, and that is the perfect style for me to shine on October 24. I look forward to putting on an explosive performance and making the U.S. stand up and take notice that I am the best Welterweight in the world.”
“We know Brook is a tough fighter, very technical,” said Chaves. “But he is not a fast fighter and he is easily bothered by body punches, which is one of our strengths. I believe he has problems going backwards, and we are going to test his punching power, too.
“I feel that my confidence grows with this challenge, knowing that I will have to face a champion like Kell Brook in his home country in England. This raises the stakes for me, going up there as an Argentine and as a huge underdog. We know all the bad blood that exists between Argentina and England and this will give me much more strength. I will make history if I defeat an Englishman in his own country.”
“We’re excited to be back in business with Kell Brook, Matchroom Boxing and Eddie Hearn and to deliver this exciting matchup of top 10 Welterweights to the U.S. audience,” said Stephen Espinoza, Executive Vice President and General Manager of SHOWTIME Sports. “Kell won the World title on SHOWTIME in an action-packed victory over Shawn Porter last fall, establishing himself as one of the top Welterweights in the world – but Diego Chaves is a rugged fighter who has also proven that he can compete with the elite of the division.”
Brook (35-0, 24 KOs) will make his third consecutive title defence of 2015 in his native England after coming to the U.S. and dethroning previously undefeated IBF Welterweight World Champion Shawn Porter in August 2014 on SHOWTIME. The Sheffield native has scored knockouts in each of his defences – a fourth round TKO of Jo Jo Dan on March 28 and a sixth round TKO of Frankie Gavin on May 30. Brook aims for a similar result against the veteran Chaves, who has faced some of the top fighters in the 147-pound division.
Chaves (23-2-1, 19 KOs), of Buenos Aires, Argentina, has been a road warrior in recent fights, facing favoured Americans on the road in three of his last four bouts. He challenged 147-pound titlist Keith Thurman in |
Mike Tirico’s superduper-serious voice. This Week: 1-0
Last Week: 6-6-1
Season: 58-71-5
WASHINGTON D.C.’S (3-6)
SKED: @Phi, SF, NYG, KC, @Atl, DALL, @NYG
Odds: 12-1
How It Could Happen: The whole “You can’t count out any NFC East team until they get to nine losses” thing … and even then, you can’t totally count them out.
Why It Won’t Happen: You know how Washington got its three wins? The team taking advantage of Matt Flynn getting one final NFL start before his Arena Football career kicks off (Week 4); an injured Jay Cutler getting replaced by a McCown brother (Week 7); and the Chargers scoring a game-winning TD that got overturned, then choking on three straight plays from the 1-yard line (Week 9). Did you see them last night in Minnesota? The Washington Professional Football Team stinks.
The Verdict: There’s only one hope: Alfred Morris gets so frustrated about getting frozen out on touchdown carries, he throws the team on his back and pulls a 2012 Peterson down the stretch. Not since Bud Kilmer kept giving Wendell’s touchdowns to his white teammates at West Canaan have we seen a football coach so blatantly screw over his starting running back. You suck, Mike Shanahan. (Yes, I paid $35 for Morris in my fantasy auction.) I say no.
BALTIMORE RAVENS (3-5)
Sked: CIN, @Chi, NYJ, PITT, MINN, @Det, NE, @CIN
Odds: 9-to-1
How It Could Happen: They’ll need the Bengals to keep losing elite players for the year (we’re already up to four), and they’ll need another injury to a starting Browns QB, followed by a play-by-play announcer saying the four most chilling words in football: “Here comes Brandon Weeden …” Speaking of chilling, one of my readers jumped on the email from my Week 8 column about the symmetry of “Sweet Caroline” and Scatman Crothers getting murdered in The Shining and dubbed them into the same video. It’s kind of amazing.
Why It Won’t Happen: I thought about using that startling “Baltimore hasn’t led a game since October 6” stat that made the rounds this week, but let’s just go with this email from Dave in Missouri: “I think I’m going to drop Ray Rice for Rashad Jennings this week. Am I crazy?”
The Verdict: Here’s how you know it’s been a disappointing Ravens season — I’ve watched multiple Ravens games and never once suspected their players were using PEDs. I say no.
NEW YORK GIANTS (2-6)
Sked: OAK, GB, DALL, @Wash, @SD, SEA, @Det
Odds: 8-to-1
How It Could Happen: Because they’re the Giants — the team that makes you scream things like “Why aren’t they dead yet?” and “COULD SOMEBODY FINISH THEM OFF, PLEASE????” Look at their suddenly not-so-bad schedule: three straight home games against Oakland (Team That Just Gave Up Seven Passing TDs Alert!), Green Bay (Seneca Wallace Alert!) and Dallas (Tragic Romo Ending Alert!) — that could propel them to 5-6 in just 16 days. Could 7-9 be enough to win a pathetic NFC East tiebreaker over the Cowboys and cement their “Nobody Believes in Us!” legacy? Lord, I hope not.
Why It Won’t Happen: Just remember, Football Outsiders has them ranked 30th in DVOA for a reason.
The Verdict: It’s like one of those ’80s horror movies where the embattled female lead keeps dropping the knife and assuming Myers or Voorhees is dead just because he got stabbed in the leg. Just cut his head off already. I say no.
MIAMI DOLPHINS (4-4)
Sked: @TB, SD, CAR, @NYJ, @Pitt, NE, @Buff, NYJ
Odds: 8-to-1
How It Could Happen: Galvanized by the “unfair” fallout against Richie Incognito and nearly 375,000 different Colonel Jessup/Code Red jokes on the Internet, a decent Dolphins team finds itself fueled by a hybrid of “nobody believes in us” and “everybody hates us” emotions, ripping off five of six wins before seemingly choking away a playoff spot in Buffalo. In Week 17, they fend off the Jets thanks to eight Geno Smith turnovers as Ryan Mallett carves up the Bills, clinching the second AFC wild-card spot for Miami. That’s followed by Incognito jumping out of the stands and getting carried off on the shoulders of his former teammates, then getting immortalized in a feel-good Disney movie called The Offensive Lineman.
Why It Won’t Happen: There are distractions, there are major distractions, and then there’s everything that happened these past six days with Miami.
The Verdict: Feels like 8-8. I say no.
Unrelated: I have a good feel for anything that might mushroom into a massive sports story at this point, but the collective newspaper/Internet/sports-radio/talking-head reaction to Incognito vs. Martin blew me away. How did this become the most polarizing NFL story since Michael Vick came back from jail? And how does the story keep gaining steam? People are so fired up that there was angry shouting on “Mike & Mike” this week. Repeat: There was angry shouting on “Mike & Mike” this week!!!! On Monday, I thought the big takeaway would be “Oh yeah, I totally forgot — football players are dumb meatheads” and we’d be making jokes about Jonathan Martin wasting a perfectly good plate of spaghetti. Instead, it has launched the following story lines …
“How can we stop bullying in the workplace?” “Did Miami’s coaching staff order the Code Red?” “Should people outside a locker room be allowed to tell people inside a locker room how to act?” “What’s the difference between being a leader and being an asshole?” “Why did the Dolphins so steadfastly stick up for Incognito when he seems like such a humongous jerk? Is this like Stockholm syndrome?” “What are the boundaries of racially charged teasing between teammates?” “Should the locker room be like a family — in other words, what happens in the house stays in the house?” “Wait, NFL players make rookies pay for everything? This really happens?” “When one of the Mikes becomes upset on ‘Mike & Mike,’ should this be considered a national emergency?” “What’s going to happen to the Dolphins now? Can they recover from this?” “Isn’t there a certain irony in the bully culture of blogs/Twitter/message boards now rushing to the defense of Jonathan Martin and taking a strong stand against bullying?” “Hey, all the ex-players on TV who keep saying that Martin needed to stand up for himself and punch Incognito when Martin clearly had mental issues know that they sound like insensitive Neanderthals, right?” “How do we honor tradition and team building without crossing the line into hazing?” “What does this story say about us?”
That’s a whopping 14 story lines! On Grantland, we’ve already run two terrific takes — one by Brian Phillips, one by Andrew Sharp — and we probably could have run five or six more. Two lingering points stuck out for me. First, Sharp made a fantastic point about how we spent the past three decades deifying Michael Jordan … a homicidally competitive superstar who brutalized any teammate who didn’t meet his lofty standards. What Jordan did to Kwame Brown, Brad Sellers and others wasn’t any different from what Incognito did to Martin. I’m not saying this should alter MJ’s legacy or anything. But we’ve seen bullying in sports since basically forever, and other than your occasional Real Sports/Outside the Lines/E:60 piece, nobody really cared until Martin vs. Incognito. Now? People care. Just feels like more and more people are going to be coming out with their stories. This ain’t ending anytime soon.
And second, I’m endlessly fascinated by people who keep bringing up “the code” in football locker rooms like it’s the military or something. I never played football past ninth grade, so I don’t feel comfortable saying it’s right or wrong. But more than a few ex-players genuinely believe that there’s something to the whole “Everything that happens in the locker room NEEDS TO STAY IN THE LOCKER ROOM” thing, and that nobody can fully understand it unless they’ve played football. That this story ballooned during the same week as Tony Dorsett’s heartbreaking CTE story meant something, I think. It’s just becoming clearer and clearer that professional football is a profoundly messed-up sport. And yet we’re still watching. Anyway …
CLEVELAND BROWNS (4-5)
Sked: Bye, @Cin, PITT, JAX, @NE, CHI, @NYJ, @Pitt
Odds: 6-to-1
I’m breaking the rules and coming back to them later.
SAN DIEGO CHARGERS (4-4)
Sked: DEN, @Mia, @KC, CIN, NYG, @Den, OAK, KC
Odds: 9-to-2
ARIZONA CARDINALS (4-4)
Sked: HOU, @Jax, INDY, @Phi, STL, @Ten, @Sea, SF
Odds: 4-to-1
How It Could Happen: San Diego is three plays away from being 7-1. Arizona has the NFL’s best defense (according to Football Outsiders’ DVOA rankings) and may have stumbled into something special with Andre Ellington. Would you be shocked if the Cards or Chargers turned into our Red-Hot Second-Half Team and grabbed a wild card? Speaking of shocking, I’d like to welcome Toronto mayor Rob Ford to the Tyson Zone. Congratulations, Rob. You did everything you had to do. And then some.
Why It Won’t Happen: The Chargers blew it — they’re hitting the toughest part of their schedule and had to be better than 4-4. And the Cardinals blew it last spring when they said the words, “You know who can turn this around for us? Carson Effing Palmer, that’s who.”
The Verdict: Look, nothing would make me happier than being able to wager against Palmer in a playoff game. And I’d much rather watch the Chargers in a playoff game than, say, the Jets or Titans. But this feels like two coulda-woulda-shoulda seasons here. Arizona needed to steal one of those three Saints/Niners/Seahawks games and they didn’t. San Diego went 0-3 in Good Luck/Bad Luck games. Feels like 9-7 for both. I say no.
PHILADELPHIA EAGLES (4-5)
Sked: @GB, WASH, Bye, ZONA, DET, @Minn, CHI, @Dall
Odds: 3.5-to-1
How It Could Happen: Somehow Nick Foles has thrown for 13 TDs and 0 picks and has a QB rating of 127.4! I know, I’m as shocked as you guys. In Philly’s four victories, the Eagles scored 33, 36, 31 and 49 points — that’s something, right? They also caught a huge schedule break this weekend (Seneca Wallace in Green Bay — a line that dropped NINE POINTS), they’ll be favored in the Washington/Minnesota games, and they might control their own destiny in Week 17 in Dallas. You don’t even need recreational drugs to envision the 2013 Eagles making the playoffs — just a few drinks.
Why It Won’t Happen: Their four wins came against teams with a combined record of 8-25. Football Outsiders ranks their defense 30th out of 32. They scored 10 points total in EIGHT CONSECUTIVE QUARTERS against the Cowboys and Giants (in Week 7 and Week 8, no less). Everything hinges on Nick Foles. I could keep going.
The Verdict: The Eagles are just one of many reasons why I’ve turned into Billy Ice this season — there’s absolutely no rhyme or reason to what happens with them every week. I’m not even guessing about their playoff future. You can’t make me. Meanwhile, here’s an inspiring suggestion from Derek in Los Angeles. “Forget calling yourself ‘Billy Ice.’ Personally, I think going rock bottom will save your season and nothing says that more than ‘Billy Zima.’ Going the wine cooler route always helps a career. Just ask Bruce Willis.”
Billy Zima it is! You can’t climb back from rock bottom until you’ve hit your head against the rock. Sitting at a frigid 13 games under.500 with just seven weeks to go, I think I’m here. The good news: I think I finally mustered the courage to declare a verdict on Philly’s playoff hopes. I say no.
GREEN BAY PACKERS (5-3)
Sked: PHI, @NYG, MINN, @Det, ATL, @Dall, PITT, @Chi
Odds: 5-to-2
How It Could Happen: Am I the only one who thinks Seneca Wallace can beat Philly this Sunday? It’s the old “Guy looked horrible when he got thrown into a game without warning, now everyone assumes he’s going to keep sucking when he’s just gotten a week of practice and he’s lucky enough to play a shaky defense at home” thing. Billy Zima has been tricked by this one before. And after that, they have the Giants and Vikings … and then Rodgers might be ready … I mean …
Why It Won’t Happen: Read that last paragraph again. It’s ridiculous. How can you come back in three or four weeks from a fractured collarbone?
The Verdict: They need to get to 10 wins AND get lucky with the whole Bears/Lions/Panthers/Cardinals tiebreak quagmire? I don’t see it. We did learn one cool thing, though: Rodgers is worth a whopping NINE POINTS to every Green Bay gambling line. I blame my friend Chad Millman for this — last year, he created a fake stat called PSVAR (Point Spread Value Above Replacement) that led me to send him 15 scathing “GET THE EFF OFF MY FAKE STAT CORNER, MILLMAN!” emails. Just kidding. Last month, Chad wrote that Rodgers had the NFL’s highest PSVAR at +10, with Tom Brady, Drew Brees and the Manning brothers trailing him at +9. In other words, if Rodgers ever got injured, Chad believed it would swing the ensuing Packers line by 10 points. What happened this week? Rodgers went down and the Eagles-Packers line swung from “Green Bay by 10” to “Green Bay by 1.” So Chad was off by a point. Not bad.
Here’s why I brought this up: In my 2013 preview column, I picked the Packers to miss the playoffs, worried about their schedule and apologized to Green Bay fans for building both of my fantasy teams around Aaron Rodgers — something I hadn’t done since 2008 with Tom Brady, when, well, you know. So when Rodgers fractured his collarbone, Packers fans started sending me “YOU JINXED RODGERS, YOU DICK!” emails. Somehow, Chad Millman remained unscathed — the guy who created the fake PSVAR stat, ranked Rodgers first and in a roundabout way begged the NFL gods to injure Rodgers so he’d find out if his fake stat was good or not. Sorry, Chad wins any Aaron Rodgers Jinx-Off here. Send your hate mail to chad@iruinedyourpackersseason.com. As for Green Bay’s 2013 playoff hopes … sometimes it’s just not your year. It happens. I say no.
CAROLINA PANTHERS (5-3)
Sked: @SF, NE, @Mia, TB, @NO, NYJ, NO, @Atl
Odds: 5-to-2
How It Could Happen: Are you kidding? It’s happening! Riverboat Ron is 5-for-6 on fourth-and-shorts and joking that he’d rather be called “Calculated-Risk-Taker Ron.” Bill Barnwell is trotting out stats in his Monday column like “Every team that’s won four straight games by two touchdowns or more has ended up making the playoffs.” Even Vegas has noticed — they have the Panthers getting less than a touchdown in San Francisco against an equally hot Niners team. There’s a lot to love.
Why It Won’t Happen: What if they’re just the Good Bad Team and they’re meant to whup on the other bad teams and that’s it? What then? What happens in those four games against the Niners, Pats and Saints (twice)? I can’t shake that Week 5 loss in Arizona — Carolina’s offense had more sacks than points and turned over the ball four times. Don’t we need to see them play well in San Francisco before we even consider sticking them in the playoffs?
The Verdict: I’m going rogue — I think Calculated Risk-Taker Riverboat Ron’s Panthers get all the way to 11 wins and maybe even battle New Orleans for that NFC South title. I say yes.
TENNESSEE TITANS (4-4)
Sked: JAX, INDY, @Oak, @Indy, @Denv, ZONA, @Jax, HOU
Odds: 5-to-2
NEW YORK JETS (5-4)
Sked: Bye, @Buff, @Balt, MIA, OAK, @Car, CLE, @Mia
Odds: 5-to-2
How It Could Happen: The Titans never should have blown that OT game in Houston in Week 2; they somehow survived a brutal three-week stretch against the Chiefs/Seahawks/Niners with Ryan Fitzpatrick prominently involved; and they have a pretty easy second-half schedule if you throw out the Denver game. Meanwhile, the Jets kicked New Orleans’s butts last Sunday while brazenly hijacking Andy Reid’s “We’ll let our defense and special teams carry us and avoid letting our QB do ANYTHING” strategy. J-E-T-S JETS JETS JETS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Why It Won’t Happen: The Jets lost to Tennessee, Pittsburgh and Cincy by a combined score of 106-28; they’re a late hit and a light shove away from being 3-6; and they’re the Jets. The whole “Let’s try to win without Geno hurting us” strategy can work for one week, and maybe even two or three, but not for two months. I just don’t see it even with a fairly easy schedule. As for Tennessee, they look a little too obvious, right? Two Jacksonville games, Houston and Oakland … that’s 8-4 right there. So they’d have to go 2-2 against Arizona, Denver and Indy twice to make the playoffs? It’s so easy! Just pencil them in! Everybody believes in you, Tennessee!
The Verdict: There’s a good chance we’re looking at the Round 1 opponent for my beloved Patriots right here. In one corner, we have Geno Smith … someone who inspires at least one “Can you believe we might have a chance to bet against Geno Smith in the playoffs” email in my reader inbox every day. In the other corner, we have Bernard Karmell Pollard and the Titans. You might remember me joking since early September about the “inevitability” of a Pollard-Pats playoff showdown. That joke is no longer funny. He’s coming for the Patriots, and this time, he’s coming for Belichick … and maybe even the entire Kraft family. I say no for the Jets and yes for the Titans.
And since the thought of seeing Pollard in a playoff game frightens the living hell out of every Patriots fan, I’d like to offer a video clip to put you in a better mood. We made it because my Grantland Channel guys are bored now that they’re not working for 80-plus hours a week on the Bill & Jalen NBA Preview. It’s called “2 Balls, 1 Dog” and stars my dog, Rufus, along with two tennis balls and the Pacific Ocean. We were going to wait to premiere it at Sundance, but instead, we’re premiering it here. You can’t break us, Bernard Karmell Pollard.
CHICAGO BEARS (5-3)
Sked: DET, BALT, @STL, @Min, DALL, @Cle, @Phi, GB
Odds: 2-to-1
DETROIT LIONS (5-3)
Sked: @Chi, @Pitt, TB, GB, @Phi, BALT, NYG, @Minn
Odds: Even
How It Could Happen: If the Lions win in Chicago this weekend, they’ll sweep the season series, hop into the NFC North driver’s seat and maybe even have a chance at a 2-seed. Vegas made the game a pick’em, which means they’d favor Detroit by three on a neutral field. Even Chicago fans don’t think this Bears team is good. Then again, couldn’t you see them winning one of those super Bearsy home games on Sunday — a kick-return TD, tons of momentum, then a Cutler pick-six, then Forte ripping off a 60-yard TD, then Megatron catching a pseudo–Hail Mary in triple coverage, then the Bears somehow pulling it out in the last three minutes because of a dumb penalty or something — and just kind of hanging around? I’m prepared for anything.
Why It Won’t Happen: Because Bears fans are asking each other, “How the hell are we 5-3?” And because Lions fans are asking each other, “Seriously, how the hell are we gonna screw this up?”
The Verdict: I don’t believe in the Bears. You know who I believe in? The Lions of Detroit. I believe that their comeback victory against Dallas was the most important thing that’s ever happened to Matt Stafford. I believe Calvin Johnson is the biggest non-QB game-changer in football. I believe we’re headed for a December of “Ndamukong Suh is a DOMINANT defensive player” stories. I believe in any schedule that — if they get by the Bears — yields seven non-playoff teams. Most of all, I believe in omens … and if you don’t think Megatron Nowitzki winning the 2013 World Series of Poker 24 hours after Aaron Rodgers went down wasn’t a good omen for the 2013 Detroit Lions, you’re kidding yourself. I say no for the Bears and yes for the Lions.
LONG LIVE MEGATRON NOWITZKI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
DALLAS COWBOYS (5-4)
Sked: @NO, Bye, @NYG, Oak, @Chi, GB, @Wash, Phi
Odds: -250
How It Could Happen: You’ve seen the rest of their division, right?
Why It Won’t Happen: If they lose in New Orleans on Sunday night and Philly beats the Seneca Packers, we’re suddenly tied atop the NFC Least. That would be followed by a bye week and Cowboys fans FREAKING THE F— OUT. And we haven’t mentioned the tortured history of the Romo-Jerry Era yet. Now that Courtney Stodden and Doug Hutchison finally broke up, Romo and Jerry might be America’s most destructive couple.
The Verdict: Dirty little secret about the Cowboys … they’re actually pretty good. If they’d closed the Denver/San Diego/Detroit games, they’d be 8-1 right now. (Yeah, I know that’s one of those “if my aunt had balls, she’d be my uncle” comments, but it’s true.) They can’t get to nine wins with that schedule? Come on. Seriously? Seriously? I say yes.
CLEVELAND BROWNS (4-5)
Sked: Bye, @Cin, PITT, JAX, @NE, CHI, @NYJ, @Pitt
Odds: 6-to-1
CINCINNATI BENGALS (6-3)
Sked: @Balt, CLE, Bye, @SD, INDY, @Pitt, MINN, BALT
Odds: -1,000
How It Could Happen: With a two-game lead in the AFC North, the Bengals are 1-to-10 favorites to win that division. But the Browns just got two straight competent weeks from Jason Campbell! LOOK OUT! THE BROWNS ARE ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!!
Why It Won’t Happen for Cincy: I thought the Patriots got screwed when they lost Vince Wilfork and Jerod Mayo; losing Geno Atkins and Leon Hall is actually worse. Is this turning into the Season From Hell for the Bengals? If they lose in Baltimore this Sunday, Cleveland hosts a banged-up Cincy team in Week 11 with a chance to pull even in the loss column AND win the season series. Could the Browns recover from the wreckage of Hurricane Weeden and eke out an AFC North title? Could 9-7 and a season sweep over Cincy be enough?
Why It Won’t Happen for Cleveland: Because God hates Cleveland. Don’t forget this for a second. Example No. 534: Anthony Bennett over Victor Oladipo.
Example No. 535: This Andrew Bynum story.
Example No. 536: This email from Eric Rosenthal in Thousand Oaks …
I’m 22 years old and have watched every Packers game since I was born. Favre, Rodgers, and a few well-played Matt Flynn games are all I’ve ever seen. Watching Seneca Wallace play football for 4 quarters literally made me sick. I feel like I was tortured. Then I remembered that other fans have dealt with years and years of incompetent quarterbacks. How the hell do they not hate football by now? It’s seriously the most miserable experience there is, and I finally understand what all these people complain about. I looked it up and Wallace played 14 games for the Browns over two years. I always thought you were joking, but now I truly believe that God must hate Cleveland.
The Verdict: Allow me a quick tangent before I give you my answer here …
Have you noticed how many subpar-to-lousy QBs have looked competent in situations that, historically, seemed like they were no-chance-in-hell situations? I think it’s the biggest reason why I’ve turned into Billy Zima this season. In the old days, you couldn’t make the line high enough for Mike Glennon going into Seattle, or Jeff Tuel going against Kansas City’s ferocious defense. And there was little chance of an injured Thad Lewis blowing your two-team teaser by winning on the road against a decent Dolphins team. Now this stuff is happening every week, and I think it’s because they’ve made the league so much safer — receivers scamper all over the field without worrying about getting creamed, and QBs don’t seem like they’re fearing for their lives anymore. Well, except for you guys, Brandon Weeden and Blaine Gabbert. Billy Zima misses the old days, when you can bank on Mike Glennon doing everything short of crapping his pants against the 12th Man.
Anyway, once upon a time, the thought of Brian Hoyer or Jason Campbell “saving” a Browns season seemed impossible. In 2013? Totally reasonable. I’ll believe anything in 2013. And if it were anyone other than Cleveland, I’d pick the beyond-banged-up Bengals to blow the AFC North thanks to the Browns swooping in. Sadly, we’re always four words away from the words “Here comes Brandon Weeden.” I just can’t shake them. So, begrudgingly … I say yes for the Bengals and no for the Browns.A man of few tweets. None, actually.
Ammon Bundy is the leader of a ragtag group of patriots who are defending our constitutional rights by preventing anyone from visiting a bird sanctuary in Oregon. Rosa Parks is an icon of the civil-rights movement. One’s white, the other’s black; one is a delusional cattle rancher who will soon be forgotten, the other an immortal heroine of African-American liberation. But there’s one crucial thing that Bundy and Parks have in common: Neither is active on Twitter.
Unfortunately, this point was missed by most of the mainstream media. In the past 24 hours, the Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the Los Angeles Sun Times, and even the Indian Republic mistook a parody account for the actual social-media platform of Ammon Bundy. (If not for the timely fact-checking of Gizmodo, many others — though never Daily Intelligencer, of course — might have joined this list.)
The account @Ammon_Bundy has been credulously quoted by mainstream outlets since it was created on January 3, when Bundy’s occupation of the bird sanctuary/news cycle began. But the handle achieved its greatest exposure, literally and figuratively, when it likened Bundy’s struggle to Parks’s in a tweet late Tuesday night.
We are doing the same thing as Rosa Parks did. We are standing up against bad laws which dehumanize us and destroy our freedom. — Ammon Bundy (@Ammon_Bundy) January 6, 2016
That analogy proved irresistible for the outrage-baiters. A thousand think pieces bloomed. The sound of all that typing proved loud enough to rouse the suspicions of MSNBC’s Tony Dokoupil, who was standing right next to Bundy when the tweet was published. He was thus able to confirm that, unless the rancher has a social-media intern, he had nothing to do with those 140 characters.
As Ammon Bundy and company's occupation of federal land enters a fifth day, a note for all: he's not on twitter. @Ammon_Bundy is not him. — tonydokoupil (@tonydokoupil) January 6, 2016
Credit the prankster behind @Ammon_Bundy, who built credibility for 48 hours through a series of mostly mundane tweets that spoke in a voice fairly similar to that of the real-life Bundy. Few trolls play the long(ish) game, and by doing so, @Ammon_Bundy achieved the unprecedented: convincing an Indian newspaper to cover what the fake social-media account of an Oregon rancher said about a dead American civil-rights leader. One might say that @Ammon_Bundy is to trolling what Parks was to civil rights — but then one would be an idiot.A man with narcissistic personality disorder wants to make a dinner reservation.
From: tuckermanroger@gmail.com
To: seattle@ilfo.com
Subject: Dinner reservation at Il Fornaio
Dear General Manager,
On December 1st, I will be flying to Seattle to celebrate my 40th birthday. I would like to make a reservation for two at 7 pm.
I have a list of requests that I hope you can accommodate to make a memorable evening:
First, I do not want a corner table. I feel very alone and isolated when I sit in the corner. I would like a table in an open area, preferably in the center of the restaurant.
Second, I would like to have your finest server take my order.
I’m requesting your finest server because I’ve had inadequate service in many restaurants, and I can’t risk this happening on my birthday. I recently went to a restaurant in Vancouver, BC, and the server, after seating me at a corner table behind a fern tree, forgot all about me!
Third, I would like to order a birthday cake with 40 candles and “Happy 40th Birthday You Very Sexy Man!” written on it. For the icing, any color is fine except pink or sarcoline.
Also, please make sure the cake is large enough for all your staff to have at least one piece. I want everyone to remember me!
Fourth, when the cake is delivered to my table, I would like the servers to gather in a circle and sing “Happy Birthday, Mr. Tuckerman”, and then say out loud: “You are amazing!” And for each server that sings, I will tip them a dollar in appreciation.
My final request is I would like to use a karaoke machine. I will have it delivered to your restaurant the day before. My girlfriend will be travelling with me, and I want to surprise her by singing several songs. She knows nothing of my plans for my 40th birthday. After my last song, I’m going to propose to her!
I know your patrons will love my performance. I used to be an Elvis impersonator in my home town of Falkland, BC, singing every weekend at the Falkland Pub.
The local ladies found me irresistible in my younger years, especially when I sang “Can’t Help Falling in Love.” They couldn’t help but fall in love with me! Needless to say, I never went home alone.
I look forward to a reservation confirmation at your earliest convenience.
However, if you are unable to accommodate my requests, can you tell me another place to go?
Sincerely yours,
Roger Tuckerman
You can read more stories like this in my eBook.[back] Honduras
[back] CIA
[back] Torture
Torture was taught by CIA; Declassified manual details the methods used in Honduras; Agency denials refuted
By Gary Cohn, Ginger Thompson, and mark Matthews, The Baltimore Sun,
Monday 27 January 1997, Final Edition
WASHINGTON -- A newly declassified CIA training manual details torture methods used against suspected subversives in Central America during the 1980s, refuting claims by the agency that no such methods were taught there.
"Human Resource Exploitation Training Manual -- 1983" was released Friday in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by The Sun on May 26, 1994.
The CIA also declassified a Vietnam-era training manual called "KUBARK Counterintelligence Interrogation -- July 1963," which also taught torture and is believed by intelligence sources to have been a basis for the 1983 manual.
Torture methods taught in the 1983 manual include stripping suspects naked and keeping them blindfolded. Interrogation rooms should be windowless, dark and soundproof, with no toilet.
"The 'questioning' room is the battlefield upon which the 'questioner' and the subject meet," the 1983 manual states. "However, the 'questioner' has the advantage in that he has total control over the subject and his environment."
The 1983 manual was altered between 1984 and early 1985 to discourage torture after a furor was raised in Congress and the press about CIA training techniques being used in Central America. Those alterations and new instructions appear in the documents obtained by The Sun, support the conclusion that methods taught in the earlier version were illegal.
A cover sheet placed in the manual in March 1985 cautions: "The use of force, mental torture, threats, insults or exposure to inhumane treatment of any kind as an aid to interrogation is prohibited by law, both international and domestic; it is neither authorized nor condoned."
The Sun's 1994 request for the manuals was made in connection with the newspaper's investigation of kidnapping, torture and murder committed by a CIA-trained Honduran military unit during the 1980s. The CIA turned over the documents -- with passages deleted -- only after The Sun threatened to sue the agency to obtain the documents.
Human rights abuses by the Honduran unit known as Battalion 316 were most intense in the early 1980s at the height of the Reagan administration's war against communism in Central America. They were documented by The Sun in a four-part series published from June 11 to 18, 1995.
Unmistakable similarities
The methods taught in the 1983 manual and those used by Battalion 316 in the early 1980s show unmistakable similarities.
The manual advises an interrogator to "manipulate the subject's environment, to create unpleasant or intolerable situations."
In The Sun's series, Florencio Caballero, a former member of Battalion 316, said CIA instructors taught him to discover what his prisoners loved and what they hated.
"If a person did not like cockroaches, then that person might be more cooperative if there were cockroaches running around the room," Caballero said.
In 1983, Caballero attended a CIA "human resources exploitation or interrogation course," according to declassified testimony by Richard Stolz, then-deputy director for operations, before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in June 1988.
The "Human Resource Exploitation Training Manual -- 1983" suggests that the interrogator show the prisoner letters from home to convey the impression that the prisoner's relatives are suffering or in danger.
In The Sun's series, Jose Barrera, a former member of Battalion 316 who said he was taught interrogation methods by U.S. instructors in 1983, recalled using the technique:
"The first thing we would say is that we know your mother, your younger brother. And better you cooperate, because if you don't, we're going to bring them in and rape them and torture them and kill them," Barrera said.
The manual suggests that prisoners be deprived of food and sleep, and made to maintain rigid positions, such as standing at attention for long periods.
Ines Consuelo Murillo, who spent 78 days in Battalion 316's secret jails in 1983, told The Sun that she was given no food or water for days, and that to keep her from sleeping, one of her captors entered her room every 10 minutes and poured water over her head.
Mark Mansfield, a CIA spokesman, declined to comment on the manuals. However, asked about agency policy on the use of force and torture, he referred to Stolz's 1988 testimony before the Senate intelligence committee.
In testimony declassified at The Sun's request, Stolz confirmed that the CIA trained Hondurans.
"The course consisted of three weeks of classroom instruction followed by two weeks of practical exercises, which included the questioning of actual prisoners by the students.
"Physical abuse or other degrading treatment was rejected, not only because it is wrong, but because it has historically proven to be ineffective," he said.
Beyond that reference, Mansfield said only: "There are still aspects of the review process that need to be completed. For that reason, it would not be appropriate to comment."
He was referring to an internal CIA investigation ordered in 1995, after |
(which Skadden is going to have anyway). And there may have been a provision in the staffing agreement between Tower and Skadden that made Tower responsible for wage-and-hour compliance (do any readers know if such a provision is typical?--please post in the Comments). More generally, the big-dollar risk here was in this case’s status as a potential collective action, with scores or even hundreds of similarly situated legal process workers’ rights implicated. Getting out without certifying a class or having to go to the expense of litigating how blindingly automatic document reviewers’ responsibilities must be to qualify for overtime under the state-law rule the appellate decision announced could have real dollar value reflected in the settlement premium.
What happens next? Of course, this settlement may be just the beginning. The smart money bets that among the repeat players in the document-review-staffing game—staffing agencies such as Tower Legal; legal process outsourcers such as Pangea3 (which, like numerous similar businesses, has operations in the US as well as overseas); large firms such as Skadden and many others— before now very few have paid overtime to their document reviewers, especially to the licensed lawyers who make up the majority of document reviewers since the BigLaw Layoffs of 2009-10 and Incredible Shrinking Law-Job Market since 2007 (see here at pages 27-33 regarding the former, and here at pages 569, 571-78 regarding the latter). Still pending is a similar suit in the Southern District of New York against Quinn Emanuel and the staffing agency Providus. Watch for a raft of new actions looking back over the two-year FLSA limitations period.
It will also be interesting to see whether document-review employers start paying overtime going forward. And if they do, watch for whether and how this changes the employers’ practices—one way to avoid the overtime problem is to use more people for no more than 40 hours per week each. Ironically, this will in turn effectively reduce the amounts that doc reviewers can earn overall, given that a fair number of them have reportedly depended on over 40 hours of work per week without time-and-a-half for overtime. Equally interesting will be which players—legal process workers; law firms; outside personnel providers; clients—end up bearing any additional costs that overtime requirements may impose. (H/T to Jim Wagner at Apogee Legal for some of these thoughts.)
But whether looking back or forward, it would seem that most employers have strong arguments that their document reviewers exercise enough judgment to be considered engaged in “the practice of law,” at least under the modest standard the Second Circuit borrowed from North Carolina law. This may be a fight that has to be fought on the facts before the repeat players are secure enough in their knowledge of the law to proceed without dispute. I encourage readers with knowledge of the industry or governing law to offer their opinions in the Comments.
In the long run, though, I’d bet on the employers here. In the 21st century, there is little profit in having human beings at $25 per hour (plus overtime) scan documents rotely for key words or names as Lola alleged he was tasked to do. Computers can do that faster and cheaper, which is why I always wondered if Lola’s allegations about his responsibilities would ultimately prove out. If Lola remains the law and North Carolina’s definition of “the practice of law” remains typical of the state law FLSA borrows, follow-on actions may yet answer that question for us.
Is it a good decision? But is Lola well decided? I think not. Here are several reasons:
No clarity in application to commonly presented facts. The definition of “practicing law” prevailing in the several states that Lola instructs the federal courts to borrow is incoherent. I may drag you through the branches of its strange and inconsistent briars in some future post. (Something to look forward to until the new phone books arrive; don’t say I haven’t promised you anything awesome lately.) Suffice for now to say that those who claim to know “the practice of law” when they see it are hallucinating. Treat yourself to a tiptoe through the Second Circuit’s efforts to make sense of the North Carolina law on the subject (which, as I’ve said before, is typical in most respects) to get a sense of similarities between any clear application and a greased pig. Made of Jell-O. On meth. So (pace my predictions above) we just don’t know with much precision when law-licensed document reviewers will be exempt from overtime.
No fairness to legal process workers. One thing we do know is that, because the FLSA exemption on which Lola relied is conditioned on an employee’s possession of a law license, the law in its current state entitles the workers with law degrees and bar cards to less pay than those who lack them in these generally head-thumpingly dull, moderate-wage jobs. Go figure.
No coherent definition of “practice” or “unauthorized practice.” It’s also fair to say that Lola illustrates the frustrating lack of coherence between “the practice of law” and “the unauthorized practice of law” (referred to widely in the Professional Responsibility community as “UPL”). (Heads-up: This last portion of the discussion takes a different and more modest view of this issue than the one I offered in my original post. Hat-tips to Mike Risch and Gregg Polsky for persuading me that my original effort overstated the problem.) Engaging or assisting in the unauthorized practice of law (that is, “practicing law” in a jurisdiction without being licensed or otherwise authorized to practice there) is an ethical violation and at least a misdemeanor in every state I know of. And remember, it’s “the practice of law” as used in state law to define unauthorized practice on which the Lola Court relies to decide who gets overtime. The logical implication of tying these two otherwise unrelated categories together definitionally is that, every time you decide that a particular activity comprises “the practice of law” for wage and hour purposes, you need to find a basis on which its performance is duly authorized in the jurisdiction in which it’s being done to avoid subjecting the employer to professional discipline and potential criminal penalties.
Does that mean that, if Skadden and Tower Legal were right, and document reviewers are engaged in “the practice of law” and therefore exempt from overtime, that they are “practicing law” without a license, and Skadden is assisting them in doing so? No, not always. Model Rule of Professional Conduct 5.5(c) says that a lawyer licensed in any jurisdiction (such as Lola) may “temporar[il]y” “assist[]” another lawyer with tasks arising out of a proceeding in another jurisdiction in a tribunal before which that other lawyer is authorized to practice. That would probably protect Lola (and Skadden’s partners) from UPL charges (even though it defines unauthorized practice only for disciplinary rather than civil or criminal purposes), but only because Lola has a law license somewhere.
North Carolina, the state whose law governed the definition of “practicing law” in Lola, has adopted a narrower version of Rule 5.5(c) that would not protect David Lola’s document review activities. And even under the Model Rule, what if Lola and those like him, wishing to earn overtime going forward, temporarily give up their law licenses and take inactive status? And what about the unlicensed staff (paralegals, legal assistants, secretaries) who engage in document review and other skills involving some modicum of legal judgment (drafting correspondence, documents, deeds, contracts, pleadings, briefs, etc.) in huge numbers every day? All of these people are potentially practicing law without a license, at least according to Lola’s definition. Some will be protected by legal or ethical rules like Model Rule 5.5(c), but others will have to find solace elsewhere. Such solace does exist, and it offers a much better rule to resolve the dispute presented in Lola.
How Lola should have come out. The simple solution that the Lola Court missed was the universally adopted rule that proper attorney supervision over staff’s performance of many tasks that otherwise would be “the practice of law” makes whatever the staff is doing not unauthorized practice. The idea was right in front of the Court’s nose, as it is featured prominently in a recent North Carolina Formal Ethics Opinion that the Second Circuit opinion devoted considerable effort to torturing into the eventual basis for its decision. The textual basis for the solution is that “the practice of law” involves “independent legal judgment”—a phrase the relevant ethics opinion used, and that recurs in plenty of UPL discussions—and supervised exercise of legal judgment is not “independent.” Thus nonlicensed staff engaged in research and drafting of the kind that hundreds of thousands of such staff engage in every day across America are, when properly supervised by a licensed attorney, not “practicing law” at all—the supervising attorney is.
Why did the Lola Court miss the easy way out of this mess? Probably because the parties do not appear to have raised it. Certainly Tower and Skadden would agree that, whatever degree of judgment Lola was actually exercising, he was properly supervised. The allegations of Lola’s Complaint are not consistent with any other conclusion—after all, Lola’s main argument, based on the facts alleged in his pleading, was that he was so closely supervised he was not exercising any independent judgment at all. But if Skadden (and Tower Legal) had accepted the premise that supervised document reviewers (and unlicensed staff) don’t exercise “independent legal judgment” because they are supervised, they would have been conceding that document reviewers are not “practicing law,” and thus not subject to the FLSA overtime exemption on which the Defendants relied. What’s more, not only do BigLaw employers like Skadden generally supervise their document reviewers as a matter of good practice, they can’t afford to contend otherwise—inadequate supervision is a serious ethics violation. See Model Rules 5.1, 5.3.
It would appear that Plaintiff’s counsel missed a great opportunity to advocate a simple and much more easily administrable standard that would have guaranteed legal process workers overtime in many cases. The result is an appellate decision that creates a cockeyed compensation scheme in which licensed lawyers get paid less than paralegals for document review, and the scope and meaning of the “practice of law” are more garbled than ever.
--BernieThe US publicly lionized the anti-Soviet jihadis. In 1983, President Ronald Reagan, who continued Carter’s Afghan policy, met with Mujahideen leaders in the Oval Office for a photo op, and released a statement which said:
The CIA also heavily participated in recruitment for the increasingly international jihad. And this is where Osama bin Laden enters the picture. As political scientist and terrorism expert Eqbal Ahmad said in a 1998 speech :
Shortly thereafter, the highest cleric of Saudi Arabia (another US client) endorsed a fatwa proclaiming jihad against the atheist Soviets in Afghanistan as an obligation for all Muslims throughout the world. It should be noted that the Saudis have a narrow definition of a true “Muslim,” as they follow Wahhabism, one of the most extreme and intolerant strands of Islam, highly similar to ISIS’s own. Throughout the 1980s, Saudi Arabia also provided the Afghan Jihad with hundreds of millions of petrodollars in aid and tens of thousands of madrassa-indoctrinated volunteer fighters.
In a 1998 interview, Brzezinski openly admitted that he and Carter thus “knowingly increased the probability” that the Soviets would militarily intervene. And indeed Russia did invade in December 1979, beginning the decade-long Soviet-Afghan War. In the same 1998 interview, Brzezinski boasted:
Due to these efforts, as well as the government’s own oppressiveness, a widespread rebellion broke out in Afghanistan in 1978. In July 1979, US President Jimmy Carter, on the advice of National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, officially authorized aid to the puritanical Mujahideen rebels, to be delivered through the CIA’s “Operation Cyclone.” This was on top of the unofficial aid that the CIA had already been funneling to Afghan Islamist insurgents for years through Pakistan and Iran.
Conveniently for Kissinger, the dirt poor country was sandwiched between two US client states: Pakistan to the east and Iran (then still ruled by the CIA-installed Shah) to the west. Immediately after the coup, the CIA and the clandestine security agencies of Pakistan (ISI) and Iran (SAVAK) began regime change operations in Afghanistan, orchestrating and sponsoring Islamic fundamentalist insurrections and coup attempts.
A 1973 coup in Afghanistan installed a new secular government that, while not fully communist, was Soviet-leaning. That was a capital offense from the perspective of America’s Cold War national security state, at the time headed by Henry Kissinger.
It may be surprising to hear, but it is a plain historical fact that modern international jihad originated as an instrument of US foreign policy. The “great menace of our era” was built up by the CIA to wage a proxy war against the Soviets.
Desert Storm was preceded by Operation Desert Shield, in which the US built up a military presence in Saudi Arabia (troops, arms, and bases) for use in staging attacks on Iraq in the upcoming war.
In 1990, the US seized the emerging post-Berlin “unipolar moment” of peerless preeminence by launching its first globocop “police action”: the Persian Gulf War (Operation Desert Storm) against Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq.
It was the Reagan-Thatcher-Gorbachev thaw of Reagan’s second term that created the necessary climate for ending the proxy war in Afghanistan. And it was the subsequent combination of far-abroad detente and near-abroad peace that created the necessary climate for the Soviet dissolution.
In contrast, what happened throughout the Soviet Empire was not a violent collapse, but a relinquishing of power and a generally peaceful dissolution. Such an outcome rarely results from war. To the contrary, war is the health of the State, as Randolph Bourne taught. War tends not to loosen, but to tighten a regime’s grip on power. It is not war, but peace and detente that can lead to peaceful dissolution. It is when people no longer feel so besieged by enemies abroad that they feel secure enough to demand greater freedom (even to the extent of full secession) from their “protectors” and rulers.
But it was not really a collapse. The Soviet Empire did not descend into failed-state chaos, the way Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen, and Somalia recently have thanks to the American War on Terror. That is what a true “collapse” looks like.
Brzezinski arrogantly took credit for this, claiming that his strategy of giving the USSR “its own Vietnam” brought about the Soviet “collapse.”
After a decade of bloody war, the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan in February 1989. Later that year, the Berlin Wall fell and Romania left the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact. The year after, Poland and East Germany followed. And in 1991, the Warsaw Pact and then the Soviet Union itself both dissolved completely.
The film even has Rambo’s mentor echoing Brzezinski when he screams at his Russian captor, “We already had our Vietnam! Now you’re gonna have yours!”
The glorification even extended to popular culture. In the climactic battle scene of 1988’s Rambo III, the heroic John Rambo is about to be overrun by Soviet forces when he is saved by a Mujahideen cavalry charge. The movie closed with onscreen text that read, “THIS FILM IS DEDICATED TO THE BRAVE MUJAHIDEEN FIGHTERS OF AFGHANISTAN.” After the US went to war with the Mujahideen’s successors in 2001, the dedication was changed to, “THE GALLANT PEOPLE OF AFGHANISTAN.”
The occupation of the Arabian Peninsula also began Bin Laden’s vendetta against his former patrons. As Eqbal Ahmad told it:
Contrary to US promises, the military occupation of Saudi Arabia persisted after the war, as the bases were used to enforce a blockade on Iraq throughout the 90s (which starved over a half a million children). This had a twofold impact on Islamic radicalization.
Even after this turn, the western lionization of the the Soviet-Afghan War’s Mujahideen veterans, and of Bin Laden in particular, continued into the 90s. As late as December 1993, The Independent (a major British newspaper) even published a puff piece on Bin Laden, plastered with a huge photo of the smiling sheik, titled “Anti-Soviet warrior puts his army on the road to peace.” The article lauded Bin Laden as a humanitarian, gushing over how the “Saudi businessman who recruited mujahedin now uses them for large-scale building projects in Sudan.”
As it turned out, his largest-scale project was to build up the international militia that the CIA helped him recruit into Al Qaeda, which he would then lead in an anti-Western terror jihad throughout the 90s. With that wave of attacks in mind, Brzezinski’s 1998 interviewers asked if he had any regrets over blowback from Operation Cyclone. The statesman was totally dismissive.
Q: And neither do you regret having supported the Islamic fundamentalism, having given arms and advice to future terrorists?
Brzezinski: What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?
Q: Some stirred-up Moslems? But it has been said and repeated: Islamic fundamentalism represents a world menace today.
Brzezinski: Nonsense!
Later in 1998, mere months after Brzezinski’s interview, Eqbal Ahmad delivered the exact opposite assessment of Bin Laden and Al Qaeda, warning his American audience:
“They’re going to go for you. They’re going to do a lot more. These are the chickens of the Afghanistan war coming home to roost.”
Three years later, Brzezinski was proven spectacularly wrong, and Ahmad tragically right, when the terror jihad of Bin Laden’s Mujahideen-descended band of “stirred-up Moslems” culminated in the attacks of September 11, 2001.
During the planning of those attacks, Bin Laden and his inner circle were hosted by the Taliban, yet another band of Mujahideen-descended “stirred-up Moslems,” then ruling Afghanistan.
As Ahmad foretold, the chickens of the CIA’s Afghan Jihad (and of the Gulf War) had indeed come home to roost.
True to their names, Operations Cyclone and Desert Storm sowed the wind. Years later, it was 3,000 American civilians who reaped the whirlwind.
Incredibly, that whirlwind harvest was then reseeded, ensuring that still more civilians would later reap an even bigger whirlwind. Apparently cultivating chaos is the only trade that empires know. The regime and its kept news media sowed the whirlwind by exploiting America’s post-9/11 fear and anger to garner acquiescence for even larger and more frequent foreign misadventures: for a globe-spanning Long War that continues to this day.
First came the Afghanistan War against the Taliban and in pursuit of Al Qaeda. Almost inexplicably, Bin Laden escaped into hiding in US-allied Pakistan after being pinned down in the caves of Tora Bora. It is somewhat less inexplicable in light of the fact that the neocon-led Bush administration was trying to fear-monger the public into countenancing another war in Iraq, and that this involved pushing bogus intelligence connecting Saddam Hussein with Al Qaeda. At least until the regime got its post-9/11 bonus war, it was convenient to still have Dread Pirate Osama at large to keep America’s war fever up. Better dread than dead.
Similarly, in 2002, the Bush administration denied the military’s request for permission to kill another figurehead terrorist: Abu Musab al-Zaraqawi, who had in the 80s been yet another recruit for the CIA’s Afghan Jihad. That too was likely about the administration getting its war in Iraq. At the UN, Secretary of State Colin Powell falsely identified Zarqawi as a link between Saddam and Al Qaeda (he was allied with neither, and an enemy of the former), in order to paint the planned invasion of Iraq as a necessary front in the War on Terror.
As it turned out it was the Iraq War itself that unleashed Zarqawi in 2003, freeing him to emerge from autonomous Kurdistan, where he had been hiding from Saddam’s security forces under the protective aegis of an American no-fly zone. His formerly obscure terrorist gang rapidly ascended amid the chaos of the Iraq War, becoming Al Qaeda in Iraq or AQI (after Zarqawi swore allegiance to Bin Laden), and then the Islamic State in Iraq or ISI (after Zarqawi was finally killed).
After suffering severe setbacks in Iraq, in 2011 the Zarqawiites began infiltrating neighboring Syria to take part in the insurgency against Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Thereafter renaming itself ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria), the group, along with its offshoot the Al Nusra Front and other Mujahideen militias, came to dominate that insurgency.
US Senator John McCain with mujahideen from the Northern Storm Brigade.
The growth of ISIS and Nusra in Syria was fed by the United States (the State Department, the Pentagon, and the CIA) and its Western and regional allies (the UK, France, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, etc.). By at least 2012, these powers had launched a veritable Operation Cyclone 2.0: recruiting, training, financing, and arming Mujahideen fighters for the purpose of overthrowing the secular ruler Assad (who, like the post-1973 secular Afghan regime, is an ally of Russia). Just as in Afghanistan decades ago, young men, radicalized by the call to jihad and militarized by the promise of weapons and money, have poured in from countries throughout the Muslim world, and from Europe too. This has not only led to the death of hundreds of thousands of Syrians and the displacement of millions, but has turbo-boosted ISIS and Nusra in myriad ways.
The Syrian Jihad, like the Afghan Jihad, was preceded by less direct and lower grade subversion using militant Islamists. In the Afghan prelude, America’s dirty work was done by Pakistan and Iran. In the Syrian prelude, it was done by the Saudis and lesser Gulf Sheikdoms, who with US approval, began sponsoring anti-Assad Salafist militias in neighboring Lebanon as early as 2006.
There were voices even among the Saudis who, like Eqbal Ahmad, darkly forebode blowback from dealing with such devils. One former Saudi diplomat warned:
“Salafis are sick and hateful, and I’m very much against the idea of flirting with them. They hate the Shiites, but they hate Americans more. If you try to outsmart them, they will outsmart us. It will be ugly.”
Yet they were drowned out by voices who, like Brzezinski, shrugged off such concerns over “stirred-up Salafis.” A US government consultant related to the great journalist Seymour Hersh that:
“This time… Bandar and other Saudis have assured the White House that ‘they will keep a very close eye on the religious fundamentalists. Their message to us was ‘We’ve created this movement, and we can control it.’ It’s not that we don’t want the Salafis to throw bombs; it’s who they throw them at…”
“Thanks for paying for our jihad in the 80s. And sorry about your towers. But this time around it’ll be totally different, trust us. Sincerely, the Wahhabis”
Yet, regarding Syria, the American deep state has been just as much sinister as it has been gullible and hubristic, if not more. As a recently disclosed Pentagon intelligence report reveals, US planners knew full well that they were once again “sowing the cyclone,” and that others would soon “reap the blowback.” The report from 2012 predicted that supporting the Syrian insurgency would create “the ideal atmosphere” for ISIS “to return to its old pockets” in Sunni Iraq and also create “the possibility of establishing a declared or undeclared Salafist Principality” in the region.
And that is precisely what happened. In 2014, strengthened by the US-backed Syrian Jihad, ISIS burst back into “its old pockets” in Iraq, conquered the northwest of the country down to the gates of Baghdad, and declared a Caliphate (a Salafist Principality).
The wind sown by Operation Cyclone took two decades to fully germinate into the blowback that blew the Twin Towers down. Yet it only took two years for us to reap the whirlwind from the Syrian Jihad. Scott Horton proposes the term “backdraft” for blowback that is so prompt and predictable: like the firestorm that immediately erupts in your face upon opening the door of a burning hot room.
The US and its allies have opened the door to Hell in Syria. And the ensuing ISIS backdraft has lately spread far beyond Syria and Iraq, consuming 44 lives in the bombing of a Beirut marketplace, 224 lives with the bombing of a Russian airliner, and 130 lives with the recent attacks in Paris.
It took longer than it did in 1979, but America’s current proxy jihad has drawn in Russia once again. The chief difference is that this time, the US and its allies are not limiting themselves to covert ops, but are involving their air forces as well. This is ostensibly to “destroy” ISIS. However, the US-led coalition also wants the Assad regime gone, while the Russian-led coalition is trying to save it and to fight the US-supported non-ISIS Mujahideen as well (including Syrian Al Qaeda). So the countless warplanes buzzing over and bombing Syria are flying at cross purposes. This has turned the Levant into a nuclear powder keg.
And now, unthinkably, a US ally may have just lit a match. Just this morning Turkey shot down a Russian warplane. Two pilots were reportedly executed by anti-Assad insurgents in mid-air. A video has emerged on the internet of insurgents standing over one of the dead Russians saying “Allahu Akbar” and apparently calling themselves “Mujahideen.”
Remember, Turkey is a NATO member, who can draw the entire West into a thermonuclear war if it picks a big enough fight. The backdraft we reap from this latest American jihad may consume us all.
Even if we survive this near-term global existential crisis, our warlords have more in store for us. The Paris attacks especially have yielded yet another crop of fear and loathing in the West, which the tillers of terror are keen to plow right back into still more proxy warfare and mayhem.
But they cannot do so if we, their tax cattle, refuse to pull the plow or let them drive us like beasts of burden that are so easily spooked and prodded. We the people must convey that if they do not stop cultivating the storms of chaos, then we will cast off their yoke once and for all.SimCity will get an offline mode, Maxis has announced.
The announcement was made today just two months shy of the game's first birthday.
Players have long called for an offline mode. EA and Maxis were heavily criticised for the catastrophic launch of the game in March 2013. Upon release SimCity was unplayable for many as the always online game buckled under the weight of pressure applied to EA and Maxis' servers.
Today, Maxis Emeryville chief Patrick Buechner revealed on the SimCity blog that offline will be added to the game as a free download with Update 10 to all SimCity players.
"When we launch it, all of your previously downloaded content will be available to you anytime, anywhere, without the need for an internet connection," he said.
This will manifest itself in-game as the new single-player mode. Saved games in this mode are stored locally, so "you can save and load to your heart's content", Buechner said.
Does this sound the death knell for always online SimCity? Not so, Buechner insisted.
"All of the benefits of being connected will remain including access to Multiplayer, the Global Market and Leaderboards," he said.
"And all of your pre-existing saved cities and regions will still be accessible should you log-in to the Online game."
The single-player mode comes alongside the addition of modding to SimCity.
"From me, and everyone at the studio, thank you again for staying with us," Buechner concluded.Today marks the seventh annual Transgender Day of Visibility, where transgender people around the world post photos of themselves on social media to promote political visibility and acceptance for the trans community. Already, thousands of people have posted selfies on Tumblr, and the hashtag #TDOV has appeared in over 5,000 tweets.
The trend is especially popular with teenagers, and people of non-binary gender identities—supportive allies who identify as queer or gender fluid—are joining in.
Back in 2009, Rachel Crandall, a transgender activist in Michigan, noticed that all the major holidays honoring trans identities were centered around remembrance and calling out injustice. She started #TDOV to encourage the trans community to use social media as a tool for empowerment through positive self-representation. Now in 2015, there are dozens of TDOV events across the country and several celebrations for trans communities abroad, with parties from Singapore to Sweden.
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Kyle McCarley as Shigeo
Chris Niosi as Reigen
Max Mittelman as Ritsu
Michael Sorich as Ekubo
Erik Kimerer as Hanazawa
The series will premiere on the FunimationNow streaming service on Sunday, December 11 at 9:30 p.m. EST. New dubbed episodes will premiere every week.
Funimation describes the story:
Kageyama Shigeo (a.k.a. Mob) is an 8th grader with powerful psychic abilities. Workingunder his not-so-capable master, Reigen, Mob uses his powers to exorcise evil spirits. But his will to be normal causes him to suppress his powers and feelings until he hits 100 percent — a point where his pent-up emotions are unleased and a darker power takes over.
The 12-episode anime premiered in Japan on July 11 and Crunchyroll streamed the series with English subtitles as it aired in Japan.
Yuzuru Tachikawa (Death Parade) directed the anime at BONES (Fullmetal Alchemist, Eureka Seven, Space Dandy, Blood Blockade Battlefront). Hiroshi Seko (Ajin) oversaw the scripts, Yoshimichi Kameda (One-Punch Man animation director) designed the characters, Kazuhiro Wakabayashi (Eureka Seven, Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex, Soul Eater) served as sound director, and Kenji Kawai ( Ghost in the Shell, Hana Moyu, Patlabor ) composed the music.
The original manga creator ONE (One-Punch Man) launched the Mob Psycho 100 series on Ura Sunday in 2012 and later in Shogakukan's MangaOne app in 2014.Nevertheless, reporters at the time had a bit of fun with the news. One described the statue as crestfallen by the decision, and playfully imagined her crying into the water at her feet. “Here I have been standing in rain and mist and snow...” The New York Times mock-quoted Lady Liberty as having said, “And nobody has suggested a pair of zippers—no, not even an umbrella.”
But government officials had made up their minds. Besides, they said, allowing for the addition of a watch would only open the door for more such accoutrements, which would inevitably lead to “fashionable modistes... showering her with gowns, and beauty specialists persuading her to indulge in nine varieties of haircuts.” (Though a “boyish bob” might be appropriate, the Times offered.)
Today, Lady Liberty’s hair is a lovely shade of verdigris. But back then it was darker: “Liberty, who has been hiding her light under a good many bushels of bituminous,” wrote the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in 1926, referring to coal stains, “now appears as a decided brunette.”
Stylistic continuity (or lack thereof) aside, the notion of adorning a gargantuan neoclassical figure with a glowing, contemporary timepiece is only partly absurd. The statue has always been as much a technological object as it is an artistic masterpiece.
The sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi designed the statue to be fully illuminated, a feature that’s suggested in its official name, “La Liberté Eclairant le Monde,” or “Liberty Enlightening the World.” (At first the Statue of Liberty doubled as a lighthouse, given its position in the New York Harbor, but that didn’t last: It was decommissioned as such in 1902.)
Originally the lighting scheme was to be red, white, and blue—with a giant searchlight trained on the statue’s face and shoulders. Officials claimed in 19th-century newspaper accounts that they would make the statue so bright as to cast a glow on the clouds of the night sky 100 miles away. The statue’s face was to be lit by a reflector so bright that newspapers described it as “4 million candle power.” Her diadem was meant to sparkle with electric light. These were lofty goals in the dawn of the electrical age, and they carried symbolism that has lost much of its potency now that electricity is taken for granted.
“In the 1870s and 1880s, when the use of electricity and gas for light and heat was first spreading into private houses, a figure like Liberty evoked more vividly than today the power of man over natural forces,” wrote Marina Warner, the author of Monuments & Maidens: The Allegory of the Female Form, in an essay in 1986. “It was as if the generating energy of the sun had been yoked to work for humanity.”
Back in 1886, when the statue was unveiled, not even the White House had electricity. So it’s not surprising that early attempts to light the statue went terribly wrong. Bartholdi had intended for the statue to be lit up, but he never specified exactly how. In late October of that year, the inaugural torch lighting failed. Even after a successful demonstration soon after, the statue remained cloaked in shadow most nights. Then, the lights turned on, but didn’t appear as planned: For weeks, the statue appeared to be headless after dark—light from the torch only lit up her shoulders, not her face, and the torch itself appeared to be floating in midair. “It is thought to be impossible to illuminate the whole statue so that it will be seen at night, owing to its dull, non-reflecting surface,” the Times reported that year. To complicate matters, there was a standoff among government agencies as to who should pay for the lighting.Or, In Defense of Fondling Cardboard Cut-Outs
[digg-reddit-me]Dahlia Lithwick, writing in Slate about the character of John Roberts as he was being vetted for the Supreme Court in 2006:
I knew guys like [John Roberts] in college and at law school; we all knew guys like him. These were the guys who were certain, by age 19, that they couldn’t smoke pot, or date trampy girls, or throw up off the top of the school clock tower because it would impair their confirmation chances. They would have done all these things, but for the possibility of being carved out of the history books for it.
An acquaintance of mine from college has been in the news recently. No – I’m not talking about this profile in Newsweek (which was reddit-famous), this one from The New York Times, or this piece in Time magazine. I’m talking about the headline on The Drudge Report linking to this piece in the Washington Post. I ignored that piece when it first came up, hoping the story would die. It’s certainly not news in any meaningful sense. But it does turn out to be “news” in the sense that matters most these days: It provides a hook for people to fake righteous outrage over.
Jon Favreau, a speechwriter for Barack Obama now slated to move to the White House as chief speechwriter for Obama, had a picture taken of him at a party. I include the picture to keep matters in perspective – for without it, an observer would probably imagine something quite shocking.
(The Wikipedia entry’s description of the photo, Favreau “performing a suggestive gesture to a cardboard cut-out of Hillary Clinton.” With that description, I would have pictured something else entirely!)
The offending picture was posted on Facebook by a friend of Favreau’s for some two hours before it was taken down. Now it’s in the Washington Post and the New York Times and analysts on CNN are making profound noises about it. According to The New Agenda, a supposedly feminist group, Favreau should be fired. Campbell Brown of CNN, the individual whose brilliant first name inevitably leads her to disappoint viewers expecting profundity (“Free Sarah Palin!”) decided her counterintuitive response would be to attack Senator Clinton’s lack of outrage over the degradation of womankind that this photo represents:
Really, Sen. Clinton? Boy, have you changed your tune. You really think this photo is OK?
Put another woman in that photo, just an average woman who supported you during the campaign. Have it be her image being degraded by a colleague of hers. Would you be OK with that?
Yes – Campbell Brown is outraged over Hillary Clinton’s shrugging-off of an unfortunate photo while the economy is melting down and two wars are raging. Clearly, Hillary’s priorities are out of order – not Brown’s. Walter Cronkite must be ashamed to call himself a newsman these days.
There is a sensibility that infects mainstream coverage of any material that is tawdry and cheap – a kind of Hayes Code for today’s newsroom that makes every sexual scandal or embarrassing photograph into a morality tale. Without that cover, it’s hard to justify the right to show scandalous photographs repeatedly and talk in graphic details about the sex lives of politicians. (Remember the New York Post‘s scolding headline about the Miley Cyrus photograph, the scandalous photograph that they then enlarged on their front page to scold her about?) The goal of these morality tales is to pull readers or viewers in with titillating details |
. Third-string quarterback T.J. Yates also is in the concussion protocol.
"With any starter, it gets to the point in the week where you got to say, 'Hey, we're going to have to go one way or the other,'" coach Sean McDermott said Monday. "We'll cross that road when we come to it at this point.
"You've heard me say this before: Resilience is important. Resiliency, grit, being adaptable. Sometimes a setback is a setup for a comeback. That's the name of the game in this business. We feel good that we'll have clarity around the situation when we need it. This team is ready. We've adjusted before, and I expect that we'll adjust again."
Taylor and Yates wore helmets and participated in individual drills during the open portion of Monday's practice. It was the first time either quarterback has practiced since being injured.
The Bills aren't sure whether Tyrod Taylor, who remains in the concussion protocol, will be ready to play Week 1 against the Jets. Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images
Rookie Nathan Peterman, a fifth-round draft selection, would start Sunday against the New York Jets if Taylor is unable to play. Peterman completed 54 percent of his passes in the preseason for a 75.6 quarterback rating.
"He is ready," McDermott said. "When you look at what he's done throughout the preseason, I'm confident, and we're extremely confident in Nathan. I expect that he's only going to continue to get better."
Webb, 30, was released Saturday by the Carolina Panthers. Both McDermott, formerly the Panthers' defensive coordinator, and Bills first-year general manager Brandon Beane, formerly the Panthers' assistant general manager, have familiarity with Webb.
"I like Joe Webb," McDermott said. "He plays a lot of different positions. He brings a lot to the table, just starting with the person he is. He's a high-energy guy. He's a positive person. Good for our culture, good for our locker room. He plays special teams. He plays quarterback. He plays wide receiver. He plays [defensive back]. He's done it all."
To make room for Webb, the Bills released safety Colt Anderson, the team announced. A source said Anderson could return to the roster later this week.WASHINGTON – Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced today that, as part of the Interior's Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Program, and in cooperation with five Interior agencies, the Bureau of Reclamation is approving two long-term research and experimental programs of high-flow releases and native fish protection to preserve and improve the Grand Canyon and its resources. Together, these decisions represent the most important experimental modification of operations of Arizona's Glen Canyon Dam in over sixteen years.
The two programs authorize changes in flow releases from the dam to meet water and power needs, but also to allow better conservation of sediment downstream, more targeted efforts to control non-native fish predation, and continued scientific experimentation, data collection, and monitoring to better address the important resources in the Colorado River below Glen Canyon Dam.
“We've gained tremendous knowledge about the unique resources of the Grand Canyon in the Colorado River downstream of Glen Canyon Dam over the past sixteen years,” said Secretary Salazar. “Today's decisions constitute a milestone in the history of the Colorado River and will provide a scientific foundation to improve future operations to benefit resources in the Grand Canyon, as well as the millions of Americans who rely on the river for water and power.”
The first program establishes a long-term protocol for testing high-flow releases from Glen Canyon dam to determine whether multiple high flow events can be used to rebuild and conserve sandbars, beaches, and associated backwater habitats that have been destroyed or lost over the years of the dam's construction and operation. The experimental protocol will simulate natural flood conditions in order to provide key wildlife habitat, potentially reduce erosion of archaeological sites, enhance riparian vegetation, maintain or increase camping opportunities, and improve the wilderness experience along the Colorado River in Grand Canyon National Park. The protocol is designed to take full advantage of sediment provided by tributaries of the Colorado River as a result of rainstorms and monsoons.
The protocol for high-flow experimental releases applies scientific information gained in previous high flow releases in 1996, 2004, and 2008 and provides the necessary, flexible framework to conduct further experimental releases through 2020 to determine the optimal timing, duration, frequency, and conditions that will maximize ecological and riparian benefits downstream in the Grand Canyon. For more information on the program, click here.
The second program outlines a series of actions and research to control non-native fish and protect endangered native fish in the Colorado River below Glen Canyon Dam. Conservation of native fish, particularly the endangered humpback chub, will be enhanced by reducing the threat of predation and competition from non-native fish and improving critical habitat. The actions will also ensure continued compliance with the Endangered Species Act and a Final Biological Opinion issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2011. Extensive government-to-government tribal consultations and analyses were conducted to ensure the required non-native fish control actions can be implemented in a way that respects tribal perspectives. For more information on the program, click here.
“Implementation of these two programs marks a huge step forward in integrating the management of a dam that's critical to the delivery of water and power to millions of people in the Southwest with better conservation of the incredible values of the Grand Canyon,” said Assistant Secretary for Water and Science Anne Castle. “We are refining our operations to reflect what we've learned and address the concerns expressed by several Native American tribes about the management of fish at locations honored as sacred sites by many of the tribes and pueblos.”
The actions outlined in both detailed Environmental Assessments completed today include important scientific research and monitoring components that are fundamental to the adaptive management process. Reclamation has primary responsibility for operation of Glen Canyon Dam and the National Park Service has primary responsibility for Grand Canyon National Park and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.
"The National Park Service is a strong supporter of high flow tests to help determine how best to rebuild and sustain the beaches and sand bars below Glen Canyon Dam. We appreciate the extensive collaboration required to develop these research programs which are critical to preserving the awesome resources and visitor experience along the Colorado River in Grand Canyon National Park," said Jonathan B. Jarvis, Director of the National Park Service.
Today's actions represent the most comprehensive experiment for protection of the Grand Canyon since Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt signed a Record of Decision in 1996 and conducted the first high flow release. The experiments will help answer critical questions about the complex interactions between dam releases and resource responses, and also advance the goal of the Grand Canyon Protection Act to improve resource conditions.
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Your memory is terrible.
Sadly, it's even really bad when it comes to remembering what makes you happy. Looking at Daniel Gilbert's book Stumbling on Happiness, my main takeaway was this: Much of our unhappiness springs from the fact that we're terrible at accurately remembering how things made us feel in the past, so we make bad choices regarding the future.
In Gilbert's own words (and backed up by many studies):
We overestimate how happy we will be on our birthdays, we underestimate how happy we will be on Monday mornings, and we make these mundane but erroneous predictions again and again, despite their regular disconfirmation. [Stumbling on Happiness]
Other research has shown that your memory isn't just "bad", it actually has specific things it focuses on and remembers.
Daniel Kahneman, Nobel Prize winner and author of Thinking, Fast and Slow, has shown that your brain really remembers only two things about an event:
1. The emotional peak
2. The end
Via The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less:
Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman and his colleagues have shown that what we remember about the pleasurable quality of our past experiences is almost entirely determined by two things: how the experiences felt when they were at their peak (best or worst), and how they felt when they ended. This "peak-end" rule of Kahneman's is what we use to summarize the experience, and then we rely on that summary later to remind ourselves of how the experience felt. The summaries in turn influence our decisions about whether to have that experience again, and factors such as the proportion of pleasure to displeasure during the course of the experience or how long the experience lasted, have almost no influence on our memory of it.
So how can you game the system with this information and use it to be happier?
Structure events so that the peak is great and the ending is great.
Make sure tomorrow has one thing that will be amazing and that the day ends on a positive note. This is what leads to feeling good about your life in retrospect.
Want a vacation you'll look back on fondly for years to come? In advance, plan an event that will provide an emotional high point. Schedule another great activity for the end of the trip:
…research by Nobel winner Daniel Kahneman and his colleagues identified something called 'the peak-end rule' — that is, people's overall memories of an experience showed a strong association with the average of the peak level of emotional feeling and the final level of emotion at the end of the experience…Applying this rule to our holidays would suggest we need to try to obtain as high a peak of enjoyment as we can, and to end on a high note. The rest might not matter so much. [The Psychologist]
Your brain is not a perfect computer. What you will remember is not the same as what happened.
But you can game it so your memories are better than what happened. And happy memories are one of the secrets to feeling good about your life.
More from Daniel Kahneman on happiness and the fulfilling life in his TED talk here:
Join 135K+ readers. Get a free weekly update via email here.
More from Barking Up The Wrong Tree...This article is about the composer. For other uses, see Ravel (disambiguation)
French composer
Ravel in 1925
Joseph Maurice Ravel (; French: [ʒozɛf mɔʁis ʁavɛl]; 7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In the 1920s and 1930s Ravel was internationally regarded as France's greatest living composer.
Born to a music-loving family, Ravel attended France's premier music college, the Paris Conservatoire; he was not well regarded by its conservative establishment, whose biased treatment of him caused a scandal. After leaving the conservatoire, Ravel found his own way as a composer, developing a style of great clarity, incorporating elements of baroque, neoclassicism and, in his later works, jazz. He liked to experiment with musical form, as in his best-known work, Boléro (1928), in which repetition takes the place of development. He made some orchestral arrangements of other composers' music, of which his 1922 version of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition is the best known.
As a slow and painstaking worker, Ravel composed fewer pieces than many of his contemporaries. Among his works to enter the repertoire are pieces for piano, chamber music, two piano concertos, ballet music, two operas and eight song cycles; he wrote no symphonies or church music. Many of his works exist in two versions: first, a piano score and later an orchestration. Some of his piano music, such as Gaspard de la nuit (1908), is exceptionally difficult to play, and his complex orchestral works such as Daphnis et Chloé (1912) require skilful balance in performance.
Ravel was among the first composers to recognise the potential of recording to bring their music to a wider public. From the 1920s, despite limited technique as a pianist or conductor, he took part in recordings of several of his works; others were made under his supervision.
Life and career [ edit ]
Early years [ edit ]
Joseph Ravel (1875), Marie Ravel (1870) and Maurice Ravel aged four (1879)
Ravel was born in the Basque town of Ciboure, France, near Biarritz, 18 kilometres (11 mi) from the Spanish border. His father, Pierre-Joseph Ravel, was an educated and successful engineer, inventor and manufacturer, born in Versoix near the Franco-Swiss border.[1][n 1] His mother, Marie, née Delouart, was Basque but had grown up in Madrid. In 19th-century terms, Joseph had married beneath his status – Marie was illegitimate and barely literate – but the marriage was a happy one.[4] Some of Joseph's inventions were successful, including an early internal combustion engine and a notorious circus machine, the "Whirlwind of Death", an automotive loop-the-loop that was a major attraction until a fatal accident at Barnum and Bailey's Circus in 1903.[5]
Both Ravel's parents were Roman Catholics; Marie was also something of a free-thinker, a trait inherited by her elder son, who was always politically and socially progressive in outlook in adult life.[6] He was baptised in the Ciboure parish church six days after he was born. The family moved to Paris three months later, and there a younger son, Édouard, was born. (He was close to his father, whom he eventually followed into the engineering profession.)[7] Maurice was particularly devoted to their mother; her Basque-Spanish heritage was a strong influence on his life and music. Among his earliest memories were folk songs she sang to him.[7] The household was not rich, but the family was comfortable, and the two boys had happy childhoods.[8]
Ravel senior delighted in taking his sons to factories to see the latest mechanical devices, but he also had a keen interest in music and culture in general.[9] In later life, Ravel recalled, "Throughout my childhood I was sensitive to music. My father, much better educated in this art than most amateurs are, knew how to develop my taste and to stimulate my enthusiasm at an early age."[10] There is no record that Ravel received any formal general schooling in his early years; his biographer Roger Nichols suggests that the boy may have been chiefly educated by his father.[11]
When he was seven, Ravel started piano lessons with Henry Ghys, a friend of Emmanuel Chabrier; five years later, in 1887, he began studying harmony, counterpoint and composition with Charles-René, a pupil of Léo Delibes.[11] Without being anything of a child prodigy, he was a highly musical boy.[12] Charles-René found that Ravel's conception of music was natural to him "and not, as in the case of so many others, the result of effort".[13] Ravel's earliest known compositions date from this period: variations on a chorale by Schumann, variations on a theme by Grieg and a single movement of a piano sonata.[14] They survive only in fragmentary form.[15]
In 1888 Ravel met the young pianist Ricardo Viñes, who became not only a lifelong friend, but also one of the foremost interpreters of his works, and an important link between Ravel and Spanish music.[16] The two shared an appreciation of Wagner, Russian music, and the writings of Poe, Baudelaire, and Mallarmé.[17] At the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1889, Ravel was much struck by the new Russian works conducted by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.[18] This music had a lasting effect on both Ravel and his older contemporary Claude Debussy, as did the exotic sound of the Javanese gamelan, also heard during the Exposition.[14]
Émile Decombes took over as Ravel's piano teacher in 1889; in the same year Ravel gave his earliest public performance.[19] Aged fourteen, he took part in a concert at the Salle Érard along with other pupils of Decombes, including Reynaldo Hahn and Alfred Cortot.[20]
Paris Conservatoire [ edit ]
With the encouragement of his parents, Ravel applied for entry to France's most important musical college, the Conservatoire de Paris. In November 1889, playing music by Chopin, he passed the examination for admission to the preparatory piano class run by Eugène Anthiome.[21] Ravel won the first prize in the Conservatoire's piano competition in 1891, but otherwise he did not stand out as a student.[22] Nevertheless, these years were a time of considerable advance in his development as a composer. The musicologist Arbie Orenstein writes that for Ravel the 1890s were a period "of immense growth... from adolescence to maturity." [23]
In 1891 Ravel progressed to the classes of Charles-Wilfrid de Bériot, for piano, and Émile Pessard, for harmony.[19] He made solid, unspectacular progress, with particular encouragement from Bériot but, in the words of the musical scholar Barbara L. Kelly, he "was only teachable on his own terms".[24] His later teacher Gabriel Fauré understood this, but it was not generally acceptable to the conservative faculty of the Conservatoire of the 1890s.[24] Ravel was expelled in 1895, having won no more prizes.[n 2] His earliest works to survive in full are from these student days: Sérénade grotesque, for piano, and "Ballade de la Reine morte d'aimer",[n 3] a mélodie setting a poem by Roland de Marès (both 1893).[14]
Ravel was never so assiduous a student of the piano as his colleagues such as Viñes and Cortot were.[n 4] It was plain that as a pianist he would never match them, and his overriding ambition was to be a composer.[22] From this point he concentrated on composition. His works from the period include the songs "Un grand sommeil noir" and "D'Anne jouant de l'espinette" to words by Paul Verlaine and Clément Marot,[14][n 5] and the piano pieces Menuet antique and Habanera (for four-hands), the latter eventually incorporated into the Rapsodie espagnole.[27] At around this time, Joseph Ravel introduced his son to Erik Satie, who was earning a living as a café pianist. Ravel was one of the first musicians – Debussy was another – who recognised Satie's originality and talent.[28] Satie's constant experiments in musical form were an inspiration to Ravel, who counted them "of inestimable value".[29]
In 1897 Ravel was readmitted to the Conservatoire, studying composition with Fauré, and taking private lessons in counterpoint with André Gedalge.[19] Both these teachers, particularly Fauré, regarded him highly and were key influences on his development as a composer.[14] As Ravel's course progressed, Fauré reported "a distinct gain in maturity... engaging wealth of imagination".[30] Ravel's standing at the Conservatoire was nevertheless undermined by the hostility of the Director, Théodore Dubois, who deplored the young man's musically and politically progressive outlook.[31] Consequently, according to a fellow-student, Michel-Dimitri Calvocoressi, he was "a marked man, against whom all weapons were good".[32] He wrote some substantial works while studying with Fauré, including the overture Shéhérazade and a violin sonata, but he won no prizes, and therefore was expelled again in 1900. As a former student he was allowed to attend Fauré's classes as a non-participating "auditeur" until finally abandoning the Conservatoire in 1903.[33]
In 1899 Ravel composed his first piece to become widely known, though it made little impact initially: Pavane pour une infante défunte ("Pavane for a dead princess").[34] It was originally a solo piano work, commissioned by the Princesse de Polignac.[35][n 6] In 1897 he conducted the first performance of the Shéhérazade overture, which had a mixed reception, with boos mingling with applause from the audience, and unflattering reviews from the critics. One described the piece as "a jolting debut: a clumsy plagiarism of the Russian School" and called Ravel a "mediocrely gifted debutant... who will perhaps become something if not someone in about ten years, if he works hard."[36][n 7] Another critic, Pierre Lalo, thought that Ravel showed talent, but was too indebted to Debussy and should instead emulate Beethoven.[38] Over the succeeding decades Lalo became Ravel's most implacable critic.[38]
From the start of his career, Ravel appeared calmly indifferent to blame or praise. Those who knew him well believed that this was no pose but wholly genuine.[39] The only opinion of his music that he truly valued was his own, perfectionist and severely self-critical.[40] At twenty years of age he was, in the words of the biographer Burnett James, "self-possessed, a little aloof, intellectually biased, given to mild banter."[41] He dressed like a dandy and was meticulous about his appearance and demeanour.[42] Orenstein comments that, short in stature,[n 8] light in frame, and bony in features, Ravel had the "appearance of a well-dressed jockey", whose large head seemed suitably matched to his formidable intellect.[43] During the late 1890s and into the early years of the next century, Ravel was bearded in the fashion of the day; from his mid-thirties he was clean-shaven.[44]
Les Apaches and Debussy [ edit ]
Around 1900, Ravel and a number of innovative young artists, poets, critics, and musicians joined together in an informal group; they came to be known as Les Apaches ("The Hooligans"), a name coined by Viñes to represent their status as "artistic outcasts".[45] They met regularly until the beginning of the First World War, and members stimulated one another with intellectual argument and performances of their works. The membership of the group was fluid, and at various times included Igor Stravinsky and Manuel de Falla as well as their French friends.[n 9]
Among the enthusiasms of the Apaches was the music of Debussy. Ravel, twelve years his junior, had known Debussy slightly since the 1890s, and their friendship, though never close, continued for more than ten years.[47] In 1902 André Messager conducted the premiere of Debussy's opera Pelléas et Mélisande at the Opéra-Comique. It divided musical opinion. Dubois unavailingly forbade Conservatoire students to attend, and the conductor's friend and former teacher Camille Saint-Saëns was prominent among those who detested the piece.[48] The Apaches were loud in their support.[49] The first run of the opera consisted of fourteen performances: Ravel attended all of them.[50]
Debussy was widely held to be an impressionist composer – a label he intensely disliked. Many music lovers began to apply the same term to Ravel, and the works of the two composers were frequently taken as part of a single genre.[51] Ravel thought that Debussy was indeed an impressionist but that he himself was not.[52][n 10] Orenstein comments that Debussy was more spontaneous and casual in his composing while Ravel was more attentive to form and craftsmanship.[54] Ravel wrote that Debussy's "genius was obviously one of great individuality, creating its own laws, constantly in evolution, expressing itself freely, yet always faithful to French tradition. For Debussy, the musician and the man, I have had profound admiration, but by nature I am different from Debussy... I think I have always personally followed a direction opposed to that of [his] symbolism".[55] During the first years of the new century Ravel's new works included the piano piece Jeux d'eau[n 11] (1901), the String Quartet and the orchestral song cycle Shéhérazade (both 1903).[56] Commentators have noted some Debussian touches in some parts of these works. Nichols calls the quartet "at once homage to and exorcism of Debussy's influence".[57]
The two composers ceased to be on friendly terms in the middle of the first decade of the 1900s, for musical and possibly personal reasons. Their admirers began to form factions, with adherents of one composer denigrating the other. Disputes arose about the chronology of the composers' works and who influenced whom.[47] Prominent in the anti-Ravel camp was Lalo, who wrote, "Where M. Debussy is all sensitivity, M. Ravel is all insensitivity, borrowing without hesitation not only technique but the sensitivity of other people."[58] The public tension led to personal estrangement.[58] Ravel said, "It's probably better for us, after all, to be on frigid terms for illogical reasons."[59] Nichols suggests an additional reason for the rift. In 1904 Debussy left his wife and went to live with the singer Emma Bardac. Ravel, together with his close friend and confidante Misia Edwards and the opera star Lucienne Bréval, contributed to a modest regular income for the deserted Lilly Debussy, a fact that Nichols suggests may have rankled with her husband.[60]
Scandal and success [ edit ]
During the first years of the new century, Ravel made five attempts to win France's most prestigious prize for young composers, the Prix de Rome, past winners of which included Berlioz, Gounod, Bizet, Massenet and Debussy.[61] In 1900 Ravel was eliminated in the first round; in 1901 he won the second prize for the competition.[62] In 1902 and 1903 he won nothing: according to the musicologist Paul Landormy, the judges suspected Ravel of making fun of them by submitting cantatas so academic as to seem like parodies.[56][n 12] In 1905 Ravel, by now thirty, competed for the last time, inadvertently causing a furore. He was eliminated in the first round, which even critics unsympathetic to his music, including Lalo, denounced as unjustifiable.[64] The press's indignation grew when it emerged that the senior professor at the Conservatoire, Charles Lenepveu, was on the jury, and only his students were selected for the final round;[65] his insistence that this was pure coincidence was not well received.[66] L'affaire Ravel became a national scandal, leading to the early retirement of Dubois and his replacement by Fauré, appointed by the government to carry out a radical reorganisation of the Conservatoire.[67]
Among those taking a close interest in the controversy was Alfred Edwards, owner and editor of Le Matin, for which Lalo wrote. Edwards was married to Ravel's friend Misia;[n 13] the couple took Ravel on a seven-week Rhine cruise on their yacht in June and July 1905, the first time he had travelled abroad.[69]
By the latter part of the 1900s Ravel had established a pattern of writing works for piano and subsequently arranging them for full orchestra.[70] He was in general a slow and painstaking worker, and reworking his earlier piano compositions enabled him to increase the number of pieces published and performed.[71] There appears to have been no mercenary motive for this; Ravel was known for his indifference to financial matters.[72] The pieces that began as piano compositions and were then given orchestral dress were Pavane pour une infante défunte (orchestrated 1910), Une barque sur l'océan (1906, from the 1905 piano suite Miroirs), the Habanera section of Rapsodie espagnole (1907–08), Ma mère l'Oye (1908–10, orchestrated 1911), Valses nobles et sentimentales (1911, orchestrated 1912), Alborada del gracioso (from Miroirs, orchestrated 1918) and Le tombeau de Couperin (1914–17, orchestrated 1919).[14]
Ravel was not by inclination a teacher, but he gave lessons to a few young musicians he felt could benefit from them. Manuel Rosenthal was one, and records that Ravel was a very demanding teacher when he thought his pupil had talent. Like his own teacher, Fauré, he was concerned that his pupils should find their own individual voices and not be excessively influenced by established masters.[73] He warned Rosenthal that it was impossible to learn from studying Debussy's music: "Only Debussy could have written it and made it sound like only Debussy can sound."[74] When George Gershwin asked him for lessons in the 1920s, Ravel, after serious consideration, refused, on the grounds that they "would probably cause him to write bad Ravel and lose his great gift of melody and spontaneity".[75][n 14] The best known composer who studied with Ravel was probably Ralph Vaughan Williams, who was his pupil for three months in 1907–08. Vaughan Williams recalled that Ravel helped him escape from "the heavy contrapuntal Teutonic manner... Complexe mais pas compliqué was his motto."[77]
Vaughan Williams's recollections throw some light on Ravel's private life, about which the latter's reserved and secretive personality has led to much speculation. Vaughan Williams, Rosenthal and Marguerite Long have all recorded that Ravel frequented brothels.[78] Long attributed this to his self-consciousness about his diminutive stature, and consequent lack of confidence with women.[72] By other accounts, none of them first-hand, Ravel was in love with Misia Edwards,[68] or wanted to marry the violinist Hélène Jourdan-Morhange.[79] Rosenthal records and discounts contemporary speculation that Ravel, a lifelong bachelor, may have been homosexual.[80] Such speculation recurred in a 2000 life of Ravel by Benjamin Ivry;[81] subsequent studies have concluded that Ravel's sexuality and personal life remain a mystery.[82]
Ravel's first concert outside France was in 1909. As the guest of the Vaughan Williamses, he visited London, where he played for the Société des Concerts Français, gaining favourable reviews and enhancing his growing international reputation.[83][n 15]
1910 to First World War [ edit ]
The Société Nationale de Musique, founded in 1871 to promote the music of rising French composers, had been dominated since the mid-1880s by a conservative faction led by Vincent d'Indy.[85] Ravel, together with several other former pupils of Fauré, set up a new, modernist organisation, the Société Musicale Indépendente, with Fauré as its president.[n 16] The new society's inaugural concert took place on 20 April 1910; the seven items on the programme included premieres of Fauré's song cycle La chanson d'Ève, Debussy's piano suite D'un cahier d'esquisses, Zoltán Kodály's Six pièces pour piano, and the original piano duet version of Ravel's Ma mère l'Oye. The performers included Fauré, Florent Schmitt, Ernest Bloch, Pierre Monteux and, in the Debussy work, Ravel.[87] Kelly considers it a sign of Ravel's new influence that the society featured Satie's music in a concert in January 1911.[14]
The first of Ravel's two operas, the one-act comedy L'heure espagnole[n 17] was premiered in 1911. The work had been completed in 1907, but the manager of the Opéra-Comique, Albert Carré, repeatedly deferred its presentation. He was concerned that its plot – a bedroom farce – would be badly received by the ultra-respectable mothers and daughters who were an important part of the Opéra-Comique's audience.[88] The piece was only modestly successful at its first production, and it was not until the 1920s that it became popular.[89]
In 1912 Ravel had three ballets premiered. The first, to the orchestrated and expanded version of Ma mère l'Oye, opened at the Théâtre des Arts in January.[90] The reviews were excellent: the Mercure de France called the score "absolutely ravishing, a masterwork in miniature".[91] The music rapidly entered the concert repertoire; it was played at the Queen's Hall, London, within weeks of the Paris premiere, and was repeated at the Proms later in the same year. The Times praised "the enchantment of the work... the effect of mirage, by which something quite real seems to float on nothing."[92] New York audiences heard the work in the same year.[93] Ravel's second ballet of 1912 was Adélaïde ou le langage des fleurs, danced to the score of Valses nobles et sentimentales, which opened at the Châtelet in April. Daphnis et Chloé opened at the same theatre in June. This was his largest-scale orchestral work, and took him immense trouble and several years to complete.[94]
Daphnis et Chloé was commissioned in or about 1909 by the impresario Sergei Diaghilev for his company, the Ballets Russes.[n 18] Ravel began work with Diaghilev's choreographer, Michel Fokine, and designer, Léon Bakst.[96] Fokine had a reputation for his modern approach to dance, with individual numbers replaced by continuous music. This appealed to Ravel, and after discussing the action in great detail with Fokine, Ravel began composing the music.[97] There were frequent disagreements between the collaborators, and the premiere was under-rehearsed because of the late completion of the work.[98] It had an unenthusiastic reception and was quickly withdrawn, although it was revived successfully a year later in Monte Carlo and London.[99] The effort to complete the ballet took its toll on Ravel's health;[n 19] neurasthenia obliged him to rest for several months after the premiere.[101]
Ravel composed little during 1913. He collaborated with Stravinsky on a performing version of Mussorgsky's unfinished opera Khovanshchina, and his own works were the Trois poèmes de Mallarmé for soprano and chamber ensemble, and two short piano pieces, À la manière de Borodine and À la manière de Chabrier.[19] In 1913, together with Debussy, Ravel was among the musicians present at the dress rehearsal of The Rite of Spring.[102] Stravinsky later said that Ravel was the only person who immediately understood the music.[103] Ravel predicted that the premiere of the Rite would be seen as an event of historic importance equal to that of Pelléas et Mélisande.[104][n 20]
War [ edit ]
When Germany invaded France in 1914, Ravel tried to join the French Air Force. He considered his small stature and light weight ideal for an aviator, but was rejected because of his age and a minor heart complaint.[106] After several unsuccessful attempts to enlist, Ravel finally joined the Thirteenth Artillery Regiment as a lorry driver in March 1915, when he was forty.[107] Stravinsky expressed admiration for his friend's courage: "at his age and with his name he could have had an easier place, or done nothing".[108] Some of Ravel's duties put him in mortal danger, driving munitions at night under heavy German bombardment. At the same time his peace of mind was undermined by his mother's failing health. His own health also deteriorated; he suffered from insomnia and digestive problems, underwent a bowel operation following amoebic dysentery in September 1916, and had frostbite in his feet the following winter.[109]
During the war, the Ligue Nationale pour la Defense de la Musique Française was formed by Saint-Saëns, Dubois, d'Indy and others, campaigning for a ban on the performance of contemporary German music.[110] Ravel declined to join, telling the committee of the league in 1916, "It would be dangerous for French composers to ignore systematically the productions of their foreign colleagues, and thus form themselves into a sort of national coterie: our musical art, which is so rich at the present time, would soon degenerate, becoming isolated in banal formulas."[111] The league responded by banning Ravel's music from its concerts.[112]
Ravel's mother died in January 1917, and he fell into a "horrible despair", compounding the distress he felt at the suffering endured by the people of his country during the war.[113] He composed few works in the war years. The Piano Trio was almost complete when the conflict began, and the most substantial of his wartime works is Le tombeau de Couperin, composed between 1914 and 1917. The suite celebrates the tradition of François Couperin, the 18th-century French composer; each movement is dedicated to a friend of Ravel's who died in the war.[114]
1920s [ edit ]
After the war, those close to Ravel recognised that he had lost much of his physical and mental stamina. As the musicologist Stephen Zank puts it, "Ravel's emotional equilibrium, so hard won in the previous decade, had been seriously compromised".[115] His output, never large, became smaller.[115] Nonetheless, after the death of Debussy in 1918, he was generally seen, in France and abroad, as the leading French composer of the era.[116] Fauré wrote to him, "I am happier than you can imagine about the solid position which you occupy and which you have acquired so brilliantly and so rapidly. It is a source of joy and pride for your old professor."[116] Ravel was offered the Legion of Honour in 1920,[n 21] and although he declined the decoration, he was viewed by the new generation of composers typified by Satie's protégés |
begin="click" fill="freeze" path="M0,0c3.2-3.4,18.4-0.6,23.4-0.6c5.7,0.1,10.8,0.9,16.3,2.3 c13.5,3.5,26.1,9.6,38.5,16.2c12.3,6.5,21.3,16.8,31.9,25.4c10.8,8.7,21,18.3,31.7,26.9c9.3,7.4,20.9,11.5,31.4,16.7 c13.7,6.8,26.8,9.7,41.8,9c21.4-1,40.8-3.7,61.3-10.4c10.9-3.5,18.9-11.3,28.5-17.8c5.4-3.7,10.4-6.7,14.8-11.5 c1.9-2.1,3.7-5.5,6.5-6.5" />
There is one thing I want to focus on here: the coordinates in the path data. The path starts by moving (M) to the point with coordinates (0, 0), before it starts to draw a curve (c) to another point. It is important to note that the (0, 0) point is actually the position of the circle, no matter where it is - NOT the top left corner of the coordinate system. As we mentioned above, the coordinates in the path attribute are relative to the current position of the element!
The result of the above code is:
Open this live demo on CodePen.
If you were to specify the path starting from a point other than (0, 0), the circle would abruptly jump by the amount specified in the beginning point. For example, suppose you draw a path in Illustrator and then export that path data to use as a motion path (that's what I did the first time I did this); the exported path may look something like this:
<path fill="none" stroke="#000000" stroke-miterlimit="10" d="M100.4,102.2c3.2-3.4,18.4-0.6,23.4-0.6c5.7,0.1,10.8,0.9,16.3,2.3 c13.5,3.5,26.1,9.6,38.5,16.2c12.3,6.5,21.3,16.8,31.9,25.4c10.8,8.7,21,18.3,31.7,26.9c9.3,7.4,20.9,11.5,31.4,16.7 c13.7,6.8,26.8,9.7,41.8,9c21.4-1,40.8-3.7,61.3-10.4c10.9-3.5,18.9-11.3,28.5-17.8c5.4-3.7,10.4-6.7,14.8-11.5 c1.9-2.1,3.7-5.5,6.5-6.5"/>
The starting point of the path in this case is (100.4, 102.2). If we were to use this data as the motion path, the circle will jump by ~100 units to the right and ~102 units downwards, and then start the motion along the path relative to the new position. So, make sure to keep this in mind when you prepare the motion path for your animation.
If used, attributes from, by, to and values specify a shape on the current canvas which represents the motion path.
Specifying the motion path using the <mpath> element
There is also another way you can specify a motion path. Instead of using the relative path attribute, you can reference an external path using the <mpath> element. The <mpath>, a child of the <animateMotion> element, would then reference the external path using the xlink:href attribute.
<animateMotion xlink:href="#circle" dur="1s" begin="click" fill="freeze"> <mpath xlink:href="#motionPath" /> </animateMotion>
The motion path <path> can be defined anywhere in the document; it can even be literally just defined inside a <defs> element and not rendered on the canvas at all. In the next example, the path is rendered because, in most cases, you may want to show the path that the element is moving along.
Note that, according to the specification:
The various (x, y) points of the shape provide a supplemental transformation matrix onto the CTM for the referenced object which causes a translation along the x- and y-axes of the current user coordinate system by the (x,y) values of the shape computed over time. Thus, the referenced object is translated over time by the offset of the motion path relative to the origin of the current user coordinate system. The supplemental transformation is applied on top of any transformations due to the target element's transform property or any animations on that attribute due to animateTransform elements on the target element.
Again, the position of the circle is "multiplied" or "transformed" by the coordinates in the path data.
In the next example, we have a path in the middle of the canvas. The circle is positioned at the beginning of the path. Yet, when the motion path is applied, the circle does not start its motion from its current position. See the demo for a better explanation. Click on the circle to animate it.
Open this live demo on CodePen.
See how the circle does follow the same shape of the path, but over a different position? This is due to the fact that the circle's position is transformed by the values of the path data.
One way around this is to start with the circle being positioned at (0, 0), so that when the path data is used to transform it, it will start and proceed as expected.
Another way is to apply a transformation that "resets" the coordinates of the circle so that they compute to zero before the path is applied.
The following is a modified version of the above demo, using a closed path and repeating the motion animation indefinitely.
Open this live demo on CodePen.
Override Rules for <animateMotion>
Since there are more than one way to do the same thing for animateMotion, it only makes sense to have override rules to specify which values override others.
The override rules for animateMotion are as follows:
Regarding the definition of the motion path, the mpath element overrides the the path attribute, which overrides values, which overrides from, by and to.
element overrides the the attribute, which overrides, which overrides, and. Regarding determining the points which correspond to the keyTimes attributes, the keyPoints attribute overrides path, which overrides values, which overrides from, by and to.
Setting an element's orientation along a motion path with rotate
In our previous example, the element we were animating along the path happened to be a circle. But what if we're animating an element that has a certain orientation like, say for example, a car icon? The car icon in the following example is designed by Freepik.
In this example, I've replaced the circle with a group with an ID of "car", which contains the element making up the group. Then, in order to avoid the problem with the motion along the path mentioned above, I've applied a transformation to the car to that translates it by a specific amount, so that the initial position ends up at (0, 0). The values inside the transformations are actually the coordinates of the point where the first path of the car starts drawing (right after the move command M).
The car then starts moving along the motion path. But... this is how the motion looks like:
Open this live demo on CodePen.
The car's orientation is fixed, and does not change to match that of the motion path. In order to change that, we're going to use the rotate attribute.
The rotate attribute takes one of three values:
auto : Indicates that the object is rotated over time by the angle of the direction (i.e., directional tangent vector) of the motion path.
: Indicates that the object is rotated over time by the angle of the direction (i.e., directional tangent vector) of the motion path. auto-reverse : Indicates that the object is rotated over time by the angle of the direction (i.e., directional tangent vector) of the motion path plus 180 degrees.
: Indicates that the object is rotated over time by the angle of the direction (i.e., directional tangent vector) of the motion path plus 180 degrees. a number: Indicates that the target element has a constant rotation transformation applied to it, where the rotation angle is the specified number of degrees.
To fix the orientation of the car in the above example, we'll start with setting the rotation value to auto. We'll end up with the following result:
Open this live demo on CodePen.
If you want the car to move outside the path, the auto-reverse value fixes that.
Open this live demo on CodePen.
This looks better, but we still have one problem: the car looks like it's moving backwards along the path! In order to change that, we'd need to flip the car along its y-axis. This can be done by scaling it by a factor of "-1" along that axis. So, if we apply the transformation to the g with the car ID, the car will move forward as expected. The scaling transformation is just going to be chained with the previous translation we applied earlier.
<g id="car" transform="scale (-1, 1) translate(-234.4, -182.8)">
And the final demo looks like this:
Open this live demo on CodePen.
Controlling the animation distance along the motion path with keyPoints
The keyPoints attribute provides the ability to specify the progress along the motion path for each of the keyTimes specified values. If specified, keyPoints causes keyTimes to apply to the values in keyPoints rather than the points specified in the values attribute array or the points on the path attribute.
keyPoints takes a semicolon-separated list of floating point values between 0 and 1 and indicates how far along the motion path the object shall move at the moment in time specified by corresponding keyTimes value. Distance calculations are determined by the browser's algorithms. Each progress value in the list corresponds to a value in the keyTimes attribute list. If a list of keyPoints is specified, there must be exactly as many values in the keyPoints list as in the keyTimes list.
One important thing to note here is to set the calcMode value to linear for keyPoints to work. It also looks like it should logically work with paced animation, if your key points move back and forth, but it doesn't.
The following is an example by Amelia Bellamy-Royds (whose Codepen profile you should totally check out) that uses keyPoints to mimic the behavior is starting a motion along a path from a pre-defined offset, because we currently don't have that ability by default in SMIL.
See the Pen Motion along a closed path, arbitrary start point by Amelia Bellamy-Royds (@AmeliaBR) on CodePen.
Moving text along an arbitrary path
Moving text along an arbitrary path is different from moving other SVG elements along paths. To animate text, you're going to have to use the <animate> element, not the <animateMotion> element.
First, let's start by positioning the text along a path. This can be done by nesting a <textPath> element inside the <text> element. The text that is going to be positioned along a path will be defined inside the <textPath> element, not as a child of the <text> element.
The textPath is then going to reference the actual path that we want to use, just like we did in the previous examples. The referenced path can also be either rendered on the canvas, or defined inside a <defs>. Check the code in the following demo out.
Open this live demo on CodePen.
To animate the text along that path, we're going to use the <animate> element to animate the startOffset attribute.
The startOffset represents the offset of the text on the path. 0% is the beginning of the path; 100% represents the end of it. So if, for example, the offset is set to 50%, the text will start halfway through the path. I think you can see where we're going from here.
By animating the startOffset, we're going to create the effect of text moving along the path. Check the code in the following demo out.
Open this live demo on CodePen.
Animating transformations: The <animateTransform> Element
The <animateTransform> element animates a transformation attribute on a target element, thereby allowing animations to control translation, scaling, rotation and/or skewing. It takes the same attributes mentioned for the <animate> element, plus an additional attribute: type.
The type attribute is used to specify the type of the transformation that's being animated. It takes one of five values: translate, scale, rotate, skewX, and skewY.
The from, by and to attributes take a value expressed using the same syntax that is available for the given transformation type:
+ For a type="translate", each individual value is expressed as <tx> [,<ty>].
+ For a type="scale", each individual value is expressed as <sx> [,<sy>].
+ For a type="rotate", each individual value is expressed as <rotate-angle> [<cx> <cy>].
+ For a type="skewX" and type="skewY", each individual value is expressed as <skew-angle>.
If you're not familiar with the syntax for the SVG transform attribute functions, and for the sake of brevity of this article, and because the syntax details and how it works is outside the scope of this article, I recommend you read the article I've written about this a while back: Understanding SVG Coordinate Systems and Transformations (Part 2): The transform Attribute, before you move on with this guide.
Back to a previous demo, where we rotated the pink rectangle using the <animateTransform> element. The code for the rotation looks like the following:
<rect id="deepPink-rectangle" width="50" height="50" x="50" y="50" fill="deepPink" /> <animateTransform xlink:href="#deepPink-rectangle" attributeName="transform" attributeType="XML" type="rotate" from="0 75 75" to="360 75 75" dur="2s" begin="0s" repeatCount="indefinite" fill="freeze" />
The from and to attributes specify the angle of rotation (start and end) and the center of rotation. In both, the center of rotation remains the same, of course. If you don't specify the center, it will be the top left corner of the SVG canvas. The live demo for the above code is the following:
Open this live demo on CodePen.
Here's another fun example with a single animateTransform by Gabriel:
See the Pen Orbit by Gabriel (@guerreiro) on CodePen.
Animating a single transformation is simple, however, things can get really messy and complicated when multiple transformations are included, especially because one animateTransform can override another, so instead of adding and chaining effects, you may end up with the complete opposite. That, in addition to the way SVG coordinate systems and transformations actually work (refer to the article mentioned earlier on the topic). The examples are vast, and outside the scope of this article. For transforming SVGs, I recommend using CSS transforms. Implementations are working on making the latter work perfectly with SVG, so you may never have to use SMIL for animating transformations in SVG at all.
The <set> Element
The set element provides a simple means of setting the value of an attribute for a specified duration. It supports all attribute types, including those that cannot reasonably be interpolated, such as string and boolean values. The set element is non-additive. The additive and accumulate attributes are not allowed, and will be ignored if specified.
Since <set> is used to set an element to a specific value at and during a specific time, it does not accept all of the attributes mentioned for the previous animation elements. For example, it does not have a from or by attribute, because the value that changes does not change progressively over the period of time.
For set, you can specify the element you're targeting, the attribute name and type, the to value, and the animation timing can be controlled with: begin, dur, end, min, max, restart, repeatCount, repeatDur, and fill.
The following is an example that sets the color of the rotating rectangle to blue when it is clicked. The color remains blue for a duration of 3 seconds, and then turns back to the original color. Every time the rectangle is clicked, the set animation is fired, and the color is changed for three seconds.
Open this live demo on CodePen.
Elements, attributes and properties that can be animated
Not all SVG attributes can be animated, and not all of those that can be animated, can be animated using all the animation elements. For a complete list of all animatable attributes, and a table showing which of these can be animated by which elements, please refer to this section of the SVG Animation specification.
Final Words
SMIL has a lot of potential, and I barely scratched the surface and only touched on the basics and technicalities of how they work in SVG. A lot of very impressive effects can be created, especially ones involving morphing and transforming shapes. The sky's the limit. Go crazy! and don't forget to share what you make with the community; we'd love to see what you've been up to. Thank you for reading!
This article has been updated based on this discussion in the comments below. Thanks for your input, Amelia. =)The Continental Congress, an assembly of delegates from the 13 Colonies, served as America’s de facto government from 1774 to 1789, when it was replaced by the United States Congress.The First Continental Congress, consisting of approximately 50 delegates from 12 colonies (Georgia was absent), met for the first time in Philadelphia on Sept. 5, 1774, in response to Britain passing the Intolerable Acts. The delegates, under the leadership of Virginia’s Peyton Randolph, called for a boycott of British products and agreed to meet again in the spring.The Second Continental Congress, with representatives from every colony, met on May 10, 1775, less than three weeks after the battles of Lexington and Concord signaled the start of the Revolutionary War.
The delegates engaged in serious debate on whether to pursue the war for independence or to seek reconciliation. On June 14, it formed the Continental Army under the command of Virginia delegate George Washington. It also printed money and negotiated with foreign countries for financial or military support.
As fighting continued, hope of reconciliation waned and support for declaring independence grew. On May 10, 1776, the Congress issued a resolution ordering Colonies to form their own governments. John Adams added a preamble to this resolution that was “[d]esigned to encourage the suppression of royal government in the colonies,” explains the Massachusetts Historical Society.
After declaring independence in July 1776, the Second Continental Congress continued to meet during the war, organizing the war effort and establishing diplomatic relations with other countries. The Second Continental Congress was replaced in 1781 by the Congress of the Confederation, following the ratification of the Articles of Confederation.McCain says if you care about the economy, don’t vote for him
September 17, 2008 by twitterpaters
by twit
via the Washington Post blog The Trail by way of Ken Layne, back in January 2008, McCain made it clear that if voters are concerned about the economy, he can understand why they won’t vote for him:
When asked how he would respond to the fact that voters are now increasingly focused on the nation’s economy, McCain said he had no interest in changing his own policy priorities. “Even if the economy is the, quote, number one issue, the real issue will remain America’s security,” he said. “If it’s not the most important issue in the minds of many voters, America’s security will remain the number one issue with me. And if they choose to say, ‘Look, I do not need this guy because he’s not as good on home loan mortgages,’ or whatever it is, I understand that. I will accept that verdict. I am running because of the transcendent challenge of the twenty-first century, which is radical Islamic extremism, as you know.”
From the Associated Press on September 16, 2008, McCain makes it clear that he will say anything he believes that voters want to hear, even if he is directly contradicting himself:
McCain declared Monday that “the fundamentals of our economy are strong,” a phrase he has used before. After Democrats pounced, he backtracked and declared the economy to be in a crisis and said “fundamentals are threatened.”
From the Washington Post on September 16, 2008, McCain’s campaign admits that they have NO PLAN AT ALL for responding to the current economic crisis, and they don’t see a need for developing one:
McCain offered his own TV ad promising to “reform Wall Street” and pass “new rules for fairness and honesty,” adding: “I won’t tolerate a system that puts you and your family at risk. Your savings, your jobs... I’ll keep them safe,” the ad says. He did not describe how he would bring greater transparency to the process. His senior policy adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, told reporters earlier in the day that there was no need for McCain to be specific right now. “There’s no magic solutions, and I don’t think it’s imperative at this moment to write down what the plan should be,” he said. “The real issue here is a leadership issue.”
It is true, it is a leadership issue. And John McCain is offering no leadership at all.
via TPM, this video rounds up clips from John McCain’s recent appearances on various news shows:
In the interest of fairness, it seems important to note that Barack Obama has a detailed plan to address the economy that includes the following:
First, if you can borrow from the government, you should be subject to government oversight and supervision. Secretary Paulson admitted this in his remarks yesterday. The Federal Reserve should have basic supervisory authority over any institution to which it may make credit available as a lender of last resort. When the Fed steps in, it is providing lenders an insurance policy underwritten by the American taxpayer. In return, taxpayers have every right to expect that these institutions are not taking excessive risks. The nature of regulation should depend on the degree and extent of the Fed’s exposure. But at the very least, these new regulations should include liquidity and capital requirements. Second, there needs to be general reform of the requirements to which all regulated financial institutions are subjected. Capital requirements should be strengthened, particularly for complex financial instruments like some of the mortgage securities that led to our current crisis. We must develop and rigorously manage liquidity risk. We must investigate rating agencies and potential conflicts of interest with the people they are rating. And transparency requirements must demand full disclosure by financial institutions to shareholders and counterparties. As we reform our regulatory system at home, we must work with international arrangements like the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, the International Accounting Standards Board, and the Financial Stability Forum to address the same problems abroad. The goal must be ensuring that financial institutions around the world are subject to similar rules of the road – both to make the system stable, and to keep our financial institutions competitive. Third, we need to streamline a framework of overlapping and competing regulatory agencies. Reshuffling bureaucracies should not be an end in itself. But the large, complex institutions that dominate the financial landscape do not fit into categories created decades ago. Different institutions compete in multiple markets – our regulatory system should not pretend otherwise. A streamlined system will provide better oversight, and be less costly for regulated institutions. Fourth, we need to regulate institutions for what they do, not what they are. Over the last few years, commercial banks and thrift institutions were subject to guidelines on subprime mortgages that did not apply to mortgage brokers and companies. It makes no sense for the Fed to tighten mortgage guidelines for banks when two-thirds of subprime mortgages don’t originate from banks. This regulatory framework has failed to protect homeowners, and it is now clear that it made no sense for our financial system. When it comes to protecting the American people, it should make no difference what kind of institution they are dealing with. Fifth, we must remain vigilant and crack down on trading activity that crosses the line to market manipulation. Reports have circulated in recent days that some traders may have intentionally spread rumors that Bear Stearns was in financial distress while making market bets against the company. The SEC should investigate and punish this kind of market manipulation, and report its conclusions to Congress. Sixth, we need a process that identifies systemic risks to the financial system. Too often, we deal with threats to the financial system that weren’t anticipated by regulators. That’s why we should create a financial market oversight commission, which would meet regularly and provide advice to the President, Congress, and regulators on the state of our financial markets and the risks that face them. These expert views could help anticipate risks before they erupt into a crisis.
This outline of his plan is from a speech Obama gave on March 27, 2008.
AdvertisementsI tried making this Chilli Bread at home from scratch last week end and it turned out to be a much loved evening snack by all of us. I had seen this being served in the bakery that I frequent and it sells like hot cakes off the shelves. When I purchased during my last visit to find out how it tasted, I loved it very much and the kids too. They were asking me to buy it daily. But I was sure that it could be made at home itself from scratch and set about doing just that last Sunday. It was finger licking good and I’m so glad that I was able to match up to the bakery’s taste.
I made this Christmas day too when we had some friends for lunch. Even they too loved it and mentioned that it was quite difficult to believe that it was made in home. This recipe is definitely a keeper and I feel so happy that another of my experiments turned out just great without any hiccups.
Chilli Bread / Bread Masala from Homemade Bread
For the bread chunks
All purpose Flour - 1+1/2 cups
Active Dry yeast – 2 tsp
Sugar – 2 tbsp
Butter – 1/4 cup
Salt – to taste
Warm milk – to knead
Oil – for deep frying
For the Masala
Onion – 2
Tomato – 3
Capsicum – 1
Tomato Sauce – 1/2 cup
Chilli sauce – 2 tbsp
Soy sauce – 2 tsp
Red Chili Powder – 1 tsp
Aji-no-moto – 1/2 tsp
Sugar – 1 tsp
Salt – to taste
Oil – 2 tbsp
Spring onion (greens) – for garnish
For the Bread:
In a mixing bowl place all purpose flour, salt, sugar and yeast together. Add butter (softened to room temperature) and crumble with your finger tips and rub into the flour till it resemble bread crumbs. Add warm milk little by little and knead into a dough.
Place the dough in a greased bowl and close it with a damp cloth. Let it rest for 2 hours. Punch the dough to let the air out. Grease a plate (a “thambaalam” will be perfect) and keep it ready. Pinch bite sized flour (chunks) with your fingers and place it on the plate. (Refer the picture below). Cover the plate with a cloth and let it rest for 1/2 hour again.
Heat oil in a kadai and when it is hot enough drop the risen chunks into the oil till the kadai will hold and deep fry to a golden brown color. Drain on an absorbent paper and keep it aside.
For the Masala:
Chop the onion and tomatoes finely. Cube the capsicum. Heat a kadai with oil. Add the onion and sauté till it turns translucent. Now add the capsicum and sauté for another min.
Add the tomatoes, red chili powder, tomato sauce and cook for 2 min. Add chili sauce, soy sauce, aji-no-moto, sugar and salt. Mix well. Add 1 cup of water and bring to a boil.
Now add the deep fried bread chunks to the masala, mix well and cook for 5 min till they all come together and the sauce thickens well. Garnish with finely chopped greens of the spring onion and serve piping hot.
Notes:
No need to proof yeast. Use it directly.
If you do not happen to have milk, add 2 tbsp of milk powder / evaporated milk while mixing the flour and use warm water to knead instead.
You can also an egg to the flour while mixing but I did not add.
Check the salt for the masala as the sauces will have considerable salt in them.
Adjust the spice level according to your taste.
You can use either red chili or green chili sauce.Dell has launched an experimental project called Sputnik to produce a Linux laptop that is tailored to meet the needs of software developers. The first stage of the project is a six-month exploratory effort that will pair Dell’s XPS13 Ultrabook with Ubuntu 12.04.
Dell’s Barton George, who described the concept this week in a blog post, hinted at the potential for a more ambitious follow-up effort if the initial experiment succeeds. Dell’s previous Linux efforts have had mixed results. The company first began to offer Ubuntu on desktop and laptop computers in 2007 after open source advocates used Dell’s IdeaStorm website to campaign for Linux preinstallation options.
The availability of Ubuntu-enabled hardware models from Dell has been spotty over the years. The dell.com/ubuntu landing page on Dell’s website often indicates that no products are available with Linux preinstalled, which was the case for most of the past year. At present, Dell is only offering two low-end Vostro models with Ubuntu to consumers in the US. Dell’s Ubuntu machines have reportedly fared better in China, where Dell has made an effort to give the Linux platform a retail presence.
Dell has also previously dabbled with Ubuntu developer machines. When it offered a Mini 10v with an incomplete build of the Ubuntu Moblin Remix in 2009, the company characterized it as an offering for developers and early adopters. And so it was: the touchpad didn’t work properly and the software was missing key features.
Through all of this, our position has been that Linux users would be better served if Dell would focus on improving Linux hardware compatibility across its line instead of trying to offer individual systems with Linux preinstalled. There are a lot of major areas where hardware support needs to be improved, especially on laptops, where power management and dual-mode graphics hardware are still not supported as well as they should be.
The preinstallation offerings in the past have been little more than a gimmick, especially given the small number of Dell systems for which it has historically been offered. The average Linux enthusiast is probably looking for a higher-end rig than the kind of ultra-budget systems that Dell has typically offered with Ubuntu. History has also shown that trying to sell Ubuntu on low-end systems to cost-conscious people who have never heard of Linux is not a winning formula.
More work to be done
Dell is clearly learning from its past mistakes and seems to have considered a lot of those issues in its Sputnik project. Using a desirable hardware configuration and focusing on developers as the audience is the right way to make an Ubuntu system that somebody might actually want to purchase.
Another area where Dell seems to be moving in the right direction with Sputnik is a focus on hardware enablement, which George talks about at length in his blog post. It’s not clear, however, whether Dell has fully learned what hardware enablement means with respect to the Linux desktop.
Hardware enablement that’s done solely to get a Linux system image that can be preinstalled on a specific hardware configuration is not particularly useful. It’s not enough to just make it work so that it can be shipped. If a computer requires a custom Linux build with binary drivers and a nonstandard configuration that can only be put together by the hardware manufacturer (which is exactly what Dell did with its Poulsbo-powered Mini 9 and some other previous systems) then it’s a failure before it even ships.
The drivers need to be open and upstream-friendly so that they can be maintained properly on an ongoing basis by people who actually know what they are doing. If the hardware isn’t fully compatible with a plain vanilla build of Ubuntu that has been downloaded from the Ubuntu website, then the user has no guarantee that the product will still be able to run up-to-date software for the full duration of its lifespan.
That’s the real problem that Dell needs to solve. Linux users want computers with known-good hardware configurations that they can continue to support themselves without having to rely on binary blobs from Dell that may or may not continue to work in the future. A major player like Dell has the resources and clout to start addressing that problem in a serious and meaningful way.
At the very least, the company needs to be careful to pick components that are supported well upstream. What would be ideal is if Dell started encouraging its hardware suppliers to open their drivers and merge them into the mainline kernel tree. That would be infinitely more constructive for advancing desktop Linux than any preinstallation scheme.
Of course, the two aren’t mutually exclusive. If Dell wants to use its ultrabook configuration as a starting point for working on better upstream drivers, then that’s great. What ultimately matters is for Dell to understand that the upstream work is the more important part of the equation.
It’s also critically important to understand that open drivers aren’t merely an idealogical preference. The ability to maintain driver code upstream is fundamental to the Linux development model and the only way to ensure sustainable long-term hardware support in the Linux ecosystem.
Dell’s interest in serving a Linux developer audience is commendable, and the Sputnik project seems to have a lot of great potential. But if Dell wants to make its Linux effort a success, the company has to start by understanding the upstream ecosystem and focusing on doing hardware enablement in a sustainable way.Belly Dancing For The Dead: A Day With China's Top Mourner
Hide caption Hu Xinglian is a professional mourner in the southwestern city of Chongqing, China. Known professionally as Dingding Mao, she is paid for her talents at singing the funeral dirge, a tradition that began in the Han dynasty 2,000 years ago. As she sings during a recent funeral, another member of her troupe joins her for a duet. Previous Next Courtesy of Wu Peng
Hide caption Dozens of friends and family of the deceased, Zhang Tujin, gather to feast on a big pre-funeral meal and celebrate his life. The meal takes place outside, in the shadow of a modern apartment block, and with skyscrapers going up in the distance. This funeral is a mix of ancient Chinese practices and modern entertainment. Previous Next Angie Quan/NPR
Hide caption An actor chants and burns paper offerings to the dead. His costume is similar to those worn by the monk in the Chinese epic "Journey to the West." Previous Next Angie Quan/NPR
Hide caption A young belly dancer, who is part of Dingding Mao's troupe of seven, performs in front of the coffin toward the end of the funeral. Previous Next Louisa Lim/NPR 1 of 4 i View slideshow
File under "one of the oddest jobs ever": professional mourner. China's funeral rituals date back 2,000 years to the Han dynasty, but were banned during the Cultural Revolution as superstition. Now these funeral rituals have become an income source to a select few who stage funeral extravaganzas, marrying ancient Chinese traditions with modern entertainment.
We need a proper mourner because young people don't know how to cry anymore.
"Our entry into the world is splendidly dramatic, so our exit from this world also needs to be spectacular," says Hu Xinglian, who is known professionally as Dingding, or Dragonfly, Mao — a reference to the two high ponytails that bounce above her ears.
One of the top professional mourners in the southwestern city of Chongqing, Mao is famous for her kusang, which literally means crying and shouting. She became a mourner more than a decade ago after she lost her job as a department store clerk in downsizing and was casting around for new employment.
Now her fame is such that she has been ferried in a Mercedes-Benz 600 miles to Changzhi in Shanxi province to take part in funeral rites.
"A big part is saying the last goodbye to the dead person. We need to show our feelings for others to see, and to display the filial piety of the offspring," she says. "Some people can't cry. So I use my heart to sing this song to represent the loss of the younger generation."
An Ancient Ritual Amid Skyscrapers
On arrival at a funeral in Chongqing, she applies her make-up in a car; she's traveling with her troupe of six other actors and musicians.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Louisa Lim/NPR Louisa Lim/NPR
Outside, a man dressed in red and yellow robes is chanting and burning paper money to the accompaniment of traditional instruments. He looks like a monk, albeit one in a rather showy costume, though it turns out he, too, is an actor, though not from Mao's troupe.
A huge community meal is underway, as is tradition, cooked in a tent erected outside a housing complex, dwarfed by modern, six-story apartment blocks. Down the road, skyscrapers are going up. The funeral is transplanting old traditions into the middle of a modern Chinese community.
As the mourners take their places at the 10 tables, loaded down with dishes of chili-laden food, a small child defecates on the ground just feet away.
"We need a proper mourner because young people don't know how to cry anymore," explains Xu Xinwei, niece of the deceased man, Zhang Tujin. He was 67 years old and died of heart failure. A hardscrabble farmer, Zhang was hauling sacks of potatoes right up until the day before his death.
Now, his family sits at one table, wearing white — the color of mourning in China — sackcloth on their heads.
"We paid for a whole package for the |
the story. Those two processes kind of inform each other and bounce back and forth until you have a bunch of creative decisions that you feel might work. And that’s when you start re-cobbling that together into a motion sequence. You're cutting it together as flat shaded grey playblast stuff in one world with lots of motion, and then simultaneously doing design frames to figure out the aesthetic and the look and feel.
Is motion capture something you’d like to do more of?
Patrick: I think whenever it’s appropriate. It’s definitely time intensive and expensive to do that, but it’s nowhere near as expensive as it would be to animate it all and it just gives you really exciting material to work with. I thought it was a real thrill. I’ve only done it a couple of times before.
I’ve had human figures in my title sequences in the past, but they’re moving in such slow motion that you don’t need to go get real motion capture. We did a piece for Ubisoft years ago that was like a firefight and we did a motion capture session. This was when I was still based in Sydney and we had a bunch of Australian special forces guys running around this motion capture stage that was actually shared with a little girl’s dance studio. So you can just imagine these three tough special forces guys in head-to-toe blue jumpsuits, holding brooms they were pretending were M-60s, firing from behind a rubbish bin with a Dirty Dancing poster and inspirational quotes on the wall behind them. It was quite surreal.
We had a bunch of Australian special forces guys running around this motion capture stage that was actually shared with a little girl’s dance studio. — Patrick Clair
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Phantoms (2014) trailer, directed by Patrick Clair
Patrick: Then you look at it a month later after we’ve done everything else and here’s a Ghost Recon future soldier firing off volleys of high-powered machine gun fire inside a combat space station. That’s a very strange evolution, but there’s something quite thrilling about it. It’s deliciously weird.
Was there a specific part of this project or maybe a shot or moment in the sequence itself that you’re particularly fond of?
Sam: I particularly love the orbiting camera shot at about 16 seconds. Danny does one final combination of kicks in the middle of a foggy Himalayan landscape before moving to the next phase of his training.
Andrew: When the energy trails build up and Iron fist raises raises his arms up, I like that moment.
Sam: Seeing the development of Danny's energy trails by Phiphat Pinyonsophon and the FX team was really exciting and inspiring. The simulations just came out looking so cool.
Patrick: For me it was watching the combos that they did [during the mo-cap session]. The way that they flow the momentum of a fly kick into the follow-up punch. As someone who doesn’t have a lot of sporting prowess I find it really amazing to see how people swing that momentum. It was also really interesting for me witnessing the connection between things like kung fu and ballet. In some ways they’re totally different arts, but in some ways they’re really similar. So that’s really cool getting that sense of choreography and dance out of the way this flows, but then you also get this punch of violence. That was always the balancing act on this one. You want to get some of that gracefulness, but you also want to get that raw impact and power.
What software did you use to put all this together? Why were those the most appropriate tools for this job?
Sam: We used After Effects for the compositing and 2D animation. For a design heavy sequence like this, the vast library of third party plugins available for After Effects provides a lot of control over the look and environments.
Andrew: For the CG we used Maya, 3ds Max for the FX trails, We did our modelling in ZBrush, some Mari and Photoshop for texturing and rendered in VRay.
Elastic is putting out a huge volume of title design work for television these days. As title designers are you at all concerned that viewers are eventually going to burn out on these big, high gloss title sequences?
Patrick: I just want to keep trying to make interesting work. We’ll just keep creating whatever sequences showrunners let us make. I certainly don’t want us to get stuck on a style, but at the same time people are always guided by their own biases, so I guess we end up with something of a style. But we’re just really interested in doing something as new as possible every time and doing something that suits the world of the shows. That’s what is important to me: to play a role in the storytelling. So we’ll keep doing it until the phones stop ringing, but certainly we don’t want to keep treading on the same ground. I’m always excited when we get to do something new.
You’ve also reached the point where your title sequences are being parodied. The VICELAND series Nirvanna the Band the Show recently did a spoof of Elastic’s Daredevil opening. Have you had a chance to see that yet?
Patrick: I did! They do a different title sequence every time and the Daredevil one was just awesome. I loved it. There was also the Key & Peele True Detective parody.
Key & Peele (2014) season three True Detective parody, designed by yU+co
Patrick: It’s so cool when people parody your work. It’s only happened to me a few times, but I live for it. That one and Daredevil are gems.
View the credits for this sequenceThe end of the year the time to reflect on the important things in life, like where we had the best bacon in Washington. Or the best stack of pancakes. These are crucial things to know.
Yesterday, we gave you the Best & Worst Brunches on the Year, both in D.C. and New York. Today, we bring you the best bites and sips of the year–everything from mimosas to mussels. So keep this in your pocket for the next time you have a craving.
Best Mimosa
A party brunch requires not just bottomless mimosas, but perfectly crafted bottomless mimosas. At STK, the mimosas are pretty much the only thing we remember, poured from magnums of Moet and mixed with just the right amount of blood orange.
Best Bloody Mary
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The new Second State has an amazing bar program, and brunch is not an exception. The creme de le creme is the selection of Marys. The top of the list? The Kale Mary, a gorgeous green concoction made with vodka, kale, celery, ginger and lime juice.
Best Coffee
The coffees are the main event on the brunch menu at Slipstream: There are three in-house blends and a half-dozen single origin brews. You can also pick your style: espresso, with milk, or drip coffee. Plus there are yummy hot drinks like an almond cashew cappuccino or a “thoughtful” mocha.
Best Benedict
Commissary has a big Bennys menu, but we loved the short ribs Benedict, which is quite possibly the most interesting Benedict we’ve had in Washington. It arrived piled high on two pieces of cornbread toast. The short rib meat was thick and juicy, and smothered with BBQ Hollandaise.
Best French Toast
Michel Richard’s Central serves up a creme brulee French toast, which is so amazing it should be a dessert. The round piece of French toast is bruleed and set in a bed of sweet sauce. Break through the classic crusted top and you get gooey French toast instead of creme. So unique and tasty. Coming in a close second is Medium Rare.
Best Omelet
Maybe we’re biased, but we love a good Argentine steakhouse. The omelet at Rural Society sounded boring but was anything but—covered in Serrano ham and topped with fried potato sticks. It was definitely the most excited we’ve ever been by an omelet.
Best Chicken and Waffles
Bar Charley’s chicken and waffles dish was beautifully prepared and presented. The chicken was juicy, moist, and slightly sweet—maple syrup had clearly been used in the breading and frying. The waffles were hot and crisp, served with enormous dollops of hot, melting butter and drizzled with warm maple syrup. It tasted just as amazing as it looked.
Best Pancake
The cast iron pancakes at Del Campo with maple and butter ice cream were a real hit. Served in an enormous skillet, the three pancakes, layered atop one another, were more like a pancake souffle than actual pancakes. They were moist, flavorful, and awesome—a memorable rendition on pancakes.
Best Bacon
Granted, we went to brunch at The Heights when the restaurant was hosting an epic pig roast. But even beyond that special event, the restaurant knows its bacon. Bacon marys. Bacon dishes. Bacon bacon bacon.
Best Waffles
Kapnos has a unique Greek brunch menu, and the Greek coffee waffle simply delighted us. This dish is a coffee lovers dream: a chocolate, espresso waffle topped with cinnamon butter, house-made whipped cream, and chocolate shavings.
Best Bread
Fiola Mare’s bread basket is priced at a jaw-dropping eighteen dollars—but my goodness is it worth it. The entire thing is baked in-house that morning. It’s delightful: croissants, sweet brioche, pane carasau, green olive panino, filoncino, and more, served with delicate tiny fresh fruit jams, chocolate hazelnut sauce, local honey, and farm butter alongside.
Best Breakfast Juice
Malmaison has claimed the healthiest way to get over a hangover: one of its amazing juices served up during brunch. Not only are they packed with nutrients and amazingly tasty, the options are adorable, with the likes of the Beetle Juice, made with apples, beets, carrots, and ginger; and The Incredible Hulk, with spinach and pineapple.
Best Brunch Cocktail
The boozy milkshakes are available at Satellite Room during dinner, too, but we think they’re the perfect extravagant brunch cocktail. The Vincent Vega with Bourbon, vanilla ice cream, and whipped cream is just as good as the milkshake at your favorite childhood diner, but loaded with liquor. They are deceivingly strong. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.
Best Brunch Sandwich
The Ritz-Carlton Georgetown serves up yoga then brunch, including a chicken sausage and Belgian waffle sandwich that melted our hearts. Served with cheddar cheese and an egg over-hard, we can not think of a better, more American way to make a breakfast sandwich.
Best Cheese & Charcuterie Board
Brunch at Lupo Verde can simply suffice with the restaurant’s amazing cocktails and appetizers, like the phenom cheese and charcuterie board. It’s one of the most interesting and beautiful we’ve seen, with a great selection of cheese from around the world, plus charcuterie like the amazing prosciutto. It’s presented with lots of accoutrements such as jams and fruits, and nicely marked so you know what you’re eating.
Best Doughnut
GBD Chicken and Doughnuts puts our favorite sweet in its name. When the good ones are available (they’re quick to go and served hot and fresh), they are really, really good. You can pop in for a post-brunch dessert, or order a plateful of doughnuts with your brunch.
Best French Fries
There’s nothing better than the French fries at Medium Rare. Steak fites, si vous plait.
Best Mussels
We absolutely loved the mussels at Béarnaise, served in the traditional style, arriving at the table in a large covered pot with a side of frites. The ones we tried were prepared in a rich, creamy Dijon whole grain mustard sauce, loaded with bacon and crispy onion straws, and topped with a poached egg. We’ve eaten moules frites across town, and these knocked our socks off: well-presented, well-prepared, well-flavored, and memorable.
Best Brunch Pizza
It’s a tie between Alphonse and Paolo’s Ristorante. Both classic Italian diners, both make a killer wood-fired brunch pizza. Paolo’s pizza for one, was so perfect. Hot and crispy, but soft inside. On top, there was quattro formaggi, spinach, pancetta bacon, a tomato basil relish, and, of course, a sunnyside up egg.
Best Steak and Eggs
Iron Gate’s rendition of the classic steak and eggs is perfection: two olive oil fried eggs with crispy fingerling potatoes, salsa verde, and oak grilled Roseda farms flank steak. The steak is seared perfectly, oozing with flavor at every cut.
Best Brunch Hash
The gyro hash at Cava Mezze reminded us of ‘everything but the kitchen sink’ classic hashes, but with a tasty twist. The combination of gyro with well-seasoned vegetables, eggs, and Cava’s famous tzatziki was hearty and satisfying.
Best Huevos Rancheros
We loved the open-faced huevos rancheros at Carving Room. It looked a bit messy when it arrived, but it was quite delightful. Shredded beef, eggs and green onions were set on two crispy tortillas and covered in a spicy brown sauce. It was filling and flavorful.
Best Dessert
We all know that flowers and bubbly must of course come with their third sibling—chocolate. At Beuchert’s Saloon we loved the Candy Bar, a homemade frozen confection bar filled with caramel, chocolate, and crunch. It was like a gourmet frozen Snicker’s.M3Forth Internals
M3Forth is a 32-bit subroutine-threaded Forth. Its design reflects some interesting constraints, which I'll discuss below, before going into detail on how it works.
Relevant Bits of the Cortex-M3
The Cortex-M3 is a real pleasure to work with, but it has some idiosyncrasies that make it a challenging Forth target.
For example, a typical M3 part has single-cycle RAM latency even at 100MHz, but no branch prediction. This makes clever stack caching difficult, since dynamic stack caching essentially trades loads for branches. In most cases, on the M3, a load or store is cheaper than a branch by a factor of 2-ish. (Static stack caching may still be a win.)
The M3 is a 32-bit machine, and implementations typically have a fixed 4GiB address space, with Flash and RAM placed somewhere within it -- typically separated by at least 1GiB. But the maximum range of a branch instruction in the Thumb-2 instruction set is just ± 16 MiB. In other words, code placed at RAM cannot directly call code placed in Flash, and vice versa. C compilers work around this by calling indirect through a register, but for call-heavy Forth code this would make functions quite large.
Early threading techniques: indirect and direct
I began work on M3Forth by building three different strawman systems: an indirect-threaded kernel (ITC), a direct-threaded kernel (DTC), and a subroutine-threaded kernel (STC). (I also played around with token-threading but rejected it pretty quickly as a poor fit for the M3.)
I expected ITC to win out:
DTC and STC both use the machine's branch instructions.
Forth likes to generate code in RAM sometimes.
A branch instruction in RAM can't reach Flash, so it wasn't clear how a colon-def (for example) would reach the implementation of its code field.
I was immediately surprised to discover that ITC was not substantially slower than traditional DTC, where each word started with a branch to some machine code. ITC requires an additional indirection compared to DTC, but this is relatively cheap on the M3 -- it was the branches that really hurt. On some benchmarks, ITC was actually faster than the simplest version of DTC! Since naïve DTC code couldn't reach Flash from RAM anyway, this seemed like a pretty strong argument in favor of ITC.
However, from my work on PropellerForth, I knew it was important to get the threading model right early on. (PropellerForth is still stuck in ITC because it would be a real pain to rework everything.) So I altered the DTC approach: instead of a branch to the code field routine, I inlined it. Thumb-2 code is nice and small, but this still cost 4 bytes on every word -- but this flavor of DTC was faster than ITC by a good margin. This version of DTC also makes implementing DOES> much easier. This is the threading model M3Forth currently (2010-09-07) uses on the 'default' branch, but it's not the fastest.
As I mentioned above, STC looked like it wouldn't work: code in RAM simply can't reach code in Flash with a call. But a sketch of a Flash-only STC Forth kernel suggested that it would be 20-30% faster than DTC! I have a hard time leaving that kind of performance on the table. Fortunately, I found a solution, described below.
Rewiring the Cortex-M3's memory map: the Farcall Reflector
The M3 uses a fixed memory map, without an MMU -- so the chip designer's decisions are more or less set in stone. On all the M3s I've surveyed, the layout is similar:
Flash sits at the very bottom of RAM. (Most M3s let you remap the bottom section into RAM to move the vector table, which seems kind of odd, since the M3 lets you set the vector table address...but I digress.)
The primary SRAM sits somewhere between 512MiB and 1GiB into the address space.
Between Flash and SRAM is a large unmapped hole. Touching this hole generates a Bus Fault.
Now, a Bus Fault isn't fatal -- programs can set an exception handler to handle it. I set about trying to abuse this mechanism. Here's the approach:
The Forth kernel pretends that the top few kilobytes of unmapped space alias Flash. That is, calling a Flash address A is equivalent to calling SRAM_BASE - FLASH_SIZE + A. I call this section of address space the reflector.
Of course, this is a fiction: jumping into this space causes a fault. But the Bus Fault handler rewrites the jump destination to point into Flash and resumes.
This is slower than a true call. Microbenchmarks put it at 25-30 cycles, whereas a call into Flash without prefetch costs about 7, and an indirect call of the same sort appears to cost 10-12. But code in RAM can now call Flash using a single four-byte branch-with-link instruction, instead of an eight-byte sequence that loads the address into a register and jumps indirect. Because Forth code consists mostly of calls, this cuts code size by nearly 50%.
This makes STC practical on the M3, but it doesn't make it fast. While benchmarks that run entirely in RAM or entirely in Flash run about 25% faster than DTC, code that repeatedly calls from RAM to Flash is slower.
By tweaking the reflector implementation, I got a bonus I wasn't expecting. ARM calls and jumps are relative. Instead of using a fixed reflector window, M3Forth now uses a dynamic window that adjusts to the actual amount of code stored in Flash. RAM code can thus pretend that it's in Flash, right above the actual Flash code. It becomes position-independent. This makes it nearly trivial to "save" code from RAM to Flash, since it eliminates most relocations! The reflector window base is held in a register that was otherwise unused (currently r11), making the Bus Fault handler slightly faster.
Removing farcalls by inlining
A casual analysis of Forth binaries suggested that most high-level code makes heavy use of a few primitives (which live in Flash):
The branch words, which implement all control structures and loops.
The stack manipulation words, like DUP and SWAP.
Memory access words, like @ and!.
The easiest way to make such code faster is to copy the primitives into RAM, but this is wasteful. Instead, I'm working on making the compiler smarter about inlining. This is working in the offline Flash compiler, bootstrap.py, and reduces code size substantially by replacing eight-byte traditional Forth branches (like 0BRANCH) with two-byte Thumb-2 instructions. So far it has literaly saved kilobytes.
The online compiler (which generates code in RAM) performs minimal inlining at the moment, but this should remove the last main speed difference between inlined-DTC and STC. Of course, code that runs out of Flash -- such as finished applications -- already performs on par with hand-coded assembly.Canadian radio generally isn't a big thing in other parts of the world, but here in Toronto, former CBC radio host Jian Ghomeshi is kind of a big deal. He's well known and well liked, for his views, for his interviews, and for his personality. This week, a decision came down from CBC cutting ties with Ghomeshi after he had tweeted that he was going to take some personal time off. The decision appeared to come out of nowhere, and I for one was a bit shocked. As many people on Twitter put it, Ghomeshi was a media darling, and he is probably CBC's most popular radio host. Why were they canning him suddenly?

Ghomeshi answered the question himself later Sunday afternoon -- he claims they were firing him because a woman Ghomeshi had been dating and having a "rough, yet consensual, BDSM sex relationship with" had come forward after he dumped her with, according to Ghomeshi, a smear campaign set to get him fired. According to Ghomeshi, the woman accused him of sexually abusing her. CBC, Ghomeshi said, fired him for this. Here's his statement:
While we've heard from Ghomeshi, we have not yet heard, at the time of this writing, from the "jilted ex" that he said has ruined his career. I'm not going to sit here and speculate on why CBC fired him or why, at the time of this writing, Ghomeshi is suing CBC and not the woman he says ruined his career. That's for the courts to decide, and while Ghomeshi is rumoured to have been accused of sexual harassment before, albeit under a pseudonym, he's not on trial, yet. He is innocent until proven guilty -- and so is the woman he is accusing.
What I want to talk about is the reactions that I've been seeing to his statement. A lot of people have been giving Ghomeshi the benefit of the doubt while full-on accusing the woman of ruining his career. Without knowing anything but what Ghomeshi has told us, people on Twitter and Facebook have been gleefully maligning her without taking into account that maybe there's more to the story here.
As well, maybe we're all overlooking the fact that Ghomeshi isn't the first to accuse someone of ruining his life over a sexual abuse accusation. He's also not the first to totally malign a woman in order to explain something bad happening to him.
Women everywhere are sexually assaulted by men in power. Many don't bother to speak up because of reactions and consequences like this: Ghomeshi is a man in power and he is also well liked and well known. Chances are, he will be almost universally believed, while she will be accused of lying to get something from him. And while there is an extremely small percentage of women who do accuse men of sexual abuse in order to get something from them, the majority of women don't. The majority of women speak up because they want justice. And right now, we don't know what the real story is -- but as someone who never spoke up when a man in power put me through hell, for a variety of reasons, I believe her until further notice.
I believe her because so many women are sexually abused and it's reasons like this why we stay silent. Because this is rape culture, and rape culture never, ever supports the woman. Because he can ruin our lives far worse than we can ruin his. Because we'll always be known as the woman who accused so-and-so of sexual abuse, especially if the courts rule on his side. Because we live with the scars, physical and mental, of our ordeal. And while I am not accusing Ghomeshi of sexually abusing this woman, I am pointing out that due to the fact that we have not heard her side of the story, she doesn't have a voice in this yet. She is simply represented by Ghomeshi -- and he wants everyone to know that she is the villain in this piece.
The story will come out. If Ghomeshi was unfairly fired for his personal life, I hope he receives justice. But the fact that he's using this woman to build a case against CBC doesn't sit well with me. I look forward to seeing the truth come out as the days go by. I'm saddened this has happened in my city, with a media outlet that I enjoy and respect, and with a media personality that I was always willing to give the benefit of the doubt to.
Willing to give the benefit of the doubt, that is, until he threw a woman under the bus to set the ball rolling on his lawsuit. Not cool, Jian. Not cool.
Edit: It has been brought to my attention that the Toronto Star just released an article detailing more allegations against Ghomeshi. Three women allege that he has sexually abused them. That, on top of the articles and statements linked here, make five women that we know of accusing Ghomeshi of sexual abuse.
This post originally appeared on Elizabeth's blog with the title "Jian Ghomeshi Is Fired Because He Said a Woman Lied About HIm: An Example of Rape Culture?"
ALSO ON HUFFPOST:
Photo gallery Best of "Q" See Gallery I'll Believe Jian's Accuser Before I Believe a Man in Power 1 / 64
Best of "Q" 1 / 64Yazidis women light candles and paraffin torches outside Lalish temple in Iraq to celebrate the Yazidi New Year on April 18, 2017
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Erbil (Iraq) (AFP)
Around half of the Yazidis kidnapped by the Islamic State group three years ago are still missing, Iraqi Kurdish officials said Sunday.
In 2014, IS jihadists killed thousands of Yazidis in Sinjar and kidnapped thousands of women and girls from the religious minority to abuse them as sex slaves.
Kurdish fighters backed by the US-led coalition against IS captured Sinjar from the jihadists in November 2015 before Iraqi security forces took control of the region in October.
A top official with the ministry of religious affairs of the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq said that some 6,417 Yazidis were abducted by the jihadists from August 3, 2014.
Up until December 1, 2017, only 3,207 of them have been rescued or managed to flee their captors, said Khairi Bozani.
The remaining 3,210 Yazidis -- including 1,507 women or girls -- were still either held by the jihadists or considered missing, he told AFP.
The ministry has been following up on the case and its figures show that 2,525 Yazidi children are now orphans while the parents of 220 others were still unaccounted for.
According to Bozani 47 mass graves containing the remains of Yazidis have been found since 2014.
The UN has called the massacres of Yazidis a genocide, arguing that IS had planned them and then intentionally separated men from women to prevent Yazidi children from being born.
The Yazidis are Kurdish-speaking but follow their own non-Muslim faith that earned them the hatred of the Sunni Muslim extremists of IS.
Yazidis believe in one God who created the world and entrusted it to seven Holy Beings, the most important of which is Melek Taus, or the Peacock Angel.
Around 550,000 Yazidis lived in Iraq before the massacres but since then 100,000 have left the country while 360,000 have been displaced and live in Iraqi Kurdistan or across the border in Syria.
© 2017 AFPThe viewer may be resized or closed after launch. Bookmarkable links to any particular view or selection of layers are provided by the Permanent Link option in the viewer's table of contents.
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Richard J.A. Talbert, Rome's World: The Peutinger Map Reconsidered (Cambridge University Press, 2010).
For more information about this map, please consult the brief User's Guide (PDF). Additional resources, and information about the print components of the entire work, may be had from the Rome's World: The Peutinger Map Reconsidered web page, hosted by Cambridge University Press.
This map viewer is hosted as a courtesy to the author by the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University. All questions, comments and inquiries should be directed to the Ancient World Mapping Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.Making Moves: Reformation Brewery Announces Second Location
ATLANTA (October 12, 2017) – Reformation Brewery announces a second facility in Downtown Woodstock. Located at 105 Elm Street in the heart of downtown, the brewery hopes to open this location in Spring 2018.
Housing a second brew system dedicated to small batch experimental brews, the new space will serve as a research and development facility as well as a gathering place for community. “For some time, we’ve wanted more freedom to develop new beers and deliver an experience in the very heart of our city,” says Spencer Nix, CEO and co-founder of Reformation Brewery. “We’re excited for our guests and local community to enjoy a fresh, new space with ample room to create moments that matter.”
New laws in effect as of September 1st this year play a part in the brewery’s expansion. “With Senate Bill 85 signed into law this year, we’ve been able to expand our offerings and Keeping Room hours, which has created the need for more space and more staff.” In addition to bringing new jobs to the area, Nix says, “A chance to breathe life into an ignored piece of downtown speaks to the very heart of Reformation. We are excited to invest in our hometown to revitalize a piece of property that has been empty for years. Woodstock needs a backyard hangout space for everyone to enjoy,” Nix says.
Celebrating its fourth anniversary this month, Reformation Brewery has experienced rising popularity and growth and says 2018 will be a year for deeper investment in innovation. “You can expect us to always be reforming beer experiences, including new products, new events, this new location.”
Reformation plans to continue production of its core products and expand new offerings. The brewery envisions a maker space where customers can see, smell, and hear how its craft beeris made. For more information regarding Reformation Brewery, please visit www.reformationbrewery.com.
Via Press Release
Check out this link for comments from Reformation CEO Spencer Nix as well as a bit more information on the new location.• Investigation claims 2009 attempt to fix Willem II Tilburg v Utrecht game • ‘Dutch football is one of the last in Europe to lose its innocence’
Attempts to fix the result of a Netherlands league match seven years ago have been uncovered by a Dutch football association (KNVB) investigation.
It is the first time such a case has been established in the country, the KNVB added in a statement. It said the investigation had uncovered an attempt by Ibrahim Kargbo, then a player at Willem II Tilburg, to fix the outcome of a league match against FC Utrecht in August 2009 in co-operation with Wilson Raj Perumal, a Singaporean who has been convicted of fraud on numerous occasions.
“Dutch football is one of the last in Europe to lose its innocence in this matter,” said the KNVB operational director, Gijs de Jong. “We have long warned this could happen in the Dutch league but it is still difficult to swallow now that this has been established. Hopefully it will add urgency in the Netherlands to the fight against this plague.“
The KNVB said Kargbo had promised that the then captain Michael Aerts and a third unidentified player would work together with him to throw the match against Utrecht in return for €25,000 each.
PSG suspend Serge Aurier for comments on Laurent Blanc and team-mates Read more
But although Utrecht won 1-0, Perumal, who has already been prosecuted and jailed in other countries for match-fixing, refused to pay saying the agreement had been for a win by more than a single goal.
“Nevertheless, it has been established that they agreed on the outcome of the match. There is not enough legal evidence to determine whether Aerts was involved and it is unclear who the third person was,” added the KNVB statement.
It also said a benefit match between Willem II and the Sierra Leone national team in November 2009 was specifically organised with the objective of manipulating the result on behalf of an Asian betting syndicate.
Results of Sierra Leone national team in other competitions might also have been fixed by Kargbo, who was captain of the team, according to the statement.
Allegations made by a Dutch newspaper last year that other Willem II matches had been manipulated were not proven, the statement added, with KNVB saying it would send the report to Fifa and Uefa and the Dutch police.
The 33-year-old Kargbo, who last played at English non-league club Thamesmead Town, will not be allowed to participate in any capacity in Dutch football in the future, said the statement.
Kargbo has already been suspended in Sierra Leone for alleged match-fixing. Perumal, 50, has featured in cases involving more than 100 manipulated matches around the world and been jailed in Finland and Hungary.Everyone has problems but not all know how to deal with them. John McAfee steps up and gives people a shot at finding solutions by creating The Brown List.
What’s The Brown List? It’s essentially a company that helps ordinary people fight their problems. How? The Brown List compiles complaints made by people for any injustice they may have suffered. This can come in any form, like repression from the government or an unfair move by a large corporation. People go on to The Brown List to share their grievance and they can post videos and other evidence as well to support their complaint.
Once a complaint has been logged, whatever government agency or company involved will be given up to 24 hours to properly respond. After that, the complaint is made public, allowing visitors to The Brown List to not just read about the complaints but to also recommend suggestions that the original poster can pursue. People can also vote on which suggestions are the best given the problem, giving the original poster feedback they can use to decide on which course of action to take.
John McAfee announced The Brown List in a surprise appearance in Las Vegas at the Defcon, the largest gathering of computer hackers in the world. While the site sounds like it’s just a magnet for rants, McAfee looks at it differently. “This taps into anger in a positive way. Instead of getting angry and shooting at somebody on the highway, or yelling at your wife, you can log onto the site. Instead of just lashing out, give us your positive solutions,” he explains.
A private investor helped start up The Brown List with $450,000 but McAfee is looking for more support to grow the company. He says he plans to create capital by offering subscription services to various businesses, giving them a way to get a pulse on what concerns the public, but gave no further details as to how the company will be pulling this off.
Can’t McAfee support the company himself? He claims he left all his money in Belize. The anti-virus software pioneer fled the Central American nation in 2012 to avoid being questioned by the police for an investigation into the murder of one of his neighbors.
McAfee founded the company McAfee in 1987, paving the way for the anti-virus software industry to bloom. The company was acquired in 2010 by Intel Corp.Protesters returned to Gibson's Bakery in Oberlin for a second day in a row to speak out against what they believe was a racially motivated arrest on Wednesday evening.
Officers say Allyn Gibson was attacked after confronting a black male, later identified as Jonathan Aladin, after allegedly witnessing Aladin place two bottles of wine under his shirt while attempting to buy one bottle.
The struggle then moved across the street where two females became involved.
Thee scuffle continued until police arrived and could diffuse the situation.
After evaluating the scene, reporting officers had probable cause to arrest Endia Lawrence, Cecelia Whettstone, and Jonathan Aladin.
Aladin was charged with robbery. while Lawrence and Whettstone were charged with assault.
The protesters believe that Gibson racially profiled Aladin and are unhappy that Gibson was not arrested in the scuffle as well.
One protester told The Chronicle-Telegram that the event was part of a history of “racial profiling and discrimination" at Gibson's.
Another said, "“There is a need for justice to be served to hold Gibson’s accountable for these patterns of injustices and unlawful behavior that have been allowed to continue and go unchecked,” said another organizer, who also declined to be named. “We will not allow for this to continue any longer.”
The Chronicle-Telegram's Bruce Bishop posted this video of the Friday afternoon protests on their Facebook page:On Wednesday, NDP leader Thomas Mulcair threw his support behind the right, which the Federal Court recently upheld, to take the oath of Canadian citizenship while wearing a niqab. “For years I’ve seen that Muslims are often scapegoats in political debates,” he told reporters on Parliament Hill. “And I find that upsetting.”
“The government’s appealing [the ruling], but as far as we’re concerned, the Federal Court got it right,” he said.
[np_storybar title=”Niqab ban during oath of citizenship escalating into a full-fledged pre-election issue” link=”http://news.nationalpost.com/2015/02/20/niqab-ban-during-oath-of-citizenship-escalating-into-a-full-fledged-pre-election-issue/”%5DA year ago, Zunera Ishaq described in a court affidavit how wearing a niqab had become an “essential part” of her identity — so much so that when she suddenly went into labour at home, her “primary concern” was covering her face when the paramedics arrived.
Now, the Mississauga, Ont., mother’s legal fight against a government ban |
,876 7.3% 1920 2,930,390 8.5% 1930 3,238,503 10.5% 1940 3,427,796 5.8% 1950 3,934,224 14.8% 1960 4,662,498 18.5% 1970 5,193,669 11.4% 1980 5,490,224 5.7% 1990 5,544,159 1.0% 2000 6,080,485 9.7% 2010 6,483,802 6.6% Est. 2018 6,691,878 3.2% Source: 1910–2010[78]
2018 estimate[79]
The United States Census Bureau estimates that the population of Indiana was 6,691,878 on July 1, 2018, a 3.21% increase since the 2010 United States Census.[79]
The state's population density was 181.0 persons per square mile, the 16th highest in the United States.[73] As of the 2010 U.S. Census, Indiana's population center is located northwest of Sheridan, in Hamilton County (+40.149246, -086.259514).[73][80][81]
In 2005, 77.7% of Indiana residents lived in metropolitan counties, 16.5% lived in micropolitan counties and 5.9% lived in non-core counties.[82]
Ancestry [ edit ]
The racial makeup of the state (based on the 2011 population estimate) was:
Hispanic or Latino of any race made up 6.2% of the population.[83] The Hispanic population is Indiana's fastest-growing ethnic minority.[84] 28.2% of Indiana's children under the age of 1 belonged to minority groups (note: children born to white hispanics are counted as minority group).[85]
German is the largest ancestry reported in Indiana, with 22.7% of the population reporting that ancestry in the Census. Persons citing American (12.0%) and English ancestry (8.9%) are also numerous, as are Irish (10.8%) and Polish (3.0%).[89] Most of those citing American ancestry are actually of English descent, but have family that has been in North America for so long, in many cases since the early colonial era, that they identify simply as American.[90][91][92][93] In the 1980 census 1,776,144 people claimed German ancestry, 1,356,135 claimed English ancestry and 1,017,944 claimed Irish ancestry out of a total population of 4,241,975 making the state 42% German, 32% English and 24% Irish.[94]
Population growth [ edit ]
Indiana population density map.
Population growth since 1990 has been concentrated in the counties surrounding Indianapolis, with four of the top five fastest-growing counties in that area: Hamilton, Hendricks, Johnson, and Hancock. The other county is Dearborn County, which is near Cincinnati, Ohio. Hamilton County has also been the fastest-growing county in the area consisting of Indiana and its bordering states of Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Kentucky, and is the 20th fastest-growing county in the country.[95]
With a population of 829,817, Indianapolis is the largest city in Indiana and 12th largest in the United States, according to the 2010 Census. Three other cities in Indiana have a population greater than 100,000: Fort Wayne (253,617), Evansville (117,429) and South Bend (101,168).[96] Since 2000, Fishers has seen the largest population rise amongst the state's 20 largest cities with an increase of 100 percent.[97]
Hammond and Gary have seen the largest population declines regarding the top 20 largest cities since 2000, with a decrease of 6.8 and 21.0 percent respectively.[97] Other cities that have seen extensive growth since 2000 are Noblesville (39.4 percent), Greenwood (81 percent), Carmel (21.4 percent) and Lawrence (9.3 percent). Meanwhile, Evansville (−4.2 percent), Anderson (−4 percent) and Muncie (−3.9 percent) are cities that have seen the steepest decline in population in the state.[98]
Indianapolis has largest population of the state's metropolitan areas and 33rd largest in the country.[99] The Indianapolis metropolitan area encompasses Marion County and nine surrounding counties in central Indiana.
Note: Births in table don't add up, because Hispanics are counted both by their ethnicity and by their race, giving a higher overall number.
Since 2016, data for births of White Hispanic origin are not collected, but included in one Hispanic group; persons of Hispanic origin may be of any race.
Based on population estimates for 2011, 6.6% of the state's population is under the age of five, 24.5% is under the age of 18, and 13.2% is 65 years of age or older.[83] From the 2010 U.S. Census demographic data for Indiana, the median age is 37.0 years.[105]
Median income [ edit ]
As of the 2010 U.S. Census, Indiana's median household income was $44,616, ranking it 36th among the United States and the District of Columbia.[107] In 2005, the median household income for Indiana residents was $43,993. Nearly 498,700 Indiana households had incomes from $50,000 to $74,999, accounting for 20% of all households.[108]
Hamilton County's median household income is nearly $35,000 higher than the Indiana average. At $78,932, it ranks seventh in the country among counties with less than 250,000 people. The next highest median incomes in Indiana are also found in the Indianapolis suburbs; Hendricks County has a median of $57,538, followed by Johnson County at $56,251.[108]
Religion [ edit ]
Although the largest single religious denomination in the state is Catholic (747,706 members), most of the population are members of various Protestant denominations. The largest Protestant denomination by number of adherents in 2010 was the United Methodist Church with 355,043.[111] A study by the Graduate Center at the City University of New York found that 20 percent are Roman Catholic, 14 percent belong to different Baptist churches, 10 percent are other Christians, nine percent are Methodist, and six percent are Lutheran. The study found that 16% of Indiana is affiliated with no religion.[112]
Indiana is home to the Benedictine St. Meinrad Archabbey, one of two Catholic archabbeys in the United States and one of 11 in the world. The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod has one of its two seminaries in Fort Wayne. Two conservative denominations, the Free Methodist Church and the Wesleyan Church, have their headquarters in Indianapolis as does the Christian Church.[113][114]
The Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches maintains offices and publishing work in Winona Lake.[115] Huntington serves as the home to the Church of the United Brethren in Christ.[116] Anderson is home to the headquarters of the Church of God.[117] The headquarters of the Missionary Church is located in Fort Wayne.[118]
The Friends United Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, the largest branch of American Quakerism, is based in Richmond,[119] which also houses the oldest Quaker seminary in the United States, the Earlham School of Religion.[120] The Islamic Society of North America is headquartered in Plainfield.[121]
Language [ edit ]
Spanish is the second-most-spoken language in Indiana, after English.[122]
Law and government [ edit ]
Indiana has a constitutional democratic republican form of government with three branches: the executive, including an elected governor and lieutenant governor; the legislative, consisting of an elected bicameral General Assembly; and the judicial, the Supreme Court of Indiana, the Indiana Court of Appeals and circuit courts.
The Governor of Indiana serves as the chief executive of the state and has the authority to manage the government as established in the Constitution of Indiana. The governor and the lieutenant governor are jointly elected to four-year terms, with gubernatorial elections running concurrent with United States presidential elections (1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, etc.).[123] The governor may not serve more than two consecutive terms.[123] The governor works with the Indiana General Assembly and the Supreme Court of Indiana to govern the state and has the authority to adjust the other branches. Special sessions of the General Assembly can be called upon by the governor as well as have the power to select and remove leaders of nearly all state departments, boards and commissions. Other notable powers include calling out the Indiana Guard Reserve or the Indiana National Guard in times of emergency or disaster, issuing pardons or commuting the sentence of any criminal offenders except in cases of treason or impeachment and possessing an abundant amount of statutory authority.[123][124][125] The lieutenant governor serves as the President of the Senate and is responsible for ensuring that the senate rules are acted in accordance with by its constituents. The lieutenant governor can only vote to break ties. If the governor dies in office, becomes permanently incapacitated, resigns or is impeached, the lieutenant governor becomes governor. If both the governor and lieutenant governor positions are unoccupied, the Senate President pro tempore becomes governor.[126]
The Indiana General Assembly is composed of a 50-member Senate and 100-member House of Representatives. The Senate is the upper house of the General Assembly and the House of Representatives is the lower house.[123] The General Assembly has exclusive legislative authority within the state government. Both the Senate and House of Representatives can introduce legislation, with the exception that the Senate is not authorized to initiate legislation that will affect revenue. Bills are debated and passed separately in each house, but must be passed by both houses before they can be submitted to the Governor.[127] The legislature can nullify a veto from the governor with a majority vote of full membership in the Senate and House of Representatives.[123] Each law passed by the General Assembly must be used without exception to the entire state. The General Assembly has no authority to create legislation that targets only a particular community.[127][128] The General Assembly can manage the state's judiciary system by arranging the size of the courts and the bounds of their districts. It also can oversee the activities of the executive branch of the state government, has restricted power to regulate the county governments within the state, and has exclusive power to initiate the method to alter the Indiana Constitution.[127][129]
The Indiana Supreme Court is made up of five judges with a Court of Appeals composed of 15 judges. The governor selects judges for the supreme and appeal courts from a group of applicants chosen by a special commission. After serving for two years, the judges must acquire the support of the electorate to serve for a 10-year term.[123] In nearly all cases, the Supreme Court does not have original jurisdiction and can only hear cases that are petitioned to the court following being heard in lower courts. Local circuit courts are where the majority of cases begin with a trial and the consequence decided by the jury. The Supreme Court does have original and sole jurisdiction in certain specific areas including the practice of law, discipline or disbarment of Judges appointed to the lower state courts, and supervision over the exercise of jurisdiction by the other lower courts of the State.[130][131]
The state is divided into 92 counties, which are led by a board of county commissioners. 90 counties in Indiana have their own circuit court with a judge elected for a six-year term. The remaining two counties, Dearborn and Ohio, are combined into one circuit. Many counties operate superior courts in addition to the circuit court. In densely populated counties where the caseload is traditionally greater, separate courts have been established to solely hear either juvenile, criminal, probate or small claims cases. The establishment, frequency and jurisdiction of these additional courts varies greatly from county to county. There are 85 city and town courts in Indiana municipalities, created by local ordinance, typically handling minor offenses and not considered courts of record. County officials that are elected to four-year terms include an auditor, recorder, treasurer, sheriff, coroner and clerk of the circuit court. All incorporated cities in Indiana have a mayor and council form of municipal government. Towns are governed by a town council and townships are governed by a township trustee and advisory board.[123][132]
U.S. News & World Report ranked Indiana first in the publication's inaugural 2017 Best States for Government listing. Among individual categories, Indiana ranked above average in budget transparency (#1), government digitization (#6), and fiscal stability (#8), and ranked average in state integrity (#25).[133]
Politics [ edit ]
Treemap of the popular vote by county, 2016 presidential election.
From 1880 to 1924, a resident of Indiana was included in all but one presidential election. Indiana Representative William Hayden English was nominated for Vice President and ran with Winfield Scott Hancock in the 1880 election.[134] In 1884 former Indiana Governor Thomas A. Hendricks was elected Vice President of the United States. He served until his death on November 25, 1885, under President Grover Cleveland.[135] In 1888 former Senator from Indiana Benjamin Harrison was elected President of the United States and served one term. He remains the only U.S. President from Indiana. Indiana Senator Charles W. Fairbanks was elected Vice President in 1904, serving under President Theodore Roosevelt until 1909.[136] Fairbanks made another run for Vice President with Charles Evans Hughes in 1916, but they both lost to Woodrow Wilson and former Indiana Governor Thomas R. Marshall, who served as Vice President from 1913 until 1921.[137] Not until 1988 did another presidential election involve a native of Indiana, when Senator Dan Quayle was elected Vice President and served one term with George H. W. Bush.[48] Governor Mike Pence was elected Vice President in 2016, to serve with Donald Trump.
Indiana has long been considered to be a Republican stronghold,[138][139] particularly in Presidential races. The Cook Partisan Voting Index (CPVI) now rates Indiana as R+9. Indiana was one of only ten states to support Republican Wendell Willkie in 1940.[48] On 14 occasions has the Republican candidate defeated the Democrat by a double-digit margin in the state, including six times where a Republican won the state by more than 20%.[140] In 2000 and 2004 George W. Bush won the state by a wide margin while the election was much closer overall. The state has only supported a Democrat for president five times since 1900. In 1912, Woodrow Wilson became the first Democrat to win the state with 43% of the vote. Twenty years later, Franklin D. Roosevelt won the state with 55% of the vote over incumbent Republican Herbert Hoover. Roosevelt won the state again in 1936. In 1964, 56% of voters supported Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson over Republican Barry Goldwater. Forty-four years later, Democrat Barack Obama narrowly won the state against John McCain 50% to 49%.[141] In the following election, Republican Mitt Romney won back the state for the Republican party with 54% of the vote over the incumbent President Obama who won 43%.[142]
Presidential elections results Year Republican Democratic 2016 56.82% 1,557,286 37.91% 1,033,126 2012 54.13% 1,420,543 43.93% 1,152,887 2008 48.91% 1,345,648 49.95% 1,374,039 2004 59.94% 1,479,438 39.26% 969,011 2000 56.65% 1,245,836 41.01% 901,980 1996 47.1% 1,006,693 41.6% 887,424 1992 42.9% 989,375 36.8% 848,420 1988 59.8% 1,297,763 39.7% 860,643 1984 61.7% 1,377,230 37.7% 841,481 1980 56.0% 1,255,656 37.7% 844,197
While only five Democratic presidential nominees have carried Indiana since 1900, 11 Democrats were elected governor during that time. Before Mitch Daniels became governor in 2005, Democrats had held the office for 16 consecutive years. Indiana elects two senators and nine representatives to Congress. The state has 11 electoral votes in presidential elections.[140] Seven of the districts favor the Republican Party according to the CPVI rankings; there are currently seven Republicans serving as representatives and two Democrats. Historically, Republicans have been strongest in the eastern and central portions of the state, while Democrats have been strongest in the northwestern part of the state. Occasionally, certain counties in the southern part of the state will vote Democratic. Marion County, Indiana's most populous county, supported the Republican candidates from 1968 to 2000, before backing the Democrats in the 2004, 2008, 2012, and 2016 elections. Indiana's second most populous county, Lake County, strongly supports the Democratic party and has not voted for a Republican since 1972.[140] In 2005, the Bay Area Center for Voting Research rated the most liberal and conservative cities in the United States on voting statistics in the 2004 presidential election, based on 237 cities with populations of more than 100,000. Five Indiana cities were mentioned in the study. On the liberal side, Gary was ranked second and South Bend came in at 83. Among conservative cities, Fort Wayne was 44th, Evansville was 60th and Indianapolis was 82nd on the list.[143]
Military installations [ edit ]
Indiana is home to several current and former military installations. The largest of these is the Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division, located approximately 25 miles southwest of Bloomington, which is the third largest naval installation in the world, comprising approximately 108 square miles of territory.
Other active installations include Air National Guard fighter units at Fort Wayne, and Terre Haute airports (to be consolidated at Fort Wayne under the 2005 BRAC proposal, with the Terre Haute facility remaining open as a non-flying installation). The Army National Guard conducts operations at Camp Atterbury in Edinburgh, Indiana, helicopter operations out of Shelbyville Airport and urban training at Muscatatuck Urban Training Center. The Army's Newport Chemical Depot, which is now closed and turning into a coal purifier plant.
Indiana was formerly home to two major military installations; Grissom Air Force Base near Peru (realigned to an Air Force Reserve installation in 1994) and Fort Benjamin Harrison near Indianapolis, now closed, though the Department of Defense continues to operate a large finance center there (Defense Finance and Accounting Service).
Culture [ edit ]
Arts [ edit ]
Sports [ edit ]
Motorsports [ edit ]
Indiana has an extensive history with auto racing. Indianapolis hosts the Indianapolis 500 mile race over Memorial Day weekend at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway every May. The name of the race is usually shortened to "Indy 500" and also goes by the nickname "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing." The race attracts over 250,000 people every year making it the largest single day sporting event in the world. The track also hosts the Brickyard 400 (NASCAR) and the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix. From 2000 to 2007, it hosted the United States Grand Prix (Formula One). Indiana features the world's largest and most prestigious drag race, the NHRA Mac Tools U.S. Nationals, held each Labor Day weekend at Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis in Clermont, Indiana. Indiana is also host to a major unlimited hydroplane racing power boat race circuits in the major H1 Unlimited league, the Madison Regatta (Madison, Indiana).
Professional sports [ edit ]
As of 2013 Indiana has produced more National Basketball Association (NBA) players per capita than any other state. Muncie has produced the most per capita of any American city, with two other Indiana cities in the top ten.[144] It has a rich basketball heritage that reaches back to the formative years of the sport itself. The Indiana Pacers of the NBA play their home games at Bankers Life Fieldhouse; they began play in 1967 in the American Basketball Association (ABA) and joined the NBA when the leagues merged in 1976. Although James Naismith developed basketball in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1891, Indiana is where high school basketball was born. In 1925, Naismith visited an Indiana basketball state finals game along with 15,000 screaming fans and later wrote "Basketball really had its origin in Indiana, which remains the center of the sport." The 1986 film Hoosiers is inspired by the story of the 1954 Indiana state champions Milan High School. Professional basketball player Larry Bird was born in West Baden Springs and was raised in French Lick. He went on to lead the Boston Celtics to the NBA championship in 1981, 1984, and 1986.[145]
Indianapolis is home to the Indianapolis Colts. The Colts are members of the South Division of the American Football Conference. The Colts have roots back to 1913 as the Dayton Triangles. They became an official team after moving to Baltimore, MD, in 1953. In 1984, the Colts relocated to Indianapolis, leading to an eventual rivalry with the Baltimore Ravens. After calling the RCA Dome home for 25 years, the Colts currently play their home games at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. While in Baltimore, the Colts won the 1970 Super Bowl. In Indianapolis, the Colts won Super Bowl XLI, bringing the franchise total to two. In recent years the Colts have regularly competed in the NFL playoffs.
Professional teams [ edit ]
The following table shows the professional sports teams in Indiana. Teams in italic are in major professional leagues.
The following is a table of sports venues in Indiana that have a capacity in excess of 30,000:
College athletics [ edit ]
Indiana has had great sports success at the collegiate level.
In men's basketball, the Indiana Hoosiers have won five NCAA national championships and 22 Big Ten Conference championships. The Purdue Boilermakers were selected as the national champions in 1932 before the creation of the tournament, and have won 23 Big Ten championships. The Boilermakers along with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish have both won a national championship in women's basketball.
In college football, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish have won 11 consensus national championships, as well as the Rose Bowl Game, Cotton Bowl Classic, Orange Bowl and Sugar Bowl. Meanwhile, the Purdue Boilermakers have won 10 Big Ten championships and have won the Rose Bowl and Peach Bowl.
Schools fielding NCAA Division I athletic programs include:
Economy and infrastructure [ edit ]
[146] Indiana is the fifth largest corn-producing state in the U.S., with over 1 billion bushels harvested in 2013.
In 2017, Indiana had a civilian labor force of nearly 3.4 million, the 15th largest in the U.S. Indiana has an unemployment rate of 3.4 percent, lower than the national average.[147] The total gross state product in 2016 was $347.2 billion.[148] A high percentage of Indiana's income is from manufacturing.[149] According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly 17 percent of the state's non-farm workforce is employed in manufacturing, the highest of any state in the U.S.[150] The state's five leading exports were motor vehicles and auto parts, pharmaceutical products, industrial machinery, optical and medical equipment, and electric machinery.[151]
Despite its reliance on manufacturing, Indiana has been less affected by declines in traditional Rust Belt manufactures than many of its neighbors. The explanation appears to be certain factors in the labor market. First, much of the heavy manufacturing, such as industrial machinery and steel, requires highly skilled labor, and firms are often willing to locate where hard-to-train skills already exist. Second, Indiana's labor force is located primarily in medium-sized and smaller cities rather than in very large and expensive metropolises. This makes it possible for firms to offer somewhat lower wages for these skills than would normally be paid. Firms often see in Indiana a chance to obtain higher than average skills at lower than average wages.[152]
Business [ edit ]
In 2016, Indiana was home to seven Fortune 500 companies with a combined $142.5 billion in revenue.[153] Columbus-based Cummins, Inc. and Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Company and Simon Property Group were recognized in Fortune publication's "2017 World's Most Admired Companies List," ranking in each of their respective industries.[154]
Northwest Indiana has been the largest steel producing center in the U.S. since 1975 and accounted for 27 percent of American-made steel in 2016.[155]
Indiana is home to the international headquarters and research facilities of pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly in Indianapolis, the state's largest corporation, as well as the world headquarters of Mead Johnson Nutritionals in Evansville.[156] Overall, Indiana ranks fifth among all U.S. states in total sales and shipments of pharmaceutical products and second highest in the number of biopharmaceutical related jobs.[157]
Indiana is located within the U.S. Corn Belt and Grain Belt. The state has a feedlot-style system raising corn to fatten hogs and cattle. Along with corn, soybeans are also a major cash crop. Its proximity to large urban centers, such as Indianapolis and Chicago, assure that dairying, egg production, and specialty horticulture occur. Other crops include melons, tomatoes, grapes, mint, popping corn, and tobacco in the southern counties.[158] Most of the original land was not prairie and had to be cleared of deciduous trees. Many parcels of woodland remain and support a furniture-making sector in the southern portion of the state.
In 2011 Indiana was ranked first in the Midwest and sixth in the country for best places to do business according to CEO magazine.[159]
State budget [ edit ]
Indiana does not have a legal requirement to balance the state budget either in law or its constitution. Instead, it has a constitutional ban on assuming debt. The state has a Rainy Day Fund and for healthy reserves proportional to spending. Indiana is one of six US states to not allow a line-item veto.[160]
Indiana has a flat state income tax rate of 3.23%. Many of the state's counties also collect income tax. The state sales tax rate is 7% with exemptions for food, prescription medications and over-the-counter medications.[161] In some jurisdictions, an additional Food and Beverage Tax is charged, at a rate of 1% (Marion County's rate is 2%), on sales of prepared meals and beverages.[162]
Property taxes are imposed on both real and personal property in Indiana and are administered by the Department of Local Government Finance. Property is subject to taxation by a variety of taxing units (schools, counties, townships, municipalities, and libraries), making the total tax rate the sum of the tax rates imposed by all taxing units in which a property is located. However, a "circuit breaker" law enacted on March 19, 2008 limits property taxes to 1% of assessed value for homeowners, 2% for rental properties and farmland, and 3% for businesses.
In Fiscal year 2011, Indiana reported one of the largest surpluses among U.S states, with an extra $1.2 billion in its accounts. Gov. Mitch Daniels authorized bonus payments of up to $1,000 for state employees on Friday, July 15, 2011. An employee who "meets expectations" will get $500. Those who "exceed expectations" will receive $750, and "outstanding workers" will see an extra $1,000 in their August paychecks.[163] Since 2010, Indiana has been one of a few states to hold AAA bond credit ratings with the Big Three credit rating agencies, the highest possible rating.[164]
Energy [ edit ]
Indiana's power production chiefly consists of the consumption of fossil fuels, mainly coal. Indiana has 24 coal power plants, including the largest coal power plant in the United States, Gibson Generating Station, located across the Wabash River from Mount Carmel, Illinois. Indiana is also home to the coal-fired plant with the highest sulfur dioxide emissions in the United States, the Gallagher power plant just west of New Albany.[166]
The state has an estimated coal reserves of 57 billion tons; state mining operations produces 35 million tons of coal annually.[167] Indiana also possesses at least 900 million barrels of petroleum reserves in the Trenton Field, though not easily recoverable. While Indiana has made commitments to increasing use of renewable resources such as wind, hydroelectric, biomass, or solar power, however, progress has been very slow, mainly because of the continued abundance of coal in Southern Indiana. Most of the new plants in the state have been coal gasification plants. Another source is hydroelectric power.
Wind power is now being developed. New estimates in 2006 raised the wind capacity for Indiana from 30 MW at 50 m turbine height to 40,000 MW at 70 m, and to 130,000 MW at 100 m, in 2010, the height of newer turbines.[168] As of the end of 2011, Indiana has installed 1,340 MW of wind turbines.[169]
Transportation [ edit ]
Airports [ edit ]
Indianapolis International Airport serves the greater Indianapolis area and has finished constructing a new passenger terminal. The new airport opened in November 2008 and offers a new midfield passenger terminal, concourses, air traffic control tower, parking garage, and airfield and apron improvements.[170]
Other major airports include Evansville Regional Airport, Fort Wayne International Airport (which houses the 122d Fighter Wing of the Air National Guard), and South Bend International Airport. A long-standing proposal to turn Gary Chicago International Airport into Chicago's third major airport received a boost in early 2006 with the approval of $48 million in federal funding over the next ten years.[171]
The Terre Haute Regional Airport has no airlines operating out of the facility but is used for private flying. Since 1954, the 181st Fighter Wing of the Indiana Air National Guard has been stationed at the airport. However, the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Proposal of 2005 stated that the 181st would lose its fighter mission and F-16 aircraft, leaving the Terre Haute facility as a general-aviation only facility.
The southern part of the state is also served by the Louisville International Airport across the Ohio River in Louisville, Kentucky. The southeastern part of the state is served by the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport also across the Ohio River in Hebron, Kentucky. Most residents of Northwest Indiana, which is primarily in the Chicago Metropolitan Area, use the two Chicago airports, O'Hare International Airport and Chicago Midway International Airport.
Highways [ edit ]
The major U.S. Interstate highways in Indiana are Interstate 64 (I-64), I-65, I-265, I-465, I-865, I-69, I-469, I-70, I-74, I-80, I-90, I-94, and I-275. The various highways intersecting in and around Indianapolis, along with its historical status as a major railroad hub, and the canals that once crossed Indiana, are the source of the state's motto, the Crossroads of America. There are also many U.S. routes and state highways maintained by the Indiana Department of Transportation. These are numbered according to the same convention as U.S. Highways. Indiana allows highways of different classifications to have the same number. For example, I-64 and Indiana State Road 64 both exist (rather close to each other) in Indiana, but are two distinct roads with no relation to one another.
A $3 billion project extending I-69 is currently underway. The project was divided into six sections, with the first four sections (linking Evansville to Bloomington) now complete. The fifth section (between Bloomington and Martinsville) was completed in late 2018, while the sixth and final phase to Indianapolis is in planning. When complete, I-69 will traverse an additional 142 miles (229 km) through the state.[172]
County roads [ edit ]
Most Indiana counties use a grid-based system to identify county roads; this system replaced the older arbitrary system of road numbers and names, and (among other things) makes it much easier to identify the sources of calls placed to the 9-1-1 system. Such systems are easier to implement in the glacially flattened northern and central portions of the state. Rural counties in the southern third of the state are less likely to have grids and more likely to rely on unsystematic road names (e.g., Crawford, Harrison, Perry, Scott, and Washington Counties).
There are also counties in the northern portions of the state that have never implemented a grid, or have only partially implemented one. Some counties are also laid out in an almost diamond-like grid system (e.g., Clark, Floyd, Gibson, and Knox Counties). Such a system is also almost useless in those situations as well. Knox County once operated two different grid systems for county roads because the county was laid out using two different survey grids, but has since decided to use road names and combine roads instead.
Notably, the county road grid system of St. Joseph County, whose major city is South Bend, uses perennial (tree) names (i.e. Ash, Hickory, Ironwood, etc.) in alphabetical order for North-South roads and Presidential and other noteworthy names (i.e., Adams, Edison, Lincoln Way, etc.) in alphabetical order for East-West roads. There are exceptions to this rule in downtown South Bend and Mishawaka. Hamilton county just continues the numbered street system from Downtown Indianapolis from 96th Street at the Marion County line to 296th street at the Tipton County line.
Rail [ edit ]
Indiana has more than 4,255 railroad route miles, of which 91 percent are operated by Class I railroads, principally CSX Transportation and the Norfolk Southern Railway. Other Class I railroads in Indiana include the Canadian National Railway and Soo Line Railroad, a Canadian Pacific Railway subsidiary, as well as Amtrak. The remaining miles are operated by 37 regional, local, and switching and terminal railroads. The South Shore Line is one of the country's most notable commuter rail systems, extending from Chicago to South Bend. Indiana is currently implementing an extensive rail plan that was prepared in 2002 by the Parsons Corporation.[173] Many recreational trails, such as the Monon Trail and Cardinal Greenway, have been created from abandoned rails routes.
Ports [ edit ]
Barges are a common sight along the Ohio River. Ports of Indiana manages three maritime ports in the state, two located on the Ohio.
Indiana annually ships over 70 million tons of cargo by water each year, which ranks 14th among all U.S. states. More than half of Indiana's border is water, which includes 400 miles (640 km) of direct access to two major freight transportation arteries: the Great Lakes/St. Lawrence Seaway (via Lake Michigan) and the Inland Waterway System (via the Ohio River). The Ports of Indiana manages three major ports which include Burns Harbor, Jeffersonville, and Mount Vernon.[174]
In Evansville, three public and several private port facilities receive year-round service from five major barge lines operating on the Ohio River. Evansville has been a U.S. Customs Port of Entry for more than 125 years. Because of this, it is possible to have international cargo shipped to Evansville in bond. The international cargo can then clear Customs in Evansville rather than a coastal port.
Education [ edit ]
Indiana's 1816 constitution was the first in the country to implement a state-funded public school system. It also allotted one township for a public university.[177] However, the plan turned out to be far too idealistic for a pioneer society, as tax money was not accessible for its organization. In the 1840s, Caleb Mills pressed the need for tax-supported schools, and in 1851 his advice was included in the new state constitution.
Although the growth of the public school system was held up by legal entanglements, many public elementary schools were in use by 1870. Most children in Indiana attend public schools, but nearly 10% attend private schools and parochial schools. About one-half of all college students in Indiana are enrolled in state-supported four-year schools.
Indiana public schools have gone through several changes throughout Indiana's history. Modern, public school standards, have been implemented all throughout the state. These new standards were adopted in April 2014. The overall goal of these new state standards is to ensure Indiana students have the necessary skills and requirements needed to enter college or the workforce upon high school graduation.[178] State standards can be found for nearly every major subject taught in Indiana public schools. Mathematics, English/Language Arts, Science, and Social Studies are among the top, prioritized standards. The Indiana Department of Education reported in 2017 that the state's overall graduation rates were 87.19% for waivered graduations and 80.10% for non-waiver graduations.[179]
The largest educational institution is Indiana University, the flagship campus of which was endorsed as Indiana Seminary in 1820. Indiana State University was established as the state's Normal School in 1865; Purdue University was chartered as a land-grant college in 1869. The three other independent state universities are Vincennes University (Founded in 1801 by the Indiana Territory), Ball State University (1918) and University of Southern Indiana (1965 as ISU – Evansville).
Many of the private colleges and universities in Indiana are affiliated with religious groups. The University of Notre Dame, Marian University, and the University of Saint Francis are popular Roman Catholic schools. Universities affiliated with Protestant denominations include Anderson University, Butler University, Indiana Wesleyan University, Taylor University, Franklin College, Hanover College, DePauw University, Earlham College, Valparaiso University, University of Indianapolis,[123] and University of Evansville.[180]
The state's community college system, Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana, serves nearly 200,000 students annually, making it the state's largest public post-secondary educational institution and the nation's largest singly accredited statewide community college system.[181] In 2008, the Indiana University system agreed to shift most of its associate (2-year |
practical use.[14]
But in 1966, a research effort directed at detecting the presence of adenosine triphosphate (a chemical found only in living organisms) was begun. By using a fluorescent material found in fireflies, preliminary studies indicated that it was possible to detect the presence of a biological agent in the atmosphere. The important effort to find a satisfactory detection system continues today, for timely detection of a biological attack would allow the attacked force to use its protective masks effectively, and identification of the agent would allow any pre-treatment regimens to be instituted. The US Army also experimented with and developed highly effective barrier protective measures against both chemical and biological agents. Special impervious tents and personal protective equipment were developed, including individual gas masks even for military dogs.[10]
During the late 1960s, funding for the biological warfare program decreased temporarily, to accommodate the accelerating costs of the Vietnam War. The budget for fiscal year 1969 was $31 million, decreasing to $11.8 million by fiscal year 1973. Although the offensive program had been stopped in 1969, both offensive and defensive programs continued to be defended. John S. Foster, Jr, Director of Defense Research and Engineering, responded to a query by Congressman Richard D. McCarthy:
It is the policy of the U.S. to develop and maintain a defensive chemical-biological (CB) capability so that our military forces could operate for some period of time in a toxic environment, if necessary; to develop and maintain a limited offensive capability in order to deter all use of CB weapons by the threat of retaliation in kind; and to continue a program of research and development in this area to minimize the possibility of technological surprise.[15]
On 25 November 1969, President Richard Nixon visited Fort Detrick to announce a new policy on biological warfare. In two National Security Memoranda,[16][17] the U.S. government renounced all development, production, and stockpiling of biological weapons and declared its intent to maintain only small research quantities of biological agents, such as are necessary for the development of vaccines, drugs, and diagnostics.
Ground was broken in 1967 for construction of a new, modern laboratory building at Fort Detrick. The building would open in phases during 1971 and 1972. With the disestablishment of the biological warfare laboratories, the name of the U.S. Army Medical Unit, which was to have been housed in the new laboratories, was formally changed to U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) in 1969. The institute's new mission was stated in General Order 137, 10 November 1971 (since superseded):
Conducts studies related to medical defensive aspects of biological agents of military importance and develops appropriate biological protective measures, diagnostic procedures and therapeutic methods.[18]
The emphasis now shifted away from offensive weapons to development of vaccines, diagnostic systems, personal protection, chemoprophylaxis, and rapid detection systems.
1970s [ edit ]
After Nixon declared an end to the U.S. bio-weapons program, debate in the Army centered around whether or not toxin weapons were included in the president's declaration.[19] Following Nixon's November 1969 order, scientists at Fort Detrick worked on one toxin, Staphylococcus enterotoxin type B (SEB), for several more months.[20] Nixon ended the debate when he added toxins to the bio-weapons ban in February 1970[21]
In response to Nixon's 1969 decision, all antipersonnel biological warfare stocks were destroyed between 10 May 1971 and 1 May 1972. The laboratory at Pine Bluff Arsenal, Arkansas, was converted to a toxicological research laboratory, and was no longer under the direction or control of the DoD. Biological anticrop agents were destroyed by February 1973. Biological warfare demilitarization continued through the 1970s, with input provided by the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare; U.S. Department of the Interior; U.S. Department of Agriculture; and the Environmental Protection Agency. Fort Detrick and other installations involved in the biological warfare program took on new identities, and their missions were changed to biological defense and the development of medical countermeasures. The necessary containment capability, Biosafety Levels 3 and 4 (BSL-3 and BSL-4) continued to be maintained at USAMRIID.[10]
1980s [ edit ]
In 1984, the DoD requested funds for the construction of another biological aerosol test facility in Utah. The proposal submitted by the army called for BSL-4 containment, although maintaining that the BSL-4 inclusion was based on a possible need in the future and not on a current research effort. The proposal was not well received in Utah, where many citizens and government officials still recalled the secretive projects of the military: the areas on DPG still contaminated with anthrax spores, and the well-publicized accidental chemical poisoning of a flock of sheep in Skull Valley, Utah, in March 1968.[12] Questions arose over the safety of the employees and the surrounding communities, and a suggestion was even made to shift all biological defense research to a civilian agency, such as the National Institutes of Health. The plan for a new facility was revised to utilize a BSL-3 facility, but not before the US Congress had instituted more surveillance, reporting, and control measures on the army to ensure compliance with the BWC.[10]
1990s [ edit ]
In the 1990s, the US medical biological defense research effort (part of the U.S. Army's Biological Defense Research Program [BDRP]) was concentrated at USAMRIID at Fort Detrick. The army maintained state-of-the-art containment laboratory facilities there, with more than 10,000 ft2 of BSL-4 and 50,000 ft2 of BSL-3 laboratory space. BSL-4, the highest containment level, included laboratory suites that are isolated by internal walls and protected by rigorous entry restrictions, air-locks, negative-pressure air-handling systems, and filtration of all out-flow air through high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters. Workers in BSL-4 laboratories also wore filtered positive-pressure total body suits, which isolated the workers from the internal air of the laboratory. BSL-3 laboratories had a similar design, but do not require that personnel wear positive-pressure suits. Workers in BSL-3 suites were protected immunologically by vaccines. U.S. governmental standards provided guidance as to which organisms might be handled under various containment levels in laboratories such as USAMRIID.[22]
The unique facilities available at USAMRIID also included a 16-bed clinical research ward capable of BSL-3 containment, and a 2-bed patient care isolation suite—the Medical Containment Suite (MCS), known as "The Slammer"—where ICU-level care could be provided under BSL-4 containment. Here, healthcare personnel wore the same positive-pressure suits as are worn in BSL-4 research laboratories. The level of patient isolation required depended on the infecting organism and the risk to healthcare providers. Patient care can be provided at BSL-4. There were no patient-care category analogous to BSL-3; humans who are ill as a result of exposure to BSL-3 agents were to be cared for in an ordinary hospital room with barrier nursing procedures.[10]
USAMRIID guidelines were prepared to determine which level of containment would be employed for individual patients who required BSL-4 isolation or barrier nursing care. Staff augmentation for BSL-4 critical care expertise came from the Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC), Washington, D.C., in accordance with a memorandum of agreement between the two institutions. Patients could be brought directly into the BSL-4 suite from the outside through specialized ports with unique patient-isolation equipment. (The MCS was decommissioned and discontinued in December 2010.)
Additionally, starting in the 1970s USAMRIID maintained a unique evacuation capability known as the Aeromedical Isolation Team (AIT). Led by a physician and a registered nurse, each of the two teams consisted of eight volunteers who trained intensively to provide an evacuation capability for casualties suspected of being infected with highly transmissible, life-threatening BSL-4 infectious diseases (e.g., hemorrhagic fever viruses). The unit used special adult-sized Vickers isolation units (Vickers Medical Containment Stretcher Transit Isolator). These units were aircraft transportable and isolated a patient placed inside from the external environment. The AIT could transport two patients simultaneously; obviously, this was not designed for a mass casualty situation. During the 1995 outbreak of Ebola fever in Zaire, the AIT remained on alert to evacuate any US citizens who might have become ill while working to control the disease in that country.[10]
During this period, some biological defense research also continued at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense, Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland, and the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR), Washington, D.C. USAMRIID and these sister laboratories conducted basic research in support of the medical component of the US biological defense research program, which developed strategies, products, information, procedures, and training for medical defense against biological warfare agents. The products included diagnostic reagents and procedures, drugs, vaccines, toxoids, and antitoxins. Emphasis is placed on protecting personnel before any potential exposure to the biological agent occurs.[23]
In 1997, United States law formally defined weaponizable bio-agents as "Biological Select Agents or Toxins" (BSATs) — or simply Select Agents for short[24] — which fall under the oversight of either the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services or the U.S. Department of Agriculture (or both) and which have the "potential to pose a severe threat to public health and safety".
In 1998, several DoD organizations consolidated to create the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), headquartered in Fort Belvoir, Virginia. This agency is DOD's official Combat Support Agency for countering weapons of mass destruction, including bio-agents. DTRA's main functions are threat reduction, threat control, combat support, and technology development. In the US national interest, DTRA supports projects at more than 14 locations around the world, including Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Georgia, and Ukraine.
In 1999, a "National Pharmaceutical Stockpile" — renamed Strategic National Stockpile in 2002 — was created under the oversight of DHHS. In the same year, the Laboratory Response Network — a collaborative effort within the US federal government involving the Association of Public Health Laboratories and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — was established to facilitate the confirmatory diagnosis and typing of possible bio-agents. Also in 1999, President Bill Clinton issued Executive Order 13139, which provided for experimental anti-WMD drugs to be given to service members at the discretion of the Secretary of Defense only under informed consent; only the President may waive the necessity for informed consent.
2000s [ edit ]
Three secret DoD projects involving countermeasures against anthrax – code named Project Bacchus, Project Clear Vision and Project Jefferson – were publicly disclosed by The New York Times in 2001. (The projects were undertaken between 1997 and 2000 and focused on the concern that the old Soviet BW program was secretly continuing and had developed a genetically modified anthrax weapon.)[25]
Since the September 11 attacks and the 2001 anthrax attacks, the US government has allocated nearly $50 billion to address the threat of biological weapons. Funding for bioweapons-related activities focuses primarily on research for and acquisition of medicines for defense. Biodefense funding also goes toward stockpiling protective equipment, increased surveillance and detection of bio-agents, and improving state and hospital preparedness. Significant funding goes to BARDA (Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority), part of DHHS. Funding for activities aimed at prevention has more than doubled since 2007 and is distributed among 11 federal agencies.[26] Efforts toward cooperative international action are part of the project.
A "Select Agent Program" (SAP) was established to satisfy requirements of the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 and the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention administers the SAP, which regulates the laboratories that may possess, use, or transfer Select Agents within the United States. The Project Bioshield Act was passed by Congress in 2004 calling for $5 billion for purchasing vaccines that would be used in the event of a bioterrorist attack. According to President George W. Bush:
Project BioShield will transform our ability to defend the nation in three essential ways. First, Project BioShield authorizes $5.6 billion over 10 years for the government to purchase and stockpile vaccines and drugs to fight anthrax, smallpox and other potential agents of bioterror. The DHHS has already taken steps to purchase 75 million doses of an improved anthrax vaccine for the Strategic National Stockpile. Under Project BioShield, HHS is moving forward with plans to acquire a safer, second generation smallpox vaccine, an antidote to botulinum toxin, and better treatments for exposure to chemical and radiological weapons. [27]
This was a ten-year program to acquire medical countermeasures to biological, chemical, radiological and nuclear agents for civilian use. A key element of the Act was to allow stockpiling and distribution of vaccines which had not been tested for safety or efficacy in humans, due to ethical concerns. Efficacy of these agents cannot be directly tested in humans without also exposing humans to the chemical, biological, or radioactive threat being treated. In these cases efficacy testing follows the US Food and Drug Administration Animal Rule for pivotal animal efficacy.[28]
Since 2007, USAMRIID has been joined at Fort Detrick by sister bio-defense agencies of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (NIAID's Integrated Research Facility) and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center and the National Bioforensic Analysis Center). These—along with the much older Foreign Disease Weed Science Research Unit of the U.S. Department of Agriculture—now constitute the National Interagency Confederation for Biological Research (NICBR).
2010s [ edit ]
In July 2012, the White House issued its guiding document on the National Biosurveillance Strategy.
Current status [ edit ]
Products currently being produced or under development through military research include:
Vaccines to prevent tularemia, Q fever, Rift Valley fever, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, Eastern and Western equine encephalitis, chikungunya fever, Argentine hemorrhagic fever, the botulinum toxicoses, and anthrax; [29] [30]
Antitoxins for diseases such as botulism;
Human immune globulin preparations (passive antibody protection) against various bacteria and viruses; and
Antiviral drugs against multiple viral agents.
Some vaccines also have applicability for diseases of domestic animals (e.g., Rift Valley fever and Venezuelan equine encephalitis). In addition, vaccines are provided to persons who may be occupationally exposed to such agents (e.g., laboratory workers, entomologists, and veterinary personnel) throughout government, industry, and academe.[10]
USAMRIID also provides diagnostic and epidemiological support to federal, state, and local agencies and foreign governments. Examples of assistance rendered to civilian health efforts by the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC) include:
The massive immunization program instituted during the Venezuelan equine encephalitis outbreak in the Americas in 1971;
The laboratory support provided to the U.S. Public Health Service during the outbreak of Legionnaire's disease in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1976;
The management of patients suspected of having African viral hemorrhagic fever in Sweden during the 1980s;
International support during the outbreak of Rift Valley fever in Mauritania in 1989;
Assistance with the outbreak of Ebola infections among monkeys imported to Reston, Virginia, in 1990; and
Epidemiological and diagnostic support to the World Health Organization–Centers for Disease Control and Prevention field team that studied the Ebola outbreak in Zaire in 1995.
The current[when?] research effort combines new technological advances, such as genetic engineering and molecular modeling, applying them toward development of prevention and treatment of diseases of military significance. The program is conducted in compliance with requirements set forth by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, U.S. Public Health Service, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and Biological Weapons Convention.[31]
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THE Welshman starring as Spartacus, in a gory new version of the rebel gladiator’s life story, is making a good recovery from cancer.
Father-of-two Andy Whitfield, 36, who grew up in Amlwch, Anglesey, was diagnosed with Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma after completing the first series of Spartacus: Blood and Sand.
It tells the age-old tale of Spartacus, who escaped from a gladiator school to lead a slave revolt that shook ancient Rome to its core.
Landing the part made famous by Catherine Zeta-Jones’ father- in-law Kirk Douglas, in the iconic 1960 movie Spartacus, was Whitfield’s big break.
But after the initial series won over the American viewing public despite its high sex and violence content, cable channel Starz had to postpone a follow-up season while Whitfield checked into a specialist hospital in New Zealand where the show was filmed.
Traditional treatment for the condition are gruelling, involving a mixture of chemo and radiotherapy and occasional stem cell transplantation.
But now South African model turned actress Lesley Ann-Brandt, who plays the slave Naevia in the series, has said Whitfield, a former Ysgol Syr Thomas Jones pupil, is on the road to recovery.
And she said a second series starring Whitfield as Spartacus would be filmed later this year.
Speaking in the US, she said: “Andy’s looking good. We’ve just had an e-mail message from him and he’s doing really great.
“He’s just about finished his treatment.
“Over the past few months I’ve managed to do lunch with Andy and his wife and he doesn’t look sick at all.
“He’s got 100% backing from his wife and family and after the prequel in which Andy will be appearing in one or two episodes we will be ready to go for a second series later in the year.”
The Starz channel, which has given its full backing to the Welshman, has commissioned a short prequel series so Whitfield can come back from illness without losing the title role.
Shooting of the prequel, in which Whitfield will make occasional appearances, begins in New Zealand in July.
'A blur of boobs and bullet-time camera work': next page
In Spartacus: Blood and Sand, Four Weddings and a Funeral star John Hannah plays gladiator school master Batiatus with Lucy Lawless of Xena: Warrior Princess fame, playing his wife.
The UK premiere of the graphic drama on Bravo on Tuesday last week gave the channel its biggest ever audience.
The heavily promoted show, described by the Radio Times as “a blur of boobs and bullet-time camera work” and “a swords-and-sandals epic for the Nintendo DS generation”, attracted 365,000 viewers, a 2.2% audience share.
Bravo’s previous highest audience was for an episode of Blade, broadcast in January 2007.
Spartacus delivered a huge ratings boost to Bravo, with an audience share nearly 10 times the network’s average for the slot over the past three months. But it has not met with universal approval.
MediaWatch director Vivienne Pattison believes sex and violence on TV can be harmful.
“We can no longer ignore the fact that what viewers see on television has an impact on society.
“There are numerous studies linking exposure to violence on TV to violent behaviour at large.
“And if there is the slightest possibility that explicit sex and violence on screen can cause this harm is it worth the risk in the interest of entertainment?”
After leaving North Wales where he was a regular at the Plaza Cinema in Bangor, Whitfield studied engineering at Sheffield University and worked in London for five years before moving to Sydney in 1999.
He used to work as an engineering “abseiler” checking out buildings such as the Sydney Opera House for problems.
But he took an acting course and became a well-known face, having appeared in around 40 Australian commercials also shown in Europe and Asia.
After “enjoying being on film sets” he was plucked from relative obscurity to play the lead in the movie Gabriel, shot around Sydney in 2006.
The film was a dark action picture set in purgatory, between heaven and hell.The missing century-old patent file for the Wright brothers' "Flying Machine" was finally tracked down to a storage cave in Lenexa, Kansas, in March. The file, which was supposed to be stored in a "treasure" vault in the National Archives building in Washington DC, went missing around 1980.
According to investigative archivist Mitchell Yockelson, the National Archives recently amped up its Archival Recovery Program, which searches for missing documents and artefacts, with two extra archivists assigned to a "cold case squad" to look for the missing patent.
"Unfortunately, with billions of pieces of paper, things sometimes go where they shouldn't be," National Archives and Records Administration chief operating officer William J. Bosanko told The Washington Post.
During the search for the missing file, Bosanko said they did not rule out the possibility of the file being stolen like others in the past.
"If somebody puts something back in the wrong place, it's essentially lost. In this case, we didn't know. We had to ask ourselves, 'Is it something that could have been stolen'? " Bosanko said.
Working on the programme for almost three weeks, archivist Chris Abraham opted to search for the lost patent file.
The file was previously stored in Washington's National Archives but was transferred to a federal records center in Suitland, Maryland, in 1969. Some parts of the file were later loaned to the Smithsonian for an exhibit before they were returned to Suitland in 1979. Officials only realised that the papers were missing while preparing for a special commemoration in 2000.
"We had a pull slip from our files saying that the document was returned to the National Archives in 1980," Abraham told The Washington Post. "But... that's where the trail goes cold."
Abraham then asked Bob Beebe, an archivist at the National Archives in Kansas City, to check if the file was misfiled and among the archives' records stored in a limestone special records storage cave in Lenexa.
After memorising the Wright patent's number and initially striking out in his box-by-box search for the file, Beebe finally found it in a box among a 15-foot high stack of records on 22 March.
In the box was a beaten-up manila envelope with a logo of "the White House", which Bosanko said was probably a recycled envelope used by an archivist. The words "Wright Brothers' Patents" were written in the center and on one of the folders inside was the famous patent No. 821,393 on the cover. Beebe immediately sent a three-word email to his colleague in Maryland, writing: "We found it."
"I was stunned," Yockelson said. "If I had to pick one [crucial] document... that's missing, this was it.... It's the holy grail." Conservator Lauren Varga was then sent from Maryland with a security escort to bring the documents back.
Less than a month after they started building their airplane mostly out of wood and fabric, the Wright brothers applied for a patent for their airplane on 23 March 1903. Nine months later, their gasoline-powered, heavier-than-air, self-propelled aircraft took off on 17 December at Kill Devil Hills in North Carolina and covered 120 feet in 12 seconds. The patent was eventually granted in 1906.
Parts of the Wright brothers' file will be exhibited in the National Archives Museum's West Rotunda Gallery in Washington from 20 May.Image caption The United Nations Development Programme says it is "in the process of validating this claim"
A group of hackers has posted more than 100 email addresses and login details which it claimed to have extracted from the United Nations.
Many of the emails involved appear to belong to members of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The group, which identified itself as Teampoison, attacked the UN's behaviour and called it a "fraud".
A spokeswoman for the UNDP said the agency believed "an old server which contains old data" had been targeted.
"The UNDP found [the] compromised server and took it offline," said Sausan Ghosheh.
"The server goes back to 2007. There are no active passwords listed for those accounts.
"Please note that UNDP.org was not compromised."
'Leak'
The details were posted on the website Pastebin under the Teampoison logo.
The message preceding the login details accused the UN of acting to "facilitate the introduction of a New World Order" and asked "United Nations, why didn't you expect us?"
Many of the email addresses given end in undp.org, but others appear to belong to members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the UK's Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The poster noted that several of the accounts had "no passwords".
The message ended with the taunt: "The question now is how? We will let the so called'security experts' over at the UN figure that out... Have a Nice Day."
Image caption The poster claimed the usernames and passwords had been sourced from the UN
Credit card attacks
The security company Sophos noted that Teampoison hackers had previously attacked the maker of the Blackberry smartphone's website and had published private information about former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair.
"Teampoison recently announced they were joining forces with Anonymous on a new initiative dubbed 'Operation Robin Hood', targeting banks and financial institutions," the firm's senior technology consultant, Graham Cluley wrote on Sophos's blog.
The groups said at the time that their operation aimed to take money from credit cards and donate it to individuals and charities.
They said people would not be harmed as the banks had to refund fraudulent charges.
Teampoison added a "shoutout" to Anonymous in its UN attack posting, adding a link to a Youtube video with more information about its banking attack plan.
These latest moves serve as a reminder that so-called hacktivists are skilled and willing to collaborate to take down their targets, according to Professor Alan Woodward from the University of Surrey's department of computing.
"One of the big problems is that there is so much data around that people forget about their older systems that still have valuable data on them," he said.
"The lesson here is that anything that holds any data of any value must be protected."Getty Images/iStockphoto File photo of marijuana.
Stoners are athletes, too – that's the premise for the upcoming 420 Games in San Francisco and San Jose, at least.
The 420 Games is sponsoring a 4.20 mile fun run/walk followed by a concert with reggae artist Pato Banton in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park on Saturday and a golf tournament at Los Lagos Golf Course in San Jose on August 29.
Marijuana will not not be provided to participants at the Games, which is being promoted as cannabis-positive sporting events and not a "smoke in," according to the event's official website.
"The 420 Games goal is to eradicate the false stereotypes that hinder millions of successful and motivated people and to propagate the choice and ability to responsibly use cannabis as a supplement without fear of prosecution or judgement," reads a statement on the site's "about" page.
Copyright NBC Owned Television StationsSo the loans are often made off the balance sheet, and therefore outside the purview of bank regulators, which is why experts call it shadow banking. They are made at higher interest rates, so everyone wins — the borrower, the banks and the investor of the wealth management product — as long as the borrower repays.
“The banks now have these dark pools of money,” said Joe Zhang, a former investment banker and the author of “Inside China’s Shadow Banking: The Next Subprime Crisis?” He said, “To finance deals they usually have a trust company stand in the middle and simply put their stamp on it. The trust companies get a fee for that but often they do next to nothing. The bank does all the work.”
The explosive growth of wealth management products began about five years ago, enticing Chinese banks, big and small, to engage in shadow banking.
By the end of last year, China’s shadow banking activity was valued at $6 trillion, twice the level in 2010, and now equal to 69 percent of China’s gross domestic product, according to a report released in May by JPMorgan Chase. Now, even state-run banks are doing shadow lending, extending financing to companies in high-risk sectors.
Who is responsible for the loans is not always clear, and that’s where everyone starts getting nervous.
“If a wealth management product defaults, who is on the hook?” asked Michael Pettis, a finance professor at Peking University in Beijing and senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “It’s all very murky. In these things, the banks are technically acting as intermediaries.”
Financial experts worry about the lack of transparency in the market when China’s economy is weakening. They also fret about whether some borrowers have the cash flow to repay their loans.A TEENAGER posing as a doctor managed to fool workers at a Florida hospital for a month before he was caught out, even sitting in on an obstetrics exam.
The 17-year-old wannabe Doogie Howser was arrested by West Palm Beach police last week after staff inside the OB/GYN office were alerted by a patient that a “young black male who appeared to be a child was dressed as a doctor”.
The boy, whose name was withheld, had been walking around wearing a white doctor’s lab coat and carrying a stethoscope telling people he was a doctor, police said.
When confronted by officers called to St. Mary’s Medical Center, he told them he had been a doctor for “years” and that “his whole family knows he is a doctor”, according to the police report published by The Smoking Gun.
A security officer told police the boy was “known around the hospital as a doctor”, with multiple witnesses saying he had been seen walking around the hospital for approximately one month.
Doogie Howser, M.D. 1:05 Neil Patrick Harris stars as Doogie Howser, M.D.
Surveillance video showed him “walking around hospital wings, but never entering any rooms or seeing any patients”, the police report said.
Nurses at the OB/GYN outpatient centre told police the boy had been inside an exam room while Dr Sebastian Kent conducted a patient examination. Dr Kent later discovered a note written by the boy on his desk, asking if he could “shadow” him.
When called to collect her son, the young man’s mother said he was under care for an undisclosed illness but refuses to take any medication.
Police confiscated his lab coat and all medical items but on agreement with hospital officials declined to pursue charges, The Smoking Gun reports.
Further investigation revealed the boy had also been spotted at a second hospital, the good Samaritan Medical Centre, where the hospital’s security director said she remembered a “younger black male dressed as a doctor walking out of the Emergency Room entrance” the previous week.
After searching the teenager’s van, police discovered a white lab coat with “Natural Medicine” embroidered on the chest, along with a “black doctor or nurse scrub-style top”.Real estate agents make it a point to have homes look attractive in photographs, knowing that good photography can make a huge difference, but the people at animal rescue shelters often settle for second-rate photographs of the dogs they’re trying to find homes for. Professional pet photographer Teresa Berg of Dallas, Texas realized that countless dogs are likely euthanized each year simply due to bad photography, and decided to make a difference. Several years ago she started doing shoots for a pet shelter free of charge, and helped increase the adoption rates there by 100%
Here are some before and after shots, with the shelters’ old shots on the left and Berg’s photographs on the right:
Berg is also working to encourage other pet photographers to donate their services, and is helping to train animal shelter employees in how to make better photographs.
(via Jezebel via PopPhoto)THE breakdown of methane hydrates is unlikely to cause a massive release of greenhouse gases, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).
A recent review performed by the USGS and the University of Rochester, New York, evaluated the effects of the breakdown of gas hydrates, which are being touted as potential new commercial energy sources in nations including Japan, India and the US.
The breakdown of methane hydrates due to a warming climate is unlikely to lead to massive amounts of methane being released to the atmosphere, according to the USGS.
Methane or gas hydrates are typically found sub-surface in deep waters and in and below permafrost at high altitude.
“On a global scale, gas hydrate deposits store enormous amounts of methane at relatively shallow depths, making them particularly susceptible to the changes in temperature that accompany climate change,” said the USGS.
“Methane itself is also a potent greenhouse gas and some researchers have suggested that methane released by the breakdown of gas hydrate during past climate events may have exacerbated global warming.”
However, while the review concluded that the current warming of ocean waters is likely causing gas hydrate deposits to break down at some locations, the resulting methane emissions are far smaller than those caused by human activities.
Also, most of the methane released by gas hydrates never reaches the atmosphere.
“Instead, the methane often remains in undersea sediments, dissolves in the ocean or is converted to carbon dioxide by microbes in the sediments or water column.”
The review looked in particular at gas hydrates below the Arctic Ocean, where some studies had observed elevated rates of methane transfer between the ocean and the atmosphere.
“After so many years spent determining where gas hydrates are breaking down and measuring methane flux at the sea-air interface, we suggest that conclusive evidence for release of hydrate-related methane to the atmosphere is lacking,” said USGS geophysicist Carolyn Ruppel.
However, as there has not yet been a long-term production test on gas hydrates, the actual impact of eventual production is impossible to assess, conceded the review.
“Particularly in the deep-water environment, an inadvertent leak is unlikely to increase global atmospheric CH4 (methane) concentrations at a detectable level owing to strong microbial sinks and the tendency of methane to remain deeper in the water column.
“Regardless, gas detection technology can monitor for methane leaks at the wellhead of a gas hydrate production site on permafrost or in marine environments. Acquiring such scientific data could even provide information useful for assessing the impact on the ocean-atmosphere system of gas hydrates that are liberating CH4 due to climate forcing,” said the review.
About 99% of gas hydrates are said to form in marine sediments on continental slopes at water depths of greater than around 500 metres in temperate latitudes and about 300 metres at high latitudes, where bottom waters are colder.
Ruppel oversees the USGS Gas Hydrates Project that has been advancing understanding of domestic and international gas hydrates science for more than 20 years.
In the last decade, the group has participated in energy resource studies on the Alaskan North Slope and in the Gulf of Mexico, Indian Ocean and other locations. Studies of climate-hydrate interactions have been carried out in the Beaufort Sea, on the US Atlantic margin and at international sites.
The US Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation supported the USGS and University of Rochester research.
The review summarises how much gas hydrate exists and where it occurs, identifies the technical challenges associated with determining whether atmospheric methane originates with gas hydrate breakdown, and examines the assumptions of the Intergovernmental Panels on Climate Change, which have typically attributed a small amount of annual atmospheric methane emissions to gas hydrate sources.Corsair has added a new member to its keyboard family called the Strafe. This full-size unit is equipped with linear Cherry MX red switches and matching red backlighting. Although the color isn't configurable, the backlight can be toggled on a per-key basis. Users can choose from six preset lighting effects or customize their own via Corsair's CUE software. The Corsair utility also provides macro functionality and profile sharing.
The Strafe has a pass-through USB port and the standard set of multimedia shortcuts. Other amenities include textured key caps for the QWER/ASDF block that are contoured to prevent gamers' fingers from straying. The contoured caps can be swapped for standard ones, but there's no alternative to the textured spacebar.
Corsair says the Strafe will sell for $109.99 when it becomes available in June.Students at the University of Chicago are demanding racial segregation for incoming students of color during orientation week.
They also want some serious construction to place on campus, including building a house for illegals students.
The administration is taking the dictate very seriously, The College Fix reports. “We are reviewing and continuing dialogue,” university spokeswoman Marielle Sainvilus told the student news service via email. It’s just one of 50 demands issued recently by student groups to the university officials.
The racially segregated orientation for students of color is envisioned by the students as supplementary to the general orientation. It’s the brainchild of a group calling themselves the UChicago United and the insistence on racial separation is sixth on its list of demands. The orientation “would familiarize students with campus resources and multicultural registered student organizations” and is designed to “ease the transition to the university’s campus climate and academic demands.”
But that’s just the beginning. The UChicago United students also think the university should be employing more non-white professors and coerce the existing white professors to “include more insight from Black authors, specifically Black women” when they plan course curricula for their social science and humanities offerings.
Furthermore, the united students have some advice for architecture on campus, insisting on “cultural houses, specifically a Black house, a Latinx house, and an Asian house.” If that weren’t enough the group explicit states that in addition to the obvious inclusion of a Latino house, a “Latino Cultural House” also be included at the university to “cater to the needs” of international and illegal students.
Not unused to responding to extraordinary requests, the university is carefully considered the latest batch. University spokeswoman Marielle Sainvilus informed the The College Fix that the administration has “held dozens of meetings, open forums, and conversations on diversity and conclusion and [they] |
.”
Tracey says it was only then that she realised the cause of his terrible bouts of depression over the years.
“This was what he was never able to say on the nights he was at his worst,” she says. “He had tried so hard for this never to happen, for this never to come out.”
Traumatised and afraid, Tracey says Frank tried to convince her to keep up the pretence of a happy marriage.
She says: “I struggled with his reaction. He wanted to keep up a facade. He persuaded me it would be fine.”
(Image: Nicholas Bowman / Sunday Mirror)
At last Tracey understood why their once happy, 20-year relationship had dissolved into a series of furious rows. She says her husband’s depression and behaviour had become increasingly erratic before he revealed his secret.
He would vanish for weeks at a time. It later emerged that he kept a secret flat by the coast, stocked with female clothing. He’d also turned to therapists and hypnotists for help.
Pain etched across her face, Tracey says: “I’ve racked my mind to see if there was ever any clues about him being transgender, but there was nothing. Frank covered it up so well I never knew anything.
“He was a great husband, a fantastic father and a wonderful provider for his family.
“It was only about six years ago when things began to change. He first started getting very angry. Nothing seemed to please him and he was unsettled all the time.
“He had always been sociable but he became reclusive. We would be out at an event or with friends and he would just go home without me. I couldn’t work out what I was doing wrong. And I kept asking him why this
was happening.
“Sometimes he would blame me saying, ‘It’s you – you’re not a good wife’. By then I knew things were serious.
“I never thought it was another woman. In 2008 he checked into a clinic for six weeks without telling us where he was.
“When he eventually returned he turned up with some people who claimed to be hypnotists and therapists. He wasn’t himself and I was worried. He asked me to listen to them.
"I kicked them out of the house and told him that he if went back to them the marriage was over.
“It was not the Frank I knew.”
Their attempts to rekindle the relationship were in vain, and her husband moved out of the family home in Kent in 2012. She says: “He’d already got his flat and he never even gave me the address.
“We were living completely separate lives by that point. I had known the truth for three years and we were growing more and more distant.
“It was traumatic. It had been his idea to stay but he was no longer a husband any more.
“We still had a good friendship. He always provided well and he was a good father to the girls.”
But she says things took a distressing turn for the worse when he visited at Christmas that year. Emotions were running high and eventually led Frank to make a desperate suicide attempt.
Tracey says: “That was a bad day. We were all really distraught and the girls and I wouldn’t go back into the house until he left.
“My daughter said to me, ‘you’re doing this to him’. I would rather she thought that than know the truth. I never wanted the children to know the truth.”
Soon afterwards, Frank started divorce proceedings.
Tracey says: “I never wanted to be divorced. Everybody assumed it was over something I’d done but I was never going to say anything.
“Last year, as the divorce was going through, was the toughest year of all.
(Image: John Gladwin / Sunday Mirror)
“It was hard because he wasn’t being honest. Everyone felt sorry for him. It looked like I’d abandoned him, like I’d only been there for the glory years.
“He allowed people to think it was my fault rather than face up to things. I wanted to file for divorce under ‘unreasonable behaviour’ on his part but in the end we went for ‘irreconcilable differences’. I would have never said anything about his secret. We are still friends and hopefully always will be. We speak nearly every day on the phone.”
The couple were originally introduced by a friend in Cardiff as Lennox Lewis was preparing to fight Frank Bruno in the October 1993 match dubbed the Battle of Britain.
Tracey says she was impressed by how nice Frank seemed. Despite their 14-year age gap, she says they started dating.
At that stage she had no idea he was a boxing manager and promoter, famous for his garish Union Jack suits.
They married in Lake Tahoe in 1997 after his client Lewis beat Oliver McCall to regain his World Boxing Council crown. The champ and his mother Violet attended the ceremony.
Tracey and Frank then flew to Venice for a brief honeymoon. They went on to have two daughters – now aged 19 and 13.
But Tracey reveals she is now “over Frank”, adding: “I am focused on moving on. My new life and daughters are the most important things.”
(Image: Allsport / Getty)
She says she’s yet to see Frank as Kellie and says she still can’t bring herself to call him anything but Frank.
“I’ve never met Kellie,” she says. “He showed me pictures once before from a distance.
“I still call him Frank and to the girls he will always be dad.
“He wrote to me last weekend saying in an email it was the ‘last time you will hear from me as Frank. I am writing to say goodbye’.”
Tracey adds: “I was angry at him letting himself be exposed. I was upset at him for being careless.
“But now this is real we all have to come to terms with it.
“I don’t wish he’d never walked into my life because we had some wonderful years together and he was a good husband.
“I wish he’d been honest, but I really, really want him to be happy now – and free.”Windows 1. First, find the perfect wallpaper for your PC. 2.Just below the image, you’ll notice a button that says “Free Download.” Just below that text is your screen’s resolution (don’t worry, we calculated that part for you.) 3.Click the button, and you’ll notice the image save to your browser. 4.Navigate to that image on your computer (it will probably be in your “downloads” folder) 5.Right-click the image in the folder and click “Set as desktop background.” 6.Enjoy your new wallpaper!
Mac 1. Download your favourite wallpaper clicking on the blue download button below the wallpaper. 2. In this order, click Apple Menu > System Preferences > Desktop & Screen Saver > Desktop 3. Now find the image you want to use. Here you’ll want to select your own, so you’ll select the location your new image downloaded. 4. Click on the photo. 5. Exit back to your desktop and see what it looks like!
iPhone/iPad 1. Find an image you like on wallpapertag.com and click on the blue download button below an image. 2. Tap on an image and hold on a few seconds. Choose “save image” from the list below. 3. Navigate to the “Photos” app and find the image you want as your background. 5. Use the share button (the one that looks like a box with an arrow coming out of it). 6. Select the “Use as a Wallpaper” button 7. Here you can arrange the picture how you want it, then tap “set.” 8. Next you can select whether you want this image to be set as the background of your lock screen, home screen or both. 9. Navigate back to your home screen and take a look at your new wallpaper.
Android 1. Search for a wallpaper you like on wallpapertag.com and download it clicking on the blue download button below the wallpaper. 2. Open your gallery/photos app and click on the “download” folder. 3. The first image you see here should be the image you downloaded. 4. Click on the image and in the top right corner, click the menu button (three vertical dots). 5. In the drop down menu, click “Set as wallpaper.” 6. You’ll then be prompted to select whether you want to set the image as the background of your home screen, lock screen or both. 7. You’ll then be able to move the image to how you like. When you’re satisfied, press “set as wallpaper.” 8.Go back to your home screen and enjoy your new wallpaper!While Richard Branson and Bas Lansdorp surge separately toward space travel, Airbus Group and Aerion Corporation have agreed to collaborate on technologies that will further the future of high-performance flight on Earth. Airbus is a global leader in aeronautics and space solutions for both the US military and commercial avionics, homeland security systems, defense electronics, threat detection systems and public safety systems. Aerion Corporation is dedicated to commercial supersonic flight and over the past 20 years its engineering core has perfected the design of a supersonic business jet.
It seems both companies are devoted to working in tandem and sharing sensitive information rgeather than trying to compete and labor independently toward their common goals. For Aerion in particular, this agreement means collaboration to advance the development and commercialization of the Aerion AS2 supersonic business jet. Specifically, this will help Aerion get through a critical phase of their development process of the AS2: they will soon begin specifying and sourcing equipment, avionics and propulsion systems for the aircraft.
The Defense and Space division of Airbus will provide technical and certification support. In exchange, Aerion will provide proprietary technology, such as its patented aerodynamic designs, and assistance to Airbus’ development of high-performance aircraft technology.
Aerion plans to have the AS2 flying by 2019 and achieve full certification by 2021. Both companies are based in Nevada with Airbus in Herndon and Aerion in Reno.In this image provided by the Army, Maj. Gen. Michael T. Harrison Sr., left, commander of U.S. Army Japan and I Corps (Forward), stands aboard a craft near Tengan Pier in Okinawa, Japan, during a tour of some of the 505th Quartermaster Battalion’s facilities on Chibana Compound. (CHIP STEITZ/AP)
The Army announced Friday night that it has suspended a two-star general in Japan for failing to properly investigate a sexual-assault case, the latest U.S. military commander to get in trouble over the issue.
Maj. Gen. Michael T. Harrison, the commander of U.S. Army forces in Japan, was suspended Friday by Army Secretary John M. McHugh and Gen. Ray Odierno, the Army chief of staff, in response to allegations that he “failed in his duties as a commander to report or properly investigate” a reported sexual assault, the Army said in a statement.
The Army did not disclose when the assault occurred or how it came to the Army leadership’s attention. George Wright, an Army spokesman, said Harrison’s personal conduct was not under suspicion but that he would remain suspended while Army officials investigate his handling of the case.
Maj. Gen. James C. Boozer, the former deputy commanding general of the U.S. Army Europe, will serve as the interim commander in Japan until the investigation is completed, according to the Army.
Congress and President Obama have been pressing the Pentagon to crack down on sex crimes in response to a reported surge in sexual assaults and related crimes. Some lawmakers and advocacy groups have accused military officials of fostering a climate and culture that is tolerant of sexual abuse and discourages victims from reporting it.
There are signs, however, that the Pentagon is getting the message. On May 21, Army Brig. Gen. Bryan T. Roberts, the top commander at Fort Jackson, S.C., was suspended for allegedly having a physical altercation with a mistress.
Another one-star Army general, Jeffrey Sinclair, the former deputy commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, is scheduled to face a court-martial in July on charges that he sexually assaulted a female captain. And in March, Army Maj. Gen. Ralph O. Baker, who led a counterterrorism force in Africa, was fired for allegedly groping a woman while he was under the influence of alcohol.
Congress is also acting on its own to hold commanders accountable.
On Thursday, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) announced that she would indefinitely block the promotion of a three-star Air Force general for granting clemency to a convicted sex offender, effectively ending the commander’s military career.And what this woman is alleged to have done — attack customers and staff at a Canadian Tire outlet last June 3, with a golf club and a large knife and a bow — she vows to attempt again.
Our laws are not her laws. Her law is sharia law.
Getting the 32-year-old woman to engage with the court has been like moving a mountain of stubbornness and defiance.
Speaking through an Arabic interpreter in Scarborough court on Wednesday morning — though occasionally in the proceeding she also spoke English, quite competently — Rehab Dughmosh made this declaration: “Tell her I will always be a supporter of the Islamic State until the last day of my life. If you allow me to go out and leave I will do exactly what I tried to do last time and failed.”
On two previous occasions, the Syrian-Canadian — and by the way, she wants her Canadian citizenship revoked — has refused to participate in what is now common video-link hearings from her current place of residence, the Vanier Centre for Women in Milton, Ont. Third time ’round, Justice Kimberley Crosbie reluctantly authorized security personnel to bring Dughmosh into the video room at the jail, by whatever means necessary. Thus a “retraction team” somehow got her in front of the camera, face bare. That was in early September.
Wednesday, the woman walked into the dock, in person, flanked by four court officers. She was clad in a tunic green tracksuit and hijab pulled across her face, revealing only the eyes.
First words out of her mouth, via interpreter: “I want to stay seated.”
It is routine for defendants, whilst in the box, to stand when they are being addressed, certainly when they are being formally indicted.
Last time I witnessed anyone refusing to stand in court, even for a judge’s entrance, was at a Toronto proceeding involving a member of Canada’s notorious Khadr clan. In that instance, mother and sister of the defendant — not Omar, one of his brothers — remained insolently stapled to their seat, presumably to demonstrate their contempt for Canadian courts.
There is no law but one law and fie on your Canadian institutions.
Well, inside this Canadian institution, Dughmosh was facing 21 charges, including four counts of attempted murder, with 14 of them related to terror and laid by the RCMP following the original Toronto police investigation of the Canadian Tire incident at Cedarbrae Mall, which resulted in a clutch of plain old criminal charges — assault, assault with a weapon, threatening death etc.
On Monday, the registrar read out the 14 terrorism-related charges — apparently the original criminal offences have been folded in — in the formal indictment procedure, charges laid under Section 83.18 (1) of the Criminal Code. To wit: Every one who knowingly participates in or contributes to, directly or indirectly, any activity of a terrorist group to facilitate or carry out a terrorist activity is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 years.”
But before we got that far, Crosbie, overweening in her patience and decorum, wanted to make absolutely certain that the defendant understood what was happening in the aftermath of the psychiatric assessment report received by the court several weeks ago. “As a result of that report, I have no reason to believe that you are not fit to stand trial. We need to determine what the next step is. You told me (at an earlier proceeding) you wished to plead guilty.”
Dughmosh: “No. I am not guilty.”
Alrighty then.
Crosbie explained the three options available to the defendant: To have a trial, in Ontario Court, under another judge; to opt for trial before a judge at the Superior Court of Justice; or to go for Door No. 3 — Superior Court, with a judge and jury.
Dughmosh: Nope, none of the above. “Not even one.”
Continuing: “All you non-believers. I do not believe what you believe. Tell her I am still a supporter of the Islamic State and I am not guilty and I don’t want to go to bail court.”
More patience from Crosbie. “This is not bail court.’’
Dughmosh: “OK. So I decide and I determine and I don’t have to be here.”
Crosbie: “If you do not make a choice, I will deem that you would wish to be tried before a judge and jury.”
Dughmosh: “I don’t want anyone. Stop the court!”
Dughmosh has repeatedly rejected representation by a lawyer and expressed no wish for a preliminary hearing in the matter. Federal Crown Bradley Reitz told Crosbie he wanted to go straight to trial. And that’s what is going to happen.
It is too easy, too glib, to posit that individuals who believe as Dughmosh apparently does — in militant jihad, in the apostasy of secular laws — are screwy in the head rather than genuinely Islamist inspired. But Dughmosh, according to her psychiatric assessment, isn’t a loon, at least in so far as she understands her predicament and the legal process. She was committed enough, police alleged when they laid the first charges, to have gone overseas with the objective of joining Islamic State, or ISIS or Daesh, or whatever we’re calling it these days in hypercorrect company, in Syria but was intercepted in Turkey and sent back to Canada.
She does have issues, though.
“They have sent me to the hospital to assess if I have a mental problem,” Dughmosh complained to Crosbie. “And if I did have mental problems then I would not continue with the court. And from the beginning in jail they would offer me the medication and they still bring me to court. Can you explain?”
Crosbie laid down the law, gently. “Whether or not there is any mental issue, when people are told to attend court, they must attend court. That happens two ways: One is on your own volition. Or what happened the last time you appeared on video, by officers bringing you up by force.”
Dughmosh was apparently still stewing about her treatment in that episode. “I do not forgive them for taking off my head dress... they should have taken me in a more humane way.”
Rather rich coming from someone alleged to have attacked strangers with a knife, a bow and a golf club whilst shouting: “Allahu akbar!” (God is great.)
She will next be in court, in downtown Toronto, on October 11.
“Going forward, it’s obviously preferable if you go to court on your own free will,” said Crosbie. “You do not have a choice about that. You must attend court and are required to do so.”
Dughmosh, from beneath her veil of sagacity: “Then that doesn’t mean it’s real freedom.”
Rosie DiManno usually appears Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.The Jan Hammer Group’s track Don’t You Know is a groovy synth-jazz funk number taken from their 1977 album Melodies. It has seeped into the collective conscious through Erol Alkan’s inclusion of it on Another Bugged Out Mix and through being sampled numerous times.
I was recently teaching a class on Massive by Native Instruments and wanted to demonstrate the Stepper LFO. This is a nifty feature where-by you can send stepped modulation to pitch, amplitude or filter. To demonstrate I showed them this track.
Don’t You Know?
The repeated sixteen step synth motif is the main element of this track, and for 1977 was probably still seen as quite revolutionary. While synthesisers had been creeping in to mainstream music over that decade, having a sequenced synthesisers was probably something still relatively unheard of to most listeners.
Hammer was known for using his trusty Moog Minimoog during much of his pre Miami Vice career, and while it’s likely to be the source for the recognisable filtered bass, it didn’t offer a sample and hold LFO or anything that would create the illusion of a stepped waveform.
Details are sketchy, and while there are many pictures of Jan’s live work with The Mahavishnu Orchestra, Jeff Beck and others, they’re all pretty grainy and lo-fi to clearly see what else he has on stage with him.
Chris from the comments suggested:
In the photos of his live setup Jan has the Rhodes on the right, a Freeman String Symphonizeron the left (modified with a Moog Resonator Filter), two Minimoogs with a mixer between them, and an Oberheim SEM behind the right Mini – I think there was a Mutron Bi-phasenext to it.
Well spotted Chris! Before he pointed that out my best guess was that he used an ARP Sequencer, which released just the year before. This would allow a clocked sequence of sixteen steps of control voltage which could be easily used to modulate the filter cutoff position of one of his Moogs or any other synth (I have a feeling he might have used an Oberheim SEM around this period too). However it’s not entirely clear what Jan used, so we’ll just leave it to our imagination.
Another commenter, Gary said:
I think that this tune used the Minimoog to create the sequenced sounding bass line being controlled by the Moog Sample and Holdaccessory to control the filter, while allowing the oscillators to still track the keyboard musically to track the bass line. He used this same setup in a different way on the Billy Cobham album Spectrum, and later compositions like No Fear. He was/is a master of coaxing different and very musical sounds from the Minimoog.
I would tend to agree with everything Gary says here, only the Minimoog didn’t contain a S&H LFO, but using an external device is entirely possible. I thought that sequencer was as likely as it feels like a repeated pattern as opposed to a continually shifting one.
Melodies
It doesn’t really matter which DAW we load up, as there’s nothing unique about what I’m going to do, but I’ve decided to do this in Ableton. This is going to be by no means a perfect replay, just a neat and quick way of demonstrating Massive’s Stepper LFO, paying homage to this great track.
At first I had some issues transcribing this as I was using different sources, both the original ’77 record and also Erol Alkan’s mix, stupidly not reaslising he’d sped the record up, therefore changing the pitch. Let that be a lesson to anyone transcringing from analog sources!
Once I had the orignal record from iTunes, I warped the track and set my host tempo to 94 bpm create a couple of MIDI instrument tracks (shuft + cmd + t).
The intro is just a long-held F2 note, when the whole band kicks in, the pattern looks a little like this:
Load up Massive and initialise the patch. I’m going to do my best to get close to the original sound but as it’s embedded in a full mix, we’ll just get as close as is possible. I’ve used a sawtooth and pulse wave tuned an octave lower with a small amount of ring modulation for colour.
I’m running that into Massive’s Scream filter, which to my reckoning is modelled on the EDP Wasp (not confirmed though). This has a less traditional resonance circuit that overdrives and breaks up when pushed. Sounds good to my ears.
Side note: This was the first analog synth I had in my possession (thanks Pete) and most of my knowledge of subtractive synthesis comes from using it.
Now let’s go to LFO 8. All of Massive’s 4 LFOs can be used in Stepper mode but 8 defaults to it. Sync the rate and set the ratio to 1/16. Ensure the Pos is enabled but the Restart is disabled (very important). With the restart enabled, every time a new note is played the sequence will jump back to step 1.
I’ve set the sliders to look like this, which sounds good to my ears. I’ve also added some glide modulation on step 13.
Set LFO to modulate the filter cutoff. You’ll need to experiment to get it right as having too narrow a range wont sound as effective but too wide and it’ll sound too jumpy. I also had to fiddle with the scream and resonance parameters to not allow too much bottom end through. I’ve finished the patch off with a tiny amount of EQ to dull the higher and lower frequencies. It’s not perfect but it’s good enough.
You can download the patch here.
Mix
For context, I’ll knock up a quick backing track. For the drums I’ll use Native Instruments Kontakt, utilising the AbbeyRoad 60s Drummer (I don’t have the 70s one. Oops!). The beat is mostly just kick, snare and closed hi-hat to my ears.
I’ve nabbed a groove template from the original song. This will help with the slightly swung hi-hats and any snare fills. If you’re unclear how to do this there’s a clear explanation here.
For the flute-like lead I’ve used Arturia’s Mini V with a healthy dose of Soundtoys EchoBoy to add that lengthy delay. At a guess the Space Echo algorithm will do.
At the end of the eight bar phrase there’s a little tease of the Rhodes and a string swell. Live’s Electric will do nicely, the MkII3 Old Piano patch sounds about right to me. I’ve used Kontakt again for the strings.
I’ve added some plate reverb on a return track (Max4Live Convolution) and some Glue Compressor to the master to squeeze everything a little.
That’s it! I love Massive’s Stepper LFO but this is really just a simple use for it. You can read a more in depth example controlling different oscillator pitches here. Enjoy!istockphoto
Last summer, when my husband and I announced we were moving to Austin, our friends were shocked. The two of us had been among the Boston area’s biggest cheerleaders. We’d been involved in everything from Boston World Partnerships and Somerville Local First to Kickstarter campaigns for improving life on our block. So the last thing we ever thought we’d do is pack up and leave for Texas.
Then, we got priced out.
When Andrew got a great job offer, we did the math: In Austin, we could pay less than $400,000 for a two-bedroom home near public transportation less than four miles from downtown, yet we’d still live in a progressive, tech-oriented, culturally vibrant community. Plus, we could reduce our expenses for everything from organic groceries to gas by 45 percent, and we would no longer pay state income tax.
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But we were heartbroken to leave the Hub — about leaving Somerville in particular, where we’d been renting for more than a decade and where my family had been part of the community since 1898. My great-grandfather Guglielmo Massello came to America from Benevento, Italy, as a stowaway in search of a better life in Boston. He and his brother built the family home in Winter Hill board by board, and he worked as an engineer on the Sumner Tunnel. My grampa Eddie worked in the tannery at a Brickbottom slaughterhouse until he won a scholarship to Harvard from Somerville High in 1927. My husband’s family has similarly deep roots in Arlington. Boston is in our bones. We hoped to start a family in Somerville and fully expected to scrimp and save for a fixer-upper, but we didn’t expect to be outpaced by the market as quickly as we were.
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From 2003 to 2013, our rent for a two-bedroom unit doubled, from $1,050 a month to $2,000 — even with a $400-a-month friends-and-family discount on the latter. Our circle, mainly young Gen Xers like ourselves and older millennials, had stuck it out through the aftermath of Sept. 11. At my five-year Lexington High School reunion in 2001, where or whether you’d gone to college didn’t seem to matter; you scraped by in a temp job, and you lived with your parents or shacked up with friends in rat-hole apartments. In those years, we hustled and took any jobs we could find — mine included babysitting, helping a family friend who was a shut-in, working as a warehouse assistant and as a receptionist at a staffing firm. Somehow, though, we got ourselves back on track.
Then the mortgage crisis and Great Recession hit just as we were getting ready to buy one of those fixer-uppers and settle down. Though both of us had decent jobs in the local innovation economy, we struggled to get ahead. Between rent, student loans, credit card debt (see the tumultuous timeline I mentioned above), and other standard expenses, we couldn’t catch a break financially. Every time we went to an open house for a modest listing in our neighborhood, we got wind that there had been multiple offers, that the unit, inevitably listed at upwards of $425,000, would go above asking price, no contingencies, all cash.
As Gen Xers, we accepted the “dream of the ’90s” — urbanism, collaboration, environmentalism, and social responsibility. Leaving for the outer suburbs was a non-starter. Instead, we got more deeply involved with the place we loved, in City Council meetings and forums and panels and networking events, and through petitions and dialogue on social media. We made our voices heard, and volunteered our talents. Of course, we wanted to reap the rewards.
Cities are at least working to retain single millennials, who are being recruited to work in areas like Boston’s Innovation District. But the latest affordable-housing initiatives, like micro-apartments in the Seaport District, cater to singles in the younger generation — in particular, to single men under 25. No importance has been placed on retaining 30- to 40-year-old, dual-income couples and young families.
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Maybe if we’d left in our 20s for a smaller, cheaper area, as many or our friends from high school and college did, we could have socked away more savings. Or if we’d moved to a bigger city, we could have found the same jobs at higher salaries — and might have been able to afford a $400,000 apartment in a prime location. But we did neither of those things — out of love for Boston, whose potential we believed in, and whose coming of age we wanted to see firsthand.
In the end, though, there’s no reward for loyalty in a free market — not even for those of us who’d helped Boston grow. In fact, we’d sort of shot ourselves in the foot. So we chose the ability to own a home over staying in the only home we’d known. We moved to South Austin, which is like the Somerville of Texas, and scored that unicorn of a two-bed-two-bath in a good location at a reasonable price. It’s probably the most pragmatic decision we’ve ever made.
But our hearts are divided between two places. We hope we’ll be back in the real Somerville someday, and not just to visit. In the meantime, we hope officials in Boston, Cambridge, and Somerville will start to care more about losing people like us. Every day, more than 100 people move to Austin from every major metro in the country. Maybe Boston, and cities like it, should start paying more attention to why.
Messages for Boston
Melissa Massello, a former newspaper journalist and startup executive, is the founder of ShoestringMag.com.“American Horror Story” fell a little short of a same-day series record but still made quite an impression in its return Wednesday, as the “Hotel” installment of the franchise — featuring Lady Gaga in her TV series debut — opened to big numbers for FX and stood as the night’s No. 2 program in the 18-49 demo, behind only sister network Fox’s “Empire.”
FX has a policy of not releasing any ratings analysis of its series until three-day VOD and DVR playback can be included, but according to same-night numbers released Thursday by Nielsen, the premiere of “American Horror Story: Hotel” averaged a 3.0 rating in adults 18-49 (about 3.8 million in this age group) and 5.81 million viewers overall. This is down a tick in the demo and about 5% lower in total viewers from last year’s “American Horror Story: Freak Show” premiere (3.1 rating in 18-49, 6.13 million viewers overall), which went on to become the network’s most-watched telecast ever in Nielsen’s “live plus-3” estimates. There’s no reason to think last night’s premiere can’t set a new record when L+3 numbers come out on Monday.
For the full duration of last season, “American Horror Story: Freak Show” averaged roughly 12.64 million viewers in combined linear and non-linear viewership, surpassing the previous year’s “Coven” installment (11.75 million) as well as the seventh and final season of “Sons of Anarchy” (11.69 million) as the network’s most popular series to date. The show generated 10.73 million viewers in “live plus-7” linear viewing and picked up an additional 1.91 million from VOD and streaming.
Related TV Review: ‘American Horror Story: Hotel’
The 3.0 rating in adults 18-49 for FX’s “American Horror Story” ranked second among all primetime series on Wednesday night, behind only sister network Fox’s “Empire” (5.1). Specifically in its 10 p.m. timeslot, it more than doubled the rating for broadcast leader “Chicago PD” on NBC (1.5).
In each of the last three seasons, “Horror Story” has peaked in same-night ratings with its premiere episode. The finale of “American Horror Story: Freak Show” in January of this year did a 1.55 rating in 18-49, which is half of its season premiere three months earlier.NBA commissioner Adam Silver told the New York Post that Knicks owner James Dolan will not be punished for his controversial email to an unhappy fan of the team.
In a response to an email from Irving Bierman, who criticized Dolan's ownership and management of the team, the embattled Knicks owner suggested that Bierman is "an alcoholic" and told him to "start rooting for the Nets because the Knicks don't want you."
Editor's Picks Howard: Silver, Dolan both dropped the ball NBA commissioner Adam Silver should have called out Knicks owner James Dolan for his nasty email, writes Johnette Howard
Silver commented on Dolan's email Monday, one day after the contentious exchange surfaced.
"Jim is a consummate New Yorker," Silver told the Post. "Jim got an unkind email and responded with an unkind email."
Reached via phone by ESPNNewYork.com's Ian Begley on Monday night, Bierman, 73 said he didn't want to discuss his feelings on Silver's decision in detail.
"The intention of my email was only as a disgruntled fan," Bierman said.
Sources with knowledge of the NBA's decision told Begley that Dolan's remarks did not broach territory that would cause the league to insert itself. That territory includes the use of vulgarity or any comments addressing class, race or sexual orientation.
Silver's mentor and predecessor David Stern agreed with the new commissioner's decision to keep the league out of the matter.
"We have our own brand of due process," Stern said when asked about the Dolan email at the 14th Annual Cal Ramsey Distinguished Lecturer Series in Sports Management at New York University. "In terms of all the things that people should be held accountable for... if you are looking for every email that gets sent to a fan who sends a nasty email, I'm sorry... that's almost beneath the commissioner's duties."
Bierman had earlier told ESPN he emailed Dolan because he was upset over his handling of the Knicks, whom he has rooted for since 1952.
Knicks owner James Dolan responded to an email criticizing him by attacking the fan and telling him to root for the Nets instead. AP Photo/Frank Franklin II
"I just felt enough is enough is enough," Bierman said.
In his initial email, Bierman wrote that he is "utterly embarased by your dealings with the Knicks" and accused Dolan of "a lot of utterly STUPID business things with the franchise." Bierman also requested that Dolan sell the team.
In his response, Dolan called Bierman "a sad person."
"Why would anybody write such a hateful letter. I am.just guessing but ill bet your life is a mess and you are a hateful mess," Dolan wrote. "What have you done that anyone would consider positive or nice. I am betting nothing. In fact ill bet you are negative force in everyone who comes in contact with you. You most likely have made your family miserable. Alcoholic maybe. I just celebrated my 21 year anniversary of sobriety. You should try it. Maybe it will help you become a person that folks would like to have around. In the mean while start rooting for the Nets because the Knicks dont want you. Respectfully James Dolan."
The Knicks have mostly struggled during Dolan's tenure as owner, which began in 1999. They have won just one playoff series in the past 14 years. This season, New York is 10-41.
ESPN.com's Ian Begley and Ohm Youngmisuk contributed to this report.By Miguel Rivera
WBC lightweight champion Mikey Garcia (37-0, 30 KOs) explained that a better economic offer to return on January 27th was what made him reject a proposal from Golden Boy Promotions to stage a unification with WBA champion Jorge Linares.
As BoxingScene.com reported last week, Garcia met with Golden Boy President Eric Gomez in an attempt to reach an agreement for the Linares fight.
The meeting went well, but Garcia received another offer for a Showtime televised fight that was even better than the 50-50 proposal from Golden Boy to face Linares.
Garcia is still very much interested in fighting Linares and plans to discuss it further after his January return. He hopes to speak with Gomez in the near future to work out the financial details for a Linares bout |
has been added to the software just this week.
16. Cross Site Request Forgery (CSRF)
In many ways HTTP is quite clever. For example, you can authenticate to a website and then in unison with the web browser it will happily send your auth cookie back to the website with each request automagically.
In other ways HTTP is rather foolish. For example, you can authenticate to a website and then in unison with the web browser it will happily send your auth cookie back to the website with each request automagically. Oh – even when you didn’t actually intend to make the request!
It’s that last bit that CSRF exploits. The risk here is that if an attacker can trick a victim’s browser into making a request to a website they’re already authenticated to and modify the parameters of the request to do the attacker’s bidding, we might have a bit of a problem. For example, if a banking website allows an authenticated user to make a request such as “/transfer/?amount=500&to_account=1234567890” and it actually impacts a change (such as transferring money), then we have a CSRF risk. That’s a very simplistic example and I do go into a lot more detail in part 5 of the OWASP Top 10.
Let me give you a real world example. When you’re logged in to Toys R Us, if you make a POST request like this:
http://www.toysrus.com.au/scripts/additemtoorder.asp
And you send the following form data:
productid: 1675220 quantity: 1 injectorder: true
You will add one of these to your cart:
Now of course there is nothing wrong with a Lego Star Wars X-wing model, assuming you actually wanted one! The problem is that all an attacker needs to do is trick your browser into reproducing the same request pattern – just the URL and form data – and you’ll have one of these in your cart. This execution of this can be extremely simple, for example, visit an attacker’s page where there are hidden form fields reconstructing those three pieces of data I showed earlier on and set the action to the URL which adds the item to the cart. Now give them a big “Win free stuff” button (which is how the attacker lured them in to begin with) and badaboom – they’ll submit the request along with their authentication cookie to the Toys R Us website and have a shiny new Leo model in their cart! The attacker might even target a hidden frame so that the victim can’t see the response from the Toys R US server.
That’s a very simplistic example in a low-risk scenario. There are more complex executions and obviously more risky scenarios and they’re possible because the CSRF attack is able to reproduce the appropriately structured HTTP request which, of course, also sends off the authenticated user’s cookies because that’s just how HTTP works.
The mitigation is detailed in the post I mentioned earlier and it’s all about using an anti-forgery token in the form with a corresponding cookie. If both of these values don’t reconcile when the request is made then it’s considered to be forged. This works because an attacker cannot simply recreate the correct form data without grabbing the token from the website which is unique to the user. The anti-forgery cookie will be sent automatically – that’s fine – but its mate from the form won’t be.
What’s important in the context of this post though is what a secure request should look like. Here’s what happens when I logon to ASafaWeb and there are two important bits of info I’ve highlighted:
This is the anti-forgery token in both a cookie then further down in the hidden field. This is the way ASP.NET names them, other web platforms may show slightly different names but the point is that the token exists and without it, the request fails. This should be in every location where an inadvertent request could have an adverse impact for the user. If you don’t see it – like on Toys R Us – then a CSRF risk is almost certainly present.
Scorecarding websites with ASafaWeb
There’s a lot to remember when securing websites and indeed what’s listed above only even scrapes the surface. However it’s a good starting point and these are all risks that have many precedents of being exploited for an attacker’s gain. They’re also all risks that as I stated from the outset, can be remotely detected without stepping into the evil hacker realm. You can be responsible in detecting these risks.
I often see tweets like this:
Clearly this is somewhat of a rhetorical question as it’s very unlikely the culprit is aware of the risk. Moving on, rather than just having people point website owners to a lengthy post covering multiple issues as is the case above, I wanted to provide something more succinct that talks about specific risks then provide further reading from there. Given the sort of risks I’ve outlined throughout this post, I wanted to provide an easy mechanism for assessing, recording and sharing them so here it is – the ASafaWeb Scorecard:
This is very simple mechanism and it works like this: first you enter the URL of the site you’re assessing. Next, for each of the 16 risks outlined above there’s an entry on the ASafaWeb Scorecard along with “Pass” and “Fail” buttons. You then go through and self-assess the site, clicking the appropriate button as you go (you can click the same button again to de-select the risk).
This is not a dynamic analysis tool like the ASafaWeb scanner is and that’s simply because for the most part you need to be a human to detect these issues. For example, you actually need to do a password reset and assess the resulting email in order to discover that it’s not being stored satisfactorily.
As you complete the assessment you’ll see the results appear in a hash in the URL. What this means is that a completed assessment has a URL something like this:
https://asafaweb.com/Scorecard#url=notasafaweb.apphb.com&LackOfTls=Fail&InsecureLogin=Fail&SecureCookies=Fail&MixedModeHttps=Pass&Xss=Fail&PasswordReminders=Pass&PasswordStorage=Pass&PasswordRules=Pass&PasswordDos=Pass&HttpOnly=Pass&InternalErrors=Fail&RobotsTxt=Pass&HtmlSource=Pass&ParameterTampering=Pass&Clickjacking=Fail&Csrf=Fail
When the URL is received by someone and they open it up, the Scorecard appears with a little summary and the risks in read only mode so that they can’t be directly edited again:
Mind you, it’s easy just to change the URL and as a result the Scorecard values, but this isn’t intended to be a tamperproof rather it’s a means of sharing information via URL alone. When the Scorecard is opened up it won’t show any risks that haven’t been given a pass or a fail grade so you can elect exactly what data you want to share. Only want to raise one risk – fine, just select that. Only want to alert someone to failing risks – likewise, just send those. You choose.
There are two reasons I’ve done this and by far the most important is that I don’t want to be building up a repository of vulnerable sites! By persisting the risk in the URL parameter the address contains all the information that’s required to understand what’s going on. Secondly, because that URL is so self-contained it’s easy to pick up and send to someone so it’s very transportable.
Ultimately that’s the goal – to create a mechanism to easily report on risks and share them around. I’d love to see this tool being used in place of trying to explain risks via Twitter and engaging in the banter that often ensues in an attempt to try and explain things in only 140 characters a shot. It would be great if this gains some traction and I’d love feedback on the effectiveness of it, including if there are further risks that should be included in an attempt to encourage people to seek them out.
And that brings us back to where this post started out – hacking yourself first. Using the Scorecard above, the chances of you finding at least one risk in your own site is very high and if you can do that and mitigate it before someone exploits it then that’s a very good thing indeed. And likewise, if you do find issues in someone else’s site, the risks above should keep you out of trouble if you detect and report on them responsibly. Hopefully the Scorecard feature helps this process and makes the web, well, ASafa place!
More hacking yourself
The risks outlined above are ones I tend to use as a starting point either to assess sites I’m involved in building or to get a sense of the relative security position of someone else’s site. They’re not exhaustive though and as I said at the outset, there are other risks such as SQL injection which are serious, prevalent and will very likely cause damage if probed a little further.
A good resource for further probing is the OWASP Testing Guide. This will take you through hundreds of pages of steps that go into a lot more detail than what this blog post alone covers. If you want to get really in depth then there’s my recent Pluralsight video training which gets right down into the guts of how these risks are exploited and mitigated across just over eight hours of material.By Wendy Bacon
NSW riot police formed a human barrier around a section of Sydney Park early on Wednesday morning and violently pushed residents off the edge of the park which was then fenced off by Westconnex contractors.
The land fenced off includes both NSW Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) 1950s road reservation, land that has always been part of the park and other land owned by the City of Sydney until December 21, when it was forcibly taken over by the NSW Government just before Christmas.
Residents who have maintained a 24 hour protest camp in Sydney Park since September feared the worst when Minister Gay announced on December 24 through the pages of the Daily Telegraph that he expected a fresh wave of protests at Sydney Park. He attacked anti Westconnex protesters, who he has previously described as “nasty little anarchists”, as “professional” demonstrators.
Gay also announced that the Airport link between Westconnex and Kingsford Smith Airport, for which no formal planning process has even begun, might be finished by 2023, which is earlier than expected. He provided no plan for the link but stated that it would cost no more than the $16.8 billion already budgeted for existing works.
The arrival of the police followed a successful Westconnex Action Group “Breakfast before Bulldozers’ on Tuesday. Greens MP Jenny Leong and MLC Mehreen Faruqi joined Labor Councillor Linda Scott all of whom spoke at the breakfast, giving strong support to residents. Labor Councillor Linda Scott told the group that she had been informed that the extra land Westconnex wanted to takeover was still being disputed by Council. This included the land on which the toilet block, which services the entire south half of Sydney Park stands.
Shortly afterwards, RMS Community Engagement officer Dan Silburn arrived with Westconnex land surveyors. The group asked him to provide authorisation that the work had been approved. Greens MP Jenny Leong accused Premier Mike Baird of hiding behind a junior public servant rather than coming to the park to face the residents.
Silburn left and did not return. Surveyors then began work on Euston Road but left after being asked by residents for authorisation.
At about 5.30 the next morning, police arrived at the park, followed by scores of contractors. The leading contractor declared the land to be ‘private land’ although it is in fact publicly owned, while senior police asserted that it was now enclosed land which it clearly was not. The police then physically forced residents off the land while contractors quickly fenced off the site. Three residents received minor injuries to their arms as a result of police severely pinching them and bending their wrists. There were no arrests.
Only after these actions were complete did Westconnex supply the Westconnex Action Group with a copy of a Gay’s letter to the City of Sydney overriding its appeal against the land transfer.
In his public statements, Gay has continued to insist that only 1500 square metres is being removed from the park. He compares this to the size of a ‘bowling green.’ In fact the size of the land and impact on the site, which is the only large park in this part of Sydney, is far greater than he Gay has suggested.
Part of the extra land that has been acquired includes the site on which the toilet block for the southern half of the parks stands. This block also houses a pump for the wetlands. The health of the water in the wetlands is crucial. The toilets service the barbecues and picnic areas used by hundreds of residents especially in the summer. The canopy provided by hundreds of trees cools the side of the park and provides a habitat for smaller plants and animals.
Further up the park the exercise equipment will need to be moved as it would otherwise be adjacent to a construction site and 7 lane highway.
The toilets were initially left open but were then also locked and fenced off following an order from senior ranks at Westconnex. City of Sydney has told protesters that it will supply portaloos for the park. The toilets were subsequently reopened until portaloos arrive.
The removal of the park and hundreds of trees is going ahead despite the fact that residents in St Peters have been told by RMS and Westconnex that the design of the road is not yet complete and it could be moved further south away from the park.
The approved Environmental Impact Statement for the New M5 showed that the project would deliver a massive 73,000 extra cars into the area leaving roads beyond the project at over 100% capacity. The removal of the Camperdown Interchange, which was going to be part of the third stage of Westconnex, will add even more cars to roads in the inner southwest of Sydney.
Further RMS plans are being developed already to widen roads through to Moore Park in the Inner East. These plans will cost many more millions, but will not be counted as part of the cost of Westconnex.
NSW Labor, Green and Independent politicians, major environmental organisations and nearly 3700 residents have signed an open letter to Premier Mike Baird, the Minister for Planning Rob Stokes and the Minister for Roads Duncan Gay asking them to halt the massive St Peters Interchange and review the planning process. None have replied.
The stop Westconnex community groups are planning more protests in coming days.
Wendy Bacon is a supporter of the Westconnex Action Group and ex Professor of Journalism at UTSBerlin, Warsaw — April 1st, 2014
The team behind the Lato font family (Łukasz Dziedzic and Adam Twardoch) have just released a special version of the Lato font called Lato Saves Billions. “While Garamond can save the U.S. government mere 400 million dollars, the Lato Saves Billions font can save at least 5 billion dollars,” said Adam Twardoch. “The image above compares the Times New Roman, Garamond and Lato Saves Billions fonts, all set at 14 pt. You can download the free Lato Saves Billions font and try it out on your own computer. You will see how much more space-efficient Lato Saves Billions is compared to other fonts!” Twardoch continued:
Download LatoSavesBillions.zip version April 1st, 2014
“Or you can download the entire Lato font family — nine weights with italics, all free!” he concluded:
Download Lato2OFL.zip versionNEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The Federal Reserve may need to act aggressively to address growing fears of a recession even though it risks further spooking an already nervous Wall Street, according to some market observers.
Fed chairman Ben Bernanke said in a speech Thursday that the Fed was worried about the economy and that the Fed would take "substantive additional action as needed" to stimulate growth.
The Fed's next policy making committee meeting is a two-day session that is scheduled to conclude on Jan. 30. But some analysts think the Fed should cut rates before then.
In fact, investors are now pricing in a 100 percent chance that the Fed will cut the federal funds rate by a half-point, to 3.75 percent, according to federal funds futures listed on the Chicago Board of Trade.
Some believe the Fed's worries about inflation due to surging oil and gold prices and a weak dollar could keep it from cutting rates before Jan. 30.
But market experts said the Fed now has little choice but to cut its key federal funds rate later this month as recent economic reports have highlighted weakness in the manufacturing sector and disappointing jobs growth.
"In light of the shockingly weak economic statistics, the Fed has little choice other than to slash short-term rates," said Jeffrey Saut, chief investment strategist for Raymond James.
This week's market rout put stocks into official correction status. That also is likely to influence the Fed.
"The Fed will continue to lower rates regardless of what they say about inflation," said Quincy Krosby, chief investment strategist with the Hartford. "If this market continues to deteriorate and be underscored by a sell first and ask questions later mentality, the Fed may have no choice but to deviate from its gradual policy of rate cuts."
There have been gloomy predictions about the economy from two prominent investment banks -- Merrill Lynch said in a report earlier this month that the economy is already in a recession while Goldman Sachs said Wednesday that the economy is falling into one.
Investors also worry that more bad news from banks could lie ahead. They are bracing for a bad round of bank earnings beginning next week. Citigroup (C, Fortune 500), Merrill Lynch (MER, Fortune 500) and Washington Mutual (WM, Fortune 500) are all expected to report losses for the fourth quarter. Finally, retail sales figures for December will be released by the government next week - and they are not expected to be good.
Add all that up, and it's possible that the Fed may have to cut rates before January 30 to reassure jittery investors.
"With the stock market down, continued illiquidity in the credit markets and crummy financial numbers, that may almost force the Fed's hand," said Phil Dow, director of equity strategy with RBC Dain Rauscher.
The Fed has shown a willingness during the current credit crisis to act aggressively. It cut the discount rate, which is what banks pay to borrow directly from the Fed, by a half of a percentage point twice last fall.
Yet, some members of the Fed still seem divided about what to do next.
On Wednesday morning, Federal Reserve of St. Louis president William Poole said in a speech to a group of financial planners in St. Louis that it is "too early to tell right now" if the housing sector's woes will cause a recession and that the Fed continues to watch "both recession and inflation risks."
And according to a statement from the Fed released Tuesday, the twelve regional banks of the Federal Reserve had varying opinions about what the central bank's policy making committee should do with the discount rate, leading up to the Fed's meeting on December 11.
Directors of seven of the twelve regional banks voted to lower the discount rate by a quarter of a percentage point, to 4.75 percent. (There are 100 basis points in a full percentage point.) But directors of three banks voted for a 50 basis point cut and two banks voted for no change in the discount rate.
The Fed ultimately agreed with the majority of its regional bank presidents and cut its discount rate, as well as its federal funds rate, the overnight bank lending rate that affects how much interest consumers pay on a wide variety of loans, by a quarter-point on December 11.
Eric Rosengren, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, one of the banks that advocated a half-point cut to the discount rate before December 11, voted for a 50 basis point cut to the federal funds rate as well.
The Fed is taking steps beyond rate cuts to try and assuage liquidity concerns though. To that end, the Fed handed out $40 billion in loans to banks through two auctions last month and has plans to offer $60 billion more in loans through two auctions later this month.
Subodh Kumar, an independent market strategist, said creative steps like the auctions, and not big rate cuts, are the best way to address recession fears. He argues that a rate cut before January 30 or in an unplanned meeting between its January 30 meeting and next meeting on March 18 could make investors even more afraid.
"An intermeeting cut would be a signal of some kind of panic about growth," Kumar said. "The markets would fear that the Fed saw something even worse in the economy than that's what already obvious in the numbers that have been reported."
Raymond James' Saut agreed, saying that the market may initially approve of an emergency move but that cheers would turn to jeers once investors realized that an intermeeting cut might be a sign that the Fed is behind the curve.
But the Fed may have no choice, even if it risks agitating an already skittish market. The Hartford's Krosby said even if the Fed holds pat until January 30, it might need to make an emergency cut in February, especially if the employment numbers for January are weaker than expected.
"The rapid increase in the unemployment rate caught the market off guard. If we continue to see the unemployment rate tick up, it will be an issue of the Fed playing catch up," Krosby said.
RBC's Dow added that he's confident that the economy will either avoid a recession outright or at the very worst, only be in a brief recession. He thinks that the Fed's rate cuts from last year combined with more cuts this year will eventually stimulate growth.
"The word recession is rolling off the tongue of a lot of people and people are talking about a bear market. But recessions are less likely when the Fed's easing. I still think we'll muddle through this," Dow said.
Saut isn't so sure though. He said a recession may be a foregone conclusion given the weakness in the housing market and the fact that consumer debt levels are continuing to rise.
So even if the Fed's rate cuts and auctions help resolve the credit crunch, they might not help consumers all that much.
"The real question is whether the overspent/undersaved consumer is finally sated with debt," Saut said. "The Fed can stand on its head and blow soap bubbles out of its butt and that won't do anything."Sharks backrower Wade Graham has been installed as Sharks Captain for the Dick Smith NRL Auckland Nines with Luke Lewis withdrawing from the squad with a minor injury concern.
While Lewis will be a loss for the Sharks, Graham has experience as team captain, deputising for regular skipper Paul Gallen at various times during 2014, with his inclusion giving the Sharks a somewhat different look for the Nines.
A former half-back, Graham’s ball playing ability is sure to be an asset in the alternative format tournament.
As for Lewis, as coach Shane Flanagan explained, his withdrawal is no cause for concern for Sharks fans, with the experienced forward likely to be fit and ready to go for the teams trial match against Manly the following weekend.
“Luke has a minor injury problem, he hasn’t run since late last week and he just won’t be right for the Nines,” Flanagan said. “The injury isn’t a serious one and we certainly expect him to be right to play Manly in our first trial the following week.”
Also out of the Sharks 18-man squad for the Nines is prop Sam Tagataese, his place to be taken by newcomer Saulala Houma.
“Taga has a slight groin strain and while it settled reasonably well over the weekend, he won’t be ready for the Nines either and Saul will come in,” Flanagan said. “Like Lewy, Taga should be good to go for the Manly trial as well.”
The two late team changes are something of a blow, however the Sharks are still hopeful of a successful outing in New Zealand, with their young squad keen to impress.
In addition to Houma, a man mountain who will play his first official games in Sharks colours, the likes of Jack Bird, Valentine Holmes, Sami Sauiluma and Fa’amanu Brown will be out to press their claims for positions in the NRL team for round one on March 8.
Last year at this same event Brown and Holmes were most impressive, with the pair emerging from the Nines weekend as potential NRL players before going on to debut in the top grade later in the season.
The Sharks open their Nines tournament with a match against the Bulldogs, before playing the Broncos and Roosters in the round robin section of the event.
The Sharks team for the Auckland Nines
Wade Graham ©
Valentine Holmes
Sosaia Feki
Gerard Beale
Ricky Leutele
Jack Bird
Nu Brown
Kyle Stanley
Saul Houma
Pat Politoni
Tinirau Arona
Matt Prior
Chris Heighington
Blake Ayshford
Nathan Gardner
Todd Murphy
Sami Sauiluma
Junior Roqica
SHARKS LOCKER ROOM LAUNCH
In response to our Members Survey and Fan Forums, Saturday, January 31, the opening day of the Auckland Nines, marks the official opening of the new, long awaited Sharks Sports Bar (packed with Sharks memorabilia).
We are excited to extend an invitation to all Sharks fans to join us at the Locker Room Launch and watch our Sharks do battle at the Auckland 9’s. From 12 midday, this Saturday, with the Sharks first match at 12.35pm. Sharkies Leagues Club opens at 10.00am.
The Looker Room will also show the Channel 9 Footy Show fight night featuring Paul Gallen and Sonny Bill Williams in action.Manipulating graphs has traditionally been seen as a place where imperative programming reigns supreme. Tikhon Jelvis begs to differ, and shows a trick where graph traversal can be expressed by a form of pattern matching. After explaining the approach he simulates how it works on a sample graph.
Summary
Traditionally graph algorithms are seen as one of the things that are really hard in functional programming
To some extent it is because the graph algorithms and representations you’ve learned have a very imperative bent
One insight into making a graph algorithm functional is to find a way to use pattern matching on a graph structure What does this even mean? Start with what we already know: pattern matching is easy on lists or trees Translates to any algebraic data type really But there is no algebraic data type for graphs Graphs are not inductive — there is more than one way to build them up or take them apart
But we can pretend! We can treat graphs as if they were inductive
So how do we break a graph apart in a pattern match? We’ll use a a “view” match :: Node -> Graph -> Maybe View
Depth first search We don’t update flags on nodes to say which we have visited Our recursion just happens on a subgraph that does not re-visit nodes Example of the operation on a specific graph
You can find the implementation in the Functional Graph Library
Slides for this talk are available here
For an example of generating mazes using functional programming, check out this blog post
Q&A
Related PostsGwassGween by Cheapskate
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Foreword by Antony Leather Someone said something on Facebook recently about PC modding that I found describes good modding projects rather well. The comment was along the lines of even though the project in question was made nearly seven years ago, it still looked fantastic - it was ahead of its time.It's something that's true for all manner of things, not just PC's, but nonetheless, many of the best projects we've seen still look great nearly ten years on. The same is true for long-time forum member Cheapskate's latest project.Craig Kendrick, as he's otherwise known, has been involved with a number of other projects since the project began in 2009, and was a finalist in our 2013 Intel NUC case competion (see Craig's entry here ). But despite the fact the project had its inception over five years ago, the end result was still one of the best PCs to come out of 2013.Enough of our waffle, though, as Craig has kindly taken the time to put together a fascinating walk-through of his project, called GwassGween. It's over to Cheapskate to tell us how he did it...Hello, Cheapskate here. I've been a member here for some time, and some people say I'm good at building stuff. They never say it's pretty stuff, just that I have some skill at modding.I have a few builds here in the project logs, and I have attracted fans who love to watch a good train wreck. I was asked to tell you a little about my last project, Gwass Gween, also known as GG, or Gigi, (or 'Ween.)Holey moley. After tinkering with this project on and off for over four years, it's hard to know how to start. I almost need someone to brief me on everything that happened. It's all a blur of sanding. Horrible amounts of sanding.Initially, I wanted this design to be big and roomy to make maintenance simpler. (Ok, I failed at all of that but, big'.) To give me extra clearance inside, I put the frame support outside. A large part of the body is a single fused glob of glass green plexiglass made of 40 or so smaller parts fused together. Side panels are mounted with six Frankenstein-esque bolts with the stainless steel nuts sealed into the frame.Ironically, one of the "ease of use" features I planned made the case insanely complicated:The covering of all electronics and wiring with black Plexiglas. Let's face it; My wiring work is awful. It's better to cover my shame. Everything was to be boxed and disguised. If possible, louvres were added- EVERYWHERE.I liked the idea of hiding any front interface, so the optical drive, power switch and USB are stashed in a retractable lid hatch. A quick release hard drive latch that uses polycarbonate that I designed for an earlier build makes an appearance here again.Clearer RxJava intentions with Single and Completable
Valentin Hinov Blocked Unblock Follow Following Mar 9, 2017
In almost all RxJava example code and tutorials there is one class that reigns supreme — the Observable. It is the object which makes the whole magic of reactive programming possible. It’s simple — you only have to track 3 events — onNext, onError, and onCompleted and you can apply all of the hundreds of possible operators to make it do your bidding. Why would you need anything else, right?
Have you considered whether you actually need to know about those 3 events every time? Hint — in most cases, you don’t. The documentation over at ReactiveX goes on about continuous streams of events so much that we often forget we usually only care about observing just one event that happened or just observing that something completed or failed.
In such cases you should consider using two wonderful RxJava constructs called Single<T> and Completable. Before we talk about them, let’s look at an example of where they might apply.
Before you look at the code I want to specify all of my examples will be using RxJava 2.x, not the 1.x version. If you haven’t yet upgraded your RxJava projects to the latest 2.x version, I highly encourage you to. I’m also using Java 8 lambdas to make code easier to read.
Single
One of the most common use cases for RxJava in Android is for doing network calls. If you’re an Rx user on Android you’re probably using Retrofit as your HTTP client. Say you have a GET HTTP call which returns some data. When you use the RxJavaAdapter you can declare your API client like so:
public interface APIClient {
@GET("my/api/path")
Observable<MyData> getMyData();
}
This is perfectly fine and you can use it as is. The code that uses it can take a form like this:
apiClient.getMyData()
.subscribe(myData -> {
// handle data fetched successfully
}, throwable -> {
// handle error event
}, () -> {
// handle on complete event
});
When you think about it though — this really isn’t really a continuously streaming event is it? Your API call isn’t going to return your result twice or in multiple pieces. No, you make the call to fetch your data once and you’re only expecting a single result. We know that onComplete will follow as soon as onNext happens so why can’t we combine them?
To make your intentions in this case clearer, you can instead replace the Observable with a Single<MyData>. From the documentation on Single you can find out why it’s the perfect candidate: A Single is something like an Observable, but instead of emitting a series of values — anywhere from none at all to an infinite number — it always either emits one value or an error notification. Sounds ideal, right? So our API client now looks like this:
public interface APIClient {
@GET("my/api/path")
Single<MyData> getMyData();
}
Now, our above use case can be simplified to this:
apiClient.getMyData()
.subscribe(myData -> {
// handle data fetched successfully and API call completed
}, throwable -> {
// handle error event
});
The nice part about this is that even though you’re not using Observable anymore, Single implements almost all of the operators you’d often use on an Observable — map, flatMap, filter, zip — they’re all there — the only difference being they return or work with Singles instead of Observables. If you find you need to use an operator that Single does not support or you want to use an Observable representation of it you can use the handy toObservable operator to automagically convert a Single<T> to an Observable<T>.
apiClient.getMyData()
.toObservable()
// This is an Observable<MyData> now
Oh, and if for some reason you have an Observable that you know for sure behaves like a Single, you can convert it using the singleOrError operator.
Completable
Continuing with our Retrofit example, let’s consider another common API case — doing a PUT request to update an object. We want to change some properties on the MyData object and then send it to the server to update in its database. What most server API design does in this case is just respond with the updated object when successful. So your client code would be:
public interface APIClient {
@PUT("my/api/updatepath")
Observable<MyData> updateMyData(@Body MyData data);
}
And, similar to our previous example, you’d just use it like so
apiClient.updateMyData(myUpdatedData)
.subscribe(myData -> {
// handle data fetched successfully and API call completed
}, throwable -> {
// handle error event
}, () -> {
// handle completion - what we actually care about
});
You may say that in here we could again just use Single to cut down on our code and you’d be correct. In this case do we even need the MyData result, though? The server is returning it to us with good intentions, but it’s essentially just giving us back what we already sent it if it was successful. What we want is to just be notified that the update succeeded. Meaning, we just want the onComplete event.
Enter the Completable — an object that represents the exact intention we’re going for. Its description: Represents a computation without any value but only indication for completion or exception. By using Completable we agree to ignore the onNext event and only handle onComplete and onError. The API client then becomes:
public interface APIClient {
@PUT("my/api/updatepath")
Completable updateMyData(@Body MyData data);
}
This leads to our usage being:
apiClient.updateMyData(myUpdatedData)
.subscribe(() -> {
// handle completion
}, throwable -> {
// handle error
});
Completables by their nature are quite different from Observable and Single (due to not emitting items). Therefore you end up using a different set of operators if you want to chain actions. The most versatile one being andThen. In that operator you can pass any Observable, Single, Flowable, Maybe or other Completable and it’ll get executed when the original Completable completes. For example, if you wanted to perform some other operation which is a Single you’d do:
apiClient.updateMyData(myUpdatedData)
.andThen(performOtherOperation()) // a Single<OtherResult>
.subscribe(otherResult -> {
// handle otherResult
}, throwable -> {
// handle error
});
Unlike Single RxJava does not allow an Observable to be converted to a Completable directly, because there is no way to know that an Observable will ever complete. You can convert a Single to a Completable, though, since a Single guarantees that onComplete will get called. The operator to use in that case is toCompletable.
If you read my previous article on code tidiness with RxJava you’d know that simple and concise code like this makes me happy. Through this brief and simple introduction to Single and Completable hopefully you can see that these two constructs can help in the goal of clearer code. They better explain to the user what to expect.Being a code wizard is useful no matter what you do in life, but it’s super useful if you want to be involved in making games! I do a lot of design and art and things like that.. but I can’t program, and I know I could be much more useful if I knew even the basics!
Also, I’d love to be able to make little games by myself sometime!
So here is the plan!
get your robes of learning ready!
I’ll be learning C#/JavaScript* and familiarizing myself with Unity3D.
Almost every day I’ll be using our studio’s Twitch channel while I learn, so that anyone can learn along with me. Calvin (husband/programmer for RLK) will help if needed!
I’ll be using free tools only, so anyone can learn along with me, no excuses!
Here’s what you do:
get a free copy of Unity3D
and a free account at codecademy.com
Follow our Twitter and Twitch to stay in the loop about all the things!
I’ll livestream at night during the week (eastern time), and mid day on weekends
After the stream I’ll post the videos on our Youtube page
On this blog, I’ll post each video along with a summary of what I learned.
We can all discuss and ask/help each other(both live on Twitch, and in the blog comments) as we go!
(TL;DR: Follow on Twitch, Twitter, and this blog, and learn C# and Java along |
being a network of content creators).
Until, in 2013, along comes Patreon.
The premise (and promise) of Patreon from the outset was pretty simple: to help patrons willing to provide support and creators connect to each other in a way beneficial for both.
Patreon provides a trusted platform, backed by its reputation, to host campaigns to support creators. It’s possible to do this with or without rewards offered in flexible ways.
It’s a valuable communication tool that works both ways, connecting creators and their fans.
The platform enjoys transparency, with patrons being able to estimate the level of support a creator is already getting (though we are now learning just how unpredictable the nature of creator fees was).
It enjoys a network effect: once “onboarded”, a patron is likely to pledge for other creators on the same platform due to drastically reduced friction.
Finally, there’s an important financial incentive. There are still external processing fees for putting money in and out of Patreon, but they are mitigated by aggregating payments: a patron is billed once a month for all supported campaigns, and creators similarly cash out the aggregated earnings. This drastically reduces the “$1 is eaten up by fees” problem, enabling people to meaningfully support a lot of creators with little money. It’s a viable financial alternative to being ad-supported. Many a small-pledge patron is guided by “I’m using AdBlock but can still fully cover the loss with just $1”. This is an absolutely key point of Patreon, and everybody wins as a result.
This changed today. Now everybody loses. I initially thought that you, the company, would win by cashing in more fees than before. Now that I read your blog update, I see that, literally, everybody loses.
Patreon: the troubles
The system described above functioned well for the most part. Except for one problem: people being frauds.
A pledge is just that: a promise to pay later. However, Patreon immediately unlocks the tangible rewards. This opens the door to promising to pay, collecting rewards, and ending up not paying.
Let me note at this point that rewards should not be the focus of Patreon to begin with. They were always extra nice things next to the main purpose of supporting the creator. Not all campaigns even offer any ― some deliberately state that knowing you’re supporting the creator is the only reward. However, it is understandable that such exclusive rewards are desirable and drive the participation. And it only makes sense to get access immediately.
Okay; this is a valid problem. You came up with a solution of an optional Charge Up Front (CUF) mode. This guarantees at least one full cycle of payment by charging it immediately. But, as you noted in the blog post, this leads to an anomaly: no matter where you pay in your first month, you pay the whole amount for that part, followed by a full amount again on next calendar month. It can get as bad as paying a full month’s price for one day if you pledge on the last day of a month.
This is both confusing and unfair. I would not disagree! However, your proposed solution isn’t really fixing either of those problems, at least not from the patron perspective.
CUF troubles: an attempted solution
You propose to charge every such pledge on its own monthly schedule, separate from other pledges. Furthermore, you propose to make this non-optional, and shift transaction fees onto patrons.
The current system, outside of the odd “initial” pledge payment, provides a good overview of how much you’re spending per month. It’s easier to plan expenses around one payment per month. With your new system, patrons will be flooded with payment notifications throughout the month. Do you really think this is going to be less confusing?
Now on to fairness. Your new schema destroys the financial advantage of Patreon: this no longer avoids per-transaction fees. This generally raises fees that go to external providers, benefiting no-one involved: neither patrons, nor creators, nor you as a company. This is money burned on the altar of our financial system ― the very one crowdfunding is supposed to disrupt.
In addition, some people already pay per-transaction fees, like currency exchange fees, that can rise with unbundling into separate payments ― even if you didn’t charge the flat rate.
Furthermore, this destroys viability of many small pledges.. Something that is the bread and butter of smaller campaigns and campaigns that don’t offer rewards. Is that fair to everyone involved?
Your new system prioritizes larger pledges to fewer campaigns. Which makes you pick which campaigns make most sense for larger pledges.. Which is, of course, campaigns with rewards. This really pushes away creators who specifically don’t want to put out exclusives / paywalls on their content. This increases pressure on creators to make exclusive content over their regular content. This becomes less about support and more a premium content storefront. Is that fair to creators? Does that mesh with your original vision?
Making it punishing to set multiple small pledges kills the network effect as well. You do not have incentives to look into supporting smaller creators you discover once you’re on the platform. Every pledge you make punishes you a little more for spreading your money.
Now, don’t misunderstand. I don’t think fees are possible to eliminate. You do provide a valuable service, and you do incur costs to yourself processing payments. To compensate you for this is fair and expected. However, how to apply those fees differs in perception and fairness.
First off, let’s see your current situation. No fees to patrons (except for occasional VAT). Variable, invisible fees for creators upwards of 7% (up to 15%). This is not optimal, especially since it makes hard for creators to predict their income. However, this is fully predictable to patrons and enjoys the very simple rule of “more patrons means more income for the creator”, even if the relationship is not linear.
Your new scheme: variable fees for patrons, fixed (but still non-zero) fee for creators. Pros: creators have (on paper) predictable income. Patrons have a predictable (but confusing) cost.
It is confusing, but fair, to impose costs onto the patrons. A fixed percentage is ideal ― predictable, and doesn’t matter if you support 10 creators for $1 or just one but for $10. I would personally agree to pay that. Realities of payment processing also mean that per-transaction fee is unpleasant, but fair (someone just pledging $1 once causes higher fees). But then unbundling doesn’t make any sense. A flat fee per month for a patron reflects necessary evil, but unbundling causes arbitrary extra fees ― and personally, this is the thing I vehemently oppose.
Further, this complicates life for patrons. If a patron wants to pay $10 to creators a month, how much will he actually be billed? This no longer has a simple answer, since it depends on the split. If your goal was to reduce confusion, this is not helping.
And for what? Solving just one problem of overcharging CUF patrons? Can there not be a better way? I posit that there can be.
CUF troubles: an alternative solution
Let’s collect assumptions as to why CUF is necessary and what properties do you want from the system.
[1] A creator has put a value on certain rewards (which is the monthly cost of the tier). If someone is getting that reward, the creator wants to guarantee that at least this much is paid.
This excludes pro-rating the first payment. The first payment must be at least 1 month.
[2] A patron should never pay more than expected for the time he has access to rewards, e.g. not paying 2 months worth for 1 month + a day from your example.
This is the problem with the current system that you want to eliminate.
There’s one more implicit assumption:
[3] A patron should not pay for more than one month in advance at any point.
This excludes the solution “pay for 1.5 months initially if you start in the middle of a month”. First payment must not be more than one month, and therefore must be exactly one month.
So, what solution can fit all of the above, plus still use bundling as currently implemented? Here’s one.
Suppose that in a 30-day month (say, November), a new patron pledges on the 21st. They already missed 2/3 of a month, yet, by [1], are expected to pay a full price. Let’s assume the perk costs $30/mo.
On Nov 21st, the new patron is charged $30, buying a month of access.
Then, billing for December comes up, say, Dec 1st. We want to recalibrate the system so that next time, the patron pays with usual calendar month system.
The first payment covered the last 1/3 of November, leaving 2/3 of a month pre-paid by December. Just include that into calculations by rolling over the “unspent” time!
On Dec 1st, the patron is billed ($30 - 2/3*$30) = $10, setting their pre-paid period until the end of December (a month in the future, so [3] is fine).
After that, the patron is on regular cadence. They pay the expected $30 every month starting with January.
The system fits all 3 criteria above, and still bunches up all payments except for the initial CUF one ― same as current one. That is, if the creator decided to use that at all. If they don’t want that ― and some don’t really need it since they have no tangible perks ― it’s even easier for you and cheaper for the patron.
I can foresee an objection to this schema: “too complicated”. Your initial blog post specifically bemoans that “creators and patrons are confused in our current system”.
I’m sorry, but this is somewhat insulting to our intelligence as users. Same as not initially disclosing your reasoning behind your new fees, by the way.
Here’s how my alternative solution can be explained at checkout, taking my example numbers and dates:
Here’s what you will pay, unless you cancel your pledge: $30 will be charged right now for a month of access (Nov 21st – Dec 20th). $30 will be charged at the beginning of each* month thereafter until you change or cancel your pledge. * Next month, you’ll receive a one-time discount due to the initial pledge rolling over (you’ll be billed $10 for Dec 21st – Dec 31st).
Note that I’m not an expert in presentation. People getting confused is a UX problem, not necessarily a problem with the underlying system. Consider consulting external experts on the matter, instead of blaming the system.
The fallout
I can speculate endlessly as to what approach to the problem would be better, but what’s done is done: you announced the intent to implement your version of changes. This has an immediate negative impact which has to do with both perception and reality of it.
Perception first. The new fee system means that every patron’s bill is going to increase, without any interaction and without any clearly visible positive effect.
Consider: the actual amount going to creators may increase, but from a patron perspective the cost of a $5 reward is now ($5 + fees), or ~$5.5. Getting more money to creators is a good thing, but the minimum entry fee changed upwards ― and creators budgeted for the fees anyway. Multiple creators I used to support are now saying they will lower their pledge level costs to compensate. But a lower pledge level only exacerbates the fees..
Of course, it is to be expected that this bill hike is perceived like a hostile action. More so with the initial lack of explanation, which made it seem like pure greed.
Next, take the fact that you’re not eliminating fees for the creators entirely. You collect fees from both patrons and creators. Both ostensibly to run the service. Regardless of the reality of how those costs are split, this can be and is seen by some as double-dipping.
Small pledges are now in a hard spot. Your flat fee is perceived as a tax ― a tax too high to justify for some, who are dropping pledges on principle.
And then there are hard realities. A lot of people participating on Patreon have budget ceilings. Some will choose to reduce their pledges in a way that their total bill is still within that budget. This means less money for creators, and for you.
Lowering the fees for creators will not be a net positive if the raw support drops.
I am yet to see anyone outside Patreon itself who looks at your plan and thinks “this is a good idea”. This should be a wake-up call for you that, perhaps, you’re doing something wrong.
This results in lasting reputation damage to your platform. Instead of the friendly, to-go choice for creator support, you’re now seen as a necessary evil. Unobtrusiveness of the platform is gone, you’re now very visible and your role is questioned. You are losing goodwill of your customers.
This situation makes you bleed patrons, money, and eventually creators if the situation does not improve. Right now, alternatives to your platform are not mature, but a loud chorus of disgruntled patrons is repeating “when you have an alternative set up, I’ll support you that way”.
With the flat fee introduction you’re starting to lose competitive advantage over just paying creators directly, processing fees be damned. With your system money is split between payment providers, you and the creator. You can be taken out of this picture.
You’re giving potential competitors (e.g. Kickstarter Drip) a perfect opportunity to strike while the public opinion is critical of you. Niche solutions with subscriptions (e.g. Twitch for video content creators, Picarto for artists, etc.) will gain more prominence. And it will stay that way if you don’t open the debate ― and by that I mean also open yourselves to entertain alternative options.
Remedies / conclusions
Regardless of the path you take now, it will be hard to win back the trust of your users. I am but one of them, but here’s my view on what you can do to improve.
Stop, and listen. It should be clear from the reaction you are getting that your plan needs adjustment, re-framing, or scrapping. The first step should be to postpone the plan. You, and the users, need time to assess the situation ― don’t let it go into effect in 10 days. [Edit: To clarify, per-creation payments from December 18th on will follow the new rules] Take another look at your data, taking into account the reaction you’re getting. You’re bleeding off pledges, especially small pledges, as a result of the changes. Extrapolate. Is this sustainable for your creators if you lose a big chunk of $1-$2 pledges? Run a large-scale survey of your users. Clearly you did not anticipate the reaction you got, meaning you don’t understand what matters to them. Obviously, running a business is not a democracy.. But it can be argued that it’s a monarchy, with customer being the king. So mass opinion matters. Whatever changes you implement, unbundling payments is a terrible idea that simply leads to loss of patron money. Simplicity isn’t worth a burden on all parties involved. Please reconsider. Should you decide to impose fees on patrons, make sure they scale fairly. Hitting lowest-contribution patrons harder is not healthy for the ecosystem. Discouraging patronage of multiple creators through per pledge fees is absolutely against the very idea of Patreon as a platform. Both creators and patrons are split on their opinion of who should bear the fees. Consider making that flexible. A lot of creators currently say that they would love to bear the cost. Some patrons that have the resources would say the same. Communicate important changes early and clearly. Engage with the community. A lot of the flak you’re receiving right now could be avoided if you presented your reasoning right away, instead of letting us speculate as to whether this is greed-motivated. It would be even better if this was not presented as a matter of fact, but as a matter for debate.
I hope this document finds its way into the right hands, and will not be brushed aside. I am passionate about Patreon and what it enables creators to do (otherwise this letter wouldn’t be written), and as such I would love to see this situation resolve in a positive way.
However, if it does not.. Nature abhors a vacuum.
Regards,
Alexander Kashev.
This open letter will be sent to the CEO of Patreon, Jack Conte, to the Patreon Support as feedback, as well as publicly announced at least on Twitter and Patreon.
It will be publicly displayed at https://kav2k.github.io/patreon_letter
I can be reached at alexander [at] kashev.me or on Twitter: @kav2k.
This letter was originally published on 2017-12-08. It has undergone 1 revision since then (mostly to correct a few typos).
I apologize for any errors remaining (I am, after all, not a native speaker).
You can see the original version that got sent to Jack Conte at this revision.Samsung New Zealand today announced the highly-anticipated Samsung GALAXY S4- smartphone will be available to New Zealand consumers from 10:00am on April 27, 2013.
Due to its geographical location New Zealand consumers will be the first in the world to purchase the device. Other countries throughout the world will also start selling the device from 10am their local time on April 27.
At launch the smartphone will be sold through selected retailers nationwide including Vodafone, Telecom and 2degrees-- and will come in two colours - Black Mist and White Frost.
Samsung New Zealand has also confirmed that only the 4G-capable 1.9 GHz Quad-Core Processor version of the device will be available locally. The device will also feature Navigon - a premium navigation service from GPS technology company Garmin.
Unveiled on March 15 (NZST) at the Samsung Unpacked event in New York, the Samsung GALAXY S4 is set to redefine the smartphone experience. The device features the world’s first Full HD Super AMOLED display and 5-inch large screen for stunning viewing quality and a host of new applications including S-Translator, Smart Scroll and Smart Pause.
The device is also equipped with a 13 megapixel rear camera and Dual Shot for simultaneous use of both front and rear cameras. It includes 12 different shooting modes for capturing the perfect shot.
Samsung New Zealand Sales Director Jon Barrell says the company is expecting the GALAXY S4 to be as popular, if not more so, than its record-breaking predecessor - the GALAXY SIII.
"The GALAXY S4 takes the smartphone experience to the next level. From the 13 megapixel camera to its unmatched processing power and brilliant screen quality - it’s an impressive device and we’re confident Kiwis are going to love it."
Users can look forward to a number of standout features of the GALAXY S4, including:
Navigon powered by Garmin
Get Navigation you can trust with free premium mapping from Navigon - powered by Garmin. The Navigon application is fully installed on the Galaxy S4 ensuring navigation is a low data experience. Features include 3D mapping, lane change information and multi route planning.
Dual Shot
Two cameras, one extraordinary photo. Capture the ‘I was there’ moments of life by simultaneously shooting with the front and rear cameras. Get the perfect shot with more variety of styles to choose from. With Dual Shot, friends and family can experience it all, no matter how far away they may be.
Samsung ChatON Samsung ChatON for GALAXY S4 provides a holistic communication experience by combining fun and creative text messaging with a high quality mVoIP service. Users can enjoy high quality voice chat with up to two friends on a WiFi and mobile network. In addition, translation in ChatON, called ‘S Translator,’ enables users to enjoy chat with friends using different languages. Received messages from buddies can be translated automatically and manually into the user’s language. Translation is also possible when sending messages to friends. The translation function in ChatON is available only in the GALAXY S4.
Group Play Group Play enables users to experience sharing photos, music, documents and games with their friends wherever they are without the need for a network environment. Compatible games will be available from Samsung Apps. Samsung is also opening it’s SDK to the public, encouraging more partner development companies to develop various types of games in the future, further embracing its philosophy of innovation conceived by people in order to inspire them in return.
S Voice TM Drive
For important tasks that require the user’s hands and attention - making calls, answering calls, organising messages, and asking for directions by voice command. - users can now do it all while keeping both hands safely on the steering wheel thanks to S Voice Drive. They simply tell it what to do.
Smart Pause
There are times when users have to look away from the screen while watching a movie. Samsung Smart Pause stops the video automatically by detecting facial movement and resumes it when the user looks back.
Smart Scroll
With the Samsung Smart Scroll feature, users can scroll through emails or webpages up or down. Users just look at the screen and tilt the device back and forth - the device will do all the work so they can enjoy reading continuously without having to scroll down with fingers."We do not interfere in what other countries are doing, we do not feel threatened. But, we feel there are some problems and that is what we have been talking about with our partners in Moscow. The thing is, some countries in our region have begun ordering ballistic missiles. I do not know why anyone in our region would have ballistic missiles. Either they will have to change their mind, or we will have to find an answer to that", Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić said in a recent interview, reports Jutarnji List on December 29, 2015.
Although he never mentioned Croatia, Vučić very openly sent a message to Croatia to stop the process of acquiring ballistic missiles for multiple rocket launchers M270 MLRS. He very openly said that during a recent visit to Moscow he asked Russian President Vladimir Putin for help in arms procurement if Croatia were to acquire ballistic missiles for the system.
Croatian Defence Ministry has asked the Pentagon to donate 16 mobile multiple rocket launchers M270 MLRS from US military surplus, through the program of assistance for allied countries. Launchers are armed with 240 mm calibre rockets, and the Defence Ministry plans to purchase several ballistic missiles with a range of 300 kilometres. Unofficial sources say that a Croatian military delegation recently visited the United States to examine the rocket launchers. Due to the current political situation in Croatia, the procurement process has been temporarily stopped. The outgoing defence minister and government cannot make such decisions, while chief of general staff's term will expire in just two months. Therefore, the whole idea will be discussed once again after the new government, the new defence minister and the new chief of general staff are elected.
From the moment the information that Croatia intends to acquire ballistic missiles with a range of 300 kilometres was announced, Serbia has not stopped making pressure on Croatia to abandon the idea, and Vučić has now revealed that he had asked Russia for help and weapons if Croatia actually acquires the rockets. However, most people in Croatia believe that Croatia should not accept these pressure and should think only about its own interests when making the final decision.
The acquisition of ballistic missiles would completely change the geostrategic situation and military balance in the region. It remains unknown whether Croatia would acquire all 16 launchers, as originally announced, or whether the number would be a bit smaller. One ballistic missile of this type costs about two million dollars, and in addition to ballistic missiles Croatia would buy a larger number of HE-FRAG 240 mm rockets, which are the basic ammunition for this missile system.
Sources claim that the missile system is a deterrent and that the Croatian Army would gain the ability of conducting strategic missile strikes deep into the enemy territory and thus acquire capability of deterring enemy attacks. Moreover, it would replace existing multiple launch systems used by armed forces inherited from the former Yugoslav Army. The missile systems would be operational starting from 2017. By then, the army should also have PzH 2000 howitzers, Kiowa helicopters and probably several drones.Praise be to Domhnall Gleeson, an actor who manages to remain distinctive and yet chameleon himself into roles so thoroughly that you'd rarely make the connection between two of his parts. Alas, that all came to pieces when he decided to reenter the nerdsphere by acting in another franchise, because it was impossible not to notice Bill Weasley playing General Hux in Star Wars. The instant I saw that flash of red hair on screen I was like, "OH HELL NO, WILLIAM ARTHUR WEASLEY," and by the time he was casually blowing up an entire planet system I was mentally digging Molly Weasley's grave. And judging by the reactions of all the other Potterheads who saw this movie, I was far from alone in my Weasley-shaming.
On the plus side, this is going to make Christmas dinner significantly less awkward for Percy, who may have been a git, but at the very least never joined the First Order. Or murdered millions of innocent people. Orrrrrr considered it his "destiny to rule the galaxy," as it so claims on the Star Wars Databank (aca-awkward, Kylo Ren). I imagine, though, that if Molly had the chance to knock some sense into the ginger hairs on his head, it would go down something like this:
(Courtesy of artist Katarzyna "Panna N" Witerscheim — Website, Facebook, Tumblr.)
In the fanfiction in my head (don't look at me), Bill Weasley was also cradle-snatched like we are all assuming Rey was — except across ~time and space~. In this alternate world, instead of being a Gringotts Curse Breaker and stud husband of Fleur Delacour, he just turned out to be a ruthless, power-hungry killing machine. Nature versus nurture, ya feel me? Hell, maybe all the people who are strong with the Force are basically the precursor to wizards and witches. Or maybe I just need to crawl back into my fandom trash hole and stop trying to justify why the coolest Weasley just became the most believably sinister villain of all time.
In the meantime, we can all mutually freak out on Twitter.
Never Not Making Fun Of General Weasley-Hux, 2015.
Images: Disney; Giphy; Courtesy of Panna NRegardless of how business pundits will eventually judge Marissa Mayer’s tenure as CEO of Yahoo, she’s succeeded on at least one front: reaping rich personal rewards.
Mayer will leave Yahoo following its sale to Verizon with more than $186 million in payouts, with the bulk of the compensation tied to her Yahoo stock, stock options and restricted stock options, according to calculations by the Wall Street Journal. Included in the figure is her golden parachute payout of $23 million, which largely consists of restricted stock. Since joining the Internet pioneer in 2012, she’s earned far more than $200 million.
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer will reportedly leave the company at least $186 million richer following Verizon’s buyout of the Internet pioneer. Eric Risberg, AP
Yahoo hired Mayer, one of Google’s first employees, with the goal of turning around the declining Internet giant. But her efforts failed to revitalize its core business, while massive security breaches in 2013 and 2014 unsettled some customers, who questioned whether Yahoo had properly handled the security problems. Mayer recently said she would turn down an equity bonus for 2017 and a cash bonus for 2016, citing the massive hacks.
“I am the CEO of the company and since this incident happened during my tenure, I have agreed to forgo my annual bonus and my annual equity grant this year and have expressed my desire that my bonus be redistributed to our company’s hardworking employees, who contributed so much to Yahoo’s success in 2016,” she wrote in a blog post last month.
Her total payout from Yahoo’s sale most likely dwarfs whatever bonus and grant she gave up, however. In recent years, her base salary and bonus have amounted to $3 million.
Verizon agreed to buy Yahoo last year for $4.83 billion, although the companies renegotiated a lower price after the security breaches were disclosed.
Shareholders will vote on the acquisition on July 8. As part of the deal, Mayer and other top executives have been granted accelerated vesting of stock options and stock-based awards, as is typical in such transactions. At the closing, all outstanding Yahoo stock options will be fully vested and exercisable, the filing noted.
Mayer and other top Yahoo executives won’t be part of the newly formed Internet company envisioned by Verizon, which will be called Oath.Like everything involving The Walking Dead these days, the comic book is getting a massive new addition.
Due out Oct. 3 from Image Comics' Skybound imprint, The Walking Dead: Compendium Two collects the second eight trade-paperback volumes of writer Robert Kirkman's award-winning survival horror series.
For those who are coming to the comic from the popular AMC TV show or who are catching up from the first compendium (which topped Amazon's list of top-selling graphic novels), the new 1,068-page book will cost fans $59.99 — a good deal since the single volumes retail for $14.99 each — and contain issues 49-96 of the comic.
With a new cover by Walking Dead artists Charlie Adlard and Cliff Rathburn, the second compendium begins with Rick Grimes and his boy Carl coming to grips with a major change in their lives — as if the zombie apocalypse wasn't a big enough change — and features fan-favorite characters such as Michonne in stories that lead up to the current monthly story line. (The landmark 100th issue comes out July 11.)
The monster compendium also happens to be Kirkman's favorite format for The Walking Dead.
"It's just such a big, huge book that really offers a lot of bang for your buck," he says. "The idea of having Volume 1 and 2 sitting next to each other on a reinforced shelf really excites me.
"I'm thrilled that we finally have enough issues released to be able to produce Volume 2. Now I'm looking forward to four years of 'When does Volume 3 come out?' "Starting a children’s book club can seem like an overwhelming undertaking, but there are a few simple considerations and steps to follow.
Before you decide to start a book club, make sure that your child wants to participate. If your child is not really interested and willing, the book club may be a disappointment for you both.
. If your child is not really interested and willing, the book club may be a disappointment for you both. The next decision you will need to make is who will participate in your kids’ book club. Ideally, all children involved in your group will be at a similar reading level, so you may want to target a particular age range for your group, such as second- and third-graders. Remember that younger children or weaker readers can participate in book clubs by having parents read books aloud to them or by listening to books on tape. In addition, you will need to consider whether you would like to have mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, or simply parents and children.
. Ideally, all children involved in your group will be at a similar reading level, so you may want to target a particular age range for your group, such as second- and third-graders. Remember that younger children or weaker readers can participate in book clubs by having parents read books aloud to them or by listening to books on tape. In addition, you will need to consider whether you would like to have mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, or simply parents and children. It is important to consider how many participants are ideal for your book club. Having too few participants may not make for lively enough conversation, while having too many participants may mean that each child does not get enough time to talk. Book clubs of between five and eight children and their parents are optimal.
are ideal for your book club. Having too few participants may not make for lively enough conversation, while having too many participants may mean that each child does not get enough time to talk. Book clubs of between five and eight children and their parents are optimal. You will also need to decide how you will advertise your book club. You may simply want to invite your child’s friends and their parents by sending an invitation via telephone, mail, or e-mail. You can also post a flyer at your local library or children’s book store, or advertise in school newsletters.
. You may simply want to invite your child’s friends and their parents by sending an invitation via telephone, mail, or e-mail. You can also post a flyer at your local library or children’s book store, or advertise in school newsletters. You must also decide on a meeting location. Meetings can be held in participants’ homes on a rotating basis, in a local library, local book stores, or at local coffee shops or restaurants. The size of your group may help you identify the ideal location for your meetings.
. Meetings can be held in participants’ homes on a rotating basis, in a local library, local book stores, or at local coffee shops or restaurants. The size of your group may help you identify the ideal location for your meetings. Once you have found some children and parents who are interested in participating in the book club, hold an organizational meeting to orient participants to the club. The organizational meeting is a time for group members to get to know one another, to establish some ground rules for the group, to decide on a meeting schedule, and to decide on the first book the group will read. Ask group members to bring some of their favorite books to the organizational meeting and come prepared to provide a summary of each book.
More on Kids’ Book Clubs:Q. Can class-specific items please have guaranteed class-specific stats?
- Dispirit#1859 (Americas [English])
Q. You talk about "game changing" items but mention only gimmicks that affect certain skills or builds. There is a reason people choose best in slot items. These items allow for the greatest damage and survivability possible so that the player can efficiently farm as high of a monster power as they can. Since damage affects any build out there to (usually) the greatest extent, would there be any reason to choose anything besides best in slot items?
So how will your itemization update approach literally "Best-in-slot" items? Will you make items to compete with the current heavy weights such as mempo, echoing fury, skorn, manticore, witching hour?
- RTBear (Americas [English])
Q. The game is filled with white and grey item drops. In practice white and grey items are pretty much ignored as equipable items after level 5 due to Blue and better items becoming available. White and grey items only real purpose currently seems to be to fill out the loot fountain effect, as they are neither cost-effective to vendor nor are they sellable on the Auction Houses.
Do you have plans for making such items useful? All previous uses for white and grey items did not make it to production D3 - salvaging white and grey items, socketing, enchanting, etc.
If you have no plans to improve them can you just remove them from the game above level 10? Or at least allow them to be filtered out of view via a setting in Options?
- Zuzax#1341 (Americas [English])
Q. do you still planning to exclude mf and gf affix from gear?
- Ubivash#2149 (Americas [English])
Class specific items can sometimes fall into a weird place. For example, you're playing your Demon Hunter, you see a Rare quiver on the ground, you identify it, and BAM! +300 Strength. At this point, you're probably thinking (or even saying aloud) "Why is that even possible?!"While we feel that randomness is an incredibly important aspect of Diablo games, we also agree that players need to feel like their next great item is just around the corner. Items can roll many stats that may not be valuable to the player who finds them, and that's fine—but most items should feel like they could be good for someone.Quivers rolling their primary stat as Strength doesn't really play any role here; however, we don’t want to remove randomness completely and have it be a forgone conclusion that every quiver you pick up will roll with the exact stats you want. While we are changing it so that class specific items can't roll the primary value of a different class's stat, that doesn't mean you will never see +Strength on a quiver. What it does mean is you will only see +Strength on a quiver if it came as part of a Dex/Str affix or a Str/Vit affix, which is providing some benefit (even if not ideal) to the class the item is intended for.Best-in-slot is a subjective term. What is the best for one class or play style isn't necessarily the best for everyone.Currently, itemization has the problem that it is largely supported by a handful of affixes that increase your damage in varying degrees. Because almost all items can very easily be distilled down to their DPS value, it quickly turns into a numbers game. This is a side effect of the fact that there really aren't any items that provide intangible benefits beyond raw damage. It is also an issue because there are no items that can improve your play experience or efficiency other than those that simply increase your character sheet DPS.We have plans to try to create more interesting item choices, and I've talked a bit about what those plans are in my previous blog, if you want to take a look. Will there still be a "best-in-slot" item for a particular build of a particular class? Probably, but that's never really been the problem. There will always be best-in-slot items for specific builds and setups. The problem today is that we have items that are universally best-in-slot, regardless of your class or build. Right now, items that are best-in-slot for a Demon Hunter are probably also best-in-slot for a Monk, and that's one of the big things we're looking to address.We aim to provide players with some sort of global context for the full spectrum of item rarity and power. In a sea of items, we want to emphasize that, at least in this universe, white items, blue items, yellow items, and legendary/set items are increasingly rare relative to one another. White items are currently the baseline, and all other items become rarer and more powerful beyond that.If we removed white items completely, there might be a tendency to feel like blues are the new baseline. Some of you might think, "Well, that'd be really cool! I want blue items to be the baseline." As developers, we want items to feel increasingly special, so that means some will always be more useful than others. If we just kept removing whatever tier of items is "worse" from the game and moving up the baseline, then there's the risk that all items will become equally valuable, and that kind of homogenization (while totally appropriate for other games) doesn't really fit with what Diablo is all about. That said |
highscorers in official games (friendlies not included).
As of 17 September 2018
Top medallists [ edit ]
For a full list of all the 92 medallists with the senior team since 1935, see Medal winners in Spain national basketball team
Most medals won with the national team in (Olympic Games, World Cups and EuroBaskets:
Overall players records [ edit ]
Head coaches [ edit ]
Most games as head coach: Antonio Díaz-Miguel: 423 games, over 27 years.
Most medals won with the national team: (6): Sergio Scariolo
Date Change Pos. Points 11 Oct 2017 2nd 693.2 28 Nov 2017 2nd 693.8 28 Feb 2018 2nd 704.4 3 Jul 2018 2nd 706.7 18 Sep 2018 2nd 704.2 4 Dec 2018 2nd 702.6
See also [ edit ]Mr Lubanga denies the charges The International Criminal Court in The Hague has heard from a man who says he trained children to use Kalashnikovs for DR Congo warlord Thomas Lubanga. The unnamed former militia fighter was giving evidence at Mr Lubanga's trial for war crimes allegedly committed during the five-year civil conflict. He said Mr Lubanga had told child recruits in his camp: "Do not be afraid. The war will not be difficult." Mr Lubanga denies using hundreds of child soldiers during the war. His trial opened on Monday after a seven-month delay, as judges and prosecutors disputed confidential evidence. He is the first person to be tried at the ICC. 'Fighting and dying' Taking the stand on Friday, the unnamed former fighter said he had joined Mr Lubanga's militia, the Union of Congolese Patriots, in 2002 after militia commanders threatened to burn his village if the young people did not join its ranks. THOMAS LUBANGA
Leader of the Union of Congolese Patriots, an ethnic Hema militia Accused of recruiting children under 15 as soldiers Arrested in Kinshasa in March 2005 Held by the ICC at The Hague since 2006 Born in 1960, has a degree in psychology
Trial starts road to justice Profile: Thomas Lubanga He said that children had been among the group that went with them to a training camp. The militia made him an instructor since he had already served in the DR Congolese army, in which he had served seven months as a child soldier in 1997, at the age of 13. He taught children to shoot and the basics of combat, he said. Underage children were often assigned to officers as armed "bodyguards or escorts", he said. "Children were deployed in companies, battalions, brigades and platoons. They were like soldiers." Eventually, the witness added, he saw children fighting and dying in several battles. "If the commander gave the order, everyone had to fire, even the children," he testified. The first witness at the trial retracted his testimony after first saying he had been recruited by Mr Lubanga's fighters on his way home from school. The prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, asked for an investigation into whether the witness, who was also unidentified, feared for his personal safety after the trial.
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StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable versionThe White House has more here:White House on Declassification
* It establishes a National Declassification Center at the National Archives to enable agency reviewers to perform collaborative declassification in accordance with priorities developed by the Archivist with input from the general public.
* For the first time, it establishes the principle that no records may remain classified indefinitely and provides enforceable deadlines for declassifying information exempted from automatic declassification at 25 years.
* For the first time, it requires agencies to conduct fundamental classification guidance reviews to ensure that classification guides are up-to-date and that they do not require unnecessary classification.
* It eliminates an Intelligence Community veto of certain decisions by the Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel that was introduced in the Bush order. While the Government must be able to prevent the public disclosure of information that would compromise the national security, a democratic government accountable to the people must be as transparent as possible and must not withhold information for self-serving reasons or simply to avoid embarrassment.
This is humongous. I'm surprised no one has blogged on this at all. Essentially the government cannot keep secrets forever and the Intelligence agencies have to comply with the order and cannot veto it unlike the Bush administration.
The public shall gain access to these records no later than December 2013. Just some good news on this dreary day.
UPDATE: Here's Charlie Savage of the NYTimes: NyTimes ArticleBuy Photo UAW President Dennis Williams and Vice President Cindy Estrada said Friday that the union's agreement with General Motors is ratified. (Photo: Ryan Garza/ Detroit Free Press)Buy Photo
The UAW and General Motors finally have a contract through September 2019.
"The General Motors Co. was notified on Nov. 20 that the agreement has been ratified," wrote UAW Vice President Cindy Estrada in a letter to union leadership late Friday.
Formalizing the deal was a long time in the making and means GM joins Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in reaching a new four-year national agreement. Ford voting wrapped up Friday but results had not been released at press time. Heading into Friday, the deal was in danger of being defeated.
In the end, the parties compromised on issues that led a majority of skilled-trades workers to reject it, despite the fact a 58% majority of production workers voted to approve the contract.
Skilled-trades workers opposed the company's bid to reduce the number of skill classifications particularly among mechanical crafts such as millwrights, pipefitters, machine repair people and tool makers.
Resolution came, in part, because the company agreed to restore some of those classifications, while retaining the ability to cross-train people to perform a variety of tasks.
"Following discussions with GM, the parties agreed to changes that protect core trades classifications and seniority rights," the UAW said in a news release.
General Motors said in a news release it is pleased the UAW has ratified the national agreement "which is good for employees and the business.
"We will continue to work with our UAW partners to implement the agreement, and engage our employees in improving the business and building great vehicles for our customers."
The process was longer this year, but the agreement should keep GM competitive, while giving the company's traditional UAW workers their first wage increases in 10 years. The contract also creates a path for workers hired after 2007 to reach parity with more experienced co-workers by the end of this decade.
Kristin Dziczek, director of the industry and labor group at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, estimates that GM's average hourly labor cost (wages and benefits) in the U.S. will rise from $55 to $60 an hour over the next four years.
On a labor cost-per-vehicle basis, GM will actually see a slight drop from $2,374 to $2,350 per vehicle, largely because it will experience a higher rate of attrition through retirements in the next four years, Dziczek said.
Proposed raises will take effect Monday but the two-week extension delays payment of $8,000 signing bonuses for 52,700 GM workers until after Thanksgiving and the Black Friday weekend. The extension also created tension in some plants between production workers, who approved the deal, and skilled-trades workers.
“A lot of people are already peeved because skilled trades are the highest-paid manufacturing workers in GM,” said Steve Stahl, a production worker at the Arlington, Texas, assembly plant.
On the UAW GM Talks Facebook page, Robert Denicolo, a worker in the Flint area, posted: "Lesson learned. Next time I'll know to vote no. Obviously the yes vote doesn't count until the higher pay grade says it does."
Both GM and the union have known since Nov. 6 that a majority voted to ratify the agreement but the no vote by skilled trades delayed formal ratification while UAW leaders met with skilled trades workers to hear their objections. Those meetings were followed this week with discussions between union leaders and GM's labor relations staff.
UAW President Dennis Williams and Estrada asked the company on Nov. 13 to extend a deadline for notifying the company until the close of business Friday.
GM agreed to do so.
The union's governing body, the International Executive Board, composed of Williams, vice presidents and regional directors, approved the agreement today.
Contact Greg Gardner: (313) 222-8762 or ggardner@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @GregGardner12
Read or Share this story: http://on.freep.com/1jbVVWUSure your LA Galaxy gave away points in Vancouver over the weekend. But that doesn’t mean we won’t have fun!
We’ll recap the 2-2 draw vs Vancouver at BC Place. We’ll talk defensive miscues, bad marking and how Robbie Keane isn’t pretty.
Then we’ll be joined by Time Warner Cable SportsNets Kelli Tennant as we discuss live television, her affinity for tall people, and why Steve Nash’s friends know how to party.
To close out the show we’ll be joined by LA Galaxy Associate Head Coach, Dave Sarachan. Dave will talk about this LA Galaxy team, what he feels is different about this years team compared to last years and whether this team is special.
It’s an absolutely packed show with over 60 minutes of content, so tell your boss you’re on a conference call, put on those headphones, and enjoy the sweet, soothing sounds of Josh Guesman and Cory Ritzau. It’s a BYE WEEK. So act accordingly.
Thank you to Time Warner Cable SportsNet for providing in-game audio. It’s always appreciated. www.twcsportsnet.com
It is our mission to provide you with top-notch LA Galaxy information in a timely, professional and entertaining fashion. With many of our co-hosts and writers holding media credentials for the LA Galaxy, you are getting first hand information from some of the brightest minds in the media and beyond. We’ll give you our opinions and we’ll strive to keep you on the edge of your seat.
Of course, CoG isn’t just a show. It’s also a group of passionate people. Without the fans, the listeners and the wonderful community that supports soccer this LA Galaxy podcast and website would never have been around for so long.
So what are you waiting for? We’ve got tons of LA Galaxy information to break down and we’re always planning our next show. We’ll see you at StubHub Center.
Comments
commentsHere is a warning to watch where you're walking, especially if you find yourself glued to your phone while strolling down the street.
On two separate occasions Tuesday, two individuals walked into a fire escape that had fallen lower than it usually hangs. A witness said both were looking at their phones as they walked into the structure, and one went to the hospital.
The Bradford Building sits on Scott Boulevard just north of Fourth Street across from the Gateway Center to the west and the Kenton County Administration Building to the north. It is currently vacant and sits in disrepair, though it is often mentioned as a target for potential redevelopment. After all, it is just half a block north of the Boone Block Building, a sprawling structure that was in similar shape but is now being turned into 9 luxury townhomes, five of which are already under contract.
It is named for Bradford Shinkle, son of 19th century Covington business leader Amos Shinkle.
On Tuesday, the fire escape on the north side of the building drifted closer to the sidewalk and two unknowing pedestrians walked right into it. Covington Police were dispatched shortly after 5 p.m. after the witness across the street saw the second person injured before heading to the hospital.
The nature of the injuries was not immediately known.
Data reported in the United States and the United Kingdom points to mobile phone use while walking as a factor in the increasing number of pedestrian injuries.
-Michael Monks, editor & publisher
Photo: Fire escape raised after falling closer to the ground at the Bradford Building (RCN)Capable of geo-locating smart phone and computer users across the city, Seattle acquired its "mesh network" the same way other cities got theirs: the Department of Homeland Security helped pay for it, a private contractor built it, and the city council approved it without public debate. Then The Stranger ran a lengthy exposé in which a member of the Seattle PD responded to a question about rules governing the use of the mesh network by saying, "[We're] not comfortable answering policy questions when we do not yet have a policy." (The Stranger also published a list of questions the Seattle PD refused to answer.) Roughly a week later, Seattle PD Sgt. Sean Whitcomb told the alternative weekly, "The wireless mesh network will be deactivated until city council approves a draft policy and until there's an opportunity for vigorous public debate."
The Seattle Police Department did something amazing this week: After word got out that the department had created a citywide surveillance network without input from community members or a policy to govern the system's use, the police department agreed to deactivate the whole thing.
That's a big victory for privacy advocates who worry about the potential for abuse with these kinds of massive surveillance systems. Plenty of cities have already demonstrated that they don't see "vigorous public debate" as a requisite for implementing such systems.
It could also be a temporary victory. In mid-July, Privacy activists in Oakland, California, convinced the city council there to hold off on further funding for its Domain Awareness Center, at least until a vigorous public debate had occurred and a policy governing the technology had been established. Two weeks later, the council unanimously decided to continue funding the DAC, promising to address privacy concerns eventually. While legislators felt like they'd done all they needed to, privacy advocates felt shafted.
"What they did is approve a vast surveillance center without understanding the implications," the ACLU's Linda Lye told the San Francisco Chronicle. "The privacy policies would be drafted only after the center is built. At that point, what opportunity will there be for to determine if the safeguards are sufficient?"
Seattleites could face a similar conundrum down the road. After hearing what advocates have to say, the city could still defer to law enforcement, and a surveillance technology industry that's become increasingly good at selling its systems as harmless supplements to good old fashioned police work.
But then, Seattle privacy advocates have a record of winning disputes like this one. In February of this year, Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn killed the Seattle PD's drone program and returned both aircraft to their manufacturer. That decision followed a public hearing in which opposition to the drones was overwhelming.
"The drone issue has dramatized the issue of government surveillance like no other issue," says ACLU Washington spokesperson Doug Honig. "You can talk about surveillance and people are concerned, but when drones came up, it really gave people a concrete image they found scary. It's opened the door to people thinking about other types of surveillance."
Top image: Screenshot of Seattle mesh network receiver courtesy KIRO 7 TV.2015 Cotton Bowl: Michigan State vs. Baylor
Michigan State safety Mark Meyers (29) is transferring to Miami (Ohio).
(Mike Mulholland | MLive.com)
EAST LANSING - One night, two subtractions from the Michigan State football team.
Michigan State announced Wednesday night that senior safety Mark Meyers will move on to Miami (Ohio) as a graduate transfer for his final season. He graduated this year with a bachelor's degree in advertising.
"Mark Meyers has done everything we asked of him during this process," Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio said Thursday in a released statement. "He graduated this year and has done a good job in the classroom during his time here in East Lansing, earning Academic All-Big Ten honors (in 2014). He was looking for a new opportunity on the football field in his final season, and by earning his degree, he'll have that opportunity this year as a graduate transfer."
The news about Meyers came on the same night Michigan State announced that senior cornerback Jermaine Edmondson, who was allegedly slapped by former Spartan basketball player Draymond Green early Sunday morning, was granted a full release to transfer.
Meyers, 6-foot-0 and 185 pounds, played in 27 career games for Michigan State and made 17 tackles. He was a 2012 three-star recruit from Whitmer High School in Toledo, Ohio, and redshirted his freshman year. Meyers played in all 14 games, primarily on special teams, as a redshirt freshman and appeared in 13 games in 2014. Last season he was suspended for six games for an operating while intoxicated charge and made three tackles in six games.Come to the Dark Side; we have waffles
The secret of the Death Star was that it looked like one thing, but it was technically another. It looked like a moon hanging there in space, but we know that secretly it was actually a space station. Waffles are a lot like that, too. They look like dessert, all covered with strawberries and whipped cream and chocolate chips and powdered sugar and syrup (well, maybe not all of those at once), but they're technically breakfast. Booyah.
If you're ready to make your kitchen explode with awesome, you need a Death Star Waffle Maker. Plug it in, warm it up, and pour the batter onto the non-stick cooking plates. In just minutes, you'll have golden, delicious waffles, good enough to destroy a planet for. Well, a small one, at least.
And if one side turns out a little funny with bubbles or you overcook it and there's a Dark Side, just flip it over. There's a Concave Dish Composite Beam Superlaser indentation on both cooking plates, so you're covered. And both sides have pockets for your tasty toppings. Just keep in mind when you break out the syrup that it's likely to do its own version of the trench run.
Honestly, there's no need to waffle. You know you want it.
Product Specifications2 Personality Traits That Make You Better Looking
Beauty really is more than skin-deep, psychologists find.
Positive personality traits — like helpfulness and honesty — make people appear physically more attractive, research finds.
Those displaying negative personality traits — like rudeness and unfairness — look physically less attractive to observers.
The finding is particularly strong for when women are evaluating men, since women place a little more emphasis on personality.
The finding helps justify those who say that ‘inner beauty’ is important.
Dr Gary W. Lewandowski, Jr., who led the research, said:
“Perceiving a person as having a desirable personality makes the person more suitable in general as a close relationship partner of any kind.”
For the study, participants viewed pictures of strangers and rated them for attractiveness.
Then they got some information about their personalities, and rated them again.
This mimics the way we evaluate people in real life.
First we just see them without known anything about their personality.
Then we adjust our view of them as we learn about their personality.
Those displaying positive personalities were deemed more attractive, the results showed.
It didn’t matter whether someone was in a relationship or not, or whether they were considering the person for a romantic relationship or not.
Dr Lewandowski said:
“This research provides a more positive alternative by reminding people that personality goes a long way toward determining your attractiveness; it can even change people’s impressions of how good looking you are.”
This study clearly shows that we can adjust our perception of someone’s physical attractiveness as we get more information about their personality.
The authors said that…
“…it demonstrates the substantial power of personality information, in that it is sufficient to overcome initial evaluations.”
The study was published in the journal Personal Relationships (Lewandowski et al., 2007).Softball-sized eye found in Pompano Beach, but scientists have yet to pin down the sea creature whence the eyeball came
A giant eyeball discovered washed up on the shores of Florida has created an internet buzz and left marine biologists pondering its likely owner.
The blue, softball-sized body part was stumbled upon Wednesday by beachcomber Gino Covacci as he walked through the surf at Pompano Beach. Having kicked the object over, he found himself staring into the large lens of an as-yet-to-be identified sea creature.
"It was very, very fresh," he told Florida newspaper the Sun Sentinel, adding: "It was still bleeding when I put it in the plastic bag."
Experts put the eyeball on ice, ahead of preservation in a formaldehyde. It has since been sent to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute in St Petersburg. Marine biologists are now attempting to discover the derivation of the dislodged eyeball.
On Friday, an assistant biology professor at Florida International University in Miami said the eyeball could have come from a deep-sea squid or a large swordfish.
Heather Bracken-Grissom said she had started discussing the eyeball with her colleagues as soon as they saw the pictures on the internet. She added that the lens and pupil are similar to the shape of a deep-sea squid's eye.
Bracken-Grissom also noted that a squid's eyes can be as large as soccer balls, and that they can be easily dislodged.As Iraqi and international forces make preparations ahead of a final offensive on Mosul, the Islamic State’s stronghold in Iraq, and Russian forces continue their assault on Raqqa, IS’s Syrian “capital,” the radical organization’s propaganda apparatus is apparently trying to maintain an image of business as usual in its under-siege fiefdom.
IS published pictures of busy markets, stoning of suspected prostitutes, execution of a suspected traitor (above), and amputation of the legs of those who committed “immorality.”
In the IS-controlled Dijla region in Iraq, four suspected prostitutes were pictured being stoned in what the organization called “a religious commandment.” In the pictures, an IS operative is seen standing next to a pile of rocks and reading out the “indictment” in front of an angry mob, while the bystanders are then invited to stone the convicts, probably to death.
Similar pictures from Raqqa show the execution of a presumed collaborator with the US-led coalition or “the Crusader coalition” in IS’s words. Here too, after being read the “sentence” in front of an angry mob, the convict is crucified and stabbed in his chest, then shot in the head.
After the crucifixion, the body of the deceased is left hanging with a sign attached to him, saying: “This is the spy Muhamad Adnan, who gave away information about houses and military barracks with a view of having them bombed and their Muslim dwellers killed.”
In pictures emanating from Afghanistan’s Khorasan region, which is partly controlled by IS, the organization’s members are seen amputating the limbs of men suspected of “disturbing the peace on earth.”
It is unclear what offense they committed, but they were punished “in keeping with Sharia law,” the statement said.
But in Mosul, the “capital of the caliphate” in Iraq, IS labors to emphasize that life goes on as usual with pictures of the city’s busy markets, whose stalls are filled with fresh produce.
All pictures via Islamic State Telegram ForumTaiwan's 'home boys' don't click with women
Many young men live in cyberspace and resent domesticity.
Taiwan is not alone. Japan, Hong Kong and the fast-growing areas of coastal China all have their own versions of home boys.
"You don't have to be sad if you don't have a date," said 24-year-old college student Lu Yung-ping. "We can huddle together and have fun."
It was a rare moment of public exposure for Taiwan's so-called home boys, a generation of single young men who spend evenings cloistered at home, playing online computer games, reading fantasy comic books and complaining in Internet chat rooms about women.
TAIPEI, TAIWAN — Wearing colorful masks and black T-shirts with women-hating slogans, dozens of young men paraded through an upscale Taipei shopping center one night in December, yelling at startled couples, "Lovers, go to hell!"
These young men use the Internet to construct an alternative reality, where fantasy characters and digital games trump domestic responsibilities and the formation of relationships.
Parents find the trend worrisome, and it has become a hot topic in Taiwan's media.
Talk shows and popular magazines attribute the phenomenon to a desire to remain in the comfort of Mom and Dad's home rather than head out into the uncertain world of raising families and paying off mortgages.
There are no reliable estimates of their numbers, though home boys far outnumber home girls, because males tend to spend much more time with online games.
Sociologists say the home boys' obsession with computers inhibits their ability to conduct normal personal relations, including dating -- a concern at a time when young Taiwanese are delaying marriage and the fertility rate has fallen to 1.2 children per woman, down from 3.2 in 1971.
The home boys tend to be self-centered, less caring for others and incapable of problem-solving, said sociology professor Hsueh Cheng-tai of Taipei's National Taiwan University.
"Many 30-year-olds still have the mentality of children who want to rely on their parents' care and financial support," he said. "They're not ready to get married and fulfill family duties."
It's not so much that they hate women, the young men say; it's just that women ignore, reject or betray them. And rather than pining away in private, they prefer to gather electronically with fellow sufferers and bind their wounds by talking about anything except the hurtful side of love.
Many of the chat room denizens reject the idea that they are socially awkward, blaming their lack of domestic compatibility on women.
Said one who identified himself only as Klowa: "More so than politicians, women are swindlers among swindlers. They will cheat you of your money and time, or worse, steal from several men at the same time."
Not all computer addicts are so pessimistic.
Lin Wei-ting, a chemistry major at Hsinchu's National Tsing Hua University, describes himself as a "positive home boy."
The Internet habit can be an advantage if pursued in moderation, he said. His own favorite stay-at-home pursuit is reading comic books, which he said had given him useful knowledge about subjects from robotics to cooking -- knowledge that Lin thinks will serve him well in his still underdeveloped love life.U.N. Remains Barred from Visiting U.S. Prisons Amid Abuse Charges
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 22 2015 (IPS) - When U.S. President Barack Obama visited the El Reno Correctional Facility in Oklahoma last week to check on living conditions of prisoners incarcerated there, no one in authority could prevent him from visiting the prison.
Obama, the first sitting president to visit a federal penitentiary, said “in too many places, black boys and black men, and Latino boys and Latino men experience being treated different under the law.”
The visit itself was described as “unprecedented” and “historic.”
But the United Nations has not been as lucky as the U.S. president was. Several U.N. officials, armed with mandates from the Geneva-based Human Rights Council, have been barred from U.S. penitentiaries which are routinely accused of being steeped in a culture of violence.
Back in 1998, Radhika Coomaraswamy, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, was barred from visiting three Michigan prisons to probe sexual misconduct against women prisoners.
Although she had made extensive preparations to interview inmates, Michigan Governor John Engler barred Coomaraswamy on the eve of her proposed visit.
The late Senator Jesse Helms, former chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, blocked a proposed prison visit by Bacre Waly Ndiaye, head of the U.N. Human Rights Office in New York, who was planning to observe living conditions in some of the U.S. prisons.
Obama’s visit has prompted the United Nations to give another shot at seeking permission to visit the U.S. prison system.
The U.N. Special Rapporteur on torture, Juan E. Méndez, and the Chairperson of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, Seong-Phil Hong, have jointly called on the U.S. government to facilitate their requests for an official visit to U.S. prisons to advance criminal justice reform.
“AI believes this external scrutiny is particularly important in the case of'super-maximum' security facilities where prisoners are isolated within an already closed environment." -- Tessa Murphy of Amnesty International
“I look forward to working with the U.S. Department of Justice on the special study commissioned by the President on the need to regulate solitary confinement, which affects 80,000 inmates in the United States, in most cases for periods of months and years,” Méndez said early this week.
“The practice of prolonged or indefinite solitary confinement inflicts pain and suffering of a psychological nature, which is strictly prohibited by the Convention Against Torture,” he said.
“Reform along such lines will have considerable impact not only in the United States but in many countries around the world,” he noted.
Hong, who leads the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, said a visit to federal and state institutions “will be an excellent opportunity to discuss with authorities the ‘Basic Principles and Guidelines on the right to anyone deprived of their liberty to bring proceedings before a court’, and to promote its use by the civil society.”
The Working Group has already drafted a set of Principles and Guidelines that “will help establish effective mechanisms to ensure judicial oversight over all situations of deprivation of liberty.”
The document will be considered by the Human Rights Council in September.
According to published reports, there have been charges of unhealthy living conditions and physical beatings, specifically against minorities, including African-Americans and Latin Americans, in the U.S. jail system.
Last month, the administration of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District announced far reaching reforms, including the proposed appointment of a Federal Monitor to probe continued prisoner abuses in Riker’s Island, described as the second largest jail system in the United States.
Other measures include restrictions on the use of force by prison guards and the installation of surveillance cameras.
Asked whether U.N. Special Rapporteurs (UNSRs) have previously been permitted into U.S. prisons, Tessa Murphy at Amnesty International (AI), told IPS that Juan Mendez hasn’t visited any U.S. supermaximum facility prisons in his role as UNSR.
He has, however, visited Pelican Bay in California as an expert witness in ongoing litigation there.
She also said AI has called on the U.S. State Department to extend an invite repeatedly requested by the UNSR to visit the United States to examine the use of solitary confinement in federal and state facilities, including through on-site visits.
“AI believes this external scrutiny is particularly important in the case of ‘super-maximum’ security facilities where prisoners are isolated within an already closed environment. We continue to call for this access to be provided.”
She pointed out that AI has released several reports calling for access – based on an extensive body of work on long-term solitary confinement and its damaging effects.
Antonio M. Ginatta, Advocacy Director, U.S. Programme at Human Rights Watch (HRW), told IPS it is a momentous time in the United States as it re-examines and moves to reform its criminal justice system.
President Obama himself just spoke to the need for this reform, and specifically highlighted the harms caused by solitary confinement.
“Yet the State Department continues to fail to allow the Special Rapporteur on torture access to U.S. confinement facilities to review their use of solitary confinement. It’s as if they missed the President’s speech,” he said.
Ginatta said an invitation to the Special Rapporteur is years overdue.
“In light of the president’s speech and his visit to the El Reno prison, the U.S. Department of State should change course and immediately extend an unrestricted invitation to Special Rapporteur Mendez and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention,” he declared.
After his prison visit, Obama said: “My goal is that we start seeing some improvements at the federal level and that we’re then able to see states across the country pick up the baton, and there are already some states that leading the way in both sentencing reform as well as prison reform and make sure that we’re seeing what works and build off that.”
Providing details of its meetings with U.S. State Department officials, Amnesty International told IPS that in February it met with Deputy Assistant Secretary Scott Busby in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor and Director William Mozdzierz in the Bureau of International Organization Affairs, Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs to emphasise the importance of facilitating external scrutiny by the SRT as well as to hand over a petition to the State Department (with over 20,000 signatures, on the same issue.)
AI said SRT Mendez has provided them with a list of prisons he wishes to visit, including in Louisiana, California, Arizona, Pennsylvania, New York, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Secretary Mozdzierz, stressed to AI that the State Department has a strong national interest in ensuring that the United States lives up to international treaty obligations.
Deputy Assistant Secretary Scott Busby emphasised how committed the U.S. government is in providing access for the SRT.
However, Secretary Mozdzierz emphasised that access to state prisons is dependent on the individual governors and state Attorney Generals being amenable, and there are no mechanisms by which the State Department can ensure a positive response.
He also made it clear that he would stress to state authorities the importance of facilitating the SRT’s requests. Both Directors acknowledged that BOP ADX prison in Colorado was ‘unavailable’ to SRT Mendez.
SRT Mendez, who met with AI prior to the meetings above, asked AI to seek an explanation for the reason that he had been told in correspondence with State Department that federal prisons were “unavailable” to him.
Secretary Mozdzierz confirmed that the reason federal prisons were “unavailable” to the SRT was because of ongoing litigation in ADX; Cunningham V BOP, which has been in a structured settlement process since last year.
Edited by Kitty Stapp
The writer can be contacted at thalifdeen@aol.comBy Neil Barofsky, the former special inspector-general of the troubled asset relief programme and is currently a senior fellow at NYU School of Law. He is the author of ‘Bailout’, released in paperback this week. Cross posted from the Financial Times with permission
Now that Tim Geithner has resigned as US Treasury secretary, it is time to survey the damage wrought from four years of his approach to the financial crisis. The “Geithner doctrine” made the preservation of the largest banks, no matter the consequences, a top priority of the US government. Aside from moral hazard, it has also meant the perversion of the US criminal justice system. The US faces a two-tiered system of justice that, if left unchecked by the incoming Treasury and regulatory teams, all but assures more excessive risk-taking, more crime and more crises.
The recent parade of banking scandals, such as the manipulation of Libor rates by Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland and other major banks, can be traced back to the lax system of regulation before the financial crisis – and the weak response once disaster struck.
Take the response of the New York Federal Reserve to Barclays’ admission in 2008 that it was submitting false Libor rates and was not alone in doing so. Mr Geithner’s response was to in effect bury the tip. He sent a memo to the Bank of England suggesting some changes to the rate-setting process and then convened a meeting of regulators where he reportedly described only the risk but not the actual manipulation of the rate. He then put the government imprimatur on the rate via bailout programmes. His inaction helped permit a global crime to continue for another year.
When it was UBS’s turn to settle its Libor charges, even though a significant amount of the illegal activity took place at the parent company level, only a Japanese subsidiary was required to take a plea. Eric Holder, US attorney-general, demonstrated his embrace of the Geithner doctrine (a phrase coined by blogger Yves Smith) in explaining the UBS decision. He said that a more aggressive stance against the parent company could have a negative “impact on the stability of the financial markets around the world”.
This week we saw the latest instalment of the saga. In fining RBS £390m, the DoJ only indicted one of the bank’s Asian subsidiaries, avoiding the more damaging result that would have stemmed from charging the parent company.
Instead of seeking deterrence and justice, the US government increasingly appears to have fully absorbed the Geithner doctrine into its charging decisions by seeking a result that has a minimal impact on the target bank but will generate the best-looking press release. Some banks today are still too big to fail – and they are still too big to jail.
The lack of robust enforcement is of course not limited to the Libor scandal. It was seen in the recent settlement talks with HSBC, when Treasury officials reportedly pressed the DoJ to consider the broad economic consequences that would follow an indictment. After hearing these arguments the DoJ chose not to criminally charge HSBC.
And, of course, it is seen in the stunning dearth of criminal prosecutions arising out of the crisis. This was all but preordained given who the government turned to when the crisis struck: the same captured regulators who had blindly advanced bankers’ self-serving calls for a “light touch” before the crisis and who unsurprisingly embraced the Geithner doctrine afterwards. Having done so, of course, there would be no criminal prosecutions while the banks still teetered on the brink of collapse. The risk of causing them to fail, and thereby undoing all of the bailout efforts, was too high.
But that these arguments continue to resonate with officials in 2013 shows that the Geithner doctrine, perhaps justified by the conditions in 2008-09, has planted deep roots in our system of government.
This forbearance will have potentially devastating long-term effects, as each settlement on favourable terms reinforces the perception that, for a select group of executives and institutions, crime pays. It is only rational. They know that they will get to keep all of the ill-gotten profits if they go undetected, and on the small chance that they’re caught, most probably only the shareholders will pay – and only a relatively minor fine at that. The lack of meaningful consequences for those committing these frauds encourages future fraudulent conduct. Ultimately, the financial crisis was a game of incentives gone wild, and the lack of accountability in the aftermath of the crisis has only reinforced those bad incentives.
Breaking those incentives requires ditching the Geithner doctrine, which has led to the banks becoming even larger and more systemically significant than they were before the |
flexibility than a straight arm would. (Try it for yourself.)
His shoulder, too, is double-jointed. The effect of it all is a whirl of joints and limbs and – for many – illegality.
Muralitharan is carried off after playing his last match on home soil for Sri Lanka
Murali admits he could not have been the bowler he was – in effect a wrist-spinning off-spinner – had he not been born with a bent arm.
But he argues the impression of illegality is an optical illusion, one which persuaded the Australian umpire Darrell Hair to no-ball him for chucking seven times in three overs during the 1995 Boxing Day Test at Melbourne.
Three years later during a one-day game against England at Adelaide, Murali was called again, this time by Ross Emerson. Murali claims Emerson’s move was premeditated. He says he bowled leg-breaks that day to prove his point (and leg-breaks, say the experts, can’t be chucked).
Almost two decades on from a very public humiliation, Murali is philosophical about Hair and Emerson: ‘Every man makes mistakes. Two people’s opinion can’t be the judge of a career.’
What, then, of the doosra, the secret weapon of the modern-day off-spinner, the one which goes the other way? Many, including Graeme Swann, believe it cannot be delivered legally. Murali disagrees – and stands up to illustrate his point in slow motion.
First, he mimics the action used for his standard off-break; then his doosra. He does something different with the wrist, for sure – but the elbow remains unchanged. It is not conclusive. But it is persuasive.
Muralitharan and the Sri Lanka team receive a guard of honour from schoolchildren at Galle in 2010
For a while, Murali wasn’t allowed to bowl his doosra. Following tests at the University of Western Australia in 2006, that turned out to be legal too.
Not that this silenced those who had made their minds up. ‘Let people shout whatever they want!’ says Murali. ‘It’s up to them. I never wore long sleeves. Never. Unless it was cold conditions, I bowled with short sleeves. I am clear. If you are throwing, you will know. Your elbow moves so much, you will know.’
Murali’s mini-masterclass is timely. Earlier this year, the ICC’s cricket committee were alarmed at the number of questionable bowling actions on view at the World Twenty in Bangladesh. And almost all the transgressors were off-spinners.
One by one, they were reported, and told to go away and mend their actions – most notably Sri Lanka’s Sachithra Senanayake, reported during the tour of England in June, and Pakistan’s Saeed Ajmal, the world’s leading spinner.
Some have likened the purge to a witch-hunt, but Murali supports the move. Uniqueness is good, he says, but it has to be within the rules.
Murali is carried shoulder-high from the field after reaching the 800-wicket mark during his last Test match
‘I’m in favour of the system because it’s the only way to prove a bowler is chucking or not,’ he says. ‘But I can feel sympathy for them because they should have been tested before, not now.’
In fact, Murali would go further. The clampdown, he says, should not affect spin bowlers alone.
‘I want the ICC to test everyone, test hundreds of bowlers and then come up with a system with the right number of degrees. Then it will be fair to everyone.
“It’s difficult to say if 15 is the right number of degrees until they do the proper research. But they have to verify how much the fast bowlers are bowling the bouncer – some are bowling it at 17 degrees. That means you are giving someone an unfair advantage.’
Murali knows he bowled within the laws of the game but still wants the ICC to tests everyone's action
There are still many good judges who will regard that last remark as a little rich. They will contend that his bent elbow gave him an advantage that went beyond the acceptable.
Murali, however, bowled within the laws of the game. He knows he did. The debate may continue, but Murali has found an inner peace. It may be his greatest achievement of all.President Obama said he will deliver a farewell address, following the example of a "peaceful, democratic transfer of power" set by America's first president.
The address will be delivered Jan. 10 in Chicago.
"In 1796, as George Washington set the precedent for a peaceful, democratic transfer of power, he also set a precedent by penning a farewell address to the American people. And over the 220 years since, many American presidents have followed his lead," Obama said in a statement from the White House. "On Tuesday, January 10, I'll go home to Chicago to say my grateful farewell to you, even if you can't be there in person."
Obama said he has just started writing his remarks but wanted them to serve as a "chance to say thank you for this amazing journey, to celebrate the ways you've changed this country for the better these past eight years, and to offer some thoughts on where we all go from here.
"Since 2009, we've faced our fair share of challenges, and come through them stronger. That's because we have never let go of a belief that has guided us ever since our founding--our conviction that, together, we can change this country for the better," Obama said.
Obama's will deliver the address 10 days before the inauguration of Republican President-elect Donald Trump.
The White House is also asking people to share their memories of the Obama administration. You can leave a comment here.The pretender is he who alludes to himself. – Abū Madyan
The quest for authenticity is central to modern life. We seek an authentic ideal in our relationships, cuisine, novels, brands, leaders, religion, and politics; the search for an authentic self is also a key feature of modernity. The modern conception of authenticity as an ethical ideal is foreign to ethics in the Islamic tradition. From a Muslim perspective, ethics is inextricably linked to a metaphysical understanding of human nature and the ultimate purpose of existence—yet modernity has done away with such transcendental dimensions in its metaphysics.
Charles Taylor calls our era the “Age of Authenticity”1 and argues that a major shift that distinguishes this era from previous ones is the loss of the concept of transcendence. For Taylor, “transcendence” is difficult to define, and he emphasizes its various dimensions in different aspects of his work. Nonetheless, fundamental to the concept of transcendence is the understanding that reality includes that which is beyond the natural world and our immediate surroundings—what is beyond immanence, a term frequently juxtaposed with transcendence in Taylor’s thought. He asserts that in the modern world, the immanent includes “denying—or at least isolating and problematizing—any form of interpenetration between the things of Nature, on one hand, and ‘the supernatural’ on the other, be this understood in terms of the one transcendent God, or of gods or spirits, or magic forces, or whatever.”2 A singular feature of our modern condition in the West is the absence of an overarching horizon by which we judge our actions and collectively understand what constitutes a good life.3 Instead, modernity offers multiple fractured horizons, all of which are viewed with incredulity. It is important to note here that the affirmation of material reality is not unique to modernity. Rather, it is the denial of the transcendent—of any sources of meaning beyond the immanent—that constitutes a shift from earlier eras.
Nietzsche brilliantly captures the confusion that accompanies this loss of transcendence in the following passage from Gay Science:
Whither is God?” he cried; “I will tell you. We have killed him—you and I. All of us are his murderers. But how did we do this? How could we drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What were we doing when we unchained this earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving? Away from all suns? Are we not plunging continually? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there still any up or down? Are we not straying as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder?4
For Nietzsche, the death of God is understood to be the removal of the horizon. He views this as an act of liberation from received perceptions and understandings of reality, unchaining the earth from its sun. Without a horizon, however, we find ourselves without any conception of transcendence—the realm of religion and meaning—and as a result, the human being is displaced: He no longer holds the rank religion gave him in the pre-modern world, and he loses a sense of human purpose related to and informed by the transcendent. Thrown back on himself, the human being becomes no different from any other animal. Nietzsche asks,
Has man perhaps become less desirous of a transcendent solution to the riddle of his existence, now that this existence appears more arbitrary, beggarly, and dispensable in the visible order of things? Has the self-belittlement of man, his will to self-belittlement, not progressed irresistibly since Copernicus? Alas, the faith in the dignity and uniqueness of man, in his irreplaceability in the great chain of being, is a thing of the past—he has become an animal, literally and without reservation or qualification, he who has, according to his old faith, almost God (“child of God,” “God-man”).5
The loss of transcendence renders us incapable of defining what it means to be human, and identifying what separates us from other animals.
The loss of transcendence renders us incapable of defining what it means to be human, and identifying what separates us from other animals. And for modern intellectuals committed to the metaphysical dimensions of Darwinism, the human being is no different from other animals in terms of his ultimate purpose. From a Darwinian viewpoint, for example, although each part of the grasshopper has a purpose and function related to its body, the grasshopper has no ultimate purpose. One might argue that its aim is survival; however, that goal is shared by all organisms and therefore is not unique.
Without an answer to the question of what distinguishes human beings in the modern era, the project of ethics becomes the project of authenticity. Expressions such as “discover who you really are,” “invent yourself,” and “reinvent yourself” indicate an overwhelming focus on the individual and an understanding that the self is mutable and subject to constant redefinition. In the age of authenticity, there is no shared understanding of what constitutes a good life. Instead, the project of the self is understood as “each one of us has his/her own way of realizing our humanity, and that it is important to find and live out one’s own, as against surrendering to conformity with a model imposed on us from outside, by society, or the previous generation, or religious or political authority.”6 Ethics in modernity is transformed into a reflexive process. Its aim is to reveal the authentic self by redefining oneself according to knowledge gained over the course of a lifetime. This process requires each individual to disentangle the true self from the false self.7 We cannot be authentic until we liberate ourselves from external influences and act solely according to our own choices. Self-knowledge guides us to distinguish our true selves, and liberation from the false self becomes our only human purpose.A pair of University of Ottawa first-year commerce students are hoping to take the street soccer phenomenon to the next level.
Wendy Liang and Tanveer Mostafa’s Street Ref program aims to teach the homeless and disadvantaged players from Ottawa’s street soccer team to become certified soccer officials.
The pair hope the program — its formal name is Ottawa Soccer Officials — will lead to paying jobs and impart leadership and financial skills to participants. In January it was awarded a $1,000 grant from Awesome Ottawa.
“The Ottawa Mission is just down the road, so when we heard about Ottawa Street Soccer we realized how beneficial it would be if we could start a program that would put these men and women into employment,” Mostafa said.
Canada’s first street soccer team was formed in 2004 as a way to reach homeless people, many of them new immigrants who came from soccer-loving countries. The Ottawa team formed in 2010 and is one of 14 in Canada. Participants play and practise every Tuesday night at Viscount Alexander Public School on Mann Avenue.
Manuel Sobral, 31, came to Canada as a refugee from Angola in 2001. He ended up in Ottawa, impoverished, living at a Salvation Army shelter and struggling with addiction. Now clean, Sobral began coming out to Ottawa Street Soccer as an alternative to what he calls “the downtown life.”
“Part of my recovery from addiction was finding something healthy as an outlet,” he said.
Sobral, who works doing maintenance at the mission, says he enjoys seeing other disadvantaged people take up street soccer. On a recent Tuesday night, the school gym became a mini United Nations with players from Canada, Jamaica, Somalia, Portugal, Ethiopia and Guatemala showing off their footwork and dribbling skills.
“You can do so much positive with your time,” Sobral said. “They talk about what they went through. I talk about what I went through. It’s pure fellowship. It’s joyful. We’re here on a Tuesday night and we’re having fun.”
Sobral will be among about 10 players who will be trained through Ottawa Soccer Officials. In addition to the two-day referee course, the groups will be taught money management and budgeting skills, Liang said. The training will be done with the help of Ontario Soccer Association referee instructors and the Eastern Ontario District Soccer Association.
Liang and Mostafa are part of Enactus uOttawa, an international organization dedicated to empowering individuals through entrepreneurship.
“The goal of the project is to get them into all soccer leagues,” Liang said. “They may be coming from Ottawa Street Soccer, but they can get them involved in all soccer levels, right across Ottawa. With certification they’ll be able to referee games and they get paid to do that, so it gives them job experience.”
The experience will also build their “soft skills” — leadership, communication and self-confidence, for example — improve their resumes and provide contacts for job searches, she said.
If the program works, the training could expand to include volleyball and basketball officiating, Mostafa said.
bcrawford@ottawacitizen.com
Twitter.com/getBACA couple of years ago Brian Arthur, an academic affiliated with the Palo Alto Research Center, made a startling prediction. In the next two to three decades, western digital networks would end up performing functions equal to the size of the “real” US economy. Or, to put it another way, if you looked at all the work being done by electronic supply chains, robots, communications systems – and the humble bar code – then the digital economy would “surpass the physical economy in size”, Arthur wrote, on the basis of productivity and output calculations.
It sounds impressive. But it also raises a crucial question: as those digital networks swell in size, what are flesh-and-blood workers going to do in this future world? Last month Simon Head, an academic who teaches at Oxford University and New York University, plunged into this debate with a book entitled Mindless: Why Smarter Machines are Making Dumber Humans.
As the subtitle suggests, Head is profoundly gloomy. For the dirty secret of these digital networks – or “computer business systems”, as he calls them, using corporate jargon – is that humans do not know how to fight back. These networks keep displacing jobs that used to be performed by the middle classes, tossing them out of work or into thankless, monotonous drudgery, even as a tiny elite of skilled managers (or business owners) gets wealthier. As a result, income inequality keeps growing and digital systems increasingly dictate what we all do, overriding human common sense.
This can be seen in the financial sector, Head argues, pointing out that digitisation enabled some companies to create the subprime mortgage business. It is impacting the world of medicine, where healthcare providers are told what drugs to prescribe according to computer systems. It has overtaken many manufacturing companies, too.
But the real foretaste of the future – and digital hell – is with companies such as Walmart and Amazon, he claims. While the word “Amazon” is apt to conjure up delight for consumers, given its wonderfully efficient shopping experience, people working inside the company’s warehouses live in a world of electronic surveillance, low wages and physically demanding work. And, of course, the rise of Amazon has also been deeply painful for many independent retailers, suppliers and writers.
On one level, Head’s howl of rage is nothing new. Academics have been writing about the digitisation revolution for some time (to see a more nuanced, and more cheerful, account, look at the excellent book, The Second Machine Age, by Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson). But what is perhaps most interesting of all about Head’s view is that while he writes from an indignant, leftwing perspective, even he cannot find any answers.
Unlike those early Luddites who simply smashed up 19th-century weaving machines, Head does not want to ban bar codes. Instead, he wants “higher-paying, higher-skilled jobs, with the component CBS technologies used to supplement rather than replace employee expertise” in a new corporate culture which treats workers with dignity (or at least more attention than those robots). But while he cites a few “case histories where alternative, employee-friendly cultures have taken root”, he also admits “these are not easily replicated elsewhere”.
Thus, he admires “Germany’s culture of co-determination and labour-management partnership”, for example, or “the John Lewis Partnership in the United Kingdom, employee owned and the best high-quality retail chain in the country”, or “exceptional [US companies] like Lincoln Electric”. But he also warns that “it would be delusional to think that, in the United States, the domain of these alternative work cultures will expand spontaneously”. The Amazon example is just too strong.
…
The real rub of invisible digitisation is exactly that: the revolution is unseen. Thus, while “the progressive response to the harshness of 19th-century capitalism was fuelled by a growing awareness of what was going on behind factory walls, CBS are by comparison invisible”. They are like black holes: sensed, not watched.
If you want to be cheerful it is possible to hope that this howl of rage is simply a passing phase. When millions of people lost their agricultural jobs in earlier centuries, nobody foresaw these labourers would find factory work. But it is also possible to imagine a darker future: as the French economist Thomas Piketty writes in another thought-provoking book, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, it is not clear what could halt this digitisation trend – and the growing inequality it generates.
Either way, the key point is this: we have barely begun to understand the full implications of this second, digitised economy. That is a point we all need to ponder more deeply. Starting, perhaps, on the next occasion you swipe a bar code – or place an order on Amazon – with such deceptive, seductive ease.
gillian.tett@ft.comAssociated Press Washington quarterback Rex Grossman shields himself from negative feedback. "He really has no clue when it comes to anything being said about him," says Redskins offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan. "He doesn't watch SportsCenter and he doesn't know what ProFootballTalk.com is. He watches HBO sitcoms."
In a rose-colored world where beers cost a dollar and pizza delivery lasted deep into the morning, Rex Grossman and I probably thought we knew a lot more than we actually did. Two typical Gators, ready to conquer it all.
Proof enough: On the last day of his career at Florida in 2002, Grossman responded to a question about what advice he'd give to the younger quarterbacks vying to replace him. From my seat as a college reporter, Grossman's answer seemed to nail it.
"Don't let anyone tell you what you can and can't do," said Grossman, now the starting quarterback for the Redskins. "When they tell you you're great, don't believe it. And when they tell you that you suck, don't believe that, either.
"Have confidence in your own ability because that's all you can control."
Nine years later, on the same day Grossman will attempt to redefine his career with Monday night's game against the Cowboys, I'll also begin my own new chapter as NFL.com's national reporter. And I'll start with a simple question.
Did Grossman really have any idea what he was talking about?
"It probably just sounded good at the time," he joked during our phone conversation Sunday evening as he settled into the team hotel in Dallas.
What did he know about criticism back then? He was the campus hero who dated (and eventually married) the captain of the Gators' cheerleaders. He was the Heisman runner-up who led the nation in efficiency (170.8) and yards per game (354.2).
Now? It's time for Veteran Rex to take Young Rex's advice. And he knows it. Those six seasons in Chicago deformed his legacy. Now, he's the guy trying to make like Shawshank's Andy Dufresne by coming out clean on the other side.
"You can never doubt yourself," he said, reiterating his original advice with much more knowledge to back it up. "I went through a lot of (stuff) to get to this point, but I feel like I'm in my prime as a quarterback."
Grossman will no longer get the benefit of the doubt from the nation's onlookers when it comes to his potential, his ability or anything in between. He's in prove-it mode. So, yes, ignoring the opinions of the outside world is probably a wise move.
"I went through a lot of (stuff) to get to this point, but I feel like I'm in my prime as a quarterback." -- Rex Grossman
"He really has no clue when it comes to anything being said about him," Redskins offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan said Sunday night. "He doesn't watch SportsCenter, and he doesn't know what ProFootballTalk.com is. He watches HBO sitcoms.
"He distances himself from all of it, and I think that's deliberate."
Just because Grossman has managed to ignore those old and ongoing perceptions, it doesn't mean he'd always disagree with them. In fact, particularly as it pertains to his reputation as a gunslinger, Rex 2.0 says he has focused on making smarter decisions.
I asked Grossman if he's ever seen the popular (albeit crude) blog post on KissingSuzyKolber.com known as "Unleash the Dragon." It's a satirical essay that's composed as if Grossman wrote it.
Since he hadn't seen it (proving Shanahan's theory), I read him this excerpt: "What's that? I should throw a quick slant? (Forget) that. This is football... Sexy Rexy's got the arm. The dragon. You gotta unleash the dragon."
Grossman laughed -- and then elaborated.
"Making a bunch of big throws in college made me addicted to that kind of stuff," Grossman said. "So I think I had the same mindset in Chicago. And you know what? I did make a bunch of big plays. But I also made a bunch of plays I shouldn't have."
It doesn't matter that, during his only 16-game season with the Bears, he finished six games with a passer rating above 100 in 2006. It instead matters that those games were often separated by performances of quite the opposite.
Inconsistency plagued him in Chicago, and being a "gunslinger" contributed to it.
When Grossman and the Bears parted ways in 2009, he went to Houston as a backup, learning under Shanahan (then the Texans' offensive coordinator) while witnessing the success of quarterback Matt Schaub, who threw for a whopping 4,770 yards that season.
At best, the lessons might have triggered a turning point in his career, which he says has reached "its second half." Grossman now calls this "a new beginning."
"Watching Matt Schaub put up those numbers with a conservative style, while still making a bunch of big plays, definitely helped me in 2009," Grossman said.
When Shanahan became Washington's offensive coordinator last year, he invited Grossman to join him, leading to a partnership that has provided the quarterback with a chance to rekindle his career.
Shanahan is clear: Although John Beck did a fine job during a "short competition," Grossman undoubtedly won this starting job once training camp began in August. He says there's no talk of a short leash, either.
"It was a tough decision, but Rex definitely beat him out," Shanahan said. "He's a confident guy, and I think the team really feeds off of that, too. No matter what he does, even if he throws a pick, you always feel like you have a chance with him."
His first two games of 2011 have created some cautious optimism, particularly because of a very solid performance (21 of 34 with 304 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions) in the season opener against the New York Giants.
It doesn't mean Grossman has been flawless -- he threw two picks last week. It also doesn't mean he won't still unleash the dragon. But the gambles, he says, are now of a calculated nature.
"I feel like I'm in an offense now that allows me to make the big plays without forcing it," Grossman said. "I now realize we're going to call some deep plays, some fun pass plays. I don't need to create them on my own.
"When it comes to making quick and smart decisions, things I maybe wouldn't have done in the past, I feel as good as I've ever felt."
Relive every game this season online and on-demand with enhanced viewing features, including the "All-22" coaches film. Relive every game this season online and on-demand with enhanced viewing features, including the "All-22" coaches film. Get NFL Game Rewind
Grossman, 31, feels like he's preparing more efficiently in this chapter of his career as a starter. Believe it or not, he also feels more physically primed than in any of his eight previous seasons.
But before anyone outside of his circle is willing to buy into the potential resurrection of this career, he'll need to add another big performance Monday night against the rival Cowboys in Dallas. Yes, a massive opportunity. Also a tough one.
It will be a chance to quiet the long-time critics for another week. Or allow them to continue to chirp. Either way, it will be a chance for Grossman to remind himself of the advice that now makes even more sense nine years later.
"It's basically back to the same point we've been talking about: Don't ever doubt yourself," Grossman said. "I might have said that back then, but I probably didn't know what I was talking about.
"But believing in myself has been the key to this point, especially when a lot of people counted me out. I'm peaking right now, and it's time for me to maximize my opportunity."
Follow Jeff Darlington on Twitter @jeffdarlingtonGeologic evidence is the forerunner of ominous prospects for a warming earth
A new review in Marine Geology shows how slightly warmer temperatures and moderate CO 2 concentrations over a hundred thousand years ago led to dramatic superstorms and sea-level rise in the western Atlantic Ocean
A new review in Marine Geology shows how slightly warmer temperatures and moderate CO 2 concentrations over a hundred thousand years ago led to dramatic superstorms and sea-level rise in the western Atlantic Ocean
Philadelphia, PA, October 12, 2017
While strong seasonal hurricanes have devastated many of the Caribbean and Bahamian islands this year, geologic studies on several of these islands illustrate that more extreme conditions existed in the past. A new analysis published in Marine Geology shows that the limestone islands of the Bahamas and Bermuda experienced climate changes that were even more extreme than historical events. In the interest of our future world, scientists must seek to understand the complexities of linked natural events and field observations that are revealed in the geologic record of past warmer climates.
In Bermuda and the Bahamas, the geology of the last interglacial (LIG; approximately 120,000 years ago) is exquisitely preserved in nearly pure carbonate sedimentary rocks. A record of superstorms and changing sea levels is exposed in subtidal, beach, storm, and dune deposits on multiple islands. Extensive studies by the authors over the past decades on these islands have documented stratigraphic, sedimentologic, and geomorphic evidence of major oceanic and climatic disruptions at the close of the last interglacial.
Dr. Paul J. Hearty, a retired Associate Professor at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, and Dr. Blair. R. Tormey, a Coastal Research Scientist at Western Carolina University conducted an invited review of published findings. It demonstrates that during a global climate transition in the late last interglacial, also known as marine isotope substage 5e (MIS 5e), abrupt multi-meter sea-level changes occurred. Concurrently, coastlines of the Bahamas and Bermuda were impacted by massive storms generated in the North Atlantic Ocean, resulting in a unique trilogy of wave-transported deposits: megaboulders, chevron-shaped, storm-beach ridges, and runup deposits on high dune ridges.
While perhaps more mundane than the megaboulders (found only locally on Eleuthera), the sedimentological structures found within chevron ridge and runup deposits across islands throughout the Bahamas and Bermuda point to frequent and repeated inundation by powerful storm waves, in some locations leaving storm deposits tens of meters above sea level.
During the last interglacial, sea levels were about 3-9 meters higher than they are now. The geologic evidence indicates that the higher sea-levels were accompanied by intense "superstorms," which deposited giant wave-transported boulders at the top of cliffed coastlines, formed chevron-shaped, storm beach ridges in lowland areas, and left wave runup deposits on older dunes more than 30 meters above sea level. These events occurred at a time of only slightly warmer global climate and CO 2 (about 275 ppm) was much lower than today.
The image on the left shows eolian (lower) and runup bedding (upper) exposed in a roadcut on Old Land Road on Great Exuma Island (road elevation +23 meters). On the right are thick beds with fenestral porosity, or “beach bubbles,” showing that massive waves ran up over older dunes exposed in a roadcut on Suzy Turn Road along the Atlantic Ocean east side of Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands, BWI.
The authors emphasize “the LIG record reveals that strong climate forcing is not required to yield major impacts on the ocean and ice caps.” In our industrial world, rapidly increasing atmospheric CO 2 has surpassed 400 ppm, levels not achieved since the Pliocene era about 3 million years ago, while global temperature has increased nearly 1 °C since the 1870s. Today, ice sheets are melting, sea level is rising, oceans are warming, and weather events are becoming more extreme.
Drs. Hearty and Tormey conclude that with the greatly increased anthropogenic CO 2 forcing at rates unmatched in nature, except perhaps during global extinction events, dramatic change is certain. They caution that, “Our global society is producing a climate system that is racing forward out of humanity's control into an uncertain future. If we seek to understand the non-anthropogenic events of the last interglaciation, some of the consequences of our unchecked forward speed may come more clearly into focus…a message from the past; a glimpse into the future.”
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Notes for Editors
The article is “Sea-level change and superstorms; geologic evidence from the last interglacial (MIS 5e) in the Bahamas and Bermuda offers ominous prospects for a warming Earth,” by Paul J. Hearty and B.R. Tormey, (http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.margeo.2017.05.009). It will appear in Marine Geology, volume 390, published by Elsevier. It is openly available online at www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025322717302700
Full text of this article is available to credentialed journalists upon request. Contact Kristian Wilson at +44 1865 843817 or k.wilson@elsevier.com. Journalists who wish to speak with the authors should contact Paul J. Hearty at kaisdad04@gmail.com or Blair R. Tormey at btormey@wcu.edu.
About Marine Geology
Marine Geology is the premier international journal on marine geological processes in the broadest sense. It publishes papers that are comprehensive, interdisciplinary, and synthetic that will be lasting contributions to the field. Although most papers are based on regional studies, they demonstrate new findings of international significance. Papers cover subjects as diverse as seafloor hydrothermal systems, beach dynamics, early diagenesis, microbiological studies in sediments, palaeoclimate studies, and geophysical studies of the seabed. www.journals.elsevier.com/marine-geologyThere have been a lot of designs made of the Giant Sandworms of Dune. The biggest problem I have with the ones I've seen is that very few seem to take into account how the sandworm would actually function as an organism in its environment. In good design, form always follows function so in order to design a creature you need to consider things like its habitat, biology, locomotion, and other traits that would be expressed through its appearance.For the worm, I decided that the best way for something like that to move through the sand with the kind of speed it's reported to have in the books is with a helical motion like a power drill. I also gave it visible sense organs dotting its front end like a snake, only these can detect vibrations and the chemical signatures of Spice so it can find the sands it needs to defend.I was also challenged to try and give it a visual grace and majesty that would make it look like some mythical creature worthy of being worshiped as Shai-Hulud by the Fremen of Arrakis. Many of the sketches I made just ended up looking like dumb animals or strange alien creatures without the necessary clout. I think this guy turned out very well and has echoes of the old worm designs that many people are familiar with.___We're still actively recruiting concept artists and modelers for Dune: War of the Spice! If you'd like to join, visit our website and follow the instructions to submit your portfolio.As a small child, I remember confronting the question of whom I loved more – my father or my mother. Neither of them posed this question to me nor did anyone else, but once I had conceived of the question I was plagued by it for some time. Sometimes I knew I “liked” one of them more than the other; I could even think through which one I might choose to live with if I had to pick or which one I felt safest with, or most responsible for. But even as a very small child I concluded that I could not choose which of my parents I loved more. Perhaps this early experience helps me trust at a level deeper than words that God does not love one of us more than another even though we are very different from one another and from Him. Right now, in all our different personalities and skills and levels of spiritual development, God knows and loves each one of us passionately and personally. He loves each one of us as much as He loves any one of us.
This is an important starting point for me as I approach the topic of what I hope we will teach our daughters and sons about the priesthood. Because such discussions easily to gravitate to concern about the fairness of priesthood ordination in the LDS Church being open to men but not women. This dichotomy seems to represent an injustice for which God or the church owes us an explanation.
Children have a way of saying it like it is. In the book Children’s Letters to God, a little girl writes, “Dear God, Are boys better than girls? I know you are one, but try to be fair. Sylvia.” As an individual wrestling with God, as you do, for greater understanding of who God is and how he operates, I can answer Sylvia with conviction of my personal witness that, “No, boys are not better than girls, and yes, God is deeply and ultimately fair.”
Nephi writes, “The Lord God doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world. For he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all unto him. All are privileged, the one like unto the other and he inviteth all to come unto him and partake of his goodness and he denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female.” [2 Nephi 26:33] With this assumption, I want to want to explore the possibility that God’s distribution of priesthood authority and power might bless both men and women, adults and children, rather than privileging one at the expense of the other.
So let’s suppose that you were assigned to teach a Primary class of eleven-year-olds, boys and girls, about the priesthood. Would you just take a minute and write down a simple answer to these three questions: 1-What is priesthood? 2-Who can have the priesthood and how to they get it? 3-How can someone magnify the priesthood and increase in priesthood power? I hope today that we can add somewhat to Primary-level answers to these questions.
So let’s start: “What is priesthood?” How many of you would include the word “authority” in your definition of priesthood? How many would include the word “power?” These words show up commonly in descriptions of the priesthood. For example, President Joseph F. Smith described the priesthood as, “The power of God delegated to man by which man can act in the earth for the salvation of the human family.” Doctrine & Covenants 107 states further, “The Melchizedek Priesthood holds the right of presidency and has power and authority over all the offices in the Church in all the ages of the world to administer in spiritual things.” Also, the power and authority of the Melchizedek Priesthood includes the privilege of “receiving the mysteries of the Kingdom, to have the heavens opened unto them, to commune with |
This is why you don't eat cocaine, regardless of the quantity. 65-year-old Florida native Norman Mosch almost died after a friend convinced him it was wise to swallow over two pounds of cocaine. Mosch and Leslie McLeary planned to take a cruise to Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, and McLearly sold Mosch on the idea of swallowing 87 baggies of coke.
During their Dec. 2012 trip, they met a drug dealer named "Rob Roy" and then decided to swallow the cocaine pellets in a hotel room. However, Mosch wasn't aware that McLeary went the safer route: stashing the drugs in his rectum.
Mosch was sick for the duration of the cruise, and McLeary took him to his Boynton Beach home and supplied him with laxatives in an effort to liberate the drugs. However, police happened upon Mosch, lying in McLeary's driveway on Christmas Eve; he was barely alive after one of the bag's exploded in his stomach.
He was taken to the hospital where he passed one of the bags anally, 82 were removed during surgery and the remaining four were found in his colostomy bag post-surgery. Now that he's feeling better, both he and McLeary will head to court for federal drug conspiracy charges.
POST CONTINUES BELOW
So yeah, don't swallow cocaine. You might have a near death experience and go to jail.
[via Miami New Times]David Duchovny Talks X-Files Revival: ‘I Can’t Say For Sure, But…’
This is getting exciting…
Remember when we mentioned some of the higher-ups at FOX were kicking around the idea of bringing back The X-Files.
Well, things are actually looking really good according to the show’s star David Duchovny.
When asked on The Talk straight up whether or not The X-Files was coming back, he said:
“It looks good. It looks very good. I can’t say for sure, but it looks better than it did two weeks ago.”
Oooo! Two weeks, eh? Wonder what that means…
Maybe he’s been actively meeting with people to talk about the show!!
His co-star, Gillian Anderson, had said last month that she’d be “f**king overjoyed,” if The X-Files was brought back.
[ Related: David Duchovny Back In Drag For Twin Peaks Revival?? ]
So, the two leads are on board… let’s get this show on the air!!
Check out the video (below) to hear David’s big reveal.The Israeli army is mulling a policy that would regulate the technologies and the expertise soldiers can use once they leave.
Details of a review of the matter, said to be in progress at the highest levels of the IDF, are still unclear, but there is already speculation and some alarm in the startup nation’s tech community, whose growth depends in significant part on knowledge and skills gained during army service.
“There is no current policy regarding the technologies and expertise the solders can use outside the army but the subject is being reviewed,” a spokesman for the army confirmed, declining to disclose additional information.
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Israel’s tech ecosystem is heavily reliant on the skills learned by soldiers and officers during their army service: they serve their country in highly secret intelligence units, developing products, tools, codes and algorithms, and then, upon completing their duty — and generally after a trip abroad — they study at university and set up a startup company or join a multinational tech corporation that snaps them up for their talents.
The rules governing what intellectual property ex-soldiers can use in civilian life are quite clear, said Yuval Lazi, a partner in the high-tech and technology department at Barnea & Co. Law Offices in Tel Aviv. The intellectual property of things developed in the army belongs to the army, and soldiers are required to sign nondisclosure documents regarding their work.
“The rights to any intellectual property that a soldier has developed or produced during his time in the army — patents, lines of code or even photos — belong to the army and not to the individual,” Lazi said. “As a result, soldiers leave the army with skills they learned in the army to develop civilian technologies, but without the ability to embed or use the technologies they developed; they cannot copy, that is illegal.”
The army is strict about the enforcement of its intellectual property rights, he said. “I am familiar with cases in which the army halted the activity of a company, while investigating its officials, because they discovered that a former soldier embedded a technology developed in the army into the company’s product — this technology belongs to the army.”
However, there “is a lot of gray area,” especially when dealing with sectors like cybersecurity and software, said Carmi Gillon, a former head of Israel’s Shin Bet security agency who is now the executive chairman of the Israeli cybersecurity company Cytegic.
“When a soldier leaves the army, all the information is in his head,” Gillon said. “He doesn’t need to take the algorithms with him. And it is very difficult to know how to halt the leaking of this knowledge into the commercial markets.”
Cybersecurity is probably the area creating the greatest tension for the army, because most of the new startups being set up in this field are related to knowledge stemming from the army. It’s one thing is to take an idea developed in the military and convert it to medical purposes, say. It’s quite another to use the same idea in the same way.
“Because of secrecy, the army cannot properly protect its intellectual property like a regular business would, because by registering it, it reveals its capabilities. So here lies the problem,” said Menny Barzilay, a strategic adviser to the interdisciplinary cyber-research center at the Tel Aviv University
As part of their army duty, soldiers as young as 18 get exposed to highly secretive and strategic information and develop cutting-edge solutions. When they get released from the army they possess very sensitive information they can use to set up a company, Barzilay said.
“Sometimes they are not even aware of the damage they can be inflicting on the security of the state by setting up companies based on those techniques they have learned,” he said.
The line between what can be used and what cannot is very fine, Gillon agreed, and can be crossed unwittingly.
This creates a huge problem for the army because the secrecy of its operations can be compromised. “All armies develop tools that they don’t want the enemy to know about. But if these come out from a private company that afterwards sells it in the commercial market, there is a problem,” Gillon said. “Because we are talking especially about programmers — people who work with their heads at their computers — the ability to steal information, even if you are not a thief,” exists.
“I understand they [the army] are looking for a way to overcome this problem,” Gillon said. “It is difficult to believe they will manage. This is a risk that any industry or any intelligence organization takes, anywhere in the world.”
To deal with a similar concern, the Shin Bet published a legal document that said that one who steals or uses the organization’s secrets can be jailed for up to five years, Gillon said. This is a deterrent, he said, though he believes it can be implemented only “in theory.”
Israel has more startup companies per capita than any other nation, according to data compiled by Tel Aviv-based IVC Research Center, which tracks the industry. The number of active high-tech companies operating in Israel has jumped from 3,781 in 2006 to 7,400 in mid-2016, according to IVC. Many of its entrepreneurs have stemmed from army intelligence units, including the elite IDF 8200 unit.
Shooting itself in the foot
Nir Lempert, the chairman of the alumni association of the IDF 8200 unit, said the rules are clear: intellectual property created in the army belongs to the army. But, he said, citing a non-technology related example, what happens when a soldier trains snipers in the army and then goes out into the civilian world and sets up a shooting school for civilians? “He is teaching what he learned in the army. Does that mean he has to pay royalties to the army? So in the same way if someone learned in the army how to create a cyber-attack or to create a defense against a cyber-attack, or if a pilot learns to fly and then goes and works for El Al, should they pay royalties to the army? It would be absurd.”
The army has studied the matter in the past but has taken no steps, Lempert said. “They came to the conclusion that regulations would be more damaging than beneficial, in terms of Israel’s macro economy,” he said.
The army must take care not to cause a brain drain from the organization, Lempert warned. “The army wants officers to stay on and wants to make the most use of the knowledge they have acquired. The challenge here is attaining a balance.” If the army is indeed looking into the matter of copyright, “then I hope they reach the right conclusions,” he said.
Lempert is also the chief executive officer of Mer Group, a publicly traded company with holdings in telecom, security and cleantech activities.
Any move to try to regulate technology use will be detrimental both to the Israeli army and the Israeli economy, agreed Prof. Eugene Kandel, a former head of Israel’s National Economic Council and chief executive officer at Start-Up Nation Central, a nonprofit organization.
“Soldiers and officers that have potentially commercial ideas will be hesitant to expose them to the army and will wait to develop these when they are discharged, thus damaging the army,” he said. In addition, because of secrecy issues, the army is unable to patent things as well as they should. This will make it more difficult to protect intellectual property overseas, and will thus cause people to leave the country to develop the products.
Israel’s high-tech sector, which has played a historic role in the nation’s economy and which accounts for about 50 percent of its industrial exports, has already ceased to be the nation’s growth engine, the Finance Ministry warned in a report in February, as it faces a shortage of skilled labor and declining research and development investment.
If the army starts limiting the amount of knowledge or technologies coming out of the army “it would be a disaster,” Saul Singer, coauthor of “Start-up Nation,” said. “If they start putting up regulations, we would have fewer startups and the military would lose very talented people more quickly.”
“Israel has a strategic interest in growing startup nation, so if you do something that restricts high-tech, you are hurting your economic and strategic interests. Historically the government and the military have understood this. You don’t want to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs, and that’s the high-tech sector. So if the military decided to do this, it would be contrary to the whole spirit and history of the country in relation to high tech.”
Any move in that direction would be “absolutely idiotic; there would be absolutely no benefit,” Singer said. “It is so contrary to what made this country startup nation. I am not surprised that some people might think this way, I’d just be surprised if this sort of counterproductive idea actually went anywhere.”When “Better Call Pauls” covered the topic of pick-up artists, I thought they were spot-on by saying that these people are scam artists taking advantage of the fact that men/boys of my generation were raised with poor social skills. And not only that, but being raised in a feminist environment by single mothers and mostly female teachers means often times, boys have grown up feeling ashamed of themselves just for being male. They tend to grow up being made to feel that masculine and dominant behavior is yucky and rapey, and so any urge to be authentically male is stifled in them, until all that energy bursts like one of their zits. So young men feel like if they can’t live up to the feminists’ standards for male docility, they must instead overcompensate by swinging the other way, becoming total misogynists, and then wondering why their obvious attempts to “score” women as if they were some kind of video game currency usually fail. It’s a nightmare, and the ease of getting laid for women is one reason I’m glad to be one.
But, while it’s easy to get laid if you’re a woman, women are hard wired to screen potential mates and select only high-quality ones, which leads many of them to be just as sexually frustrated as a man who can’t get any. And when this happens, feminism steps in to tell these lonely, depressed women, look honey, it’s not you. It’s not that he can smell dick on your breath from another guy on the first date. It’s not that you dress with nothing left up to the imagination and, being on public display like a Christmas tree, makes you easy to get and therefore not worth pursuing. It’s not that you look like a misshapen cross between a particularly ugly termite queen and an Oompa Loompa and make no effort to lose weight, smell good, or otherwise improve your appearance. It’s not that you offer nothing he needs that he can’t get for cheaper chatting with a stranger online than he can get after blowing $40 or more on you for a dinner date. It’s not that while on said dinner date you’re lousy company because you can’t keep up a basic fucking conversation for 5 minutes without staring at your phone. It’s not because you don’t give a damn about him or any other guy and only ever use them for sex and occasional favors and free drinks/meals. It’s not because you don’t have any genuine interests or hobbies or contributions to society that make you noteworthy. It’s not that you lack skills and talents that go beyond speed-texting and walking in really high heels.
Nope, it’s that damn patriarchy. See honey, because you’re not a Barbie and therefore not living up to the impossible standards the patriarchy places on women (you know in case having like 50 advanced degrees while still looking 24 didn’t tip you off to the fact that Barbie isn’t anyone’s “standard” of what they expect a real woman to be), that and only that is the reason why your dream guy won’t call you after a one-night stand. See, while the cultural message to the male who fails at getting laid is “work harder and improve yourself”, the cultural message to the female who fails at landing her dream guy, even if he’s way out of her league and she has nothing to offer him, is always “it’s everyone’s fault except yours”.
Feminism perpetuates this idea. Dieting for your New Year’s resolution or to get a beach body by summer? The thing on display won’t just be your toned abs, but also your sad, pathetic case of internalized misogyny and fat-shaming, your desperation to conform to patriarchal perfectionism. Plucking those eyebrows or waxing that cooter? You’re just conforming to “the patriarchy’s” expectation that you look like a child as an adult, because all men are pedophiles and that’s why they prefer a smooth body to a hairy one. (Can’t have anything to do with the fact that smooth skin shows signs of estrogen and femininity as well as youth which signifies fertility, no it’s all about how men are evil for having certain aesthetic preferences.)
Basically, what we’re being told as young women is that every guy we could possibly want should be grateful that we want him, and therefore not reciprocating our feelings for him makes him the bad guy. The onus is not on women to make themselves more attractive or more presentable or even more quality company in general, it’s solely on men to force themselves to gracefully accept even the most unwanted of “gifts” in this regard. That is why we still have a culture that for the most part believes that boys and men cannot be victims of rape if the perpetrator is a woman. It’s her job to decide if she wants to or not, it’s his job to go along with whatever she wants, whether she says yes or no. We live in a society that is so invested in protecting women’s feelings that it barely even gives men the basic right to sexual consent or refusal; when a woman decides to say “yes”, his “yes” is implied and expected.
Women, we need to stop expecting this. We need to stop blaming others for our own singleness and loneliness. We need to stop seeing relationships with guys as a “what can I get out of him” deal and start seeing them in a healthier way. Start looking in the mirror and assessing, both inwardly and outwardly, about yourself needs to change. And then commit yourself to making those changes. The feminists want to tell you a seductive lie; that you don’t need to change yourself at all, because you’re already perfect. Do they know you at all? No? So why are they saying that? They’re saying that because sexually frustrated single women are their biggest target for recruitment.
I’ll make no secret out of it, I was at my most feminist when I was also at my most hopelessly single. I was alone, I was miserable, I had come almost to the verge of rape to get what I wanted. Reading and sharing feminist memes and literature became a crutch for my wounded ego. I was too socially retarded to talk to men in real life, but I had no problem projecting my baggage onto them so that I would feel less inadequate. Feminism rests entirely on this belief in omnipotent, omnibenevolent, omniscient femaleness. If you are biologically female (or sometimes, psychologically female), you are a powerful, wise, and sexy goddess no matter what nasty boys say about you. Everything to the contrary is a patriarchal, capitalist lie designed to make you feel like crap about yourself to buy more concealer and hairspray. They protect every bad, or simply unfortunate, woman out there in an ego-cushioning cocoon of compliments to their sex and disparagements to the other sex. But that kind of thing actually does more harm than good, because it’s really just learning self-mastery and self-improvement that helps someone in the dating realm, not false hope from phony feel-good memes and slogans.
In my experience, it has always been the worst people who are the least open to criticism and judgments from others. It’s like they can smell “their own shit on their knees”, as Marilyn Manson penned, but their egos are too fragile for them to acknowledge this, so anyone who smells it and gags at them is reckoned in their brains as a malicious bully, a liar who is just making bad things up about them just to hurt their feelings. That is why feminists, generally speaking, are so closed off when it comes to allowing open, honest feedback from people who don’t agree with their beliefs. They don’t want comments on any of their posts from non-feminists, and this should point to the one thing you should understand about contemporary feminism; it’s all about padding their own sensitive egos. It’s about sheltering themselves mentally from any and all feedback, because they know that they suck somewhere, deep down, but are forever bent on refusing to acknowledge that they have a problem and seek help for it. I hope they have fun continuing to strike down every child who can see that the empress is naked. But I don’t need that kind of lying bullshit in my life anymore.Preview | Recap | Notebook
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Skiles is 4-5 against his former team, which has won nine of 10 matchups with Milwaukee at the United Center.
"We had so many good looks again. We had our chances to create some momentum for ourselves, and we unfortunately just couldn't knock them down," coach Scott Skiles said.
The Bucks shot 37.8 percent in that defeat and Earl Boykins was 8 of 22 while scoring a team-best 23 points.
Without Jennings and Salmons, the Bucks scored at least 100 points in consecutive games for the second time this season during their back-to-back wins. That streak ended as one of the league's lowest-scoring (91.2 ppg) and worst-shooting (42.2 percent) teams returned to form in a 94-81 home loss to Memphis on Saturday night.
Former Bull Drew Gooden has an injured left foot, and leading scorer Brandon Jennings (17.9 ppg) is hoping to return soon from a broken left foot.
Milwaukee probably wishes it could get some of its players healthy. John Salmons, who scored a team-best 18 against the Bulls in the December loss, is dealing with an ailing right hip.
"I was a little rusty," said Boozer, who also grabbed 10 rebounds. "I didn't have the lift I wanted to have. I couldn't rebound the way I wanted to. But I pushed through it."
Carlos Boozer had 24 points in that win to match Deng and had 20 on Saturday after missing three games with a sprained left ankle.
The Bulls led 27-15 after one quarter at home against Milwaukee on Dec. 28 but trailed by a point at halftime. Chicago held a three-point advantage midway through the fourth quarter before launching a 16-4 run in the 90-77 victory, which snapped a three-game slide to the Bucks (16-25).
"When we play a great team, (lapses) haven't been a problem," forward Luol Deng said. "It's the below.500 teams that give us a problem. Teams are coming in here ready to play us. We can't allow ourselves to (let up) against teams."
Thibodeau's Central Division-leading club has won 21 of 27 but has lost to the Los Angeles Clippers, New Jersey, Philadelphia and Charlotte twice - all below-.500 teams - over that stretch.
"Every team is good and the challenge for us is to be a 48-minute team," Thibodeau said. "You have to learn to play tough with the lead and we didn't do that."
Derrick Rose had a team-best 24 points and is averaging 28.0 during a 5-1 stretch for Chicago, which won its 31st game in 2009-10 on Feb. 26.
Chicago (30-14) topped league-worst Cleveland 92-79 on Saturday night for its 10th win in 11 home games, but only after nearly blowing a 20-point lead. The Bulls had their advantage cut to 77-75 with 4:37 left before pulling away.
The Bulls will try to do just that Monday night at the United Center against the sub-.500 and injury-plagued Milwaukee Bucks.
The Chicago Bulls have reached the 30-win mark under Tom Thibodeau more than a month earlier than last season, but the first-year coach wants a more complete effort from his team, especially against opponents with losing records.
Bulls slip past Bucks 92-83
Posted Jan 25 2011 12:08AM
CHICAGO (AP) While the Milwaukee Bucks were focused on stopping one of the league's young stars, one of the NBA's veterans gave the Chicago Bulls a big lift.
The 38-year-old Kurt Thomas scored 22 points and Derrick Rose added 21 points and 10 assists to lead the Bulls to a 92-83 win over the Bucks on Monday night.
"Kurt was hitting every shot and my job is to give it to him," Rose said. "They were playing two people on me when I'd drive the ball, so I was throwing it to him every time.
"He's the reason we won tonight."
Thomas, who is in his 16th NBA season, scored his most points since Jan. 25, 2005, when he scored 24 points against the Phoenix Suns while playing for the New York Knicks.
"Has it been that long?" Thomas asked after the game. "My goodness. I was just out there having fun. Derrick draws so much attention that he was able to find me and I was able to knock down a few shots tonight."
Thomas also had nine rebounds and five assists.
"They were really playing off me," Thomas said. "I knocked down my first two or three shots, so I just continued to fire away.
"I've been known as a guy that hit can that shot my whole career but the last couple of years, my shot attempts have been down. If it's there, I'm going to shoot it."
Chris Douglas-Roberts scored a season-high 30 points, one shy of his career high, for the Bucks. Andrew Bogut had eight points and 18 rebounds and Ersan Ilyasova added 17 points.
"I just tried to bring a little bit of energy to keep us in the game," Douglas-Roberts said. "If I'm not out there scoring and being aggressive, I'm really not of much value for us."
In the fourth quarter, Milwaukee's Luc Mbah a Moute closed the deficit to eight points with a layup.
Luol Deng answered with a layup and a 3-pointer, putting Chicago up 75-62 with nine minutes left in the game.
"We keep coming back to being up by a lot and then giving it back," Deng said. "We've got to work on that."
The Bucks twice cut the lead to seven as the Bulls once again fell into a fourth-quarter funk on the offensive end and Douglas-Roberts stayed hot for Milwaukee.
Carlos Boozer responded with five of his 14 points down the stretch, pushing the lead to 88-77 with 1:52 to play. Milwaukee got no closer than seven points the rest of the way.
Rose's highlight-reel, twisting layup and subsequent free throw gave Chicago its biggest lead at 61-41 in the third quarter.
However, Douglas-Roberts got hot for Milwaukee, scoring 15 points in the third as the Bucks closed within 68-58 entering the final period.
"(Douglas-Roberts) got it going," Bucks coach Scott Skiles said. "It's great when he does."
The Bulls led 19-18 after a sluggish first quarter before Thomas scored eight points in the first three minutes of the second quarter, helping Chicago establish a lead.
"We did a very respectable job on Rose, Deng and Boozer," Skiles said. "We were too slow obviously getting back to Kurt. We fell for his pump fakes a little bit too much."
Thomas played last season with the Bucks and he was the primary replacement at center after Bogut went down with a season-ending elbow injury.
"Kurt had a great night for them," Bogut said. "He knows our stuff backwards, though. He knows where to get to and where our help is going to come from."
C.J. Watson's basket off a goaltending call capped a 10-0 run that put Chicago up 43-28. Rose finished the half with a layup at the buzzer, putting Chicago up 48-32 at the break.
The Bulls moved the ball well in the opening half and had 15 assists on their 17 first-half field goals. Bogut had 15 rebounds in the first half, 10 in the first quarter.
"(Ball movement) was the biggest thing (assistant coach Ron Adams) was talking about in the locker room," Rose said. "In the first half of the season, we were moving the ball well, then we kind of slipped."
Rose said that after Thomas got on his roll, he began calling for the ball on the offensive end.
"Yeah, sometimes," Rose said. "You know Kurt. If he hits a couple of shots, then he wants it every time."
Thomas is the elder statesman on a young Bulls team, but he showed that he's more than just a locker room presence.
"I mad that he's not a little bit younger so I could play with him a little bit more," Rose said. "I just cherish the time I have with him now."
The Bulls have played eight games over the past 13 days, but now have three days off before playing the Orlando Magic at home on Friday.
For Thomas, the league's second-oldest player behind Boston's Shaquille O'Neal, the rest comes just in time.
"We've played a lot of games over the last three weeks," Thomas said. "I definitely believe we'll benefit from the three-day rest."
Notes: Milwaukee's Drew Gooden was a late scratch. He's been battling plantar faciitis in his left foot for much of the season. John Salmons, a former Bull, missed his fourth straight game with a hip injury. The Bucks are hopeful that Brandon Jennings, who has been out since Dec. 18 with a left foot injury, will be cleared to practice on Tuesday.... The Bulls played their 21st straight game without center Joakim Noah, who had surgery to repair torn ligaments in his right hand. Chicago is 15-6 in his absence. Noah is expected back after the All-Star break.... The Bulls improved to 10-0 against Central Division opponents. They are the league's only team with a perfect mark against division opponents.... The Bulls are 26-1 when holding opponents to 95 points or fewer.
Copyright 2011 by STATS LLC and Associated Press. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of STATS LLC and Associated Press is strictly prohibitedINTRODUCTION
When the GOLF II Class Soviet SSB K-129 was lost in the northwest Pacific on 11 March 1968, the event produced a series of acoustic signals detected by US Air Force Technical Applica- tions Center (AFTAC) sea-floor sensors (hydrophones) located at geographically dispersed positions in the central and western Pacific.
As discussed by CNO ltr ser 0051P32 of 21 May 1968 (now open source), AFTAC had, by May 1968, compared the detection times of the K-129 acoustic signals by those sensors to determine the event occurred near 40-06N, 179-57E. That position provided the basis for the successful search for the K-129 wreck by USS HALIBUT (SSN 587) and the eventual recovery of the 38-foot bow section of the submarine on 6 August 1974 by the CIA salvage ship, the Hughes Glomar Explorer (HGE).
That recovery operation was observed—but not recognized as such—by two Soviet surface ships whose position for the HGE during the recovery was reported by the newspaper Petropavlovsk- Kamchatskiy KRASNAYA ZVEZDA (Red Star), issue 5-7 Aug 1991, to have been 40-04-05N 179-57-03E. That position is 2.00 nautical miles (nm), bearing 180 degreesfrom the AFTAC position, and 1593 nm from Pearl Harbor. As discussed by S.G. Kolesnikov in "Strategicheskoye raketno-yadernoye oruzhiye" published by Arsenal Press, 1996, the maximum range of the R- 21/D4 missile carried by the K-129 was reported to have been 756 nm.
Analysis of the AFTAC acoustic data obtained from public domain sources in 2008 established—for the first time—that the K-129 was lost because three explosions occurred within the pressure hull immediately prior to an apparent dual R-21/D4 missile launch training event scheduled for 12:00:00Z on 11 March 1968, hereafter referred to as T-0.Those explosions allowed that trainingevent to become the firing to fuel exhaustion of two R-21/D4 missilewithin their closed—but subsequently breached—launch tubes. The AFTAC data confirms these R-21/D4 firing events and launch support system activity occurred over an eight minutes and 36 second period following ignition of the first missile. That launch support activity, apparently directed by a programmed launch sequence control system, remained at least partially operational despite the almost certain death of the crew from the first internal explosive that occurred 62 seconds before ignition of the first missile (T-62 seconds).
This article examines the possibility the K-129 had a dead man launch capability to insure the launch of at least one missile even had the platform been successfully attacked immediately prior to launch. The continued partial functioning of a pro- grammed launch control system for such an extended period after the probable death of the crew and extreme internal damage, including a breaching of the pressure hull, suggests that if modern Russian SSBNs have a similar capability, they may be able to launch all 16 missiles in 105 seconds (open source data) or, in the case of TYPHOON, all 20 missiles in about 135 seconds even after attack (impact) by multiple conventional weapons.
ANALYSIS OF THE AFTAC ACOUSTIC DATA: TIMELINE OF EVENTS ON THE K-129
BACKGROUND
As discussed in Chapter SIX of Why the USS SCORPION (SSN-589) Was Lost (hereafter: WHY), reviewed in the Winter 2012 issue of this publication, the SCORPION crew was killed or functionally disabled (rendered unconscious) by two explosions associated with the main storage battery. Those explosions occurred 21 minutes and 50 seconds before the SCORPION pressure-hull collapsed at 18:42:34Z on 22 May 1968 at a depth of 1530 feet.
To support that assessment, Chapter SIX of WHY provides discussions of the 2008 analysis of the AFTAC acoustic detections of the loss of the K-129. As discussed above, the initiating events responsible for the K-129 disaster were three internal explosions that—like SCORPION events—were contained within the K-129 pressure hull. These events are discussed below.
FIRST INTERNAL EXPLOSIVE EVENT AT 11:58:58Z (T-62 seconds)
The first explosive event contained within the K-129 pressure hull occurred at T-62 seconds (11:58:58Z on 11 March 1968) or 62 seconds before ignition of the first R-21/D4 missile at T-0 (12:00:00Z). The T-62 event had a duration (signal level above ambient sea noise at the sensor) of 1.5 seconds and an estimated energy yield—based on signal amplitude - of about 10 pounds of TNT. A nearly constant signal level was sustained for the duration of the acoustic event.
As stated in Chapter SIX of WHY, the assessment that the K- 129 crew was killed by the first internal explosion is based, in part, on a crew member who apparently had been reading a torpedo manual and who was found still in the remains of his bunk in the bow section of the K-129 recovered by the HGE. Had the crew member been conscious, he almost certainly would not have remained in his bunk between the first explosive event at T-62 secondsand the second explosive event 45 seconds later at 11:58:43Z), 17 seconds before the first R-21 ignited. Further, examination (not autopsies) of the remains of the crew members found in the bow section indicated they died from burning explosive force before their bodies were subjected to the crushing hydrostatic (sea) pressure. Finally, the crew took no effective action to prevent what appeared to have been a simulated dual launch training event scheduled for exactly midnight local (12:00:00Z) from becoming the actual firing of both missiles within their closed launch tubes.
SECOND INTERNAL EXPLOSIVE EVENT AT 11:59:43Z (T-17 seconds)
The second explosive event contained within the K-129 pres- sure hull, which occurred 45 seconds later, at T-17seconds (11:59:43Z), had a duration of 2.4 seconds with a relatively constant signal level for the initial 1.5 seconds followed by a high amplitude pulse with a duration of less than 0.2 seconds and an estimated energy yield of about 20 pounds of TNT. The sugges- tion is a relatively low-level thermal event that triggered a high Q exothermic event (explosion) with an energy level equal to the internal events that immediately followed ignition of the first R-21/D4 missile (see below).
THIRD INTERNAL EXPLOSIVE EVENT AT 11:59:47Z (T-13 seconds)
The third explosive event contained within the pressure hull occurred four seconds after the second event, or at T-13 seconds (11:59:47Z), had a duration of 0.7 seconds and an estimated energy yield of about five pounds of TNT.
FIRST R-21/D4 MISSILE FIRING EVENT AT 12:00:00Z (T-0)
Thirteen seconds after the third internal explosive event, the first R-21/D4 missile ignited at exactly 12:00:00Z(T-0), developed full thrust in 1.3 seconds and fired at full thrust for 95.2 seconds still within its closed launch tube. At T+5 seconds (12:00:05Z), an acoustic event occurred onboard the K-129 which is assessed to have been burn-through of that launch tube. (Open source Soviet data indicates a thickness of 0.88 inches for the QT28 nickel-steel alloy pressure hull and a thickness of 0.38 inches for the launch tubes where they were internal to the pressure hull which included at least the lower half of the tube).
Five additional high amplitude acoustic signals (internal explosions) with peak energy levels for less than 0.2 seconds occurred in the 22 second period following the assessed launch tube burn-through (12:00:05Z-12:00:27Z). Based on the extreme damage within the recovered first compartment of the K-129, it appears the 5000 degree (F) missile exhaust plume expanded almost instantly throughout the K-129 after the launch tube was breached. This conclusion is consistent with the destruction of documents and equipment Project AZORIAN was intended to recover from the 100 foot mid-ships section of the K-129 had that section not been lost as it was being raised by the HGE, i.e., such material and equipment were exposed to the 5000 degree missile exhaust plumes for a total (both missiles) of 190 seconds.
At T+77.5 seconds ((12:01:17.5Z), 77.5 seconds after ignition of the first R-21/D4)), a major acoustic event with a peak energy level for 4.9 seconds occurred when, under normal circumstances, the R-21/D4 would already have been ejected from its launch tube about 75 seconds earlier. Exactly 77.5 seconds later (at T+155.0 seconds), another major acoustic event with a peak energy level for 5.2 seconds occurred. The timing of these events, 77.5 after ignition and 155.0 seconds (2 X 77.5) after ignition strongly suggest programmed launch support activity that occurred even though there already had been extreme internal damage and the pressure-hull appears to have been breached in the area |
me. On top of that, I have finals for school and am bogged down by the workload. So it was with great joy that I walked to the post office after work to pick up the gift my dear Santa had told me should be there.
The package was literally bursting, and I could see tantalizing glimpses of blue cloth through the holes. Cloth that looked like it might match the blue highlights I have in my hair. The cloth turned out to be a gorgeous scarf, that does indeed match my highlights :D And was the exact style of scarf I had been thinking of getting recently! But that wasn't all that was in there! Nope! There was more!
The next thing I noticed was a stack of comics! I love, love, love comics, and participated in that exchange as well! My wonderful, wonderful Santa gave me all of Grendal Behold the Devil (8 volumes!). I am forcing myself NOT to read them, since I have homework due. But I really want to. Grendal is a character that intrigues me!
But the comics are not the end. Nope, my dear Santa gave me the exact thing needed by a emotionally upset college student: Chocolate. Delicious Godiva Truffles, that I just might eat in one sitting... I've done it before!
Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU OpinionatedSouthern, for making my day better. Your package came at the perfect time to remind me how wonderful some people are. And I am so very excited for the final "creative" thing that she told me is coming from someone/where else :D
Update: OMG. So. Finally got my creative bit. So amazing. Just. Woah. :D Today I go and check my PO box, first time since Monday, and what do I find? A box. A very decent sized box. I open it right in the post office. AND FIND THE DOCTOR. A wonderful, beautiful, splendid crocheted 11th Doctor. At least 2.5 feet long doctor.
Once more, thank you, thank you, THANK you dear reddit santa! :D This has to have been one of the best exchanges I have ever had, and I have had some good ones, at just the time when I needed it. THANK YOU.President Barack Obama will speak in Detroit on Saturday night to an expected crowd of 5,000 people at Wayne State University. (Photo: Jim Watson, AFP/Getty Images )
President Barack Obama will speak in Detroit on Saturday night to an expected crowd of 5,000 people at Wayne State University, marking his first visit to the Motor City in three years.
Obama will speak at a ticketed event at the Matthaei Complex at 7 p.m., according to an email sent to Wayne State University officials and reviewed by The Detroit News. Doors are to open at 5 p.m. Saturday.
Tickets will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis beginning 5 p.m. Wednesday at Michigan Democratic Party coordinated offices in Metro Detroit. They are located at:
Detroit Eastside: 17243 Mack Ave., Detroit
Detroit Livernois: 18409 Livernois Ave., Detroit
Canton: 7309 Lilley Road, Canton
Dearborn: 23918 Cherry Hill St., Dearborn
Southfield: 17100 W. Twelve Mile Road., Lower Level, Southfield
Pontiac: 4 N. Saginaw, 2nd Floor, Pontiac
Brownstown: 18708 Telegraph Road., Suite C7, Brownstown
Warren: 29136 Ryan road., Warren
Ann Arbor: 3810 Packard Road., Suite 230, Ann Arbor
Lansing: 2842 E. Grand River Ave., East Lansing
Obama is campaigning on behalf of former U.S. Rep. Mark Schauer running against Gov. Rick Snyder and Rep. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Township, who is challenging former Michigan Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land to replace the retiring Sen. Carl Levin, D-Detroit. This is Obama's 13th visit to Michigan since taking office.
Obama has visited Detroit twice since taking office. He last visited on Labor Day 2011.The White House advance team was at Wayne State on Tuesday, according to the email. The event organizers will be charged for the use of the space for the event.
Obama was in Ann Arbor in April with Peters touting his push to hike the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour — stopping at an Ann Arbor deli, Zingerman's, and speaking at the University of Michigan.
In February, Obama visited Michigan State University to sign the farm bill and had lunch with Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan.
Before his February trip, Obama had last visited Michigan in December 2012 — soon after his re-election to visit a Detroit Diesel factory in Redford Township. Then Detroit mayor Dave Bing in 2012 said Obama should visit Detroit more often.
After Detroit's record-setting bankruptcy filing in July 2013, the White House sent a flood of cabinet officials to the state — and Vice President Joe Biden has been a frequent guest to the city.
DShepardson@detroitnews.com
Read or Share this story: http://detne.ws/1u4bzIgTHORNTON — Robert Downey Jr. may play Iron Man on the big screen, but Thornton resident Anthony Le is the real-life version of the Marvel Comics superhero — at least in terms of how they both dress.
For the past four years, the 27-year-old fitness coach has made a name for himself in the world of cosplay — a Japanese portmanteau of the words “costume” and “play” — by crafting a number of elaborate and finely detailed Iron Man suits.
“I do it as a hobby and I do it as a side job — I love what I do,” Le said. “It’s my anti-drug.”
To commemorate the May 4 release of the “Avengers,” Le built himself a replica of the Iron Man Mark VII suit from the movie. The costume features a variety of gadgets, from a fully motorized helmet to lighting effects to CO2 jet streams.
Read the rest of this report at YourHub.comLicense transfer to occur after introduction of new Florida regulations Aphria and DFMMJ plan to significantly increase the size of Chestnut within six months
TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA and LEAMINGTON, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - May 24, 2017) -
NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES
Aphria Inc. ("Aphria" or the "Company") (TSX:APH)(OTCQB:APHQF) and Securecom Mobile Inc. ("Liberty") (CSE:SCM) are pleased to announce the successful first step of their previously announced US expansion strategy. Aphria, through a strategic investment into DFMMJ Investment Ltd. ("DFMMJ"), a special purpose private company, entered into an exclusive Management Agreement with Chestnut Hill Tree Farm, LLC ("Chestnut"). DFMMJ's intends to continue to target, for expansion, key US states that have approved medical use of marijuana and meets its stringent investment criteria.
Chestnut is a Florida nursery authorized by the Florida Department of Health, Office of Compassionate Use ("Department"), as a dispensing organization of medical cannabis to patients in need in the State of Florida. Chestnut holds one of seven licenses granted in Florida, which currently represents approximately 14% of the US medical cannabis market with a total estimated market size at maturity, as calculated by ArcView Market Research, of over $1.1 billion.
The Management Agreement, which was approved by the Department, authorizes DFMMJ to exclusively manage and operate Chestnut's cultivation, processing, and dispensing of medical cannabis to patients within the State of Florida, as well as provides DFMMJ with the exclusive benefits of the finances from Chestnut's operation. In conformance with the Management Agreement, DFMMJ will acquire certain assets related to the business operations. It is anticipated that after new regulations are introduced in Florida, Chestnut will, in strict adherence with the regulations and after appropriate regulatory approval, transfer the license to DFMMJ.
"This is an exciting moment for DFMMJ and Aphria," said Mr. Neufeld, Chief Executive Officer of Aphria. "Chestnut is one of a select few licensed producers serving a state with a population over 21 million people. For DFMMJ and eventually Liberty, this is an entry into an attractive market. Liberty will have the opportunity to leverage Aphria's pharmaceutical and agricultural expertise. Aphria's intellectual property and low cost production methodologies will further drive Liberty's growth. Ensuring Floridians are provided with accessibly priced, high-quality, safe and pure medical cannabis products. It is only the beginning for our plans to be a dominant player in the medical cannabis industry internationally."
"Liberty also recognizes that its growth will be driven by its people, the communities in which it operates, and the patients it serves. In addition to being a driver of economic growth and job creation in Florida, we are committed to maintaining Chestnut's proud history of being a strong, positive contributor in the community."
Over the next six months, DFMMJ plans to significantly increase the size of Chestnut's operations while introducing processing automation and other operational improvements. These improvements will largely stem from the greenhouse growing intellectual property that Aphria has licensed to DFMMJ in exchange for additional common shares in DFMMJ. Furthermore, DFMMJ will establish a network of dispensaries within Florida state, which will leverage the retail expertise of Liberty's Board and enable them to be leaders is the market.
Aphria and Liberty received transactional advisory services from the Delavaco Group, which founded DFMMJ Investments, LLC, a subsidiary of DFMMJ, arranged the acquisition of Chestnut and who is participating as a significant shareholder of Liberty. They were also represented in the transaction and related governmental affairs by Brady J. Cobb, Esq. of Cobb Eddy, PLLC.
We Have a Good Thing Growing.
About Aphria
Aphria Inc., one of Canada's lowest cost producers, produces, supplies and sells medical cannabis. Located in Leamington, Ontario, the greenhouse capital of Canada. Aphria is truly powered by sunlight, allowing for the most natural growing conditions available. Aphria is committed to providing pharma-grade medical cannabis, superior patient care while balancing patient economics and returns to shareholders. Aphria was the first public licenced producer to report positive cash flow from operations and the first to report positive earnings in consecutive quarters.
About DFMMJ
DFMMJ Investments Ltd. is an industry-leading investor and operator in the medical cannabis market. DFMMJ leverages the success of its lead Canadian strategic partner, Aphria Inc., to capitalize on new and existing opportunities in the United States. Like Aphria, DFMMJ is committed to delivering high-quality, clean and safe pharmaceutical grade cannabis to patients while optimizing returns to our shareholders.
About Securecom
SecureCom Mobile Inc. currently develops and markets consumer software and hardware encryption communications products for mobile phones, tablets, and computer-based platforms. Subject to completion of a previous announced Business Combination, SecureCom will combine its business with DFMMJ and thereafter be engaged in the business of the cultivation and harvesting of marijuana in certain permitted state jurisdictions in the United States.
CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS: Certain information in this news release constitutes forward-looking statements under applicable securities laws. Any statements that are contained in this news release that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Forward looking statements are often identified by terms such as "may", "should", "anticipate", "expect", "potential", "believe", "intend" or the negative of these terms and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements in this news release include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to internal expectations, estimated margins, expectations with respect to the transfer of Chestnut's license to DFMMJ, expectations for future growing capacity and costs, expectations on future US states for expansion, the completion of any capital project or expansions, and expectations with respect to future production costs. Forward-looking statements necessarily involve known and unknown risks, including, without limitation, risks associated with general economic conditions; adverse industry events; marketing costs; loss of markets; future legislative and regulatory developments involving medical marijuana; inability to access sufficient capital from internal and external sources, and/or inability to access sufficient capital on favourable terms; the medical marijuana industry in the United States generally, income tax and regulatory matters; the ability of Aphria, Securecom or DFMMJ to implement its business strategies; competition; crop failure; currency and interest rate fluctuations and other risks.
Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list is not exhaustive. Readers are further cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are placed will occur. Such information, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect and actual results may differ materially from those anticipated.
Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.On a bone-chilling morning in February last year, Nick Fernandez bundled up and took the subway from his Manhattan apartment to the Bluestone Center for Clinical Research, which is located in an art deco-style building on the Lower East Side. A 27-year-old graduate student in psychology with dark, wavy hair and delicate, bird-like features, Fernandez was excited and nervous. He had eaten a light breakfast consisting of a bagel and industrial-strength coffee in preparation for another journey he was about to take. Fernandez had signed up to be a subject in a New York University study into the use of psilocybin, the psychoactive ingredient in hallucinogenic mushrooms, to relieve mental anguish in people with terminal or recurrent cancer.
Fernandez hoped that the drug would lift the shroud of melancholy and free-floating anxiety that had enveloped him ever since he was diagnosed with leukemia in 2004 during his senior year in high school. Two and a half years of almost continuous chemotherapy vanquished the disease, but left him drained and traumatised. The former soccer star dropped more than 50 lbs from an already lean frame. ‘It was pretty brutal and forces you to grow up fast,’ said Fernandez, who became intensely interested in spiritual philosophy during this period, and went on to dabble in psychedelics in college. For years afterward, every sneeze and sniffle, every day that he felt tired or out of sorts, filled him with an unshakeable dread that the cancer had returned. When he heard the study mentioned on a radio show, he immediately signed up.
Jeffrey Guss and Erin Zerbo, the two NYU psychiatrists who would quietly monitor Fernandez’s progress throughout the day, greeted him when he arrived. After they took his vital signs, Fernandez changed into sweat pants and a shirt, and settled into a converted dental exam room that had been transformed into a hippie-style sanctum: tricked out with fresh flowers and fruits, a comfy sofa littered with plush pillows, Buddhist and shamanistic totems, and a high-tech sound system. Stephen Ross, an associate professor of psychiatry at NYU and the lead investigator for the study, made a brief appearance in the trip room. He was holding a glass vial that had been retrieved earlier that morning from a massive safe located inside a high-security storage room. It contained a single white capsule, and no one could be sure if it was a placebo – a dummy pill – or a 30 milligram dose of synthesised psilocybin.
‘Good luck,’ Ross said, handing Fernandez the pill, which he washed down with water that he drank from a large antique chalice. Then he slipped on the headphones, put on a face mask to block out the light, lay down on the couch and waited.
About an hour later, as the drug began to take effect, the blackness inside his head turned into an onrushing cascade of white dots that swiftly morphed into a kaleidoscope of geometric patterns – gears, stars, triangles, trapezoids – in all the colours of the rainbow. He started to hear an insistent voice in his head, telling him over and over: ‘I’m going to show you what I can do.’ Fernandez slowly suspended his skepticism and reluctantly surrendered to the experience. What he perceived to be his spirit guide took him on a Marley’s ghost-style journey, with stops at his own funeral, a hellish place littered with skulls that smelled of death where he was in excruciating pain. Once his agony reached an almost unbearable crescendo, his spirit guide catapulted him through hundreds of light years of space, allowing him to escape the pain. ‘I went into this mystical state, and this intense visual palate took over my mind,’ Fernandez said.
He suddenly found himself in Grand Central Terminal, which was filled with hundreds of people he knew dressed in tuxedos and ball gowns, dancing happily to symphonic music. He spied his girlfriend, Claire, across the dance floor. They walked towards each other and embraced, which filled him with intense feelings of bliss and joy. Soon he was again catapulted, down into the sewers of the city, and then to the top of the Empire State Building where he serenely surveyed the city just as dawn broke its rosy glow over the skyscrapers. The spirit guide took him from there to a cave in the forest where he went shopping for another body, but the only body to be had was his own. This realisation gave Fernandez a new appreciation of his body, and all it had been through: the workouts, the swims, the bike rides, the sickness when the cancer cells had taken over, and the chemotherapy drugs that had destroyed them. ‘For the first time in my life, I felt like there was a creator of the universe, a force greater than myself, and that I should be kind and loving,’ he said. ‘Something inside me snapped and I experienced a profound psychic shift that made me realise all my anxieties, defences and insecurities weren’t something to worry about.’
The relaxed treatment rooms at the Bluestone Center for Clinical Research, New York University College of Dentistry. Photo by Bloomberg/Getty
What happened to Fernandez in the study is fairly typical, and consistent with a century’s worth of literature, scientific and otherwise, on the use of psychedelics. ‘Patients would tell me that they’ll never be able to get out from under the rock that hangs over them and that their psyche is always filled with the fact they have cancer,’ Stephen Ross said. ‘But those feelings evaporated under the influence of psilocybin. They almost uniformly experienced a dramatic reduction in existential anxiety and depression, and an increased acceptance of the cancer, and the changes lasted a year or more and in some cases were permanent.’
The NYU study will ultimately encompass 32 volunteers, making it the largest study of psychedelic medicine in more than 40 years. Test results haven’t yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal, but the interim data analysis of their first 25 patients was encouraging. What they found confirmed the findings of a smaller pilot project at the University of California, Los Angeles. Ross and his colleagues are now looking ahead to larger clinical trials at NYU and several other sites using psilocybin for cancer patients, and to test psychedelics as treatments for drug addiction, alcoholism and even cigarette smoking.
Ross, the 42-year-old director of the Division of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse at Bellevue Hospital in New York, is an unlikely apostle for psychedelics. He became fascinated with end-of-life issues when he was growing up in the affluent Los Angeles suburb of Pacific Palisades and his physician mother took him to hospice centres. ‘She introduced me to the concept of a good death,’ Ross said. ‘When I was an intern at Columbia, I spent three months in the cancer wards and I watched people die there,’ he continued. ‘But those were bad deaths, full of anxiety and pain, and we didn’t learn anything about palliative care.’
Scientists still don’t completely understand why psychedelics seem to offer a shortcut to spiritual enlightenment
Ross is part of a new generation of researchers who have re-discovered what scientists knew more than half a century ago: that psychedelics can be good medicine. At such elite research centres around the world as NYU, Johns Hopkins, UCLA, and the University of New Mexico, psychedelic research is inching its way back to respectability, thanks to the persistence of a cadre of scientists dedicated to making psychedelics part of our psychiatric arsenal. In the 1950s and ’60s, they were used to treat an astonishing array of mental ills for which modern medicine still offers little in the way of effective relief, from alcoholism and drug addiction to autism and the existential despair at the end of life. Scientists still don’t completely understand why psychedelics seem to offer a shortcut to spiritual enlightenment, allowing people to experience life-changing insights that they are often unable to achieve after decades of therapy. But researchers are hopeful that will change, and that the success of these new studies will signal a renaissance in research into these powerful mind-altering drugs.
NYU has become a nexus of sorts for this rebirth, and the group there took root when Jeffrey Guss began teaching a class called ‘Psychedelics and Psychiatry’ in 2008. This was the first time psychedelic therapy was taught at an American medical school in more than half a century. Guss decided to start the seminars after a meeting with UCLA’s Charles Grob, who was then in the midst of his cancer study. ‘He made it seem much more realistic that this research might be done again in the US,’ Guss recalled. ‘He encouraged me to read some of the research articles that had been published decades ago, and I realised I hadn’t read a single one of them. That’s what inspired the lectures.’
With Guss’s help, Ross and Anthony Bossis, a clinical psychologist at NYU, formed the nucleus of the research team that was eventually able to shepherd the NYU cancer study through a thicket of bureaucratic red tape. The Bluestone Research Center, which Guss describes as a cross between a hospital and a hotel, turned out to be an ideal setting because it has the medical infrastructure needed in case of emergencies and the requisite facilities to test experimental treatments.
‘In order to find those 32 patients, we’ve talked to hundreds of oncologists,’ Guss said. ‘Psychedelics have been blackwashed pretty thoroughly in American medicine. But the more we keep talking about the possible role of psilocybin, the more people hear about it, the more it gets rid of some of the fear and stigma. Still, they’re not a panacea. Without supervision, they can evoke really dangerous and disturbed behaviour.’
This dark side to psychedelics is why they were banished from the therapeutic mainstream. Peyote and mescaline have been used in shamanistic rituals for centuries, but the modern era of hallucinogenic research began in April 1943. Albert Hofmann was a plant chemist at Sandoz Laboratories in Basel, Switzerland, who was researching the medicinal potential of the alkaloids contained in ergot, a fungus that lives in rye. One afternoon, he accidentally dosed himself with one of these chemicals, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), and took the world’s first documented acid trip. His serendipitous discovery of the mind-altering effects of LSD electrified fellow scientists, who instantly recognised its therapeutic potential, triggering an explosion in research after the Second World War.
Psychiatrists were encouraged by Sandoz to sample Delysid, LSD’s brand name, before giving it to their patients so they could understand the experience. Many of these sessions were life-changing, and there were commonalities among them: patients would undergo an intense catharsis and release repressed psychic material, which would trigger profound insights about the roots of their disordered behaviour, and transcendent mystical experiences. This new self-awareness sometimes sparked nearly spontaneous recoveries – even among those with seemingly intractable ills, which years of psychotherapy and medication hadn’t helped.
By the early 1960s, more than 2,000 studies encompassing more than 40,000 patients had been conducted using LSD and other hallucinogens to treat such psychiatric disorders as schizophrenia, autism, drug addiction, alcoholism and chronic depression. The research was rigorous, and the results were published in reputable medical journals, but all that changed when a brilliant young Harvard lecturer with an insatiable appetite for media attention decided to give psychedelics to his graduate students. His name was Timothy Leary and the rest, as they say, is history. LSD and other hallucinogens escaped the lab and became a symbol of the dark side of the 1960s, when people took adulterated street drugs and began showing up in hospital emergency rooms on bad acids trips, gripped by severe panic attacks or in the throes of psychotic breakdowns. Sandoz stopped supplying researchers in 1966, terrified federal officials banned it in 1968, and legitimate scientific research had ground to a halt by 1972.
the day-long psychedelic sessions are carefully monitored by two therapists, with tranquilising drugs kept on hand in case there’s a freak-out
Mainstream researchers have distanced themselves from the excesses of the 1960s, and made sure their experiments meet with today’s more exacting standards. Typically, studies are double-blind and placebo-controlled: that means that half the test subjects get a dummy pill while the rest receive the real thing, but the researchers themselves don’t know what’s in the capsules in order to eliminate any possible biases that could slant test results. Potential candidates are carefully screened, and given a battery of tests to establish not only baseline measures of their psychological states, but also to ensure that they don’t suffer from serious psychiatric illnesses. The participants who make the cut undergo three or four counselling sessions to prepare them for the psychedelic experience, and the day-long psychedelic sessions are carefully monitored by two therapists, with tranquilising drugs kept on hand in case there’s a freak-out.
Because of advances in imaging technology, scientists now have a much better idea of what these drugs do to the brain, and why they spark such profound alterations in perception, behaviour and mood. Psilocybin and LSD, classified chemically as tryptamines, are structurally similar to serotonin, a powerful chemical messenger that expedites the transmission of nerve signals in the brain. Psychedelics such as psilocybin latch on to a specific set of serotonin receptors, believed to regulate the processing of sensory information (taste, touch, hearing, vision). When psychedelics stimulate these receptors, it amplifies their signals and alters their frequency, triggering the visual alterations and the loosening of ego boundaries that typify the psychedelic experience.
The insights gleaned under the influence of psilocybin often lead to lasting changes because participants seem to experience spiritual awakenings and substantial shifts in their perceptions of the world. When Gina Baker (not her real name) underwent a psilocybin session, like Nick Fernandez, at NYU in October 2012, she was riddled with constant worries that her ovarian cancer would return. The anxiety, along with her tough childhood, had caused her to lose control of her emotional eating, but during her psychedelic session, she was able to get past both. ‘I spent my entire life feeling like an outsider and that the world was a hostile place,’ said the 67-year-old Brooklyn native. ‘But under the influence of the drug, I saw my fear as a big black mass and I felt like I was going to be eaten alive. And then suddenly, the fear just disappeared and I felt enveloped in intense love, more deep and profound than I have ever felt, and not just for my family and dear friends but I felt at one with the universe. It was a moment of complete peace and lack of self consciousness.’ These changes in her perceptions endured. ‘It liberated me from my anxieties, I stopped overeating, and I even made a whole new group of friends in my neighbourhood, something I never would have done before,’ she said. ‘It was a transformative experience.’
‘When people are diagnosed with cancer, their lives can become constricted. They sometimes cope with terror and sadness by shutting down – they start to die before they actually do die,’ said Guss. ‘But with psychedelics, there is a flood of information, making people feel less shut down and more awake and alive.’Darnell Earley (Photo: AP file photo)
Flint — It has become a haunting moment: Emergency Manager Darnell Earley and Mayor Dayne Walling both tasting Flint River water, a drinking source that eventually led to one of the biggest health crises in Michigan history.
That day on April 25, 2014, when Flint was switched to the corrosive water that would eventually expose its residents to high levels of lead has catapulted both men to testify before Congress Tuesday in a week when others, including Gov. Rick Snyder, are also expected to appear.
But much of the spotlight has been on Earley, the longtime urban administrator and expert who had previously worked in Flint, because he was in charge during the transition from Detroit’s water system to the Flint River while a new Karegnondi Water Authority was built.
“At no time did the water department staff, Mayor Walling, the City Council, or the state petition me to halt, slow, or otherwise modify the implementation of the plan. Nor at any point and time during the preparation for the switch, did I receive any information that would even remotely indicate that the use of the Flint River was unsafe in any way,” he wrote in prepared remarks released Monday by the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
“Instead, those at the local level were pleased with the project’s value as well as the independence from DWSD that it represented.”
After serving as the emergency manager of Flint, he left in January 2015 to become the emergency manager in Detroit Public Schools until he resigned last month.
Critics say Earley’s style was aloof and off-putting and that he is primarily responsible for allowing the Flint River move that has riled the country. Allies say he is a scapegoat for decisions made prior to his tenure and that he was carrying out the wishes of the state government looking to save money.
“He was a gruff, nasty, arrogant, non-listening kind of guy,” said Eric Mays, a city councilman who had many run-ins with Earley after being elected in November 2013 and being among the first to raise questions about the water.
“I’m kind of smiling because of what goes around comes around. Earley is getting the kind of questioning and scrutiny that he deserves,” he said. “I can tell you in my mind, the buck stops with Earley. I can tell you 100 percent Earley wouldn’t listen.”
But the Rev. Marlon Jennings, who was Earley’s pastor at Grace Emmanuel Baptist Church when he was in Flint as both a city administrator years earlier and then later as an emergency manager, called Earley a “man of integrity and conscious” who knows heartbreak after losing his late wife to cancer in 2003.
“It’s unfortunate that he was caught up in this quagmire of responsibility to the governor and his position and at the same time trying to serve the people of Flint,” Jennings said. “It turned out that the two were diametrically opposed. His job as emergency manager is to carry out the wishes and execute the plan and program of the governor.”
Snyder appointed Earley to become emergency manager of Flint in October 2013, following Michael Brown and Edward Kurtz.
Kurtz approved Flint’s move to the Karegnondi Water Authority in April 2013 and signed off that June on a resolution seemingly committing the city to using water from the river. But it was Earley who was in power in March 2014 when Detroit’s final water rate offer was rejected and the city began drawing water from the Flint River the following month.
“The reality is such, that with so many challenges facing distressed urban areas, like Flint, an emergency manager must rely on the experts around him, especially when matters of such scientific complexity as water contamination and treatment are at the forefront,” Earley wrote in his testimony. “At the time, I deeply believed the information offered to me was accurate and sound, but, in relying on experts, the solutions I oversaw failed to ameliorate the troubles plaguing Flint’s water.”
Earley had extensive experience to warrant the Snyder appointment, beginning with his service as a director of community development with the Urban League in Muskegon from 1978 to 1981.
Throughout the years he held a variety of roles, including township manager in Buena Vista Charter Township and budget director and deputy county controller in Ingham County. In 2001, he was appointed city administrator of Flint and even served as temporary mayor for five months. Before becoming EM of Flint, he served as city manager in Saginaw.
Through a spokesman, Earley has declined an interview request. But in an editorial that appeared last year in The News, he said the decision to separate from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department was approved by “Flint’s mayor and confirmed by a City Council vote of 7-1.”
“At the time the decision was made, there was no way to predict such an unfortunate outcome,” Earley wrote. “I would also offer that had local leaders known then what they know now, parts of their decision may have been entirely different. What the city of Flint and the state of Michigan are now dealing with is the management of an unintended consequence resulting in a negative outcome from an otherwise sound public policy decision.”
In that letter, Earley said the mayor’s approval of the plan and the “near unanimous” vote by the City Council “were in no way coerced, forced or demanded by the state, nor any emergency manager.”
The decision to switch the water, Jennings said, was done before Earley’s arrival but “then he was given the responsibility of executing that agenda.”
“He wanted to stay faithful and accountable to an employer, the governor, but at the same time, he really sought to serve the people and to do what he truly believed and was told would serve the people of Flint in the best way.”
Walling, who worked with Earley, said of “all the emergency managers up to that point, Darnell Earley engaged myself and City Council more over time as we moved toward the point of ending the financial emergency.”
Earley, he said, was responsible for developing “a clear plan for transition” with the mayor and City Council.
“It took him a few months to figure out how he wanted to proceed through what he thought would be an 18-month appointment,” Walling said.
“To his credit, he was an experienced city manager who understood the need to involve the city’s elected and appointed leadership. But he was highly reluctant to engage the broader community.”
And Mays, who has been a frequent critic of Earley since he issued an executive order banning him from talking to city staff after an arrest in 2013 on suspicion of drunken driving, said that was Earley’s downfall.
“This guy didn’t do his due diligence. I know for a fact he could have done a lot more,” Mays charged. “Earley had a duty and a responsibility to know.”
Walling, the former mayor, admitted that Earley himself “very well could have been misled” by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality as to the quality of the water.
Bill Reising, an attorney who did some work for Flint back when Earley was the city administrator, said the two of them later became good friends. He said Earley is looking forward to testifying and telling “his side to the story.”
“Darnell Earley was a straight shooter,” Reising said. “To my way of thinking, he’s always been a straight shooter and always wanted to do the right thing. I think he wants to set the record straight, so to speak, in terms of what his involvement was for the city of Flint.”
Jennings said Earley’s situation is eerily similar to that of Colin Powell when he served as secretary of state under President George W. Bush and told the nation that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when in fact it did not.
“He wasn’t misleading the people. He had been misled,” the pastor said of Earley. “He was given bad advice and information so he passed that on, thinking that the person he was serving had given him good information.
“And that’s almost a perfect parallel to where Darnell Earley is based on the plans he was told this would save money and it would be just as good in terms of quality.”
lfleming@detroitnews.com
(313) 222-2620
Twitter:@leonardnfleming
Read or Share this story: http://detne.ws/1pqjMWGAt a moment when the state of our world is in frightening disarray, three out of the four major presidential candidates have little or no interest in issues of foreign policy. As the primaries move east, where I live, I find this to be a stunning and sobering development.
At precisely the time when American foreign policy challenges are greater than they have been in a generation, foreign affairs are a fringe issue for Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, and Ted Cruz. Their minds are elsewhere. And that is why I am supporting Hillary Clinton. (Note to John Kasich fans: Sorry, he is not a major candidate.)
I am not saying that only Hillary is “pro-Israel.” All of the candidates can claim to be pro-Israel, more or less. But being pro-Israel has little meaning if it is not related to a broader view of the world. The question is: Does the candidate have a reasonable approach to shaping the international political system in a way that advances American values and interests? And as I see it, only Hillary Clinton has shown that she really cares about such things and has sensible policies to propose.
It is not a surprise that domestic concerns predominate at the moment. Americans have experienced 20 years of stagnant living standards. Like most Jewish Americans, I have strong views on America’s economy and on changing demographics and social values here at home. Still, I know that while foreign affairs and Israel are not the only issues, they are essential ones. And together with most Jews, I recognize that anyone lacking mastery in these areas should not receive Jewish support—and should not be president.
Let’s begin with Bernie Sanders, an admirable man with an important message on income equality. He is a single-issue candidate in the best sense of the term, rousing America’s conscience on a matter of fundamental injustice. But he has had little interest in national security, and foreign affairs are an afterthought in his campaign. And his pronouncements on Israel are mixed, at best. He is right to oppose settlements and support two states, but he seems to lack genuine sympathy for Israel and is obsessed with presenting a “balanced” accounting of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. His approach to Gaza is particularly disturbing. Yes, the Gazans are suffering and Israel’s government has made many mistakes, but there is no equivalence here. Hamas, a terrorist group committed to Israel’s destruction, |
. So recommend this, to a friend or family, anyone interested in this awesome hobby! Don't forget to register, and something I had to learn, FAA doesn't send you your stickered numbers like I was waiting for, instead once registered your given your number, print out the info on two photo size photo paper (5X7), keep one with the case so it's with you, the other cut out the number and affix to the craft itself, that's the law, it can be placed in battery compartment as the batt. can be taken out without tools, so in the back of the battery holder is perfectly acceptable, good flying!
Read moreRepublican presidential candidate, former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum speaks during a campaign event at the Jelly Belly Candy Company on March 29, 2012 in Fairfield. Santorum toured the Jelly Belly factory before speaking to supporters. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) Republican presidential candidate, former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum speaks during a campaign event at the Jelly Belly Candy Company on March 29, 2012 in Fairfield. Santorum toured the Jelly Belly factory before speaking to supporters. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
FAIRFIELD (CBS / AP) — Hundreds gathered at the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield on Thursday afternoon for a rally held by Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum.
The former U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania gave a speech at the candy factory’s visitor center Thursday afternoon to ramp up support for his campaign.
Santorum strongly criticized President Barack Obama on foreign policy Thursday, saying that the United States has been slow to address Iran’s threat to develop nuclear weapons, has ignored its ally Israel and rushes to engage America’s enemies.
KCBS’ Doug Sovern Reports:
Santorum suggested that many of Obama’s foreign policy decisions have been based on political considerations because the November presidential election is approaching. He pointed to an incident earlier this week in which Obama was caught on tape telling Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that he would have more room to negotiate on missile defense after the November election.
“Here’s the president of the United States, the leader of the free world, saying, ‘Give me a little space, buddy, a little space, a little flexibility, because I’ve got an election coming up and then I’ll be, then I’ll throw some of our other allies under the bus,” Santorum said.
Santorum spoke to about 200 supporters at the Jelly Belly Candy Co., touching on familiar criticisms of the president and repeatedly invoking President Ronald Reagan, who made the candy company famous by serving its jelly beans from his desk at the White House.
In a reference to Reagan’s 1986 summit meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, in which their nuclear treaty talks fell apart, Santorum said: “Ronald Reagan didn’t whisper to Gorbachev, ‘Give me some flexibility.’ He walked out of Iceland.”
The former Pennsylvania senator said Obama has taken his eye off the real threat facing America, the development of a nuclear weapon in Iran, to avoid a confrontation before the election.
“And what has he done on that front? What he’s done on that front is the same thing he did off-camera with the president of Russia. ‘Give me a little time,’ and that’s exactly what he’s given to Iran, a little time,” he said.
Obama has said he didn’t have a hidden agenda with Russia and that his comments caught on tape only meant that election-year politics make any nuclear arms reduction or missile defense negotiations extremely difficult.
California’s primary does not come until June, and the state is not typically in play, but Santorum told supporters that this year their votes will matter. In the meantime, he urged them to give generously and to call their friends in Wisconsin, which holds its primary on Tuesday.
Santorum also invoked Reagan’s name to jab at front-runner Mitt Romney, saying Romney lacks Santorum’s core convictions on the economy, social issues and on foreign policy. He held a mini Etch A Sketch, a reference to a comment by a Romney aide who said the former Massachusetts governor would be able to reset his campaign after the extended primary fight.
“No one doubted where Ronald Reagan was on the issue of communism. No one doubted where he was, there was no sense that there might be an Etch A Sketch policy when it came to our national security,” he said.
Santorum said he has been consistent in stressing radical Islam as the primary foreign threat against America and pushing for sanctions against Syria and Iran.
The former senator also said Obama is threatening the future stability of Iraq and Afghanistan by signaling the U.S. exit strategy and that he wrongly abandoned missile programs in Poland and the Czech Republic.
Santorum said Obama has endangered the state of Israel because of his “lack of moral certitude, the lack of vision, of the greatness of our country.”
At one point, as Santorum emphasized his socially conservative values, including opposition to abortion and gay marriage, a woman in the back of the room interrupted his speech and yelled, “California stands for marriage equality.” Santorum eventually asked the crowd to drown out the woman with clapping and cheers, and security removed her from the room.
Shortly before Santorum began speaking, a large crowd of people, including dozens of children, milled around the visitor center’s conference room.
Many toted Santorum campaign signs, and a few carried their own homemade placards bearing messages including “Character Counts” and “We need you, Rick!”
Some people waited for hours at the factory in anticipation of Santorum’s arrival.
“We think he’s great,” said Kathy Ross, 63, of Placerville, who was with Charlotte Moreno, 68, also of Placerville, and Cathy Cook, 60, of San Jose.
“He stands for what we believe in … I think he’s the most honest candidate,” Ross said.
The rally was followed by a private fundraiser at the Jelly Belly factory. Santorum also appeared at another fundraiser at a home in Alamo.
(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)Are you tired of hearing about LaVar Ball? Us, too. But even if you’ve had enough of dude, this is still one of the best ESPN First Take segments you’ll ever see.
Ball made an appearance on First Take on Thursday morning, and while it started off cordial enough with him answering questions about his sons Lonzo, LiAngelo, and LaMelo, it quickly—and we mean quickly—devolved into a screaming match during the second half of his appearance. Stephen A. Smith asked Ball why in the world he said that he could beat Michael Jordan in a game of 1-on-1, and Ball responded by saying that he said it because he truly believes it. And at that point, he decided to get on Stephen A.’s level and spent the next five minutes yelling back and forth at him about that and a number of other things.
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This sounds like it would be a total disaster, and truth be told, it was. But it was like a bad car crash that you just couldn’t stop looking at. It was so good that ESPN's The Dan LeBatard Show actually paused what they had going on and spent a few minutes doing a radio show about how they were watching Stephen A. and LaVar go at it.
POST CONTINUES BELOW
Everyone else who was tuned in to First Take was glued to their TV screens as well. Some people said it was the best episode of First Take since Skip Bayless left, while others suggested ESPN should replace Max Kellerman with Ball and let him and Stephen A. do this every morning:
You can check out the screaming and yelling in the clip above. You can also check out Ball’s full First Take appearance below:
Such good bad TV.Brennan Linsley/AP The chief complaint people lodge at universal basic income — a form of income distribution that gives people money to cover basic needs regardless of whether they work — is that it'll make them lazy.
Sam Altman doesn't buy it.
On a recent episode of the "Freakonomics" podcast, entitled "Is the World Ready for a Guaranteed Basic Income?" Altman argued basic income could support huge amounts of productivity loss and still carry the economy on its shoulders.
"Maybe 90% of people will go smoke pot and play video games, but if 10% of the people go create incredible new products and services and new wealth, that's still a huge net-win," Altman says. "And the American puritanical ideal that hard work for its own sake is valuable — period — and that you can't question that, I think that's just wrong."
Maybe the American ideal of work is wrong. Maybe a system like basic income could allow people to focus on their true passions (even if that's playing video games) and the country would still function just as well because people are healthier and more fulfilled overall — and the brilliant people who don't have time to focus on their passions now would suddenly find themselves with the means to pursue their dreams.
Basic income is a radical form of income distribution. It involves giving people a regular check regardless of their working status that covers basic expenses like food, clothing, and shelter.
The idea of basic income saw brief flashes of interest in the late 20th century, but stayed mostly dormant until the last year or so. Switzerland announced a plan to hold a basic-income referendum in June 2016, and other basic-income experiments are set to start in the Netherlands, Finland, and Canada sometime in 2017. New Zealand and the US might not be far behind.
The US push is being led by Altman and his cohorts at Y Combinator, Silicon Valley's largest startup accelerator. Its past success stories include Airbnb, Reddit, and Zenefits.
In January, Altman wrote a blog post describing a plan for a basic-income experiment in fairly vague terms. It'll last for five years and involve a select group of Americans, although the exact start date, the amount of money given out, and the name of the researcher leading the project have yet to be announced.
The complaint Altman addressed on the "Freakonomics" podcast is a common one. Study after study, however, has shown that giving people extra money makes them feel financially secure. That security ends up leading to empowerment, not less motivation.
That's why Altman is so confident that 90% of people could sit around all day and do nothing and the US would still keep chugging along: Basic income is such an effective motivator that enough people will use their newfound free time to produce extraordinary innovations that make up for the laggards.
But the beauty in that, which Altman hints at, is that there really won't be any laggards. Nine-tenths of the population won't suddenly sit around and get high, because the best evidence suggests a financial safety net actually encourages people to work harder.
Even in the worst-case scenario basic income still wins.Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Barack Obama on the deal reached with Iran: "We will be able to resolve one of the greatest threats to our security and to do so peacefully"
An outline agreement on the future shape of Iran's nuclear programme has been reached after marathon talks with six major powers in Switzerland.
Under the deal, Iran will reduce its uranium enrichment capacity in exchange for phased sanctions relief.
US President Barack Obama said a "historic understanding" had been reached with Iran.
The world powers and Iran now aim to draft a comprehensive nuclear accord by 30 June.
The framework agreement was announced by the European Union and Iran after eight days of negotiations in Lausanne.
The talks between the so-called P5+1 - the US, UK, France, China and Russia plus Germany - and Iran at Lausanne's Beau-Rivage Palace hotel continued beyond the original self-imposed deadline of 31 March.
Analysis: Barbara Plett Usher, BBC News, Lausanne
Image copyright Reuters
After a missed deadline and two exhausting nights of negotiations Iran and the six world powers presented their framework as a major achievement.
The EU's top diplomat, Federica Mogherini, read out a joint statement outlining the main points, including a reduction in the number of Iran's operating centrifuges, changes to its nuclear facilities, and a promise to lift sanctions if these steps are verified.
This is an unwritten understanding, not a formal agreement, and it lays the foundation for very tough negotiations on the details.
But for now its architects are celebrating a hard won, potentially historic, achievement.
Iran denies Western claims it is trying to build a nuclear weapon. It entered negotiations in order to see sanctions lifted.
'Unprecedented verification'
According to a US factsheet issued after the talks, the outline deal includes the following conditions:
Iran will reduce its installed centrifuges - used to enrich uranium - by two-thirds and reduce its stockpile of low-enriched uranium
The centrifuges that are no longer in use will be placed in storage, monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
All of Iran's nuclear facilities will be subject to regular IAEA inspections
Iran will redesign its heavy-water reactor in Arak so that it cannot produce weapons-grade plutonium
US and EU sanctions related to Iran's nuclear programme will be lifted in phases, but can be brought back if Iran does not meet its obligations.
Mr Obama said the deal's implementation would be closely watched. "If Iran cheats, the world will know it," he said, adding that the deal was based not on trust but on "unprecedented verification".
He said the framework agreement had come after "months of tough, principled diplomacy", and that it was "a good deal".
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif: "We have built mutual mistrust in the past, and I hope that... some of that mistrust could be remedied"
Obama'selfies'
Mr Obama's statement was broadcast live by Iranian broadcaster IRINN - a very rare move in Iran, where TV channels are controlled by the state - and there were celebrations in the streets of the capital, Tehran, over the breakthrough.
Some Iranians took "selfies" with their TV sets to mark the occasion.
Image copyright AP Image caption Iranians have taken to the streets of Tehran to celebrate
Image copyright AP Image caption Under the deal, Iran's heavy-water reactor in Arak will be redesigned so it cannot produce enriched plutonium
In a BBC interview, US Secretary of State John Kerry said there was a point he was tempted to walk away from negotiations but added "the bottom line is we worked through it".
The draft deal was hailed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who said he believed it would "contribute to peace and stability in the region".
"It will respect Iran's needs and rights while providing assurances to the international community that its nuclear activities will remain exclusively peaceful."
'Big day'
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini announced the deal at a news conference alongside the Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, saying that a "decisive step" had been achieved.
Negotiators would now start "drafting the text" of the plan "guided by the solutions", she added.
Mr Zarif, meanwhile, said the full nuclear deal would be "something actually very innovative" as Iran would be able to sell enriched uranium in the international fuel market.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption A joint EU-Iran statement said work could now start on a "comprehensive deal" to limit Iran's nuclear programme
Russia welcomed the deal as recognition of "Iran's unconditional right to a peaceful nuclear programme", while French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told reporters: "It's a positive step, but at the same time there are still questions and details that need to be resolved."
But Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu told President Obama in a phone call that a deal based on the agreed framework would threaten the survival of Israel.
For his part, President Obama told Mr Netanyahu the deal "in no way diminishes our concerns with respect to Iran's sponsorship of terrorism and threats towards Israel," the White House said.
The deal has also been criticised by members of the US Congress who want US lawmakers to have the right to review any final agreement.
US House Speaker John Boehner said the deal represented an "alarming departure" from Mr Obama's original goals and that Congress should review the deal before sanctions on Iran were lifted.DETROIT - A 13-year-old boy shot himself in the head Tuesday after his parents reprimanded him at their home in northwest Detroit, police said.
The shooting happened near Southfield and 8 Mile roads, police said.
Police said the boy's parents reprimanded him, and he got angry and shot himself.
"On arrival we did unfortunately, in fact, find a child identified as 13 years old who had a gunshot wound to the head," said Detroit police Capt. Darin Szilagy. "He was conveyed to a local hospital. He's in very critical condition."
The boy's 19-year-old brother was taken into custody because it was his gun used in the shooting, police said. Officials said the gun never should have been in the house because it was purchased illegally.
Stay with ClickOnDetroit.com for updates.
Copyright 2017 by WDIV ClickOnDetroit - All rights reserved.The killing of a man in the Outer Mission last weekend marked The City’s 25th homicide of the year, and has added to an increase over the number of killings at this time last year, according to San Francisco Police Department statistics.
The victim of Sunday’s slaying, whose identity has not been released by the Medical Examiner’s Office, was shot and killed sometime around 12:30 a.m. Sunday near the intersection of Mission Street and Admiral Avenue.
When officers arrived at the scene they found the man suffering from a gunshot wound. Another man at the scene who was allegedly armed with a gun was arrested.
The wounded man was pronounced dead at the scene.
Sunday’s killing was among four this month that helped push up the deadly violence in San Francisco above the number last year by the end of May. In all, as of May 29 there had been 27 homicides in San Francisco.
As of May 31, 2016, there had only been 21 homicides in San Francisco. By the end of 2016 there were 58 homicides, seven more than the year before.
Since 2008 the average number of homicides in The City has plateaued at around 50. Before that, it was closer to 100 a year for at least the previous decade.
Read more criminal justice news on the Crime Ink page in print. Follow us on Twitter: @sfcrimeink
Click here or scroll down to commentFrom the outside, Verizon FiOS’s theoretical plan to shake up the cable bundle and find a way to pay cable channels based on their
viewership seems like a godsend. Enable the free market! Lower prices, or at the very least, “stabilize” them! Pave the way for huge numbers of small, boutique channels! There’s one problem, though – any plan to move cable to a ratings-based pay system could jeopardize the shows I love the most and, for that reason, I’m wary.
Derek Thompson has a piece in the Atlantic explaining how exactly we find ourselves in the current “golden age of television.” Some of my favorite shows on television get terrible ratings, and probably wouldn’t do so well under a new pricing regime. Broadcast, he explains, makes its money from advertising, so it's forced to make shows that appeal to the widest audience possible. We all know how that goes. Cable channels, on the other hand, gets a slice of every subscriber on their bundle. So one or two hits can ensure their place in the bundle, and thus their success. That's why cable will throw gigantic amounts of money at one or two shows -- that's all they need. So that corrupt morass of bundling that we love to hate is also responsible for the shows we love.
It’s hard not to get behind an assault on the Byzantine beast that is the cable bundle. It could, theoretically, mean lower, logical TV prices. But right now, that elaborate mess has brought me some of the most memorable entertainment experiences of my life. Do we really want cable to be bound by the same numbers game as broadcast? Would expensive shows like Mad Men and Breaking Bad survive a transition to a viewership-based economy?
Plenty of people benefit from various forms of corruption. I suppose that with TV, I and everyone else who likes elaborate hour-long dramas are among them. Any sort of pricing strategy is unlikely to go through without the consent of Time Warner and Viacom, so I feel myself feeling an unlikely affection for the media giants at this moment.News
Comments (2278) Quicktold Apple is rapidly losing steam in Japan. A growing number of japanese are realizing that iPhones are simply not worth the hefty price which includes an additional premium from Apple for no good reason. iosys ##Author -
Comments (159) YFSGT: Not Dead Yet, But Apple's Thunderbolt Display Is In an ongoing effort to cover up the cracks forming in their public image, a gaping chasm opened up Thursday when Apple announced that their 27-inch Thunderbolt display will linger in the store "while supplies last." This comes without prior warning nor an explanation from the unsteady giant where they plan to go to fill this niche in the market. For our readers, ever burdened with intelligence and common sense and obviously bewildered as to why a 27 inch monitor, especially one on clearance, would be priced at $999, allow us to explain. Apple, in all their innovative unwisdom, saw that their regressive mindset regarding their MacBook Pro has lead to feature bankruptcy resulting in a so-called "computer" lacking in even the most basic of connectivity enjoyed by every competing brand for decades much to the chagrin of IT professionals worldwide. Instead of the logical decision of adding actual ports like ethernet back onto their laptops, they solved the problem in typical Apple fashion: make it available with an overpriced add-on. Thunderbolt puts Display Port and PCIe on one cable allowing the display to carry the ports that the laptop is missing and at the low cost of one thousand dollars, how could such a monitor fail? Well that was predictable. Now Apple is silently washing their hands in a tail-between-legs move that leaves their customers high and dry with sub-par hardware. When it comes to making a plainly obvious, smart decision, or one that leaves us all head scratching, Apple really does Think Different. iosys ##Author -
Comments (113) Quicktold Samsung Innovates, Apple stagnates. The revolutionary Samsung Galaxy S6 does what the iPhone has failed to do time and time again: innovate. The smart phone sports a screen that curves to the side bringing a whole new dimension to phones. iosys ##Author -
Comments (2422) Apple Trolled For $532.9 Million, So Easy A Caveman Could Do It We at YFSGT greatly condemn patent trolls and believe they are no better than cancer. We also are of the opinion that software patents belong in the garbage, but that is another rant for another time. The point is, we don't take kindly to patent trolls, and for all intents and purposes, they are worse than Apple. Or so we thought. Despite demonstrating legal prowess in the war with Samsung and supposedly knowing their way around a patent battle, Apple lost half a billion dollars to Smartflash LLC. The single employee, zero product company owned by Patrick Racz breezed through court proceedings showing little knowledge of the nature of the patents, but plenty in the way of legal battles. Apple's own attorneys, seasoned with years of experience in just this sort of court case, repeatedly failed to present any witness who showed any kind of studiousness towards competency involving patents. This is against a single man from a farming family who dropped out of 8th grade. The Jury only took 8 hours to come to a decision in favour of the patent troll. Thanks Apple, for dumping over $500 million into the patent trolling industry ensuring its longevity. iosys ##Author -
Comments (67) This Past Month At Apple January 2015 Edition Apple started off the new year in true Apple fashion: lying, cheating, and scamming. Apple "Fraudently Acquired" The Iconic Beats Headphones Line In a move that cost Monster millions, Apple allegedly conspired to steal the rights to Beats in a "sham" transaction. The acuisition of beats was Apple's largest, at $3.2 billion. App Store Prices Get Jacked Up for EU, Canada Apple blindsided its European and Canadian customers with a fierce price hike. They claim that this was due to changes in VAT; however, the prices tell a different story. The most popular items saw increases of up to 35%. Apple Pays The Price For Breaking Antitrust Laws As if the economy needed further damage, Apple shelled out millions after being accused of salary fixing and limiting job mobility. New Executive At Apple Earns More Than CEO Now you know where all the markup in Mac prices go. Angela Ahrendts took home nearly 8 times more than Tim Cook. iosys ##Author -
Comments (94) Apple Finally Caves to Pressure to Fix Known Defective Hardware After 4 Years Nearly four whole years have passed since the 2011 MacBook Pros were released and users began experiencing crippling hardware issues. The resulting class-action lawsuit came to a close in January when controversial Judge William Alsup dismissed the case; however, after a petition with over thirty-eight thousand signatures pressured the reprehensible retailer, Apple did a 180. Apple was quick to deny any suspected defects in their hardware despite some customers experiencing glitched video, no video, or the laptop suddenly rebooting. Surely the mountain of evidence in favour of the customer would make this a cut and dry case? Maybe in a perfect world; then again, in a perfect world, there wouldn't be Apple. Presiding over the case was none other than U.S. District Judge William "Posted From My iPad" Alsup, a judge widely known for his "vindictive and egotistical" attitude and reputation for being temperamental and prejudiced. He dismissed the case claiming the plaintiffs failure to prove the defects in the computers. Clearly a video chip that fails to render any video at all is working as intended. The ever greedy, ever questionably ethical computer company defended themselves by stating that only "a small percentage" of devices were affected. This small percentage of customers is also responsible for a recent thread gaining over 4,000,000 views on Apple's support forum and an online petition with over 38,000 signatures. Eventually, the forces of good triumphed, and Apple has begrudgingly changed their stance by offering free repairs to those affected. So now everyone with long outdated defective hardware can get it fixed for free 4 years late. Gotta love the award winning customer service. iosys ##Author -
Comments (123) Apple Caught Lying Despite their assurances that "no one but the sender and receiver can see or read [iMessages]", the iMessage system has been found to be insecure, as Apple could MitM their users and read their messages after all. This is acceptable to most users (especially Apple users) but it goes against Apple's previous statement completely, especially when issued within the context of NSA spying revelations earlier this year. Romanoff ##Admin -
Comments (72) Quicktold After years of the typical copy and paste philosophy with regards to branding, Apple admits that it must, for the first time, think different by recruiting a fashion expert to polish its tarnished image. iosys ##Author -
Comments (118) iPhone 5C A Miss, "Too Expensive!" Shocker The runt of the iPhone litter, the 5C, is disappointing investors and customers alike with its less than satisfactory sales. Apple has cut back on production orders on the under-performing 5C. Somewhere in China, sweatshop workers rejoice at the lighter work load. Analysts claim that the 5C is too expensive (gasp) to compete with the obviously superior and reasonably priced Android devices. The 5C is only $100 cheaper than the 5S, but still costs as much as a root canal. Reportedly, only the most die-hard fanboys are loyal enough and lacking in common sense to fork over the cash. Unfortunately, even the world's largest herd of sheep aren't enough to satisfy demand. "Affordable" isn't in Apple's dictionary apparently, for instead of cutting down the price to bolster sales as they have done in the past, instead they opt to cut down on production. The iPhone 5C just can't seem to live up to the expectations in the eyes of people set by the 5S and the legacy of previous phones. Oddly, "Steve" starts with S and "Cook" starts with C. Coincidence? iosys ##Author -This post is basically just an reply to Josh Berkus blog post. Additionally, it refers to “SQL Coding Standards To Each His Own" by Leo Hsu and Regina Obe.
Well, I've read what Josh wrote, and I though to myself – oh my, I must be doing something wrong, as I would never use long aliases. Then I read what Leo and Regina wrote, and I regained some confidence in my choice.
But, to say so, I could simply add a comment on Josh post.
So, I'd like to add something from myself. The topic of writing maintainable queries is very close to me, as I worked with a lot of strangely written queries, did the same as Josh – spending 30 minutes to rewrite the query just to understand what it really does. I have seen queries written by people, ORMs (Josh should like them I guess, but I hate the queries written by Hibernate and Django).
During the time, I decided that my priorities for writing maintainable queries:
Avoid useless typing. Use aliases for tables/views. Always. And make them sensible aliases. Indent code in some way. Avoid quotations (yes, this is why I hate Django) Use join syntax
List is not long, but that's because SQL queries are usually relatively simple as they do one thing at a time.
As for “Avoid useless typing" – long, repeated names make it (for me) more difficult to read, repeated expressions make it easier to make mistake when maintaining (changing “+1" to “+2" in 2 out of 3 places in query).
This goes for repetition of table names like:
SELECT search_query. id, search_query. criteria, search_query. url FROM search_query WHERE ( search_query. url = '...' )
As for aliases – imagine this situation – you rewrote above query to avoid repetition to:
SELECT id, criteria, url FROM search_query WHERE url = '...'
But then you have to join some other table (which luckily doesn't contain any columns named the same way), add a where, and add new column to be returned:
SELECT id, criteria, url, some_column FROM search_query JOIN some_table ON id = sqid WHERE url = '...' AND some_option = '...' ORDER BY ordering
Now, tell me – which table does “some_column" come from? And “criteria"? Of course – “criteria" is simple – we know it came from “search_query", but we know it only because we just modified the query.
If some poor guy will come in my place in a month, and he will see the query he will have to manually check which table given column belongs to.
This is especially important if you'd ever would like to ask for help on irc in case of “slow query" – as the situation is much different depending on which of columns (id, sqid, url, some_option and ordering) are in the same table.
As for sensible aliases – make them short, but meaninful. In this case – I would probably go with “q" (like query) and “st" for “some_table", but your preference might be different.
So, the query would look:
SELECT q. id, q. criteria, q. url, st. some_column FROM search_query AS q JOIN some_table AS st ON q. id = st. sqid WHERE q. url = '...' AND st. some_option = '...' ORDER BY st. ordering
Remember that by “Always use aliases" I mean also in column names – i.e. even if “url" is unique in your database – add “q.". It will not cost you much, but will give instant benefit to whoever will end up reading the query later.
“Indenting the code" is very vague, but generally – any way will do as long as you will not generate queries like “4 kb in single line" – which is, sadly, what ORMs tend to do. My preferred way of indenting is shown above – it has some drawbacks, but it works nicely for me (side note: in my long-term todo I have plans for writing SQL beautifier, but maybe you know one that works?)
Last point from my shortlist – avoid quotation. This is a safeguard against cases when you'll accidentally enter something like:
CREATE TABLE "Unintentionalcaps"...
As a side benefit – whenever I see quoted names in queries, I tend to assume that they are quoted for a purpose (i.e. they contain some strange characters), and I have to type them the same way. Which adds keystrokes, and thus is not welcome. And if I'll not add them – the code will look ugly with mix of quoted and unquoted names of the same objects.
The “join syntax" point is again inspired by Django. It has nasty habit of using “WHERE" part of the query to enter table join criteria. Like this:
SELECT id, criteria, url, some_column FROM search_query, some_table WHERE url = '...' AND some_option = '...' AND id = sqid ORDER BY ordering
Which has at the very least 2 issues:
it makes it unclear which conditions are used for join and which are used for data filtering
if you'll ever would like to change type of join (to outer join for example) you have to modify both FROM and WHERE parts of the query. Which makes it possible that you'll forget WHERE, and end up with outer join working like inner join.
And that would be all.CLOSE Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., has announced that she will not seek another term in Congress. Bachmann says she was not concerned about being re-elected or inquiries into her 2012 presidential campaign. (May 29) AP
Minnesota lawmaker became a national figure by leading House Tea Party Caucus and criticizing President Obama's health care law.
Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., is leaving Congress when her term ends January 2015. (Photo11: Mandel Ngan, AFP/Getty Images) Story Highlights Bachmann ran for the Republican presidential nomination last year
Move comes amid an FEC complaint against her former presidential campaign
She did not reveal her future plans
WASHINGTON — Tea Party favorite Michele Bachmann, a GOP conservative who ran for president last year, made a surprise announcement Wednesday and said she will not seek re-election to a fifth term in Congress.
The Minnesota Republican was facing inquiries into her 2012 presidential campaign and a potential 2014 rematch with Democrat Jim Graves, a wealthy hotel executive who came within about 4,300 votes of defeating her in November. She had already bought airtime in Minnesota to begin running campaign ads.
"My decision was not influenced by any concerns about my being re-elected," Bachmann said in a video posted on her website.
Bachmann added, "This decision was not impacted in any way by the recent inquiries into the activities of my former presidential campaign."
Former Bachmann aide Peter Waldron in January filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission, claiming the congresswoman made improper payments to an Iowa state senator who was the state chairman of her presidential campaign. Waldron accused Bachmann of other FEC violations.
Bachmann, 57, made a name for herself in Congress by staunchly opposing President Obama's health care law. In 2006, she became the first Republican woman elected to represent Minnesota in the U.S. House. Bachmann later co-founded the House Tea Party Caucus, a group dedicated to the anti-tax, small government principles that sparked the movement, and set out to repeal the health care law.
Her outspoken critique of Obama and frequent TV appearances, along with support from the Tea Party, invariably led to comparisons with Sarah Palin, the 2008 Republican Party vice presidential nominee. Palin had backed Bachmann during her 2010 re-election bid, when she faced a tough fight against Democrat Tarryl Clark. Bachmann said she viewed Palin as a friend and not a competitor.
In her presidential campaign, Bachmann tried to tap into her support from Tea Partiers — who also felt political kinship with candidates such as Rick Santorum and Rick Perry — in her bid for the GOP nomination. She made a number of gaffes on the campaign trail, such as the time she suggested the Revolutionary War battles at Lexington and Concord occurred in New Hampshire.
Bachmann blasted Perry, the Texas governor, in one televised GOP debate over mandating the HPV vaccine for schoolgirls and suggested it would lead to retardation. The American Academy of Pediatrics and other doctors spoke out to correct Bachmann, saying that the HPV vaccine, which prevents cervical cancer, would not cause mental retardation.
It was a quick rise — and fall — on the national scene for Bachmann, who declared her intention to seek the White House during a televised debate in June 2011. The Iowa native later that summer won the Ames Straw Poll, a state Republican Party fundraiser that is viewed as a gauge of grass-roots support for the first-in-the-nation caucuses. But Bachmann had trouble consolidating support among the Tea Party faithful and social conservatives, and dropped out the morning after the Iowa caucuses.
Months after some of her presidential rivals had already done so, Bachmann endorsed Mitt Romney for the GOP nomination.
Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, praised Bachmann as a "tireless advocate and dedicated representative for the people of Minnesota's 6th District." He said Bachmann "has worked hard each day to ensure that her constituents' voices are heard in the halls of Congress."
Bachmann routinely was among the House's top fundraisers and her 2012 race against Graves, the former CEO of the AmericInn chain, was one of the most expensive in the country. She raised nearly $15 million last year to about $2.3 million for Graves, and wasted no time cranking up her fundraising machine for the 2014 elections.
In one such e-mail pitch, Bachmann proclaimed that the "Pelosi-Obama campaign machine" was taking aim at her.
Democrats hailed Bachmann's decision to retire from Congress and held her up as an example of what is wrong with the Republican Party.
"Michele Bachmann's Tea Party brand of extremism and obstruction have infected the entire Republican Congress and her influence shows no signs of waning," said Emily Bittner, a spokeswoman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
The House Majority PAC, which works to elect Democrats to Congress, promised to help Graves win the seat based in the Twin Cities suburbs. "We are confident that we would have helped defeat her next November, but Bachmann voluntarily removing herself |
The Essential Mario Savio is no bearded revolutionary. On the contrary, Savio’s clean-cut image, Catholic values, and reluctance to denounce imperialism or to throw himself into the anti-war movement put him out of step with the New Left radicals who followed him. It is perhaps his ambiguity that has helped ease him into the history books.
After Savio died in 1996, the university that had demonized him began to cherish him; Hayden points out with a sense of real alarm that in the last decade and a half, UC Berkeley has “incorporated the FSM and student activism in its brand promotion.” A $3.5 million donation from former FSM member Stephen Silberstein in 1998 created the Free Speech Movement Café. The steps to Sproul Hall have been renamed the “Mario Savio Steps.” Former UC Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien observed that Savio’s name “is forever linked with one of our nation’s most cherished freedoms—the right to freedom of expression.” He added, “We are proud that he was part of the community at the University of California.”
In his new anthology, Cohen describes Savio as “Berkeley’s most famous student,” though that designation probably belongs to Jack London, who attended Berkeley briefly in the 1890s, and who was arrested for speaking on the streets of Oakland, a short distance from the campus. “Today’s heresy is tomorrow’s orthodox,” London observed. Hayden echoes his sentiments. “The persecuted radicals of one era are venerated as prophets and saints in another,” he writes.
In the fall of 2014, the university sponsored half a dozen events—lectures, panels and concerts—to commemorate the Free Speech Movement. Moreover, the university bought and distributed Cohen’s biography of Savio for free to all 8,000 members of the first year class. As Hayden observes, “It is difficult not to be slightly cynical about this.” New Left godfather Herbert Marcuse would no doubt recognize the university’s appropriation of Savio’s legacy as “repressive tolerance” at work.
Meanwhile, UC Berkeley students and faculty members wondered whether the university genuinely supported the First Amendment, especially in the wake of an email entitled “Civility and Free Speech” that Chancellor Nicholas Dirks sent to the campus community. “We can only exercise our right to free speech insofar as we feel safe and respected in doing so,” Dirks wrote. “Courteousness and respect in words and deeds are basic preconditions to any meaningful exchange of ideas.” He added, “Free speech and civility are two sides of a single coin—the coin of open, democratic society.”
The email provoked a backlash on campus and across the blogosphere. But Mario Savio, the free speech hero himself, might well have agreed with Dirks. At the height of the FSM, Savio insisted that protesters adhere to basic rules of civility and proper deportment. He even removed his shoes before climbing atop the police cruiser at the center of the legendary October 1964 sit-in, as a sign that he meant no disrespect to law enforcement or state property. When I knew Savio in the 1990s, he was often a model of politeness.
What divided Savio from the radicals who followed him, including Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, and Mark Rudd, was in part the gap between his civility and their blatant refusal to adhere to good manners as defined by college presidents, federal judges, and other figures of authority. Unlike Savio, Hoffman, Rubin, and Rudd meant to shock verbally and visually; they often dressed outlandishly. (There were also substantial political differences—most notably over Vietnam—which divided Savio from the radicals in SDS [including Hayden, though they were both Catholics born before the boomers], the Yippies, and the anti-war coalition known as the MOBE.) As John Murray Cuddihy pointed out decades ago in The Ordeal of Civility, the sixties generation gap widened principally over questions of proper and improper speech, not over ideology. Yippies and SDS members would probably cheer Anity Levy, the associate secretary at the American Association of University Professors, who said, in response to Chancellor Dirk’s email: “That the university which gave rise to the free speech movement should celebrate it by embracing the notion of civility is patently absurd.”
One thing Savio did share with the Yippies who followed him was a belief in the power of theater, props, and costumes and the necessity of using “PR,” as he called it in a letter to Stevenson from Mississippi. His innate theatricality helps to explain the December 2, 1964 Sproul Hall speech for which he is best known—a speech that appeared to endorse the very opposite of civility:
There’s a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part! You can’t even passively take part! And you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels … upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop! And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!
In The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage, Todd Gitlin likens the “bodies upon the gears” speech to a talk in which Hayden called upon young Americans “to stand in front of the war machine” and “to try to find some way to confront it where you would definitely pay a price.” Gitlin goes on to say that Hayden’s and Savio’s words both sound like “rationales for quasi-crucifixion.”
Soon after urging students to engage in apparent sabotage-cum-crucifixion, Savio backed down. He explained that he didn’t literally want protesters to throw their bodies into any sort of machine and bring it to a halt. Preventing the machine from operating “doesn’t mean,” he explained, “that you have to break anything.” From his own experience in the civil rights movement he extracted a single strategy. “One thousand people sitting down someplace, not letting anyone by, not letting anything happen, can stop any machine, including this machine, and it will stop,” he said.
Thousands of students believed him. They put their bodies on the line, filed into Sproul Hall and sat down after hearing Joan Baez sing “We Shall Overcome.” But if Berkeley students stopped the machine, they didn’t stop it for long. In the middle of the night, nearly 800 of the radicals in Sproul Hall were arrested; the university went on exercising the kind of “arbitrary power” and the “bureaucratized” style of communication that Savio denounced in the speech he made on December 2, 1964.
Who won the battle over free speech at Berkeley? Fifty years later, as students are testing the administration’s limits once again, it’s not clear. The Essential Mario Savio offers a clearer historical perspective on Savio as a personality and on the lessons he took with him from Mississippi. Savio’s letters from the summer of 1964 offer a self-portrait of the activist as a young “reconstructionist,” to borrow the phrase he used to describe himself and his fellow Freedom Summer volunteers. Even as they express the author’s conflicted emotions and ambiguities, they chronicle the ways that Freedom Summer helped to shake the foundations of segregation and to create a core of organizers like Savio—drawn from the best and the brightest students in America—who carried the seeds of protest home from the South, along with a fearlessness that enabled them to sit in, sit down, get arrested, and go to jail. The summer volunteers, Gitlin points out in The Sixties, brought back to Berkeley “a fierce moralism, a lived love for racial equality, a distaste for bureaucratic highhandedness and euphemism, a taste for intense mass meetings on the way toward consensus.”
For Savio, the moralism was especially pronounced. He was a “true believer,” as Rosenfeld notes in Subversives, who took on his “mother’s desire that he be a second Christ.” In response to the danger that he and his fellow volunteers faced, he wrote that while he didn’t go out of his way to seek death, he said that he could not “stand to be safe” while others risked their lives. Notions of sainthood were rarely far from Savio’s thoughts. His primary candidate for sainthood was Robert Moses, one of the organizers for Freedom Summer and a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Camus came second.
Grandiose, utopian, and self-absorbed, Savio told his pen pal Stevenson that “the history of the world is pivoting on the internal changes that are going on today in America.” He could also sound paranoid, but there were real reasons to feel a sense of paranoia, including the KKK. In August, near the end of his time in the South, he felt in the presence of a great awakening and at the start of a profound liberation movement. “People who had been denied the fundamental rights of self-government … were learning … to be FREE!” he told Stevenson, and added, “Someday white people will thank Negroes for saving America from the historical trashcan.”
Savio’s moral fervor fused with a feeling of vulnerability and self-doubt of the sort that the New Left usually disdained. “Mississippi has been making me do an awful lot of thinking about Mario Savio,” he told Stevenson. “Where do I fit in?” Along with intellectual brilliance and sense of messianic zeal, he carried the seeds of insecurity that might have derived from a combination of being sexually abused by a member of his own family as a boy, his stutter, and his attachment to the Catholic sense of original sin.
In the next-to-the-last letter that he wrote to Stevenson, he told her that he felt “increasing loneliness” but that he was “reasonably safe from myself as long as I keep busy.” Mississippi awakened old emotional wounds; one family that provided him with room and board reminded him of the dynamics in his own. “I feel returning all those old fears, the feelings I’ve had as a member of a family in which I always felt under foot, in my father’s way,” he explained. He had to find a job, he told Stevenson, so that he could afford to pay for therapy. This may help explain why Malcolm Zaretsky, who interviewed Savio for the Freedom Summer volunteer position, wrote in his report (which Cohen includes in a footnote at the back of the book), “Can’t decide if I were picking people if I would choose him.”
One of the things that’s missing from The Essential Mario Savio is a group portrait of the women who surrounded him. There were at least half-a-dozen Berkeley co-eds who helped create Mario Savio as a historical icon: besides Stevenson, there was Bettina Aptheker, a New Yorker and the daughter of Communist Party historian Herbert Aptheker, who was an important source of ideas and inspiration; Suzanne Goldberg, a graduate student in philosophy and a teaching assistant who became Suzanne Savio, Mario’s first wife, and who helped write FSM papers; Jackie Goldberg, a member of the FSM Steering Committee and a Young Democrat who often spoke in public; and Barbara Garson, the editor of the FSM newsletter and the author of the 1966 hit satire, Macbird, which portrayed LBJ as Macbeth. And there were dozens more women in the Free Speech Movement, including Jentri Anders, the star of Kitchell’s documentary, and Savio’s second wife Lynne Hollander Savio, who explains in the epilogue to The Essential Mario Savio that after the FSM he “withdrew from almost all active political participation” and that he was “uncomfortable with the rhetoric of the Left during the late 1960s and the 1970s.”
All his life Savio wondered where, if anywhere, he fit in. In his last years, he continued to question himself and his role on campus at Sonoma State University, where he was still deeply concerned about freedom of speech, censorship, campus climate, and political correctness. A Catholic humanist, an existentialist, and a visionary, he wanted to be in the world but not of it. Intensely serious, he could also be funny and even self-mocking. When Sonoma State faculty members thought they recognized him and asked, “Are you Mario Savio?”, he would reply “Somebody has to be.”
At a rally on October 1 on the campus of UC Berkeley to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Free Speech Movement, speakers said very little about Savio himself. Yes, there were moments of bombast. Jack Weinberg—who warned more than thirty years ago, “Never trust anyone over the age of thirty”—claimed that student protests in Hong Kong had been influenced by the Free Speech Movement. Still, there was very little self-congratulation and boasting. Jackie Goldberg, now 69, and Bettina Aptheker, 70, both spoke. Aptheker emphasized the challenges for today’s social movements and reminded the audience of the necessity for “face-to-face door-to-door grass roots organizing.” Amanda Armstrong, a graduate student in the Department of Rhetoric, reminded listeners that Berkeley students had won battles for decades, beginning with the formation of ethnic studies in the sixties and a successful campaign in the 1980s that persuade the university to divest from apartheid South Africa. Students would have to act again, Armstrong said, and quoted from Savio’s most famous speech. The words sounded a bit hollow without the man who gave birth to himself when he delivered them on December 2, 1964. At any rate, they seemed lost on the students who filed in Sproul Hall and into classrooms to take tests and listen to lectures.
Then, on November 19, a group of students calling themselves the Open UC at Berkeley occupied Wheeler Hall to protest tuition hikes ordered by the Board of Regents and opposed by Governor Jerry Brown. The day before Thanksgiving, after a week-long occupation, the protesters went home, but not before posting a statement on Facebook that read, “See you Monday.” The ghost of Mario Savio still seems to haunt the campus.
Corrections: The author of The Beginning: Berkeley, 1964 is Max Heirich, not Heinrich; the author of Heretic’s Heart is Margot, not Margo, Adler; Seth Rosenfeld wrote for the Daily Californian in the 1970s, not the 1960s; and former UC Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien is a he, not a she. The text of the article has been updated and we apologize for the errors.We’re incredibly excited to announce that Astroneer will be released via Xbox Game Preview for Xbox One and Windows 10 in December of this year!
Astroneer is a game about wonder. Humanity has recently gained the ability to travel between the stars, prompting a gold rush of sorts in space. You play an Astroneer: a near-future prospector seeking fortune and adventure, deposited on far-flung worlds by your enigmatic outfitting company. Astroneers must use the tools available to them to build thriving bases, discover valuable resources, and uncover exotic and mysterious artifacts.
Astroneer is a game about exploration and creativity. The worlds in Astroneer are diverse, each combining careful artistry and procedural generation to create unique and beautiful experiences. Yet, each world can be reshaped by your tools. The entire volume of the world can be dug, sculpted, or added to at your whim. Every cubic inch of every world is accessible to you. Excavate vast underground tunnels or create megaliths on the surface; the world is your Play-Doh.
Astroneer is a game about cooperation. The game supports online co-op for up to four players, and exploring and sculpting the worlds with friends is an experience we’re absolutely committed to. We can’t wait to see what kinds of incredible creations gamers will make, especially with the help of their friends. There’s something special about playing the game in the living room and we’re happy to capture that magic.
We’re so excited to bring Astroneer to the Xbox One. The Xbox Game Preview program lets us get our game in the hands of fans while we’re still in the early stages of development, giving you the opportunity to tell us what you think and watch the evolution of Astroneer over the coming year.
Stay tuned on Twitter at @astroneergame, or the Astroneer blog, and get ready for launch in December!A good balance between safety and tolerability is necessary for an antiepileptic drug (AED) to be successful in the management of patients with epilepsy. Levetiracetam is one of the new generation of AEDs licensed as an add-on therapy for the treatment of patients with partial-onset seizures. Leveti-racetam's mechanisms of action are not fully understood. Controlled clinical trials, open-label studies, and postmarketing surveillance indicate that leveti-racetam has a favorable safety profile characterized by little effect on vital signs or clinical laboratory values, reported adverse events that are mild to moderate, and no known drug-drug interactions. The tolerability of levetiracetam may extend to both pediatric and elderly patients based on analyses of small numbers of patients. Tolerability is maintained over the long term. Levetirac-etam does not appear to have a different safety profile in learning-disabled patients. Levetiracetam appears to have a good balance between tolerability and efficacy in the treatment of a wide variety of patients with partial epilepsy.Former public schoolboy James Herbert died after taking a 'legal high' and being left naked on the floor of a police cell
The family of young man with mental health problems who died after he was left naked on the floor of a police cell have strongly criticised the way their son was treated.
Former public schoolboy James Herbert was detained under the Mental Health Act after being seen acting oddly in a street in Wells, Somerset.
He was restrained by police and placed in the back of patrol van and driven almost 30 miles to Yeovil police station before being carried on a blanket into a cell.
A coroner's jury that heard the case at Wells town hall concluded that Herbert died of cardiac arrest after taking a "legal high".
But it also highlighted factors that may have contributed to his death including a lack of communication between police officers about the man's mental health, his drug use and previous incidents; the failure to call for medical assistance while he was being taken to the police station; and the need for closer monitoring of him.
East Somerset coroner Tony Williams said he would be writing to the chief constable of Avon and Somerset police, Nick Gargan, to highlight the issues raised.
Speaking after the narrative verdict, Herbert's parents, Tony Herbert and Barbara Montgomery, criticised the way the police handled their son's detention.
Mr Herbert said: "On 10 June 2010 at 7pm our son James was in a distressed state running in and out of traffic on the Bath Road in Wells about 400 metres from his home.
"One-and-a-half-hours later he lay dying naked on a bare concrete floor of a police cell at Yeovil police station. The CCTV pictures of our dying son tell it eloquently, the story of catastrophic errors, disregard and neglect shown to James's welfare."
Avon and Somerset police said the case was a "tragedy". Chief Superintendent Nikki Watson said: "This case reinforces the dangers of legal highs. My officers were faced with an extremely difficult situation and did their very best to protect James and other members of the public.
"We have taken note of the coroner's helpful comments about communication, risk-assessment and places of safety."
Deborah Coles, co-director of the campaign group Inquest said: "This is sadly not an isolated case and the issues of concern raised by the jury and coroner are not new. Inquest is working on too many cases of people suffering mental illness who have died after being restrained by police and there is no evidence that any of the collective learning from these cases is being acted upon."EASTON — A married 49-year-old substitute teacher at Easton Area High School was interrupted by police while she was having sex with a 17-year-old boy in the Easton Cemetery this month, police said.
Kelly Aldinger, formerly of Easton, was charged with institutional sexual assault Tuesday morning before District Judge Daniel Corpora. He ordered Aldinger held on $50,000 bail pending a hearing scheduled for May 31.
Corpora said he would consider lowering Aldinger's bail after she is interviewed by pretrial services at the prison. She was released Tuesday afternoon after her father posted 10 percent of her bail.
Her contract as a temporary substitute at the high school was terminated, her attorney, Josh Fulmer, said following Aldinger's court appearance.
Her employer, Source4Teachers, released a statement that she has been "indefinitely suspended" from working in any districts that contract with the company.
Superintendent John Rinehart said the district will conduct an internal investigation.
"The circumstances are obviously very disturbing and upsetting to all of us because we have to be able to trust these individuals who work with us to use their best moral and ethical judgment when working with children," he said.
The district started using Source4Teachers in 2013.
According to court records, city police officer Joseph Arredondo was on patrol at 1:06 p.m. May 6 when he spotted a vehicle parked in the cemetery at 401 N. Seventh St. The officer could see a woman and a male were in the vehicle having sex, police said.
As an officer questioned her at the cemetery, Aldinger said she was 49 and a substitute teacher at the high school. The boy, 17, said he is a junior at the school, according to court records.
Northampton County Prison / Submitted photo Kelly Aldinger, 49, a substitute teacher at Easton High School, was charged with institutional sexual assault after police say she was caught having sex with a 17-year-old student in the Easton Cemetery May 6. Kelly Aldinger, 49, a substitute teacher at Easton High School, was charged with institutional sexual assault after police say she was caught having sex with a 17-year-old student in the Easton Cemetery May 6. (Northampton County Prison / Submitted photo)
Aldinger said she met the boy several years ago when she was a substitute teacher at Easton Middle School.
Both the boy and Aldinger told police they had been involved in a sexual relationship since the fall, when he was 16, according to court records.
Police have been investigating Aldinger's relationship with the boy since May 6 and say they have found no other victims.
Aldinger surrendered to police Tuesday morning at the district court in Easton and was handcuffed in the hallway before her arraignment. During the arraignment, Aldinger told Corpora that within the past week she had moved from the home she shared with her husband and children on Maywood Street in Easton to her parents' home on the 600 block of Williams Street in Pen Argyl.
Aldinger's parents were in court Tuesday morning.
Aldinger did not comment as she was led to a police car in the court parking lot.
Cemetery Superintendent Jeff Mutchler said he knew of an incident a few weeks ago, but wasn't aware of the charges.
"We rely on the Easton Police Department to help us at the cemetery," Mutchler said. "They come in, they do drive-throughs."
He said couples, some of them prostitutes, teens and drug users, try to take advantage of the out-of-the-way nature of the historic cemetery.
"It's a park-like setting," Mutchler said. "Because it's secluded, quiet, we do have people come in here and they're disrespecting the family of the people that are buried here."
Mutchler said the cemetery is installing surveillance cameras that he hopes will deter people from causing trouble in the cemetery.John Legend is truly a class act. We got to spend the day with the Grammy Award winning singer on the set of HelloBeautiful’s InterludesLIVE. In addition to shutting down the Red Rooster in Harlem with a show stopping performance, John shared some motivation for our young Black men.
A long-time advocate of children’s education as a beneficiary of Harlem Village Academies, John lent his voice to our “Your Life Matters” initiative. He inspires us all to dream, believe and act like we do matter. And when we succeed, give back! Words we can all live by.
John Legend is one of the many inspiring figures to champion the “Your Life Matters.” Recent testimonials include fellow singer-songwriter Ne-Yo, Nick Cannon, and American Ballet Theater soloist Misty Copeland.
Watch John Legend’s message below, and tune in for a front row seat when HelloBeautiful’s InterludesLive with John Legend premieres this Saturday, 9/14 on TV One at 10pm!
We want to hear from you! Share your message on the Your Life Matters Facebook page. Every voice matters!
Also On HelloBeautiful:To Centennial linebacker Dedrick Young the decision was a simple one. Pick the school where he most felt at home and found the best fit. That’s how the Huskers ended up with commitment No. 14 - and the second under new coach Mike Riley.
“I’m going to Nebraska,” Young said. “I just feel like the academics part, the environment and my comfort level with the players helped make my decision."
Young’s decision boiled down to a positive experience on his official visit for the Illinois game and a good relationship with the coaches hired to replace the ones that had been previously recruiting him.
Nebraska offered Young back in August after shifting through the next wave of linebackers. Under the old staff, Ron Brown and Ross Els were the primary recruiters for Young.
When Riley was announced as the new coach, linebackers coach Trent Bray took over the recruitment after he took the job. Bray had an in-home with Young last week, which helped solidify the decision.
The addition of Young is big for Nebraska as the Huskers are in desperate need of linebacking help. NU only has a few returning players with experience and will need to add depth this fall.
As an early enrollee, Young will be in position to help the Huskers out. Nebraska’s last two commitments have been linebackers, bringing the team’s total up to two, but the staff will likely look for even more help in January.
Young chose the Huskers over in-state school Arizona and fellow Big Ten school Michigan State. Young is the first commitment out of Arizona for Nebraska since Avery Moss in the 2012 class.
On 247Sports, Young is rated as a three-star and the No. 64 athlete in the country and the No. 11 prospect in Arizona. Besides linebacker, Young is considered a standout running back, having finished a strong career with Centennial.Shakespeare wrote in his tragic play Macbeth that slumber is a “Balm of hurt minds” and “Chief nourisher in life's feast.” In this issue's cover story, sleep researcher Robert Stickgold explains the many ways those statements are far more than pretty turns of phrase. In fact, it is physiologically vital that we spend about a third of our lives unconscious.
Dozing, Stickgold writes, is involved in a “multitude of biological processes—from the inner workings of the immune system to proper hormonal balance, to emotional and psychiatric health, to learning and memory, to the clearance of toxins from the brain.” Losing a few hours of shut-eye depresses various functions, reducing our cognitive and memory powers, souring our mood, even reducing our body's ability to defend against infections. If we did not snooze at all, eventually we would die. Click here to learn more about our remarkably restorative nightly visits to the land of Nod.
It has taken decades to develop even a rough understanding of the multiple benefits of catching 40 winks, but the weight of ongoing studies eventually has made the picture clearer. The clarifying effect of the gradual accumulation of data is a steady theme in the evolution of modern research in general and forms the underpinning of this year's “State of the World's Science” special report, organized by Fred Guterl, with editing support from Seth Fletcher and Mark Fischetti and graphic design by Jen Christiansen.
Data are the fuel for the engine known as Big Science—those bold projects that aim to tackle challenging large questions and to help make progress on some of humanity's toughest problems. In “Trouble in Mind,” for instance, journalist Stefan Theil looks at how researchers are trying to pry the operational secrets from the biological computing machines in our skulls. The uneven success to date of vast brain research projects in the European Union, the U.S. and elsewhere shows just how difficult managing large-scale efforts can be. Next, Dean Karlan asks in “More Evidence, Less Poverty,” do microloans really help the world's poorest? The answer will surprise you. In “An Antidote to Murder,” Rodrigo Guerrero Velasco describes his experiences as mayor of Cali, Colombia, where he used data to address an epidemic of violent homicides—with compelling results. And through the Nature Index, we showcase the top research institutions around the world; see “World Leaders,” (Scientific American is part of Springer Nature.)
The process of science can't solve all the world's problems, of course, but it is often deeply inspiring to me to realize how much it can help.And, believe it or not, it’s not the first time an African migrant killed a Norwegian on the same bus line!
Writing at Limits to Growth, blogger Brenda Walker alerted us to the sickening news.
She begins her post:
The Refugee Industrial Complex wants us to believe that asylum seekers are poor little waifs who need the help of the too-rich West. But some of the demanding refugee crowd are dangerous characters, as was demonstrated recently in rural Norway, where a knife-wielding Sudanese man murdered three on a bus after he had been refused asylum.
We are directed to the news in The Local on November 4th:
The 31-year-old, who was living at an asylum reception centre in Årdal, was due to be deported to Spain on Tuesday, after having his application rejected in June.
“This person had applied for asylum, and come to Norway in April,” a spokesman for Norway’s immigration directorate said. “He was rejected in June, and was supposed to be returned to Spain under the so-called Dublin Regulation.”
The reference here to the Dublin Regulation refers to the EU policy put in place about ten years ago to try to reduce the number of asylum shoppers who land in one country and then ‘make their way’ to another country within the EU that is more to their liking.
The man is accused of killing the bus driver, Arve Haug Bagn (55) and Margaret Molland Sanden, a 19-year-old biotechnology student at the Oslo and Akerhus University College of Applied Sciences. The third victim, a Swedish man in his 50s, has not been named.
[….]
The bus, the Valdres Express, travels the four-hour journey from the mountainous region of Valdres to Oslo, nd was hijacked between the towns of Årdal and Tyin in Sogn og Fjordane county.
The attack marks the second time the Valdres Express has been hijacked. In 2003, it was hijacked by a mentally disturbed 26-year-old Ethiopian man who stabbed the driver to death.
There is a follow-up story yesterday, also at The Local which brings up the subject of Anders Breivik in relation to the slow police response to the bus slaughter. Readers will remember that Breivik’s main beef (which the anti-free speech Norwegians never let him vent, until they were forced to hear it in his murder trial) when he went on his slaughter spree of children of Norway’s Leftists, was that African and Middle Eastern immigration was killing Norway.
Police said the man suspected of hijacking a bus on Monday evening, killing all on board, was a 30-year-old asylum seeker from South Sudan whose application had been rejected and who was due to be deported.
[….]
Fire fighters and medical personnel were first to arrive on the scene, ahead of police, and used a fire extinguisher to disable him. [A fire extinguisher!—what else in the land of no guns!—imagine how things might have been different if that poor bus driver had a gun!—ed]
[….]
That fact has re-awakened criticism of the police which surfaced after the brutal massacre carried out by the right wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik on July 21, 2011.
[….]
Breivik killed 69 young Labour Party members on the island of Utøya on a 75-minute shooting rampage which was preceded by a bomb attack killing eight in central Oslo.
Then much to my shock, The Local has the audacity, the poor judgement!, to post a sidebar story also yesterday entitled ‘Ten Things Norwegians do that annoy Foreigners.’ Be sure to look at the trivial ten!
In fairness now, they should publish ‘Ten things foreigners do that annoy Norwegians.’
No 1: Killing our beautiful girls on buses!
I won’t hold my breath!
Addendum: If any one sees more news on this in which the religious affiliation of the murderer is identified, let us know (I won’t hold my breath on that either!).
Our lengthy Norway archive is here.We all spent time prepping for our fantasy drafts. Then we slid players in and out of our starting lineup as our Week 1 matchup approached. Now, Week 1 has passed and rankings have shifted. Here’s how I think the Top 10 WR will unravel in point-per-reception (PPR) leagues.
Calvin Johnson: No need to panic. Yes, Johnson posted a whopping 7 points in Week 1, but he could have easily had a 21-point day had his two TD grabs held up. His on-screen production has been through the roof as of late, starring in commercials with P. Diddy and ESPN ; he’ll soon be back producing on the field. Double teams are inevitable, but with nine Week 1 targets, Stafford will find a way to get him the ball. Did I mention Reggie Bush had 4 catches for 101 yards? Defenses will have to start directing attention towards the RB, which should free up Megatron. A.J. Green: 37 points in Week 1! Seven of his nine receptions came against one of the better cornerbacks in the game, Charles “Peanut” Tillman. He is an absolute specimen and has an improved passer in Andy Dalton. The Bengals QB targeted Green on 40% of his Week 1 passes. He’ll continue to get his looks from week to week. Expect 1st round production this year. Randall Cobb: The 3rd year WR finished with 80 receptions, 954 yards, and 8 TDs last season. I expect him to easily surpass those numbers. If Jordy Nelson stays healthy, Jermichael Finley finally lives up to expectations, and the GB rushing attack remains anemic (44 rushing yards in Week 1), Cobb will flourish in 2013. The TDs will fluctuate, but he’s a PPR machine that’s off to a hot start. Brandon Marshall: Jay Cutler could let opposing defenses know he was throwing to Marshall and still manage to force feed the pigskin to his favorite receiver. Marshall had 8 catches on 10 targets in Week 1 (24 points). With the addition of Martellus Bennett and development of Alshon Jeffery, the Bears’ No. 1 WR could come close to his 118 receptions from 2012. The Bears also play GB, MIN, and DET twice apiece…expect those games to render lofty numbers for Marshall. Larry Fitzgerald: Fitz hasn’t had a competent QB since Kurt Warner back in 2009. He still managed to average 80 receptions per year in that span. Gunslinger Carson Palmer targeted Fitzgerald 14 times in Week 1, two of which went for scores. Once underappreciated TE Rob Housler returns from injury, Fitzgerald owners can expect a spike in numbers. If you felt like you drafted Fitz too early, stop feeling that way! You can expect Top 5 numbers from him this season. Victor Cruz: He probably represents the single biggest jump from initial rankings. All fantasy owners immediately forgot about his holdout and preseason foot injury once he set foot on the field. His 5 catches, 118 yards, and 3 TD performance made him the third highest scoring WR this week. Yes, the Cowboys offense was a little soft, but that doesn’t discount the fact that Cruz can effectively score from 70 yards out and from inside the redzone. Everyone around him (Nicks, Randle, Myers) add to his fantasy value by providing solid secondary options for defenses to key in on. Wes Welker: There was a stretch in Week 1 where Peyton Manning was overzealous in getting his new toy the football. Fantasy owners couldn’t have been more enthused by that series. Ending the night with 9 catches for 67 yards and 2 TDs, you can’t help but think Welker is going to produce Patriots-esque numbers. He’s almost as certain for production each week as death and taxes. The only reason he doesn’t crack the Top 5 is because the ball will be distributed by Manning. However, expect similar numbers to his 2007 season — eclipsing 100 receptions, grabbing 8 or so TDs, but only having 1,100 receiving yards. Reggie Wayne: Just outside the Top 12 in most preseason rankings, Wayne will get his opportunity due in large part to the subpar Colts defense. After overcoming a 4th quarter deficit to the….Raiders, the Colts will often be playing from behind. Even though Wayne is teetering on the edge of retirement at 34 years of age, he’s still got it. Luck completed all 8 of his targets to Wayne in Week 1, showcasing the potential for another 100-reception season for the aging WR. Demaryius Thomas: He was the fourth highest scoring WR from Week 1. Granted, the Broncos aerial attack looked like the greatest thing since “The Greatest Show on Turf.” Don’t expect many 30-point performances from the Broncos’ No. 1 receiver this season. The rock will undoubtedly be dispersed to the many offensive weapons throughout the course of the year. I predict a decline in receiving yards for Thomas (1,434 in 2012), but a sure bet for double-digit TDs should make him a lock to be a Top 10 receiver. Julio Jones: He drops a few spots in my book after being ranked in the Top 5 to start the season. He had 7 catches for 76 yards and a TD in Week 1, but he also didn’t have a healthy Roddy White to share targets with. Jones is praised as one of the most athletic players in the game, but he will split targets to Steven Jackson |
of whom are engaged with training officers in response to persons with mental health problems.”
Draper is right that NSPL is doing critical work to help people before things escalate. In an emergency when you think someone is going to kill themselves, it is natural—and even laudable—to try to do anything you can to help to save them. I believe the NSPL is trying to do the best it can with the resources available, and overall it is helping. People in crisis should certainly call the hotline for help, and they should ideally also know the full scope of the services and interventions available.
There are no easy answers here. In an ideal world, we would have more robust mental health services and community response teams trained to de-escalate crises and support folks dealing with suicidality. But in the meantime, for people of color and people with mental health issues (and for a suicide hotline, people with mental health issues are the norm, not the exception), we need to at least be aware that calling the police could introduce more risks than rewards.Getting locked out of your home, your computer, or anywhere else you want to be can suck. The same goes for those times when your gadgets prevent you from doing what you want to do with them, but it doesn't have to be that way. Here are the top 10 ways you can break into virtually anything with a literal or figurative lock.
10. Open a Garage from the Outside
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This is pretty easy to do, sadly, but fortunately easy to prevent as well. To unlock a garage from the outside, all you need to do is thread a piece of wire or a coat hanger through the top of the door to open the emergency latch. To prevent it, all you really need is a plastic zip tie (pictured to the left, hopefully).
9. Unlock Your Computer Wirelessly
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Whether you're using your Android to unlock with Wi-Fi or practically any Bluetooth device to unlock your Mac (or Ubuntu), you can avoid unnecessary typing by just being in the vicinity. So long as you don't put your phone or other gadget in the wrong hands you'll have both safety and convenience.
8. Break Into an Airplane Lavatory
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You know, for emergency purposes. All you need to do is flip up the sign push the lever into the unlocked position. We verified this on a recent flight and the tip comes from our trustworthy friends over at Hipmunk, so watch your back next time you're peeing on a plane. Or, of course, get that door open if someone is having an emergency and stuck inside the bathroom.
7. Unlock Region-Free Encoding on Your DVD or Blu-ray Player
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One of the more annoying aspects of DVD and Blu-ray players is the region encoding, forcing you to only play discs made for you part of the world. Want to import a movie from another country? You're probably out of luck. Fortunately VideoHelp.com has DVD/Blu-ray player unlocking database so you can perform the necessary operation and watch whatever you want from wherever it came from.
6. Eliminate PDF Passwords
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It's pretty annoying when you find a PDF or get one in your mailbox and it's locked down by a password. If you want to get rid of that password, Amit Agarwal has a Pdfs Pdfss guide to opening PDFs regardless of their protection. You can also check out Free PDF Unlocker (Windows-only) if you only need to enable copy and paste functionality. Just be sure to only use these options if you lose a password or you have a good reason to break in.
5. Unlock Your Camera's True Capabilities
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If you've got a Canon point-and-shoot, you can install custom firmware CHDK to unlock a ton of features Canon didn't offer with your model. If you've got a Canon or Panasonic DSLR or micro-4/3rds camera, Magic Lantern can do the same (although it's video-oriented). If you wish your camera was a little bit better or you can't afford an upgrade right now, these hacks are great and providing you with features you probably should've had in the first place.
4. Access Locked Web Sites and Services Using a Proxy
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When you're on the web, you're bound to run into blocked sites now and again. This sucks, but fortunately there are plenty of ways to get around those restrictions. Whether you want to access Pandora, Hulu, the BBC iPlayer, or anything else, you're not out of luck. If there's not a specific hack, you'll generally be able to get through the blockage with a proxy. One of our favorites is TunnelBear, as it's as simple as flipping a switch.
3. Pick Locks and Crack Safes
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Learning to pick locks (regular ones or on your car) and crack safes may seem likes a thieve's trade, but knowing how to do it can provide you with a few legal benefits. First of all, you'll have a better understanding of how locks work so you can survey your own and protect yourself against their vulnerabilities. Additionally, should you lock yourself out, you'll know how to get back in.
2. Crack Passwords
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Whether you're cracking a Wi-Fi password or learning how to break into a computer, cracking passwords can be useful. As with anything that falls more on the dark side, knowing these unsavory tactics can help you protect yourself. But when it comes to Wi-Fi, sometimes you just need to borrow a network temporarily and that's really harmful to anyone. Also, you might forget your own password and need to break back into your computer. Whatever the case may be, use these skills for good!
1. Jailbreaking/Rooting Your Smartphone
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Jailbreaking your iPhone and rooting your Android are just about the most necessary feature-unlocking hacks for one of the most relevant pieces of technology available today. If you need some incentives, here's why jailbreaking is awesome and the ten best apps that requite rooting your Android. Both are generally pretty easy to do and very worthwhile, so get to it!
Title image remixed from originals by Odin M. Eidskrem and Lisa Fischer (Shutterstock)
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You can follow Adam Dachis, the author of this post, on Twitter, Google+, and Facebook. Twitter's the best way to contact him, too.What is Video Games Monthly?
Video Games Monthly is a monthly subscription service that delivers retro video games to gamers who own classic gaming systems from the 70’s – 2000’s and you keep the games.
How Much Does It Cost?
Video Games Monthly is affordable for every level of retro gamer. The base subscription is $34.99 USD per month for three games and you can cancel any time. Most gamers spend at least $70-$100 per month on games and gaming gear. The Video Games Monthly service researches and collects all levels of classic video games to give our customers a brand new retro experience every month. We ship for a low rate in the United States, and an additional $20 USD for Canadian residents.
What Will I Get?
Each month you will get a variety of retro video games, both well-known and unique. We do our best to send a variety of games in each box to ensure that you have the best chance of having a well rounded retro gaming experience.
Because these are actual retro video games, sometimes the cartridge shows it’s age. We do our best to send games with front and cataloging labels that are intact and readable including the great retro graphics, but some cartridges may have scuffs, fading or identifying marks on it from a past avid gamer. We work hard to ensure all extra labels and marks are removed.
Can I select my gaming system?
Yes! When you sign up you will select the type of retro gaming system you use. We currently stock games for Nintendo, Nintendo 64, Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Gameboy, Gameboy Color Gameboy Advance, Sega Game Gear, PlayStation®, PlayStation® 2, GameCube, Dreamcast Xbox, Famicom, Super Famicom, Nintendo DS, Wii, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation® Portable Sega Master System, Wii U, Intellivision and Atari. Upon demand, we will be introducing boxes for more systems in the coming months as well. You can change your box type any time.
Our exclusive game tracker ensures you never receive a game you already own! Once you subscribe, you'll be able to select your game systems as well as all of the games in your library. After picking your games, its easy, just choose the game system and click the check box for each game you own. When you get additional games, you should always come back and update your library. If you have more than 200 games for any individual system please reach out via email to verify that Video Games Monthly is a perfect fit for your gaming needs.
When should I input my game library?
Once you complete your payment on our website, you will be directed to our member page that allows you to select all the games you own. Its important that you complete this process as soon as possible to avoid getting duplicate games. We at VGM often begin packaging our shipments prior to the first of the month, and use your game library to select games for your next box, therefore its important to select your games on VGM quickly and also update your library when you acquire new games. Any updates to your gaming library must be made one week prior to the end of the month. Whenever you acquire new games from VGM or elsewhere, you should always come back and update your library. Keeping your library up to date ensures we'll never send you a duplicate game.
How can I Change my Box Type?
Contact Video Games Monthly by sending an email to info@videogamesmonthly.com and let us know you want to change your plan. Be sure to do this one week prior to the last day of the month!
Why Should I Subscribe?
There are many reasons to try Video Games Monthly and here are just a few:
1. Video Games Monthly will delivery retro games directly to your door every month, including many titles that you may not have found on your own AND it it’s the best way to economically build your retro gaming library.
2. It's a fun and exciting way to enjoy your retro gaming system. Our subscribers can't wait to get their box every month and see what's inside and discover “new” old games or re-own games that Mom threw away when she cleaned the attic!
3. You will save money. All of our boxes have a good value of product plus they ship for a low cost.
4. It's no-risk and you can cancel any time if you are not happy with the service.
How Do I Cancel My Subscription?
If you decide you no longer want to receive a box from Video Games Monthly, you can easily cancel by sending an email to info@videogamesmonthly.com. Please include your name, email address, and the subscription plan that you have. All cancelations must be made 5 days prior to the last day of the current month.
What if my significant other doesn’t want me to sign up?
Sign up! It’s a win-win. :) While you’re sleeping on the couch, you’ll get to play awesome retro video games!
What Day Of The Month Do You Charge Me And What Day Of The Month Will My Box Ship?
We process all payments on the 1st day of each month and we ship all boxes by the 10th day of each month.
Is There A Deadline To Order To Make Sure I Get My Box This Month?
Yes, all of our monthly subscription boxes ship by the 10th day of each month and the deadline to order is the last day of the month in order to receive the next months shipment. If you initially subscribe on or after the first day of the month, then your first box will mail out by the 10th of the following month.An effort by stealth bitcoin startup nChain to raise awareness of supposed issues with code that would boost the capacity of the distributed payments network is coming under fire.
Following its publication yesterday, legal experts raised concerns about a view put forward in a CoinDesk opinion article by nChain legal officer Jimmy Nguyen that asserted the upgrade, called Segregated Witness, could face problems under US electronic signature law if activated on the network.
Nguyen’s criticisms fly in the face of what has emerged as broad support for the network optimization, which has been largely embraced by the network’s developers, miners and startups as a pragmatic step forward, though the specifics on how it should be enacted vary.
Analysts went so far as to question the motives of the commentary, suggesting that they showed a lack of understanding about how the bitcoin protocol functions today, as well as the functionality it is intended to provide.
Chief among the critics were lawyers versed on the intricacies of blockchain law in the US.
Marco Santori, a fintech lawyer who leads the blockchain tech team at Cooley LLP, for example, took issue with what he argued was the confused framing of the allegation.
Santori told CoinDesk:
“It took the concept of what is a legal contract, and took the position that if you have a blockchain signature it has something to do with a legal contract.”
Stephen Palley, counsel at Washington, DC, law firm Anderson Kill, remarked similarly that the argument perhaps put too much weight on the idea that the “signatures” involved in executing transactions on the bitcoin blockchain were or should be equivalent to signatures used in digital documents.
“It elides the distinction between signature and witness data and a digital signature, and they’re two different things,” Palley said.
The comments come at a time when nChain is beginning to open up about its larger strategy after raising what it claims (but has yet to prove) is the most funding ever for an industry startup. nChain was sold to private investors in April, and is allegedly staffing up in advance of the launch of an alternative bitcoin software implementation, a move that would find it competing with Bitcoin Core’s established software.
Adding to the narrative is that nChain employs controversial developer Craig Wright, an Australian native who once claimed to be bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto only to retract that claim amid scrutiny. He has not since provided proof to satisfy the claim.
Technological underpinnings
One of the core critiques of the piece, however, pertains to its understanding of how the network would handle “witness data”, or the cryptography that proves unspent bitcoins are able to be sent to another party.
At issue is that under Segregated Witness, nodes running this version of the software would send transactions and blocks in a new format, meaning transactions would be cryptographically linked differently than they are today. One merkle tree would be used to record the data, while another would include data and a signature. Nodes receiving blocks in the older format, by not upgrading to Segregated Witness, would not receive the witness data.
But even without receiving this data, technologists argue users would still be able to prove that the transactions were confirmed, and that they contained the correct signatures, if desired. Should they require it for business reasons, the argument is that not running a SegWit-enabled node would be impractical.
Even assuming the argument that digital signatures need to be stored by the network itself to prove the legal validity of the transfer, technologists argued this could be satisfied by other means – namely, the proper storage of this data by the companies involved.
“There are other ways to cryptographically prove a transaction is correctly signed other than having a full node,” said BitGo engineer Jameson Lopp. “The assumption that if a transaction is in the blockchain, it’s probably valid, is a fairly good guarantee.”
Legal experts asserted that, because of this design, it’s possible to prove that the transaction occurred between parties, even if those involved did not store signatures.
For this reason, Coin Center director Jerry Brito argued that nChain is overstating the issues that would arise from the absence of this data.
“If you have one-time proof that you have the bitcoin, if you don’t have it and I have it, logically it was signed over to me. As long as somebody in the world keeps the signature data and it’s accessible, it’s fine,” he said.
Florida lawyer Drew Hinkes went so far as to call the argument “sound and fury” that would have limited impact on the network, even if bitcoin transactions were applied to contracts.
“If the transaction made it on the blockchain, didn’t it already have provably correct enforceable signatures that the two transacting parties can both keep?” he asked.
Question of intent
In remarks on Twitter, bitcoin legal specialist Patrick Murck expanded on the argument, honing in on nChain’s claims this would be a problem perhaps only in instances where parties used the bitcoin blockchain as a way to establish legal contracts.
The nChain article states: “Years later, if you want to prove that you signed (or did not sign) a specific contract, you could find the signature block identifier, but you may not able to retrieve the physical signature block itself.”
Here, Murck argued that, discounting the technical reasoning, the claim conflates bitcoin’s signatures with the legal intent to execute a contract, which he argued isn’t true.
Santori went on to suggest that the technological change wouldn’t have any impact on startups seeking to use the blockchain to prove that something occurred for this reason.
“E-sign law is talking about human assent to particular contractual terms. Just because cryptographers call this a signature, doesn’t mean it’s an assent to terms,” he said.
Lawyers queried also stressed that just because the word “signature” is used to define this process, that shouldn’t mean it is captured under related law. As such, they pointed to a larger problem in the blockchain industry in which newcomers may equate the words used to express a concept incorrectly with other ideas.
“Calling something signature data, and assuming because it’s signature data, it’s a legal signature,” Palley said. “That may be the logical flaw here.”
Representatives for nChain in response indicated that they “stand by” the article and welcome the debate that it has created.
“[We feel] this opinion piece is reasonable and it certainly does not misconstrue the law in any way,” the company said, though it declined further engagement.
Disclosure: CoinDesk is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group (DCG), which helped organize the SegWit2x proposal, which would include the SegWit upgrade. Additionally, DCG has an ownership stake in BitGo.
Magnifying glass image via ShutterstockIf you thought last weekend was eventful, this coming weekend is going to be mammoth! Whether you’re looking for something to do outdoors or spending time indoors to take in a little history and nostalgia, get out there to take it in before the rest of 2015 flashes by.
Goodbye, Hello (Dec 4-6, open 48 hours) Free
While The Beatles won’t be there, the beetles certainly will. The Royal Alberta Museum will have a final farewell party in their current Glenora building as they move to the downtown location. The free event will kick off at 5pm Friday, keeping the museum open for 48 hours straight until its final closing on Sunday at 5pm.
Scheduled for Friday evening is a Happy Harbour Comics 48-hour marathon, create your own bird with Alison Service, live swing dancing and big band performances, a midnight market, and a Horror night.
Saturday includes Saturday morning cartoons, movies, a fun run, mini-film fest, make your own art, and a Night at the Museum movie marathon. On Sunday local musicians Carrie Day and Kyler Schogen will perform.
Moe the Mammoth will make appearances on Friday and Saturday. The snack shop, L’Espesso Cafe, social media lounge, and the galleries will be open 48 hours. Galleries include the Natural History wing with paleontology, bug room, rocks and minerals; Syncrude Gallery of Aboriginal Culture spanning 11,000 years; and the Wild Alberta gallery featuring dioramas of Alberta species. Oh yes, there is also an actual exhibit at the museum about the museum, showcasing its past, present, and future. Link here.
Festival of Light (Dec 4-13, 5-10pm) $
The Festival of Light can be a bit of a zoo at times. The third annual festival returns to the Valley Zoo with all new light installations for visitors to enjoy. It’s a rare opportunity in the year to see the nocturnal animals come out of their burrows and into the cold. See the video on last year’s Festival of Light with Lucy the elephant below. A video of the 2013 Festival of Light is also available here.
Admission is $7.50 for adults and $5 for children. This is a special event, so annual passes are not applicable for it. It is open the same hours daily between Dec 4-13, but special programming is scheduled on the weekends. Remember to hashtag your Instagram photos with #yegfun to enter the City of Edmonton Attractions contest.
During the fall and winter, public transit is not available to get to the zoo. If transit is your only choice, the closest option is via the traffic circle at the top of Buena Vista Drive and walk down. An alternative option with less climbing effort is from South Campus station: take a bus and alight before the Talus Dome on Fox Drive, then cross Quesnell Bridge and follow the trail east.
Celebrate the Season (Dec 3-23) Free
Don’t miss the light up of the most extensive Christmas light display in the city. It will be the first time Premier Rachel Notley will take the honour of launching this Edmonton holiday tradition. The December 3rd event will begin Celebrate The Season, a 3 week long festivity (Dec 3-23) at the Alberta Legislature featuring daily performances by choirs across the province, complimentary hot chocolate and treats, all through the reopened front entrance of the 1912 building. The lights will turn off January 3rd.
The light up celebration on Dec 3 will begin at 4pm with Premier Notley lighting up the grounds at 5pm.
To get here, take exit A at Grandin station and follow the sounds and sights.
Hymns & Readings for Advent (Dec 6) Donation
If you missed the Carols Service last week, there’s another opportunity to participate in a traditional Advent hymn and readings at St Joseph’s Basilica this Sunday. Admission is by donation and there is a reception downstairs afterwards. The Basilica is about a 10 minute walk west of Corona LRT Station.
Sleigh Ride Shuttle In Old Strathcona (Saturdays Dec 5, 12, 19) Free
To support the Rotary Club’s Christmas drive, Old Strathcona will be rolling in ride-by-donation sleigh rides on Saturdays in December. From 1-5pm on December 5, 12, and 19, the sleigh ride route will have 4 stops in the Old Strathcona business district.
Remember to take a picture of merchandise or places and Tweet or Instagram #WhyteWishes while you shop. You may win the item you’re posting until December 15.
Great Things (Dec 5) Free
The University of Alberta Alumni Association has been celebrating several alumni events this week. The University of Alberta Museums Galleries at Enterprise Square is hosting two events as part of the Great Things initiative. One is A Celebration of Alumni Art & Innovation showcasing art by UofA Alumni. They’re also featuring from 6:30-9:30pm, 4 artist talks by Lynn Malin, Jim Corrigan, Kevin Zak, and Tanya Harnett. Free appetizers are included.
For those with children, there is a Kids Create event from 1-4pm where you can explore the A Celebration of Alumni Art & Innovation exhibit while creating some art and complete a scavenger hunt.
To get to the UofA Museums Galleries at Enterprise Square, take exit A at Bay/Enterprise Square Station. Event info here.
Winterfest 2015 (Dec 4-6) $
Snow Valley, located in Rainbow Valley, aka the bridge by the Terwillegar exit on Whitemud, is having their annual Winterfest this weekend as well. They start Friday (open from 3-9pm) with a $10 lift tickets (with a food bank donation), $10 ski rentals, and $18 snowboard rentals. A marshmallow roast begins at 6pm.
On Saturday and Sunday, there is breakfast until 10:30, serving $5 breakfast pizza, beans, and eggs with the first 150 cups of hot chocolate free. They’re also doing a Snow Rider scavenger hunt. If you’re going, bring a clothing donation for their E4C clothing drive supporting inner city neighbourhoods.
Luminaria (Dec 5-6) $$ SOLD OUT
This annual event at the Devonian Botanic Garden certainly sparks interest to some who’d rather like to enjoy our dark winters in the great outdoors away from city lights. The Kurimoto Japanese Garden is lit during Luminaria with thousands of candles. Along the way to sit by the bonfires, see ice scultures and other surprises on display.
Note that if you’re one of the people attending, parking is $25 at the Devonian Botanic Garden. They have a free shuttle service from Devon shopping centre or from UofA’s Corbett Hall (exit E1 at Health Sciences Station beside Canadian Blood Services) Rather than taking QE2, it is faster to get there via the Cameron Heights westbound exit on Anthony Henday Drive, and head south on Highway 60 (Devonian Way).To construct the enormous three-floor factory and meet the goal of producing 400,000 preordered Model 3s by the end of 2018, Tesla is building the Gigafactory in phases. A section is completed and equipment is moved in while the next portion is being erected. It's not so much a single building but a series of connected structures.
Section A is already cranking out battery packs for Powerwalls. Sections B and C have battery cell manufacturing equipment being installed and are being primed for production. Section D has one exterior wall and floors, but it's still mostly steel girders and rebar. Meanwhile, two days before we arrived, work started on Section E, which is currently just a skeleton of steel.
This section-by-section process continues inside. For example, the third floor will be one long cell assembly line. There's already one line installed and being prepped for testing. The next room over is being readied for identical equipment. And the next room over from that, and again, and again until the length of the third floor is a series of cell-producing juggernauts.
With each new setup, the process will be tweaked based on what Tesla and Panasonic have learned from the machines already pumping out batteries. It's about optimization, according to CEO Elon Musk, something that been part of the factories' DNA from the beginning. Since the original plans, the partnership has figured out that the Gigafactory will be able to produce three times as many battery packs as thought.
But it needs to move quickly and start building the 400,000 preordered Model 3s. "We need to get roughly a third the size of the original building to support half a million cars a year," Musk said at the event. Those orders forced the company to push up its Gigafactory plans by two years, and now Tesla believes it can meet the production schedule for entry-level Teslas in 2018.
Musk notes that the Gigfactory is more than just a way to get batteries into its cars. He said, "the factory itself is considered to be a product. It's the machine that builds the machine and actually deserves more attention from creative problem-solving engineers than the part that it makes." Tesla will gradually transition a majority of its research to improving its factory's workflow.
That efficiency will drive the battery price per kilowatt hour down at least 30 percent by 2020, according to Musk.
It's all going to start in this already-massive Gigafactory, 30 minutes outside Reno. When complete, it will produce enough battery packs for 1.5 million cars a year. In 2015, Tesla sold only 50,580 EVs, which means it has plenty of room to grow. If demand explodes outside the United States, the automaker plans to open additional Gigafactories that will also build the automobiles.
Today's factory -- even though it's not even 20 percent completed -- is a remarkable undertaking not only by Tesla, but by Panasonic, which jumped on board at the planning phases and hasn't looked back. And while the goal is to wean people off fossil fuels and get more electric cars on the road, the Gigafactory's output will be only for Tesla products. Other automakers will have to get their batteries elsewhere. Musk talked about the importance of being faster than anyone else. "Speed is the ultimate defense," he said. The CEO is acting more like an early settler out to get the best piece of land than the leader of a company. But it's not just about being first or the quickest to him. He seems to really enjoy what he's doing.Markets love this shit. Nothing gets the animal spirits going more than a massive tax cut, especially on capital gains.
Here are the highlights.
A zero percent rate for couple on their first $24k in income.
‘In essence, we are creating a zero tax rate,’ said Cohn.
Reducing 7 brackets to 3: 10%, 25% and 35%
Corporate tax rate: 15%
Elimination of the AMT
Elimination of the death tax
We’re digesting big gains, so don’t expect another +200 today. But, this is long term bullish for stock holders. The last time we had a tax cut like this was under the idiot Bush and that paved the way for extreme hedonism and the best market since 1999. Albeit, it also led to the housing bubble and subsequent crash. We’ll deal with that later on.
If you enjoy the content at iBankCoin, please follow us on TwitterSeveral instrumental versions of the song were used as the theme for the TV series. It became a number one hit in the UK Singles Chart in May 1980. [1] The song was ranked #66 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs.
The song was written specifically for Ken Prymus (the actor playing Private Seidman), who sang it during the faux suicide of Walter "Painless Pole" Waldowski (John Schuck) in the film's "Last Supper" scene.[2][3] Robert Altman had two stipulations about the song for Mandel: first, it had to be called "Suicide Is Painless"; second, it had to be the "stupidest song ever written".[4] Altman tried to write the lyrics himself, but found that it was too difficult for his 45-year-old brain to write "stupid enough".[5] Instead he gave the task to his 14-year-old-son, Michael, who wrote the lyrics in five minutes.[6][7][8]
Altman later decided that the song worked so well, he would use it as the film's main theme, despite Mandel's initial objections.[9] This version was sung by uncredited session singers John Bahler, Tom Bahler, Ron Hicklin and Ian Freebairn-Smith and the single was attributed to "The Mash".- Baytown police are on the lookout for a ring of criminals who are stealing, of all things, baby formula. Cops say this crime goes way beyond shoplifting. We’re not talking about one or even 50 cans of baby formula stolen. Baytown police are now on the hunt for thieves who have stolen thousands of dollars of baby formula all from one store.
The video is unmistakable. Baytown Police Detective Felipe Gallegos says the surveillance video shows several suspected thieves in Walmart loading a diaper bag full of stolen baby formula.
“Two or three they act as lookouts. One or two they grab items big enough to cover the view from the cameras and the public walking inside the store,” explains Detective Gallegos.
A ring of eight people, according to Gallegos, has hit the same Walmart on Garth Road eight times since last month. Although video of one of the suspects shows her hopping out of a black Nissan Xterra and going into the store with a baby, but Gallegos believes the formula is actually being sold.
"I think that’s what they’re doing. They’re selling it on the black market. It’s cheaper than buying it at the stores". Gallegos says the group steals hundreds of dollars in formula each time. “In one single incident it was for $935”. The group has allegedly snatched more than $3500 worth of baby formula. Turns out there’s a huge black market for, otherwise, expensive baby formula.
You can find discounted formula all over Craigslist and Ebay. ”They could put anything in there. There’s no way I’d buy it from anywhere but a retail store,” says Wal-Mart shopper Megan Henderson.
”It’s sad to me if people have to go to the black market just to be able to afford it,” adds customer Bonnie Cherico.
”They are my life. I value my kids. You make them, you take care of them. You might as well pay the price for what you need. It’s important. You don’t want to buy something and the next day they’re throwing up sick. It’s not worth it,” says shopper Leonardo Donai.
The men and women wanted for this crime are also seen driving a goldish brown Tahoe. They face felony Organized Crime charges and potentially Endangering a Child. It is certainly dangerous buying formula from the black market. If you need assistance with formula a couple of places you can turn to are The Gabriel Project through Catholic Charities 713-225-5826 and Life Houston 713-528-6044.
If you have any information in this case, contact Baytown PD: 281.422.8371.Court told tunnel skater not abiding by bail
Posted
A magistrate has refused bail to a Swiss backpacker who rode through Melbourne's Burnley Tunnel on a skateboard last week.
A truck almost ran over 21-year-old Dominic Emmenegger when he fell off his skateboard in the tunnel during morning peak hour on Thursday.
Later that day he faced court and pleaded guilty to reckless conduct endangering serious injury.
Emmenegger was bailed on strict conditions but was arrested yesterday after failing to report to St Kilda Police Station.
The court heard he had not surrendered his passport and was not living at the Collins Street CBD address to which he was bailed.
Emmenegger's lawyer Christopher Farrington said his client had tried to report to the Prahran Police Station but police there had told him he could not report there and also refused to take his passport.
Mr Farrington said Emmenegger was also unable to phone police because he had no credit on his phone.
Magistrate Jelena Popovic questioned whether Emmenegger's actions were a publicity stunt after hearing he is living in Toorak with a woman who has become his promoter.
His lawyer told the court Emmenegger wants to use his profile "for good" to raise awareness of cancer.
Bail was denied and Emmenegger will return to court tomorrow.
- ABC/AAP
Topics: antisocial-behaviour, offbeat, richmond-3121Hey guys, sorry I haven’t posted in a while. I got a new job and have been pretty busy with that and haven’t gotten the time to really play with make up until I got days off yesterday and today. This look was originally born from a makeup challenge post on IMAM, where you could post which shades you have and people chose two, based only on the names, and you had to create a look using both of them. This isn’t one of the pairs someone suggested for me (though I’m planning on doing those pairings sometime soon hopefully), but rather one I came up with on my own based on the names. I thought Fyrinnae’s Faerie Glamour and Corvus’ Why Not Zoidberg (now The Thirteenth Gift) could be a fun “Why Not Faerie Glamour” look. When I sat down to do a practice yesterday, I was testing a couple of my Smelly Yeti perfumes (review to come soon), one of which was Pipsqueak. Pipsqueak reminds me of a really fruity glitter body spray from my childhood, which led me to turn this look into a more sophisticated version of a look a middle schooler might come up with. Since Faerie Glamour and Why Not Zoidberg are already blue and pink, I figured I’d add in Darling Girl’s He Slimed Me for a lime green. And this is what happened. I used tape to create the clean edge and patted Faerie Glamour on the outer corner creating a wing, Why Not Zoidberg on most of the lid, and He Slimed me blown out on the inner corner, all three over NYX Milk. I left the tape on while I did my liner so it followed the line of Faerie Glamour. And just for fun, I decided to try some false lashes with this look. Now, I suck at falsies. I’ve only really worn them twice before now, both times for Halloween looks. This past Halloween I found a bunch of lashes for a couple bucks each, so I grabbed like 7 pairs. One of the pairs has jewels on the lash band and I thought they might give this look a bit of a fun oomph. The original lashes are full, and I cut one of them in half so I had half lashes. I’m still not very good at applying lashes, but half lashes are definitely way easier than full lashes. Full face details: Darling Girl Dead Rising blush, Notoriously Morbid Osteomancy highlighter, Bite Beauty High Pigment Lip Pencil in Madiera, and Lancome Juicy Tube in Raspberry Ice on the lips. What kind of look would middle-school-you come up with? Have you ever created a look inspired by a scent? Avery
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A United States Senator this week raised concerns about dietary supplements that claim to protect against dementia and Alzheimer’s disease and urged 15 major companies and retailers to explain why they sell dubious supplements.
The senator, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, sent a letter this week to Amazon, Walmart, GNC and a dozen other top retailers and companies asking what, if anything, they are doing to prevent the sale of fraudulent and potentially dangerous supplements. In her letter to Amazon, for example, Senator McCaskill referred to one herbal supplement sold on the company’s website called “Brain Armor.”
The product claims to provide protection against Alzheimer’s, dementia, stroke, memory loss and cognitive decline. “Greatly improve your odds of avoiding Alzheimer’s, memory loss, etc.,” the makers of the product claimed on Amazon.com. Senator McCaskill said “Brain Armor” and other supplements that make outrageous claims were preying on some of the country’s most vulnerable people.
“People looking online for cures or treatment for Alzheimer’s disease and dementia are at their most desperate — and it’s clear from what we’ve found that |
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